FROM ABCs TO FOBs:

A HANDBOOK OF NEW CHINESE AMERICAN TYPES

Lai Sai Acn Chan
The play FOB, by David Henry Hwang, explores the process by which Chinese
Americans construct a bicultural identity. A pastiche of traditional Chinese
folklore and a modern rereading in the light of feminist and ethnic concerns, FOB
emerges as an attempt to narrow the gaps between first, second, and third
generations of Chinese in the United States. The result is a new classification of
Chinese American types.

In an earlier article, I had mentioned and described a taxonomy of Asians in the United
States, a concern of both Asian American theorists and writers alike. In Asian American and
Chinese American Literary History (1999) I synthesized the concerns of scholars like Korean
American Elaine Kim in her book Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and
Their Social Context (1982) and Chinese American Esther Ngang-lin Chow in her 1985 article
Acculturation Experience of Asian American Women. Their works served as a basis to state that,
There are three stages in Asian American literary history that should be considered
both as chronological and psychological processes. That is, these stages deal with
not only a sequence of events that occurred in a systematic order and, thus,
determined a historical period, but also attitudes that determined the behavior of
Asian Americans in different periods in their lives. Asian Americans have been
members of the first, second, or third generations either because of the historical
periods in which they were born or because of their degree of belongingness to
each generation. Assimilating into a foreign culture is not easy for a newcomer, but
as s/he gets more and more acquainted with the surroundings, a detachment from
his/her native culture might occur as a result of the initial shock of becoming the
other.

However, some might even go a step further by blending both

environment and heritage harmoniously.1

Associate professor, School of Modern Languages, Universidad de Costa Rica

2
This was, nevertheless, a very basic classification of Asian Americans that worked back in the
turbulent 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of a politically-conscious third generation, but as the
times change and the various Asian American groups become more and more diverse, a new
taxonomy becomes a necessity to understand new generations of Asian Americans.

Several

documents written by, about, and for the Asian American community deal with cultural and
sociological issues like the emergence of Hapas (race-mixed Asians) through interracial marriages 2,
the coming out of potato queens (Asian gays who prefer older, white homosexual men) and rice
queens (Caucasian gays whose object of desire are younger Asian homosexual men) 3, a gay issuei as
well, and the rise of a culturally-diverse Asian America as exemplified by new types like the
twinkie, the Asian-American, the Fob, the Super fob, the fobabee, the gansta fob, the chigger, the
tab, the hoochie tab, the rice-boy, the fobulous, the banana/coconut, the angry Asian, the Asian in
denial, the politically-correct Asian ii and others. This latter concern will be explored and analyzed
in Henry David Hwangs play FOB. Although the play seems to endorse the three-generation issue,
it actually proposes a new classification and becomes a pioneer handbook of new Chinese American
types.
The eternal conflict between ABCs (second-generation Chinese Americans) and FOBs
(Chinese immigrants) and the consequent resolution seem to be personified by Hwang in his
characters: Dale, the American-born Chinese, Steve, the Fresh-off-boat Chinese immigrant, and
Grace, the Chinese-born American who becomes the link between two generations that have
misunderstood each other when they actually have more to converge than to diverge. The battle
seems to be the stereotypical struggle between change and tradition, the new generations and their
elders, but it is actually a war against bigotry and the main bigot is surprisingly, not the Americanborn Chinese, but the immigrant. Perhaps as a result of the cultural awareness raised by Hwangs
play, new Asian American types springing from the demeaning term FOB have come out. One such
i

This is a concern I addressed in an earlier article entitled From Opera Queens to Rice Queens: Questions
of Ethnic and Gender Issues
ii
See the annex for the online articles What Kind of Asian Are You? and The Different Types of Asians
defining those types.

