David Henry Hwang’s identity crisis
David Henry Hwang’s play Yellow Face exemplifies the diversity-inclusion-equity (DIE) games that no doubt will continue at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) even after federal funding is withdrawn.
Hwang, the Chinese-American playwright of M Butterfly — the stone-faced, gender-bending update of Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly — has cemented his reputation for political correctness by specializing in racial (ethnic) discourse. Yellow Face debuted in 2007, was revived to much acclaim in 2024, and recently received several Tony Award nominations. PBS is now airing a recorded performance of the show.
The national exhibition of Yellow Face confirms Hwang’s grasp of progressive dramaturgy — a skill akin to writing successful grant proposals — in which personal experience is prized as political testament. The semi-autobiographical play recounts DHH’s own struggle session when he attacked the Broadway musical blockbuster Miss Saigon in 1990 for casting a white actor (Jonathan Pryce) as its Eurasian lead character.
Hwang’s vainglorious campaign underscores his later experience producing his next play, Face Value, and facing the death of his father, Henry Yuan Hwang (HYH), a patriotic immigrant and founder of Far East National Bank. Yellow Face suits PBS through its acronyms and coded blackout sketches that generate notions about ethnic identity. It’s Hwang’s satire of demoralized patriotism. His disillusionment perpetuates DIE ideology in one convenient package.