73Robert, the middle-aged husband of Hannah,
the daughter of Po po, perpetuates a vulgar sort
of ignorant materialism. He is a first-generation
Chinese American, but focuses all of his energies
upon doing well under “The American Dream.”
The Chinese visitor, Di-gou, is particularly dis-
turbed by Robert’s willful wastefulness. Seeking
to display American abundance and plenty, Rob-
ert destroys food by throwing it onto the tennis
court and—as a stage direction puts it—“stomp-
ing the guo-tieh [dumplings] like roaches.” A dull
banker who is obsessed with tax shelters, Robert
believes so much in American capitalism that he
thinks that it is a triumph to have been kidnapped.
He is living the “American Dream” because he has
advanced from an immigrant in “rags” to a “kid-
nap victim.” The vacuousness of modern material
consumption can be seen in the tennis-ball serv-
ing machine owned by Ama’s son-in-law, Wilbur.
It sends balls across the court, but when it mal-
functions, it bombards Di-gou with high-speed
balls. This peltering with tennis balls symbolizes
the peltering of pro-capitalist propaganda with
which Robert and Wilbur attack this Communist-
supporting Chinese visitor.
The play also lampoons bigotry caused by igno-
rance of other races and long memories about his-
torical conflicts. Ama cannot forgive the Japanese
for various wars fought in the past: She despises
her son-in-law, seemingly because of his Japanese
origin. When a pet chicken goes missing, Ama as-
sumes that Wilbur has killed and barbecued it:
“Very bad temper. Japanese man.” She also argues
that classical music in an orchestra with a Japanese
conductor is a dangerous occupation: Ama states,
“if musicians miss one note, they must kill them-
self!” The irrationality of such prejudices is further
underlined when Ama cites a novel explanation
for why Robert missed Di-gou at the airport:
“Your father trade with Japanese during war.” The
two sisters are also prejudiced against the non-
Christian, Communist regime that flourished in
China after they left. They assume that Di-gou will
be brainwashed, laboring in a rice field, being re-
motely controlled: “wires in their heads... force
them work all day and sing Communist songs.”
The two women even whip Di-gou with an electri-
cal cord, believing that his rejection of Christian-
ity is caused by a “Communist demon” inside him.
After some sensational, explosive events, Di-gou
argues that it is wrong to uncritically praise ances-
tors who were flawed and human just like present-
day people. Instead, he asserts, Americans of Asian
origin must realize that their ancestors’ heritage
has, in part, influenced their contemporary identi-
ties, however multivalent and hybrid those identi-
ties are. Comic and rousing in its call for a greater
awareness of Asian Americans’ origins, Family
Devotions reveals a serious problem of misinfor-
mation, prejudice, and disdain that exists within
Asian-American families and between Asians and
Asian Americans.Bibliography
Hwang, David Henry. Family Devotions. In Trying to
Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays, 89–150. New
York: Theatre Communications Group, 2000.
———. Interview by Morty Moss-Coane. In Philip
C. Kolin and Colby H. Kullman, eds, Speaking on
Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American
Playwrights, 277–290. Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama Press, 1996.
Kevin De OrnellasFar, Sui Sin (Edith Maude Eaton)
(1865–1914)
Born Edith Maude Eaton in England, Sui Sin Far
would become the first Asian-American fiction
writer, publishing numerous short stories, essays,
and articles under her adopted pen-name Sui
Sin Far. Her father was a British merchant, and
her mother was a Chinese missionary who had
received her education in England. They met in
Shanghai, were married in the early 1860s, and
moved to England shortly thereafter. In 1872,
when Sui Sin Far was still a child, the family left
England for Canada, where Sui Sin Far would live
until she was nearly 32. Sui Sin Far’s early life was
not easy. Although the family was culturally Brit-
ish, she and her siblings faced racist taunts and
physical abuse because of their mixed-race status.
As the eldest daughter in a family of 14 children,Far, Sui Sin 73