@article{ART003330824},
author={Soomin Kang},
title={“Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2026},
volume={39},
number={1},
pages={135-164}
TY - JOUR
AU - Soomin Kang
TI - “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2026
VL - 39
IS - 1
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 135
EP - 164
SN - 1226-3397
AB - This paper analyzes David Henry Hwang’s semi-autobiographical play Yellow Face (2007) as a theatrical examination and exposure of whiteness and its racial privilege in contemporary America. Centered on the controversy surrounding the casting of a white actor in an Asian role, the play stages Hwang’s own career, artistic failures, and public interventions to question how race is perceived and performed under conditions of colorblindness. While acknowledging that race may appear unreadable within legal and institutional frameworks, this paper argues that such unreadability is neither neutral nor universally available. Rather, the claim that “you can’t tell anymore” emerges as a racial sensibility secured by whiteness. Drawing on theories of whiteness by Richard Dyer and Sara Ahmed, this paper examines how whiteness operates as an unmarked social norm and an ever-present background that relegates Asianness to the margins. It also engages David L. Eng and Shinhee Han’s framework of racial melancholia to explore the identities and positions of Asian immigrants within American society represented in the play. Ultimately, Yellow Face exposes the asymmetrical positioning of white and Asian bodies, revealing how the power not to see race in a so-called colorblind society continues to organize legitimacy, visibility, and belonging in contemporary America.
KW - Yellowface;Asian American;Whiteness;Racial Legibility;Colorblindness
DO -
UR -
ER -
Soomin Kang. (2026). “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. Journal of Modern English Drama, 39(1), 135-164.
Soomin Kang. 2026, "“Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.39, no.1 pp.135-164.
Soomin Kang "“Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face" Journal of Modern English Drama 39.1 pp.135-164 (2026) : 135.
Soomin Kang. “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. 2026; 39(1), 135-164.
Soomin Kang. "“Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face" Journal of Modern English Drama 39, no.1 (2026) : 135-164.
Soomin Kang. “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. Journal of Modern English Drama, 39(1), 135-164.
Soomin Kang. “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2026; 39(1) 135-164.
Soomin Kang. “Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. 2026; 39(1), 135-164.
Soomin Kang. "“Then Take off Your Mask”: The White Figure and the Work of Whiteness in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face" Journal of Modern English Drama 39, no.1 (2026) : 135-164.
