(This is the full, unedited, version of my definitive biography of China, which appeared in issue #25 of the Jefferson Airplane fanzine Holding Together, published in November 2000.)

On the 25th of January, 1971, at French Hospital in San Francisco, a daughter was born to Paul Kantner and Grace Slick. Despite their originally announced intention to name her "god" (with a small g), they finally settled on China Wing Kantner. A few months later, young China appeared on the sleeve of the Kantner/Slick solo LP "Sunfighter", launching one of the least known showbiz careers of anybody connected with the Airplane.

At first, things proceeded slowly. A song-writing credit for "Don't Let It Rain" on the 1976 Jefferson Starship LP "Spitfire" was followed a few years later by other credits for "Things To Come" on "Freedom At Point Zero" (1980) and "Out Of Control" ("Winds Of Change", 1982). Then, in 1983, she not only received another song-writing credit for "The Sky Is No Limit" on Paul Kantner's "Planet Earth Rock And Roll Orchestra" solo LP, but also sang the lead vocal on "Declaration Of Independence" on the same LP. The same year, she joined Grace on stage at the 7th annual Bay Area Music Awards (Bammies), when she helped provide the backing vocals for a pre-"Software" version of "All The Machines".

Unfortunately, soon after this, she followed her mothers example and started drinking heavily, getting bombed on cooking sherry at friends houses. This she had successfully defeated by the age of fifteen by accompanying Grace to AA meetings. Then, soon after, came her big break when Les Garland, a senior MTV executive and provider of the DJ's voice on Starship's "We Built This City", invited China to become MTV's youngest ever VJ. Working for the video channel in her school holidays (er, sorry, I mean vacations), China spent two years from July 1986 fronting various shows. Besides amazing viewers with the size of her Duran Duran T-shirt collection, she also presented one of the many "Summer of love" 20th anniversary shows, during which she had to interview a certain Paul Kantner! It was also during this time that she made a brief appearance on UK terrestrial TV, when she was interviewed by Jonathan King for "Entertainment USA" in January 1988 as part of a feature on the kids of famous rock musicians working for the station.

At this time, she also found herself caught in the middle of probably the worst period of Paul and Grace's relationship. Since they had separated in 1976, China had usually spent part of the week with Paul, and the rest of the time with Grace. Now, according to some sources (a couple of UK tabloids, so take it whichever way you want), Paul's alleged increasingly eccentric behaviour reportedly led to a decision that China spend all of the time with Grace. Despite this, China worked hard to try to restore the relationship between her parents. Not only did she succeed, but Paul has subsequently commented that, by doing so, she played no small part in helping to pave the way for the 1988/9 Airplane reunion.

At about the same time as she was working for MTV, China also began to get interested in acting, starting with the obligatory school plays (Redwood High School, Larkspur, CA, if you really must know), before graduating to local theatre by the early 1990s. This period also found her working as a guest DJ on KRQR-FM in San Francisco, presented regular weekend evening shows. Also, in June 1991, she was chosen to co-host the "Festival for the Animals", an outdoor concert in San Francisco notable for including Grace's last public performance until the Papa John benefit show in 1995. During her introduction of Grace, China showed that she easily be as witty and outrageous as her illustrious mother, as the two traded comments about whether Grace's drug habit had affected China's development.

Then things went quiet again, until 1994, when her acting career really exploded. In January of that year, China starred in "Monty", a Fox-TV sitcom which also starred Henry Winkler of "Happy Days" fame in the title role. In this show, China played the free-spirited girlfriend of a pre-"Friends" David Schwimmer. Unfortunately, poor ratings led to the show being pulled after only five episodes (leaving a further eight completed episodes un-aired), but that wasn't the end for China. In the same year, three films came along to kick-start a career which could have easily ended at this point. It's difficult to tell now which came first, but taking them in order of length of time on screen, the briefest appearance goes to "Airheads". As the title suggests, this is a pretty brainless story about a rock band who, angry that no-one will give them a record deal, take over a local radio station. Starring Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and others, China's contribution is about three seconds long in the middle of a crowd scene, but she does at least have one line of all of four words! Next up is "S.F.W.", starring Steven Dorff and Reece Witherspoon. Here, China plays one of a gang of terrorists who take over a supermarket, and then release a series of videos from inside during the resulting siege. As all of the terrorists are permanently masked, it's difficult to tell which one's China, except that she plays the only one with any real lines. Finally, the longest appearance goes to "The Stoned Age" (a.k.a. "Tack's Chicks"), a straight-to-cable turkey apparently about a gang of lads who use drugs to try to get girls. Here China plays "Jill", the friend of one of the main characters, but not having seen it, I can't say much more about it.