3
example is the witty classification made by an anonymous author in his What Kind of Asian Are
You?, a chain e-mail passed down throughout a great number of Asian Americans. I myself, not
being American-based then, received this e-mail in May 2002. Eight months later, when searching
on the Internet, there were about thirty four sites posting versions of the anonymous source, as well
as other classifications of Asian Americans like the one posted on Asiazine, The Different Types
of Asians. The bottom line then, is that a sociological phenomenon is shaking the very foundations
of Asian America. Although slightly stereotypical, this fob manifesto is making many Asian
Americans ask themselves the very question that entitles the e-mail: what kind of Asian am I?.
This article, then, will set out to analyze the identity question raised by Hwang in his 1979
play FOB in the light of old and new categories. If a FOB is actually a newcomer from an Asian
country, say China, should he then represent the first generation of Chinese in the United States?
Likewise, if an American-born Chinese is nothing but a FOBs offspring, should he then represent
the rebelliousness and the outcry for change of the second generation of Chinese Americans? Thus,
Hwangs depiction of the rivalry and mutual disrespect between Henry David Hwangs Steve (the
fobish Chinese newcomer from Hong Kong) and Dale (the contemptuous American citizen, a L.A.
dweller of Chinese descent), should mirror attempts to narrow the gaps between generations, as
seemingly personified in Grace. However, as Hwang walks away from the three-generation theme
that his predecessorsMaxine Hong Kingston, Shawn Hsu Wong, Amy Tan, and Frank Chin
among the most representative of this waveso much doted on, he opens up an ongoing debate to
provide more possibilities to answer the what-kind-of-Asian-am-I question. His reading of the
generation concern spurs on new postmodern readings.
Among the postmodern strategies Hwang employs are witty games to metaphorically
portray the identity quest of so many Chinese Americans.
mythology and folklore.

An arrogant, god-enthroned

The first game involves Chinese

Steve comes into Graces restaurant

demanding that he be waited on at once, to which she stands up for her rights as she adopts the
disguise of the mythical woman warrior:

4
GRACE: Scuse me, but you really are an asshole, you know that? Who do you
think you are?
STEVE: What are you asking me? Who am I?
GRACE: Yes. You take it easy with that, hear?
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
STEVE: Silence! I am Gwan Gung! God of warriors, writers and prostitutes! 4
Steves choice of one of the most well-known gods of the Chinese pantheon accounts for his
political statement. He is the modern 1980s spokesperson of the thousands of Chinese immigrants
unfairly treated since the times of the Gold rush. Only that this time, Chinese immigrants are
seemingly ready to get even. Therefore, he triumphantly makes his entrance as a God to punish
those who discriminated, starved and kicked his people out of the United States. He then put on
his blindfold goes Steves story about Gwan Gungs favorite battle, pulled out his sword, and
began passing over the land, swiping at whatever got in his path. You see, Gwan Gung figured
there was so much revenge and so much evil in those days that he could slay at random and still
stand a good chance of fulfilling justice 5. Steve/Gwan Gungs game becomes crystal clear as he
lays his cards on the table. His is a quest to avenge the humiliated fresh-off-boats, ChinaMen who
withstood poverty, hunger, and toil in America. Interestingly enough he is not the stereotypical
English-illiterate or clumsy, ugly, greasy FOB. Loud, stupid, four-eyed FOB 6 but the Hong
Kong-raised immigrant, son of wealthy parents who send him to the United States to get quality
higher education. In fact, his English is so fluent that he fakes a fobish register to fool a closeminded Dale who considers him only a moron. Grace has her own political agenda as a smart
UCLA journalism student currently taking courses on Chinese American history. She follows suit
as she calls herself The Woman Who Has Defeated Gwan Gung 7 and secretly takes on the
legendary Fa Mu Lans identity, but prefers to disclose the veil around the other characters eyes
until they play the second game. The introduction of gods and heroines in a modern world
deconstructs the view that the play portrays a battle between generations since the arena where this

5
verbal rather than physical conflict takes place is a void, a place in-between past and present, reality
and fiction.
In the same way, the second game the characters play, Group Story, sheds light on
Hwangs attempts to break with the three-generation mold and propose new kinds of Asian
Americans. This time, an unwitting Dale starts telling the story of three bears who had cancer, the
youngest of whom decides to go to the new Cedar Sinai Hospital 8 for treatment. As Grace takes
on, the setting deliberately transports the baby bear to a mythic past in China where in Steves
premeditated account, he comes face to face with Gwan Gung. This is the perfect time for the god
to get even, as he recriminates the American bears presence in his land and his detachment from
Gwan Gungs and his peoples pain and mistreatment in America. Just when the god of warriors,
writers and prostitutes was about to strike the bear with his sword, there arrived Fa Mu Lan, the
Woman Warrior9 to protect the bear and show the god all the pain and death that his blind,
miscalculated rage caused:
DALE: That night, Gwan Gung had a large banquet, at which there was plenty,
even for the slaves. But Fa Mu Lan ate nothing. She waited until midnight,
till Gwan Gung and the gods were full of wine and empty of sense. Sneaking
behind him, he pulled out the tablecloth, waving it above her head.
GRACE: (Ripping the tablecloth from the table) Gwan Gung, you foolish boy.
This thing you have used tonight as a tableclothit is the stretched and dried
skins of my fathers. My fathers, whom you slewfor sport! And you have
been eating the sinsyou ate them!
STEVE: No. I was blindfolded. I did not know. [. . .] I am not responsible. 10
Once again the game takes on unsuspected dimensions as the metonymy drawn by Hwang becomes
manifest. Dale evolves into a metonymy for an American society that stands in the middle, Steve,
for the degraded Chinese immigrants who want retaliation, and Grace, for the Asian American
group that recriminates both groups for their intolerance. Taking advantage of Steves moment of

