Setting and Themes
Chin's play is set partly in a realistic apartment setting and partly in a theatrical setting in which Fred speaks to the audience as though they are his tour group. By dividing the play in this way, Chin forces the audience (whom at the time were mostly white) to consider their own versions of Chinese Americans and of Chinatown life against a more realistic depiction in which sons and wives are not passively obedient to their fathers, American-born Chinese do not desire to move to China, and white interest in Chinese culture is not always a positive thing. Chin also touches on the artistic problems for Chinese Americans, noting that Fred's only options as a writer are autobiography and cookbooks, and that Pa has internalized the Chinese stereotypes he has seen in the movies, so far as to imitate Charlie Chan and refer to Fred as "number one son." Through these thematic and dramaturgic devices, Chin confronts the audience with the myth of the "model minority" and presents a more disturbing picture of Chinese American life, one that is probably no different from the average American life, but that does not accord with American stereotypes.
Read more about this topic: The Year Of The Dragon (play)
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