The next year saw a small guest part in one episode of the long-running TV series "Murphy Brown", but the highlight of the year was right at the beginning. On January 21st, 1995, China joined both her parents on stage for the Papa John benefit show at the House of Blues in L.A., which was later released on CD as "Deep Space/Virgin Sky". Here she provided backing vocals (uncredited on the CD) on both "Wooden Ships" and "Volunteers". This appearance on stage with Jefferson Starship may seem a little odd when you consider her comments in a TV interview from about this time. In it, she admitted that having Paul and Grace as parents had cost her a few parts when directors assumed that she could also sing, while she claims she can't. Still, I guess she's just doing what most of us would do if offered the chance!

At the end of 1995 came China's second big break, when she was cast in one of the main roles in "The Evening Star", the sequel to the 1983 Oscar-winning "Terms of Endearment". In it, she appears alongside Shirley Maclaine, Miranda Richardson and others, playing the strong-willed girlfriend of Maclaine's grandson. Director Robert Harling offered high praise when he admitted that he had cast her specifically because he wanted someone who could be a threat to Shirley Maclaine. Maclaine herself was not slow to praise her either, comparing Grace and China's relationship with that between hers and Debra Winger's characters in the 1983 original. Despite this high praise for China from those involved, the film itself failed to hit the mark when released at the end of 1996. In a way, this was no surprise, as it's a bit long, slow and dated, but there ARE some fine performances from the very talented cast.

However, before "The Evening Star" was released, China had found time to put in a recurring guest appearance in another TV series, "L.A. Firefighters". This series is probably best known for angering real-life L.A. fire-crews for the way it depicted them, a reaction which forced the makers to issue an apology to the L.A. Fire Department. Unfortunately, this series also bombed after only six shows, and was later re-launched as "Fire Company 132", the makers having poached Alexandra Paul from "Baywatch" to give the show a big-name star. At the same time, she also put in an appearance in one episode of another short-lived TV series, "Too Something" (a.k.a. "New York Daze"), which was pulled after only nine episodes. After this came a brief appearance in another film, "Grace of My Heart", in which she plays a singer! (remember that TV interview?). And if that wasn't enough, she also found time to join Jefferson Starship on an L.A. stage twice in June. The first show was a return to the House of Blues on the 2nd, where she joined in on "Other Side of this Life", followed by the Glendale Street Party on the 22nd, where she shared Paul's mic for "Wooden Ships". Unfortunately, according to some reports, she also suffered something of a personal set-back around this time when, having successfully resisted temptation for many years, she again followed Grace's example and temporarily fell off the wagon. However, by again accompanying Grace to AA meetings, she managed to turn things around again, and has been sober ever since.

Things then seemed to go a little quiet as far as TV and film work was concerned, but China certainly wasn't idle as, besides acting, she was also taking classes at Santa Monica College, hoping to eventually get a psychology degree. At about this time, however, she was also involved in setting up one of Grace's final appearances on an LP. Having become friends with "Four Non-blondes" singer Linda Perry via a mutual acquaintance, she was asked if she thought Grace would be interested in singing a duet on Linda's solo album, "In Flight". At first sceptical as to her reaction, she eventually agreed to ask Grace, and was somewhat surprised when she said yes.

Finally, almost a year after the US release of "The Evening Star", China hit the TV screens again. After a brief guest spot as a waitress in one episode of the TV series "Grace Under Fire", she landed a recurring guest spot in the hit show, "Home Improvement". Here, she appeared in five episodes of series seven, playing the recurring character of "Willow Branch Leaf Wilson", yet another strong-willed free spirit. Unfortunately, it now appears that this was her acting swan song, as she was becoming disillusioned with the Hollywood lifestyle, in particular the "politics" which went with acting, and in particular with getting the top roles. As a result, she started looking elsewhere for a new and challenging direction in life.

Having struggled against a range of problems both personal and professional, and just as it seemed that her career was starting to take off, she made the decision to quit acting. Although she still puts in the occasional appearance on stage with Jefferson Starship (most recently at the House of Blues, LA on May 26th this year), and has also appeared alongside her dad on TV chat shows, she has now returned to school. She recently won a scholarship to a prominent college (UCLA, according to Grace in a recent interview), and hopes eventually to become either a teacher or a counsellor. Also, in what some see as possibly the ultimate rebellion against her parents, she has become a devout christian, attending church every Sunday. Most significantly, however, she married a dentist sometime around summer 1999, and is now mother to a 10-year old stepson.

So, that's the China Kantner story. As things stand at the moment, it looks like she's content to fade gradually from the limelight in order to get on with her own life. However, as we all know, with the Airplane family, almost anything is possible, and who knows what the future may hold for Paul and Grace's little girl?

(Thanks to everyone who helped out with information for this article, especially Jeff Tamarkin and Paul Kantner.)

This biography is © Adrian Brown, 2000, and may not be reproduced without permission.
Last Updated: 14 January 2001