Yellow Face

The play has a minimalist production design where characters play multiple parts without elaborate costume changes or background sets. How does the stage’s minimalist approach relate to the play’s themes about representation and authenticity?

Hwang bookends the play with scenes of Marcus in a Dong village in 2006. What is the significance of these scenes set in China? How does Marcus’s perspective of China change after his nine months visit? How is his ending “happy”?

How are Asian American women represented in the play? In what ways does the play address the concept of intersectionality and the ways sexuality and gender inform different experiences of an Asian American identity? If Asian American women are underrepresented in the play, how might that contribute to its themes?

The play takes place mostly in flashbacks, beginning in 2006 and returning to significant moments in the 1990s. What is the significance of framing the narrative as a series of retellings? How does DHH’s character change by the end of the play?

Hwang’s stage directions instruct that all the actors in the play remain on stage during the performance. He also brings attention to the play as a play when he DHH has conversations with people who will become characters in Yellow Face, like NWOAOC, or with the fictional characters themselves, like Marcus. In what other ways does Hwang present plays within plays and actors playing actors? How do these metatheatrical techniques relate to the drama’s themes about the acts of representation?

DHH breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience several times. Choose two of these instances and analyze the significance of these narrative breaks. What does DHH draw attention to when he addresses the audience? How do these direct interactions relate to DHH’s investment in his public image in the press, the Asian American community, and other audiences? Is there a distinction between DHH’s private persona and his public or stage persona?

Hwang uses humor and parody throughout the play to explore the complex and sensitive topics of race and cultural identity. What is the function of satirizing the painful and stressful moments from his real life? How does comedy contribute to the play’s portrayal of the experiences of Asian American artists?

Throughout the play, DHH struggles with his definition of what it means to be an “Asian American.” Does the play reach a definitive answer to the question of cultural identity? If not, why does Hwang leave the issue unresolved?