SOURCE: Kingston, Maxine Hong. “Foreword.” In Broken Promises: Four Plays, by David Henry Hwang, pp. vii-ix. New York: Avon Books, 1983.

In the following essay, Kingston applauds Hwang's ability to capture Asian-American language and memories in his plays and finds that his works give Asian Americans a sense of nostalgia and a feeling of belonging.

“Look here,” says a long-lost relative in David Henry Hwang's latest play. “At your face. Study your face and you will see—the shape of your face is the shape of faces back many generations. …” Not only I but many other Chinese Americans could not hold back tears. There—on the stage, in public—were our gestures, our voices, our accents, our own faces. It isn't sad scenes that bring the tears, but a realization of how isolated we've been, and a wonder that our private Chinese lives and secret language can be communally...