6
weakness, Grace manipulates the outcome by impersonating, along with Dale, Steves parents. In
the game, they push Steve over the edge, bidding him to make the arduous trip to America out of
necessity. An overwhelmed Steve crumbles down as he confesses his underlying intentions. He has
a political agenda as a ChinaMan who traveled to America so many times only to be debased,
persecuted and chased out. However, far from being a vindicating campaign, his is a vendetta with
potentially destructive consequences. Whether Grace and Steve are genuinely possessed by their
mythic heroes or whether they are political activists is not this articles concern. The bottom line is
that along the process, the three-generational model is broken and new types of Asian Americans
arise. The real battle is that between fixed classifications of the Chinese and other Asian groups and
new concerns in a globalized world. An immigrant is no longer a fresh-off-boat escaping from
poverty and social upheaval, willing to take on menial work to survive and raise a family, but s/he is
rather an educated, politically-conscious person with a higher living standard than those of his
predecessors and he goes to the United States to study, work, live, or just have a good time.
Then, Hwangs vindication of the stereotypical dumb, greasy, ugly fresh-off-boat gives way
to a new taxonomy of Asian Americans proud of their fobish roots. According to What Kind of
Asian Are You?, twinkies, Asian-Americans, fobs, super fobs, fobabees, gansta fobs, chiggers,
tabs, hoochie tabs, rice-boys, and the fobulous make up this Asian American type gallery.
According to yet another popular classification going around in newsletter groups and all along the
super highway of informationThe Different Types of Asians 11the gallery is composed by
angry Asians, Asians in denial, bananas/coconuts, Asian fobs, and politically-correct Asians. An
analysis of Steve, Dale and Grace in the light of these two taxonomies will reveal a changing
attitude in the Asian American community and a consequent departure from the early models
proposed by Asian scholars and writers.
Steve is then a combination of an angry Asian, an Asian fob, a super fob, and a rice boy
with potential to become fobulous. Steves anger is manifested in the disguise of an ancient, bloodthirsty warrior god, a symbol of Chinese pride and dynastic grandeur. He really abhors the way

7
Western society has demeaned his people and although he recriminates the Americans bigotry, he is
unable to realize that he himself is another bigot. His concept of justice is as biased as his American
counterparts racial hatred. That is why he portrays himself with a blindfold which enables him to
impart justice equally but unfairly since in his way of thinking even American-born Chinese have to
atone for their fellow countrymens sins. Thus, Steve wants a small-minded and Americanized, yet
guiltless Dale to serve as a scapegoat to expiate the guilt of the mainstream white group. At the
same time, like an Asian fob, Steve holds on to Asian values and attitudes as evinced by his
chauvinism at the opening of the play. He enters into a Chinese restaurant in California looking for
chong you binga traditional Northern Chinese dough-and-scallion appetizer similar to pita bread
but deep-fried, demonstrates a native command of Chinese (three out of his first four utterances are
in Chinese), demands immediate service even though the eatery is closed, shows contempt for
Grace, whom he calls Idiot girl 12 when she disregards him, and introduces himself as a Chinese
god who must be praised and worshipped by the Americans. Clearly, Steve spent his formative
years in an Asian society, seemingly in Hong Kong, or at least in another Chinese metropolis, for
several reasons. As he praises Graces choice for the University of California in Los Angeles,
Steves intention in the United Statesgoing to schoolbecomes clear. Like good Asians, Steves
parents seemingly send him for an upper-crust education preferably at an elite university like
UCLA. To do so, they must be well-off as suggested by Graces comment about Steves father, who
apparently manufactures souvenirs in Hong Kong 13, a largely capitalistic society that is
ideologically opposed to mainland Chinas socialist economy.

