Han Ong - Major Themes

Major Themes

Ong’s works are often set in urban, multicultural settings. His plays can be divided into two groups: those exploring the issues related to immigration (a search for roots, clashes of culture, identity crisis, American Dream) and those that examine the lives of non-stereotypical Asian Americans. His work portrays the darker side of Asian American life. The characters are typically depressed and hopeless. They are alienated from society and lack mutual communication, respect, and warmth in their family lives. This sense of alienation and outsiderness draws upon the memories of his adolescence. Ong characterizes his work as having “a point of view of somebody with their noses pressed against the glass looking in. It’s like a jewel: you turn a different facet to the light.” Ong writes from an American perspective, but his Filipino descent is “the more concrete thing I can actually fall back on in terms of nostalgia, of identification.”