This all was a slap in the face for Asian Americans and David Henry Hwang. Although much has changed since Hwang's father was refused a home purchase in the tony San Marino neighborhood of the San Gabriel Valley, much has not. While Frank Chin, Hwang's literary father and fierce critic, might have written a bitter diatribe, Hwang revisits this episode with a sense of humor, making himself the fall guy.
The character Hwang (played by Hoon Lee with a clean-shaven face and a nearly clean-shaven head — a far cry from Hwang's unruly thick locks, moustache, and beard) has cast a white actor with dark hair and eyes (an earnest Peter Scanavino as Marcus) who the character Hwang believes is part Asian to play the part of a Eurasian and then, discovering his mistake, must cover it up. The actor, Marcus, finds some comfort in his adopted community and continues to pass for almost a decade until the truth finally is revealed.
In the last decade, the playwright Hwang has been contemplating what makes identity. Is a Chinese American more Chinese or more American? Is a white person raised in China Chinese? What gives us our ethnic identity in today's world? And moreover, why does yellow perilism in its many forms continue? When will Americans of East Asian descent be really American? With communism dead in Russia and most of the former iron curtain nations, only Cuba, North Korea and mainland China remain as a threat to democracy. Will mainland China and not North Korea take the place that Russia has vacated?
Was it yellow perilism that caused Wen Ho Lee to be investigated as a possible spy for mainland China even though he was Taiwanese and a naturalized US citizen? How about the 1996 US campaign financial controversy where the Democratic Party was accused of receiving funds funneled in from the PROC? The story broke in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 21, 1996 and was picked up by the Washington Post. Was the scandal nothing more than yellow journalism bringing back yellow perilism since nothing was proven?
It was not so long ago that the Chinese community was scrutinized based on their connections with mainland China and communism during America's anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. Despite generations born and raised here, there is also a long history of Americans of Chinese descent and other visibly Asian ethnics of being considered not quite American while white immigrants may only have a generation to pass before acceptance. Yes, there are Asian Americans in San Marino now, but there remains a disturbing view of Asian Americans as the eternal other, that does not require the same kind of respect now afforded to non-Arab ethnics of African descent.
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