1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,890 DAVID HENRY HWANG: The basic story is that there's an Asian American playwright named DHH. 2 00:00:04,890 --> 00:00:06,640 ACTOR 1: The new play which Mr. Hwang describes as: 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,220 ACTOR 2: A comedy of mistaken racial identity. 4 00:00:09,220 --> 00:00:11,840 ACTOR 1: Was inspired by the fracas over the casting of 5 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,430 Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in Miss Saigon. 6 00:00:15,430 --> 00:00:18,400 DAVID HENRY HWANG: That protest that I was actually involved in in 1990, 7 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:20,615 and he subsequently, 8 00:00:20,615 --> 00:00:25,600 accidentally casts a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play. 9 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,380 FEMALE ACTOR: We are looking to cast this role with an Asian. 10 00:00:29,380 --> 00:00:33,010 DAVID HENRY HWANG: Mistakenly believing that that actor is part Asian. 11 00:00:33,010 --> 00:00:36,575 ACTOR 2: But I think Marcus should be the next John Long or Bedi Hwang. 12 00:00:36,575 --> 00:00:39,020 ACTOR 1: At least they both look Asian. [LAUGHTER] 13 00:00:39,020 --> 00:00:43,620 DAVID HENRY HWANG: Yellow face, as a term, 14 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:48,090 refers to a White actor going on stage with makeup in order to portray an Asian. 15 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,410 The play takes the idea of yellow face and 16 00:00:52,410 --> 00:00:55,850 tries to look at its many different possible permutations. 17 00:00:55,850 --> 00:00:59,550 Not only what it means for a White person to play an Asian on stage, 18 00:00:59,550 --> 00:01:03,310 but what does it mean for a White person to play or pretend to be an Asian offstage? 19 00:01:03,310 --> 00:01:06,630 What does it mean for an Asian to be in yellow face? 20 00:01:06,630 --> 00:01:15,325 That is to really exploit and take as his or her prime identity the fact of ethnicity. 21 00:01:15,325 --> 00:01:19,050 DHH: After all, I was a respected figure in the community, 22 00:01:19,050 --> 00:01:22,750 the first Asian playwright to have a play produced on Broadway. 23 00:01:22,750 --> 00:01:28,110 I even appeared on national television with Lily Tomlin. 24 00:01:29,450 --> 00:01:32,510 DAVID HENRY HWANG: My entire adult life, 25 00:01:32,510 --> 00:01:37,250 I have been associated in some way with being Asian, 26 00:01:37,250 --> 00:01:39,130 being part of this community, 27 00:01:39,130 --> 00:01:42,590 being a role model, whatever that means. 28 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,690 I've been in yellow face. 29 00:01:50,700 --> 00:01:53,990 FEMALE ACTOR: The 1988 Tony Award for best play goes to M. Butterfly. 30 00:01:56,030 --> 00:01:58,450 DAVID HENRY HWANG: Throughout the show, 31 00:01:58,450 --> 00:02:06,210 we see DHH as somebody who starts to lose his bearings about being an Asian American. 32 00:02:06,210 --> 00:02:08,515 DHH: Welcome to a new day in America. 33 00:02:08,515 --> 00:02:10,850 DAVID HENRY HWANG: At the beginning of the show, he has that identity, 34 00:02:10,850 --> 00:02:16,410 and then increasingly becomes confused about what it means to be Asian. 35 00:02:16,410 --> 00:02:23,630 To what extent do we as Asians play our ethnicity at certain times in our experience? 36 00:02:23,630 --> 00:02:26,490 When do we do that? Why do we choose to do that? 37 00:02:26,490 --> 00:02:32,655 Then also, can we choose our ethnicity in some sense? 38 00:02:32,655 --> 00:02:36,295 MARCUS: My background, it's so mixed up, it's hard to keep track. 39 00:02:36,295 --> 00:02:38,380 DHH: I can tell Asian when I see one. 40 00:02:38,380 --> 00:02:41,680 ACTOR 3: Marcus is 100% alright. 100% White. 