Monday, December 3rd, 2007

David Henry Hwang Goes Post-Multiculti

Fascinating read about David Henry Hwang in yesterday’s New York Times. Hwang created the sensational “M. Butterfly”, a smash critical and audience hit, a pinnacle work of the multiculturalist movement and, for a long time, the subject of many an Asian Americanist’s love and/or hate. It was, of course, a response to the Orientalist standard “Madame Butterfly”.

Hwang was also, like many other prominent Asian American artists at the time, an activist on issues of representation, and protested the casting of a white guy as the lead hapa pimp for “Miss Saigon”.

His new Off-Broadway piece “Yellow Face” casts a character named DHH who is protesting the casting of a white guy in a role meant for a hapa. Sound familiar? The work deconstructs that period–not to declare racism and representational issues dead, but to examine the fallout and legacy of that charged era.

I won’t be in NYC this winter…too much stuff to do…but if anyone is and gets to catch it, holla.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 10:50 am | 1 Comment

One Response to “David Henry Hwang Goes Post-Multiculti”

Sugarbread says:

December 3, 2007 at 2:09 pm

That’s my ninja.

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