Dales demeaning comments also

suggest that Steve is indeed from HK. But in Dales mind, far from being one of the economic hubs
and one of the most fashionable cities in Asia in the 1980s, Hong Kong is just an extension of
Chinatown with its cheap trinkets, dirty alleys, bawdy merchandise, colorful English, and armies of
fresh-off-boats wearing bad haircuts that look like inverted rice bowls.
Actually, in order to make Dale believe he is right, Steve performs the role of a super fob but
ends up dumbfounding him. Whenever Dale is around he fakes a heavy Chinese accent that makes

8
Dale reinforce his biased opinion of Steve. He pretends his command of English is minimal while
he actually speaks English flawlessly with Grace. His wrong grammar and pronunciation provoke
farcical situations to purposely outsmart the Americanized Chinese.
GRACE: Oh, Steve, this is Dale, my cousin. Dale, Steve.
DALE: Hey, nice to meet you.
STEVE: (Now speaking with Chinese accent) Hello. Thank you. I am fine.
(pause)
DALE: Uh, yeah. Me too. So, you just got here, huh? Whacha think?
(Steve smiles and nods, Dale smiles and nods; Steve laughs, Dale laughs;
Steve hits Dale on the shoulder. They laugh some more. They stop laughing)
DALE: Oh. Uhgood. (Pause) Well, it looks like its just gonna be the three of
us, right? [. . .]14
His food habits also seem to point out his fobishness. All Steve asks for is bing, a specially
greasy food that in Dales way of thinking would be perfectly fit for FOBs since they can eat
anything, uh? Theyre specially trained. Helps maintain the characteristic greasy look 15. In
insistently asking for bing, Steve endorses yet another fob habit in every country typical FOBs visit:
eating dim sum, Chinese little appetizers usually greasy, but tasty. Another fobish food that
cannot be absent from a respectable South East Asian table is hot sauce, a greasy combination of
vegetable oil and chili flakes. Still another fobish food is fish fresh from the tank, a food
customarily found in Asian supermarkets and some restaurants all over the United States and, of
course, in Southern China (seemingly Steves point of departure), and a metaphor for Steves
fobishness. They are both the stuff that came in that day 16 on a boat.

Other debasing

comments suggest a fobish Steves need for a decent (Western) haircut, a desire to stay within the
imaginary walls of Chinatown, and his involvement in bootlegging since he is the heir to a fortune
in junk merchandise17 meaning perhaps illegally reproduced, distributed and sold CDs, DVDs,
VCDs, and video games, as well as other gadgets and knickknacks, a traditional industry in China.

9
Although Steve is definitely more of a FOB, he also resembles a typical rice boy in his knowledge
about cars. Steve is able to identify Dales type of car accurately. Dale himself cannot believe it:
STEVE: X-1/9? Aaaai-ya!
DALE: X-1/9?
STEVE: No deal!
DALE: Howd he know that? Howd he know what I drive?18
Steve knows pretty well that Dales car fits only two people so that he would be excluded from the
outing. Thus, a battle to demonstrate each others manliness follows suit as Steve innocently
suggests they use his car, which turns out to be a Cadillac limousine. Many men are really fond of
their cars, and just like typical rice boys, Dale and Steve are not the exception. They seem to be
very knowledgeable when it comes to motors, car brands and other specific auto details. They use
their vehicles to brag and demonstrate their wooing skills so that in their attempts to demonstrate
who the best man is, Grace becomes the prize to attain, the tab to conquer.
When the battle shifts from Steve versus Dale to Steve versus Grace, the real battle to
understand that in America a fresh-off-boat can become a fabulous oriental being starts. As the
battle reaches its climax, Steve releases the anger repressed by the slow-witted FOB disguise: I
FOUGHT WITH THE FIRST PIONEERS, THE FIRST WARRIORS THAT CHOSE TO FOLLOW
THE WHITE GHOSTS TO THIS LAND! [. . .] I WAS THEIR HERO, THEIR LEADER, THEIR
FIRE! [. . .] AND THIS LAND IS MINE! IT HAS NO RIGHT TO TREAT ME THIS WAY! [. . .]
I AM GWAN GUNG!19 After Grace nearly kills Steve with a sword, Steve humbles down and
unpretentiously asks for some food for his soul, some tenderness, understanding and compassion.
He narrates his sad account without bitterness or vengefulness and far from rejecting his new
countrymen he reaches out to them, offering his help. He acknowledges the death of gods and the
birth of warriors, human beings with the potential to become fobulous when Grace hands him the
box that he strove for at the beginning and that contained all he ever wanted but did not request

