SOURCE: Dickey, Jerry R. “‘Myths of the East, Myths of the West’: Shattering Racial and Gender Stereotypes in the Plays of David Henry Hwang.” In Old West-New West: Centennial Essays, edited by Barbara Howard Meldrum, pp. 272-80. Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Dickey explores the role of Asian men in The Dance and the Railroad and examines Asian female roles and the stereotype of Oriental submissiveness in M. Butterfly.

“I write about Asian-Americans to claim our legitimate, but often neglected, place in the American experience.”¹ These are the words of David Henry Hwang, a second-generation Chinese-American born and raised in San Gabriel, California. In the relatively short span of the past decade, Hwang has written a dozen plays and has established himself as one of America's finest and most original playwrights. One of his latest works, M. Butterfly, was produced on Broadway in 1988, where...