[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:04.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: The basic story is that there's an Asian American playwright named DHH.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.89,0:00:06.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 1: The new play which Mr. Hwang describes as:
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.64,0:00:09.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 2: A comedy of mistaken racial identity.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:09.22,0:00:11.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 1: Was inspired by the fracas over the casting of
Dialogue: 0,0:00:11.84,0:00:15.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in Miss Saigon.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.43,0:00:18.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: That protest that I was actually involved in in 1990,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.40,0:00:20.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and he subsequently,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.62,0:00:25.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,accidentally casts a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.60,0:00:29.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,FEMALE ACTOR: We are looking to cast this role with an Asian.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.38,0:00:33.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: Mistakenly believing that that actor is part Asian.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:33.01,0:00:36.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 2: But I think Marcus should be the next John Long or Bedi Hwang.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:36.58,0:00:39.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 1: At least they both look Asian. [LAUGHTER]
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.02,0:00:43.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: Yellow face, as a term,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.62,0:00:48.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,refers to a White actor going on stage with makeup in order to portray an Asian.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.52,0:00:52.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The play takes the idea of yellow face and
Dialogue: 0,0:00:52.41,0:00:55.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tries to look at its many different possible permutations.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:55.85,0:00:59.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Not only what it means for a White person to play an Asian on stage,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.55,0:01:03.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but what does it mean for a White person to play or pretend to be an Asian offstage?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.31,0:01:06.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What does it mean for an Asian to be in yellow face?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.63,0:01:15.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is to really exploit and take as his or her prime identity the fact of ethnicity.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.32,0:01:19.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DHH: After all, I was a respected figure in the community,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.05,0:01:22.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the first Asian playwright to have a play produced on Broadway.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.75,0:01:28.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I even appeared on national television with Lily Tomlin.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:29.45,0:01:32.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG:  My entire adult life,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.51,0:01:37.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have been associated in some way with being Asian,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:37.25,0:01:39.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being part of this community,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.13,0:01:42.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being a role model, whatever that means.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.80,0:01:46.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I've been in yellow face.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.70,0:01:53.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,FEMALE ACTOR: The 1988 Tony Award for best play goes to M. Butterfly.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.03,0:01:58.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: Throughout the show,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:58.45,0:02:06.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we see DHH as somebody who starts to lose his bearings about being an Asian American.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.21,0:02:08.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DHH: Welcome to a new day in America.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.52,0:02:10.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG:  At the beginning of the show, he has that identity,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:10.85,0:02:16.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then increasingly becomes confused about what it means to be Asian.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.41,0:02:23.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To what extent do we as Asians play our ethnicity at certain times in our experience?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:23.63,0:02:26.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When do we do that? Why do we choose to do that?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:26.49,0:02:32.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then also, can we choose our ethnicity in some sense?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:32.66,0:02:36.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,MARCUS: My background, it's so mixed up, it's hard to keep track.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:36.30,0:02:38.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DHH: I can tell Asian when I see one.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.38,0:02:41.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ACTOR 3: Marcus is 100% alright. 100% White.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:41.68,0:02:45.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: Can a White person who is very involved
Dialogue: 0,0:02:45.60,0:02:49.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in Asian things and Asian American things be in some sense Asian American?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:49.74,0:02:52.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,FEMALE ACTOR: In this day and age, a Caucasian playing the Chinese?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:52.44,0:02:54.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: [OVERLAPPING] I think at this point,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:54.34,0:02:59.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,many years have gone by since the beginning of the identity politics movements,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.90,0:03:05.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since multiculturalism was first put out there as a concept.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:05.60,0:03:10.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The society has continued to move forward in many ways.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:10.64,0:03:13.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think that there are things that were
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.20,0:03:16.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,great about multiculturalism and great about identity politics,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:16.18,0:03:21.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but there are also things that were silly and contradictory and had limitations.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.94,0:03:25.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,MARCUS: My father is Jewish. [LAUGHTER] Do you know there are
Dialogue: 0,0:03:25.38,0:03:29.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some people who believe that the last tribe of Israel landed up in China.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.76,0:03:32.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: [LAUGHTER] I think that's really the contradiction
Dialogue: 0,0:03:32.93,0:03:36.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we need to wrap our minds around at this point in history.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.95,0:03:40.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That yes, on the one hand, race is meaningless,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.07,0:03:41.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's a construct,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:41.60,0:03:43.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we need to get to a post-race society.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.87,0:03:48.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,On the other hand, racist things still happen now and then and we have to deal with them.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.14,0:03:49.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DHH: It's a new world out there.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:49.61,0:03:51.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The demographics of this country are changing so
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.87,0:03:54.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,fast and sometimes we think it's only White people who got to wake up
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.17,0:03:56.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but we've got to start thinking differently too.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.46,0:04:01.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DAVID HENRY HWANG: I think the fact that the play questions in some ways,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.15,0:04:04.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the notion of being Asian American and the importance of that,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:04.16,0:04:07.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is where most of us are right now,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:07.95,0:04:10.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we recognize that we are Asian American
Dialogue: 0,0:04:10.65,0:04:13.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that we have a certain appreciation for our heritage and all that,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:13.97,0:04:21.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that doesn't completely define us as people,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:21.35,0:04:25.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that your ethnic identity does not explain who you are.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.67,0:04:30.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If anything, it's one piece in a complicated picture of who we are.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:30.58,0:04:32.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it's not the answer,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:32.05,0:04:35.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the way that it may be felt more in the '70s and '80s.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:35.63,0:04:37.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think one of the things that the play is saying is,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:37.85,0:04:39.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's okay to be confused.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:39.66,0:04:42.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My character in the play is confused.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:42.57,0:04:44.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My character makes mistakes.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.25,0:04:47.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My character does more stupid things than anybody else in the show.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:47.60,0:04:53.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hopefully, that allows maybe audience members to relax a little on the subject of race
Dialogue: 0,0:04:53.57,0:04:56.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the context of watching the show and perhaps
Dialogue: 0,0:04:56.39,0:04:59.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,open up to thinking about some of these ideas in different ways.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:59.86,0:05:08.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DHH 2: Now, I am finally living my real life being in America.