I think a lot of this play is about what race means and the extent to which we represent it on stage or in life: race is, in fact, reestablished as an intrusive presence in collective American life in the second part of the play when Hwang's father and other members of the community become victims of the 1996 Congressional investigation into American loyalty. of Chinese origin suspected of espionage and obscure financial transactions with China, thus imposing the reality of racism on a post-racial sensibility. (Botelho 92) Hwang's father has been a victim of racism since 1996, you can't tell by his last name or by his appearance where he comes from. We are not legally allowed to ask a person's race during interviews. Therefore, the fact that DHH, a character in this play, mistakes a white man for being part Asian shows us that we can't necessarily tell where you're really from by looking.