10
politely, the bing. Kindness and a humane treatment were all Steve needed to realize his role as an
agent of transformation in a world where the three-generation gaps must be bridged.
Ironically, anger is the bind between FOBs and ABCs as Grace, the bridge between Steve
and Dale, incarnates a combination of a fobulous, a politically-correct Asian and, surprisingly, an
angry Asian and a tab. The American-raised daughter of Chinese immigrants and a journalism
student currently taking a course on Chinese American history, Grace stands for everything a
fobulous is. As a fabulous oriental being, she is fluent both in English and in Chinese. She attends
UCLA, an American university with a large quota of Asian students. She is also fond of her cultural
heritage as evinced by her ethnic consciousness. She fraternizes both with FOBs like Steve and
ABCs like Dale.

That is, she seems to have reached the balance between first and second

generation, yet she also has a political agenda other than just being the bridge between generations.
Although born in Taiwan, she is brought to the United States when she was only ten and, therefore,
spends formative years in the West. Initially she suffers the discrimination of American-born
Chinese girls who would ignore her and mock her fobishness just like Dale ridicules Steve. To
become part of the mainstream, she gradually learned to choose the right clothes, hang out at the inplaces, speak English, and look American, but in the process she realized that no matter how hard
she tried she would never be one of them and that indeed she did not need to fit to come to terms
with herself. One day while driving along Hollywood Boulevard in Westwood, L.A., an essentially
white neighborhood, she understands that she is lonely, but that realization rescues her out of her
dejection and gives way to a new Grace who knows that she is her own home, her own shelter. She
learns self-acceptance and open-mindedness and embraces Western ideals of political correctness.
From the time she meets Steve she sets out to remove the blindfold of narrow-mindedness and
racial superiority covering Steves eyes.

Right from the beginning she foresees Steves

vindictiveness and sets out to teach him a lesson on righteousness and sympathy. She denies Steve
the most basic thing a human being could requestfoodbecause he impatiently demands that he
be fed. The bing becomes a symbol of the sought-after warmth and empathy, but also of probity and

11
commiseration. It is a right denied to thousands of Chinese immigrants who toiled and perished in
their attempts to reach the Gold Mountain, the Chinese version of the American Dream. At the
same time, it represents the newcomers duty to avoid a never-ending battle by showing humility
and treating their oppressors kindly and rightfully. Since Grace wants to do the politically-right
thing she must defend a seemingly simple-minded Steve by chiding a Dale who enjoys deriding the
foreigner. But to defend an unwitting Dale from a conscious Steve whose only concern is getting
even, her strategy must be as underhanded as that of the alleged god of warriors.
Not surprisingly, Grace turns out to be another angry Asian from the vast gallery of types
created by contemporary authors, among which Maxine Hong Kingstons Fa Mu Lan, Lela Lees
Angry Little Asian Girliii (ALAG), and the anonymous e-mails TAB (Trendy Asian bitch) will
account for Graces dark side. Graces anger is different from Steves though. Hers springs from
the mutual bigotry and hatred that both Fresh-off boats and American-born Chinese have displayed
for a long time. Her efforts are praiseworthy until she begins to distort reality and manipulate the
others. In her attempts to bring these two pugnacious groups together, she has somehow missed the
point and become as belligerent as them. Although she adopts the disguise of a legendary Chinese
woman warrior to fight back Steves mythical god, far from being altruistic, she replicates
Kingstons Fa Mu Lan in her vindictiveness and acrimony: The Woman Warrior went to the
mirror, which had stayed unbroken, and let her gown come loose and drop to the ground. She
turned and studied the ideographs (revenge) that had long ago been carved into the flesh of her
young back . . . Carved by her mother, who lay carved in the basket (17). As ALAG, Grace feels
that in her universe life makes no sense since no matter how politically-correct she tried to be, the
conflict between FOBs and ABCs burst anyway, and although she had no part in creating the crisis,
the consequences end up shaking her world. Then, as the stereotypical TAB, Grace adopts the
irksome attitude of a woman who wants to be the object of desire of men. First, Grace mistreats
iii

Created by Korean American actress Lela Lee during her Berkeley years, ALAG is a comic strip
character constantly railing at the system for what she thinks is a conspiracy against her group. See the annex
for a sample of the strip.

