BEYOND THE SILK ROAD: STAGING A QUEER ASIAN AMERICA IN CHAY YEW'S PORCELAIN

Studies in the Literary Imagination, Spring 2004 by Diehl, Heath A

Still, Porcelain is not "about" John Lee's guilt or innocence any more than it is "about" how he, as a subaltern, cannot speak. Such banal and simple-minded interpretations fail to do justice to what is, at its core, a nuanced and incisive critique of racial homophobia and Queer racism. Early in the play, John Lee hints at this central thematic concern when he insists, "Tell me what you see, Dr. Worthing" (43). Another scene in the play ends with John Lee's asking Dr. Worthing, "What do you see me as?" Then, the very next scene begins with the other voices chanting a mantra of pejoratives directed at John Lee (38-39). Silenced within the dominant culture, ignored within gay communities, and ostracized within his Asian family, John Lee ultimately reveals the ways in which gay Asian American masculinities are, in contemporary American culture, overdetermined by deeply entrenched cultural narratives that shape and are shaped by systemic regimes of Queer racism and racial homophobia. Within this context, silence must necessarily be a prerequisite for John Lee's life and dramatic narrative. His story (i.e., the story of being gay and Asian American) can never be revealed/told because that story will always and only be inflected through cultural narratives that render his identity pathological-if that identity is rendered tangible at all-that render his affections violent, and that render his voice silent.

To its conclusion, Porcelain remains a dark, contemplative tale about the conditions of silence that circumscribe gay Asian American masculinities. In a chamber play that foregrounds the intimate relationship between language and the mise en scène, such moments of silence are both pronounced and telling. Indeed, as John Lee's father explains in an interview with a television reporter, "Those silent eyes very loud" (85). What, then, do John Lee's silent eyes bespeak? Although readers/spectators are unsure of the answer to this question, what is clear is that Yew offers little hope that the John Lees of this world will find a voice and a place from which to speak the doubly oppressed experiences of being gay and Asian American. What also is clear is that this play calls into question those cultural institutions (such as the legal system, the media, and the psychiatric community) that perpetuate these forms of oppression. In doing so, the play remarks upon the need for alternative identity formations that more accurately reflect the diversity within Asian American communities. But this play does not map the as-yet unrealized horizons of gay Asian American identities. Instead, the play simply, but persuasively, suggests that until these identity formations are explored, gay Asian American men will be sentenced to life without parole under the watchful supervision of others.

Bowling Green State University

NOTES

1 Of course, critical responses to these (and other) plays by Yew are not wholly celebratory or condemnatory. Of Red, the Hartford Courant lauded, "Red shows a major talent, a man driven to delve into difficult themes"; similarly, USA Today heralded Red as "a weighty undertaking, but one beautifully distilled into three elegant, engaging characters"; and Variety called the play "compact and elegant" (qtd. in Swarns). However, actress Tsai Chin (Auntie Lindo from the film version of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club), who gave Yew the original idea for the play, complained that the piece "employed the very stereotypes [that Yew] deplores, creating a male character who performs as a woman and playing into Western stereotypes of Asian-American men as effete" (qtd. in Swarns). For more on these debates, see "Chay Yew" and Rachel L. Swarns.