Yellow Face By David Henry Hwang

With the play Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang, Hwang is trying to reach a very large audience. He knows he has a large platform from his previous award winning works and uses this to his advantage. Hwang uses this platform to eliminate labels, racism and unjust accusations. He reaches his audience in a very unique way; through a play written about his own life and experiences. Plays are generally works of fiction or about the lives of accquincese of the playwright. Hwang uses a different approach and uses his struggles and hardships to explain how racism affects lives. David Henry Hwang approach to writing his play was very different from what is normally done. Normally plays are works of fiction that can portray serious events or social
issues, but the ideas are told through experiences that the author made up. With Hwang’s play Yellow Face, this is not the case he uses his own life to speak about racism and racial slurs. He shows how these affected his life and the lives of others. At one point his father is even arrested upon false charges because racist accusations. It is not uncommon to use your own life and expirences to tell a story to warn or advise people of issues they face. Yet, it was very strange to see this technique used in the form of a play. Yellow Face is a very interesting play. It covers many controversial topics and even a few things that I was unaware were happening. This play showed me a new perspective and opened my eyes to some things that I did not even know were taking place. I thought this was a very good story and has a good moral. I found it very insightful to read a play written from a firsthand perspective. This approaches it audience in a new way and creates a path for future playwrights with experiences of their own to tell.