41 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,600 DAVID HENRY HWANG: Can a White person who is very involved 42 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,745 in Asian things and Asian American things be in some sense Asian American? 43 00:02:49,745 --> 00:02:52,440 FEMALE ACTOR: In this day and age, a Caucasian playing the Chinese? 44 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:54,345 DAVID HENRY HWANG: [OVERLAPPING] I think at this point, 45 00:02:54,345 --> 00:02:59,895 many years have gone by since the beginning of the identity politics movements, 46 00:02:59,895 --> 00:03:05,060 since multiculturalism was first put out there as a concept. 47 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,645 The society has continued to move forward in many ways. 48 00:03:10,645 --> 00:03:13,200 I think that there are things that were 49 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,180 great about multiculturalism and great about identity politics, 50 00:03:16,180 --> 00:03:21,935 but there are also things that were silly and contradictory and had limitations. 51 00:03:21,935 --> 00:03:25,380 MARCUS: My father is Jewish. [LAUGHTER] Do you know there are 52 00:03:25,380 --> 00:03:29,760 some people who believe that the last tribe of Israel landed up in China. 53 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,930 DAVID HENRY HWANG: [LAUGHTER] I think that's really the contradiction 54 00:03:32,930 --> 00:03:36,950 that we need to wrap our minds around at this point in history. 55 00:03:36,950 --> 00:03:40,070 That yes, on the one hand, race is meaningless, 56 00:03:40,070 --> 00:03:41,600 it's a construct, 57 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:43,870 we need to get to a post-race society. 58 00:03:43,870 --> 00:03:48,135 On the other hand, racist things still happen now and then and we have to deal with them. 59 00:03:48,135 --> 00:03:49,610 DHH: It's a new world out there. 60 00:03:49,610 --> 00:03:51,870 The demographics of this country are changing so 61 00:03:51,870 --> 00:03:54,170 fast and sometimes we think it's only White people who got to wake up 62 00:03:54,170 --> 00:03:56,465 but we've got to start thinking differently too. 63 00:03:56,465 --> 00:04:01,150 DAVID HENRY HWANG: I think the fact that the play questions in some ways, 64 00:04:01,150 --> 00:04:04,160 the notion of being Asian American and the importance of that, 65 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,950 is where most of us are right now, 66 00:04:07,950 --> 00:04:10,650 that we recognize that we are Asian American 67 00:04:10,650 --> 00:04:13,970 and that we have a certain appreciation for our heritage and all that, 68 00:04:13,970 --> 00:04:21,350 and that doesn't completely define us as people, 69 00:04:21,350 --> 00:04:25,670 that your ethnic identity does not explain who you are. 70 00:04:25,670 --> 00:04:30,585 If anything, it's one piece in a complicated picture of who we are. 71 00:04:30,585 --> 00:04:32,050 But it's not the answer, 72 00:04:32,050 --> 00:04:35,630 the way that it may be felt more in the '70s and '80s. 73 00:04:35,630 --> 00:04:37,850 I think one of the things that the play is saying is, 74 00:04:37,850 --> 00:04:39,660 it's okay to be confused. 75 00:04:39,660 --> 00:04:42,570 My character in the play is confused. 76 00:04:42,570 --> 00:04:44,250 My character makes mistakes. 77 00:04:44,250 --> 00:04:47,600 My character does more stupid things than anybody else in the show. 78 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:53,570 Hopefully, that allows maybe audience members to relax a little on the subject of race 79 00:04:53,570 --> 00:04:56,390 in the context of watching the show and perhaps 80 00:04:56,390 --> 00:04:59,865 open up to thinking about some of these ideas in different ways. 81 00:04:59,865 --> 00:05:08,190 DHH 2: Now, I am finally living my real life being in America.