Through the looking glass: leading Asian-American theatre artists reflect on the past four decades.

Educators say that for students, experience of not seeing themselves portrayed in textbooks and other materials is akin to looking into a mirror and seeing nothing. Historically, Asian Americans--as well as other minorities--have peered into that looking glass and been confronted with predominantly negative, degrading images.

Think: silent servant, exotic geisha, evil warlord, prostitute with a heart of gold, sexless geek, corporate raider without a conscience, and so on and so forth. In response, over the past four decades, growing numbers of Asian-American artists have ...

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