Yellow Face

In a scene that acts as a play within the play, the Announcer introduces two actors, Rodney Hatamiya and Marcus G. Dahlman, performing a stage production of Go for Broke at the Marin Community Center. Rodney plays Sergeant Watanabe, a Japanese American fighter from World War II’s Lost Battalion, and Marcus plays the role of Texan Lieutenant Grayson. Watanabe decries the discrimination against Japanese Americans and their incarceration in concentration camps. Grayson admits his initial bias and commends Watanabe for proving that he is loyal to America. The men charge into battle as the gun sound effects transition into an audience’s applause. 

Miles Newman, the casting director for Face Value, reads positive reviews about the play, an Asian American production, and flies Marcus out to New York for an audition. He admits that Marcus does not look Asian but thinks it is hard to tell a person’s ethnicity these days. Knowing that it is against Actors’ Equity ethics to directly ask about a person’s race, Newman probes Marcus with indirect questions to gauge his ethnicity. He asks Marcus where he is from, whether he knows about various Asian festivals and holidays, and whether he speaks a foreign language. Marcus comments that he still struggles with English, and Newman is disappointed when Marcus says he’s just joking. When Newman directly states that they are looking to cast an Asian for the role, Marcus replies that his “background is so mixed-up” and that his father is Jewish (20). Seeing that Newman is unimpressed, Marcus states that he has spent time with the issei and nisei (first- and second-generation Japanese Americans), and they have made him who he is today. He recites a line in Japanese from the play, Go for Broke, and Newman interprets this as enough evidence that Marcus is of Asian heritage. 

At his audition, Marcus impresses DHH and producer Stuart Ostrow. Ostrow is concerned that Marcus does not look Asian, and DHH is offended by the question of Marcus’s physiognomy. DHH claims he can tell an Asian when he sees one and accuses Ostrow of discriminating against Eurasian people.

The setting shifts to 1993. Face Value has flopped. Actor Jane Krakowski, who performed in the play, recalls how Marcus did not appear Asian to her. In a flashback from the opening night party, she assumes he must get typecast in stereotypical roles as laundrymen and delivery boys, but Marcus admits he does not get typecast at all and was playing the role of the white lieutenant in Go for Broke. Marcus confides to her that he is a “fake,” and Krakowski mistakes his confession for imposter syndrome. She encourages him to believe in himself and to build confidence by picturing who he wants to be and acting it. At the party, Krakowski corrects DHH, who thought Marcus was cast as the Japanese American sergeant in Go for Broke. 

Upset by the bad reviews, DHH goes to an adult bookstore and purchases Asian fetish erotica. The store owner recognizes him and tells him to ignore the critics. He commends DHH for buying pornography that “support[s] [his] people” and mistakes him for the playwright who wrote Miss Saigon.

Haunted by the new information he learned from Krakowski, DHH calls Rodney Hatamiya, who confirms that Marcus is white. DHH desperately tries to rationalize his mistake and asserts that because Marcus’s father is Jewish and of Russian ancestry, Marcus is a person of Siberian and therefore Asian heritage. He lectures Rodney to rethink his ideas of race and recites the lyrics to the En Vogue song “Free Your Mind.” He reminds Rodney that actors like Lou Diamond Phillips and Keanu Reeves are of Asian backgrounds but do not look Asian. Rodney accuses him of trying to save himself from a scandal, and DHH points out that he risked his own reputation during the Miss Saigon controversy. 

When Rodney asks why Marcus was given the part over him, DHH tells him that he is too good-looking to convincingly play the role of the insecure lead. Rodney points out that the character is insecure because of stereotypes that ridicule Asian men as effeminate and argues that casting him would make a point to challenge that stereotype. DHH promises to replace Marcus with Rodney but insinuates that Rodney must keep the truth about Marcus’s ethnicity a secret if he expects the play to continue its run.

DHH’s agent, Craver, informs him that it is illegal to fire Marcus based on his race, although it was legal to hire him for that reason. Carver advises DHH to play ignorant to avoid any accusation of discrimination when they fire Marcus, but DHH is worried that Marcus will be exposed as a white person at their talk with Asian American students. To maintain Marcus’s identity as Asian, DHH plans to do all the talking and instructs the event’s host, writer Gish Jen, to introduce Marcus G. Dahlman as “Marcus Gee.” 

At the event, the students applaud Marcus’s performance despite many of them having not seen the show. They defend the play against what they consider to be the critics’ racist attacks. One student directly asks Marcus about his background, and DHH jumps in to describe him as a Eurasian whose ancestors were “Russian Siberian Asian Jews” (40). DHH comes prepared with props and displays an atlas to point out that Siberia is north of China. He also exhibits a magazine cover of Siberian model Irina Pantaeva who has “very Asian features” (31). DHH proclaims that Asian people don’t “all look alike” (31), and that Marcus is as American as they are. 

Egged on by DHH, Marcus continues the charade about being disadvantaged because of how he looks. He taps into his childhood memories of being an outcast as the “poor kid” in his neighborhood and is moved when the audience tells him they understand what it feels like to be put down and oppressed. A student calls Marcus an Asian American role model. Caught up in the moment, Marcus proclaims that he is proud to be a member of a community that embraces him with unconditional support.

Face Value shuts down after a few preview performances and a string of bad reviews. Marcus leaves several messages on DHH’s answering machine to talk about what happened. He leaves one last message stating that he is returning to San Francisco with a better understanding of who he is. DHH deletes the messages.

In the middle of the night, DHH calls Margaret Fung from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. He asks her if he is still an Asian American role model and if she can present him with a second lifetime achievement award. He drunkenly tells her he is “a victim of racism” and thinks she is “kinda hot” (34) for a lawyer. Fung hangs up on him.

The setting shifts to 2006. Dong folk music plays as Marcus reads aloud another email to DHH. He explains that the Dong people and their music have taught him about who they are and who he is not. 

The setting shifts back to a few years after the failure of Face Value. DHH receives a phone call from his father who discusses his ideas of starting a group called the “Chinese Republican Bankers for Clinton” (35). He has donated to the Democratic party and hopes the American business practice of quid pro quo might earn him a position as a diplomat. Although he is unqualified, DHH takes up his father’s offer to work at his business, the Far East National Bank. The board members close a deal to open a branch in China, and HYH recounts how he celebrated in Beijing by singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” at a karaoke bar. A board member tells DHH that he saw The King and I, and DHH is appalled to learn that Marcus is playing the role of the King. The song “Shall We Dance” plays as Marcus, dressed as the King, enters the stage at the curtain call and takes a bow.