became, almost overnight, a major literary figure
at the age of 30.
Both exhilarated and fatigued by the success of
this Broadway hit, which ran for 777 performances,
Hwang diversified into other styles of writing, in-
cluding the collaborations with Glass and the 1991
one-act play, Bondage. Bondage draws an analogy
between perceived Asian-American meekness and
fantasies about erotic dominance. The play, which
called for revealing costuming and explicitly sexual
and even fetishistic role-playing by the actors B. D.
Wong and Kathryn Layng, was produced in the
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1992. In
it, a man named Mark pays to be humiliated by
the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) domina-
trix, Terri, at an S&M parlor in California. Hidden
in their rubber masks, hoods and leather outfits,
these characters play out their sexual fantasies, as-
suming different racial identities. When they fail
to maintain their over-elaborate, constructed roles
as a dominatrix and a submissive partner respec-
tively, Terri and Mark begin to speak honestly. As
their costumes and defenses are shed, their even-
tual abnegation of role-playing results in a physical
and emotional honesty that leads to an interracial
union that would have been impossible in a more
normative context.
The full-length comedy Face Value (1992) did
not survive past its Broadway previews. Hwang
conceded that its mixture of sub-Orton and sub-
Shakespearean confusions and farce did not pro-
vide a theatrical spectacle equal to FOB and M.
Butterfly. Hwang has also conceded that the play
offers a less personal, less authentic engagement
with his interest in anxieties about cultural misun-
derstandings and ever-quarrelling families.
In Trying to Find Chinatown (1996), another
one-act play, Hwang returned to the theme of
antipathy between Asians who have had totally
different experiences in America. Ronnie, a foul-
mouthed New York street musician, is annoyed
when Benjamin from the Midwest assumes that
Ronnie will know the way to an address in China-
town because he looks Asian. A Caucasian adopted
and raised by a Chinese-American family, Benja-
min has been well trained in the anthropological
study of the Chinese communities in America but
does not realize the multiplicity and fluidity of
identities that immigrants and descendents of im-
migrants have established in America.
Hwang’s 1998 play, GOLDEN CHILD, was received
favorably as something of a return to form. This
very personal work recalls Hwang’s maternal
family’s conversion to fundamental Christianity.
It also marks the playwright’s consistent insis-
tence that the Christian lifestyles and prejudices of
some Asian Americans are not necessarily better
or worse than those of pre-Christian, pre-Maoist
Chinese communities, but merely different.
Hwang does not write plays as prolifically as
he used to, but, perhaps aware that he has pro-
duced a number of flops, he takes his time over
new projects. He admits cheerfully that it is very
unlikely that he will ever repeat the success of M.
Butterfly. But because of the substantial theatrical
and intellectual achievements of that work, FOB,
and Golden Child, his place in the canon of Asian-
American theater, and in world theater, seems
guaranteed.Bibliography
Chu, Patricia P. “David Henry Hwang.” In The Asian
Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Litera-
ture and Arts, edited by George J. Leonard, 473–- New York: Garland Publishing, 1998.
Kondo, Dorinne. About Face: Performing Race in
Fashion and Theater, 211–215. New York: Rout-
ledge, 1997.
Kurahashi, Yuko. Asian American Culture on Stage:
The History of the East West Players, 151–157,
166–167. New York: Garland. 1999.
Shin, Andrew. “Projected Bodies in David Henry
Hwang’s M. Butterfly and Golden Gate.” MELUS
27, no. 1 (2002): 177–197.
Street, Douglas. David Henry Hwang. Boise, Idaho:
Boise State University Press, 1989.
Kevin De Ornellas
Hyun, Peter (Joon-Sup) (1906–1993)
Peter Hyun was not only one of the first Asian-
American actors and directors, but he also wrote
an autobiography in two parts. Man Sei! (1986)120 Hyun, Peter