“As an Asian-Canadian I am faced with the personal question of my place in the world,” says Andrew Cheng, production dramaturg of David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, in the play’s program notes. “While I do identify as Asian, I have always been, simply put: Canadian.” In Yellow Face, Hwang confronts the issue of racial identity, asking whether it is chosen by the individual or chosen for them at birth. Yellow Face is a part-autobiographical, part-fictional illustration of the racial tensions Hwang, an Asian American, has faced during his career as a playwright, and an examination of the place of Asian identity in American culture.
The play illustrates Hwang’s career through email messages, newspaper reviews, and voicemails that he received in response to his plays. Cast members Charmaine Lau, Daniel Krolik, David Fujino, and Emily Opal Smith — each assuming multiple identities of journalists and associates of Hwang, recite abrupt monologues that depict messages he recieved, making smooth transitions as they move from one identity to another. Ben Wong, who plays Hwang; Carl, who plays the announcer and a troublemaking journalist; and Kristoffer Pedlar, who plays Marcus; walk off the stage at each scene’s end.
Ben Wong effectively portrays two different roles — the Hwang engaged in the events of the play and Hwang the commentator. As the former, Wong convincingly recites Hwang’s passionate bursts of anger, his facial expressions illustrating the tensions the character faces throughout the play. Portraying the latter, Wong shows a clear disengagement from his character and speaks to the audience casually, assuming the role of a man commenting on the events of the past.
Hwang’s relationship with Marcus serves as a central plot. Hwang hires Marcus to play the starring role in his production, “Face Value,” thinking that Marcus is Asian. Hwang discovers that Marcus is really Caucasian and, worried that the public will learn Marcus’ true racial identity, Hwang fires Marcus from the cast. Still assuming an Asian identity, Marcus continues his career, achieving fame on Broadway. Hwang and Marcus’ tense relationship worsens. Hwang struggles to show the press Marcus’ true racial identity.
Another aspect of the plot is the Asian espionage scandal of the late 1990s, which Hwang narrates using newspaper article fragments and, in one scene, an actual script from an FBI interrogation of an Asian American accused of espionage. Hwang is brought into the scandal when his father, the manager of a bank branch, is accused of espionage. Commenting on the reputation of Asian identity in American culture, this act shows Hwang’s struggle to fight the government’s allegations against his father.
Yellow Face effectively portrays the tensions existing between American culture and Asian racial identity that Hwang has faced. Using himself as the subject, Hwang presents a believable story of his moral and professional struggle with his Asian identity and with the racial identity of Marcus. “Do we identify as mixed race or highlight our heritage as we feel it is at our core?” Andrew Cheng asks. “Will there be a future where race doesn’t matter? Is the resistance to assimilation self-imposed segregation?” Yellow Face does not answer these questions but rather looks to a future in which answers may be found.
Read our interview with David Henry Hwang here