12
Steve by ignoring him, not addressing his questions properly, and bantering with him when he
claims to be Gwan Gung. Then, she masks her anger behind the disguise of the legendary woman
warrior, but keeps it to herself until the very end to push him over the edge and punish him.
STEVE. [. . . ] I AM GWAN GUNG!
GRACE. And I am Fa Mu Lan.
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]
GRACE. We are in America. And we have a battle to fight.
(She tosses the da dao to Steve. They square off)
STEVE. I dont want to fight you.
GRACE. You killed my family.
STEVE. You were revengedI ate your fathers sins.
GRACE. Thats not revenge!
(Swords strike)
GRACE. That was only the tease.
(Strike)
GRACE. Whats the point of dying if you dont know the cause of your death?
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]
(Dale strokes Graces hair. They freeze. Steve rises slowly to his knees and
delivers a speech to the audience)
STEVE. Ssssh! Please, miss! Pleasequiet. I will not hurt you I promise. All I
want is . . . food . . . anything. [. . . ]20
Besides, she manipulates the other characters perception of each other. Both men become even
more competitive than they would normally be if it were not because of her interference as she
employs the sophisticated strategies of tabs to have two rice boys fight for her. One such example
is alluding to the most valuable assets rice boys have: their cars. Thus, she makes Steve feel that
she is busy dating others and turns him down for Dales X 1/9. When Dale arrives, he makes him

13
feel like the odd man out since she implies that Steve is her date. When Steve is out, Dale learns
information that only makes him hate Steve even more. The one thing ABCs hate about FOBs is
their lusting for non-FOB girls. So Grace tells Dale that she met Steve at a school dance just to
irritate him. To hurt her cousins pride, she tells him about Steves wealth although that piece of
information is uncertain. And when Dale is away, Steve is encouraged to go on with his charade.
The masquerade, however, takes him to the threshold of death as Steve and Grace personify the
roles of god and heroine for the last time and a politically conscious ABC is born.
Dale is a blend of an Asian in denial and a twinkie, and has potential to become a banana or
coconut and a fobabee. As an Asian in denial, Dale embodies many of the features that makes him
a real sellout. He dwells in a predominantly white universe, disavows his own cultural heritage, and
shows contempt for FOBs. Dales entrance into Graces restaurant reveals that he is neither from
the neighborhood nor especially eager to become part of it. Since he is biased about Chinatown,
when Grace rebukes him for not announcing his presence, he exclaims Dangerous neighborhood,
huh?21

Although Graces mother and Dales father are siblings whose father was very wealthy,

the latters family has better standing because the family son is the one who apparently profited in
an American education while the daughter got nothing, so when the grandfather went bankrupt she
had to work strenuously doing menial work.

This difference marked Dales birthplace,

temperament, and values, all of which make him a twinkie. As an American born Chinese, Dale is
unable to identify with anyone or anything coming from China. He has friends who represent the
white American dream with houses in Hollywood Hills and Porsche Carreras. He himself owns an
Italian sports car. His life drifts dreaming of watching Benson at the Roxy, [. . .] ordering hors
douvres at Scandias, [. . .] downshifting onto the Ventura Freeway at midnight 22 like probably
many white, high middle-class L.A. kids do. He does not seem fluent in Chinese or proud of
Chinese dishes as he cannot even produce the exact name of Moo-shoo or, in his own words, those
burrito things23. He strips off his Chinese side by rejecting his forefathers cultural heritage and by
disclaiming any trace of fobishness in his family. He employs demeaning termsyellow, slant,

14
gook, and fresh-off-boatto name Chinese people, his own parents included. Actually in the
prologue of the play Dale appears derisively lecturing on definitions and strategies to recognize and
find FOBS. Even his attitude towards Steve, anyone who could have been a former FOB, and the
source of their fobishness shows Dales racial hatred and ignorance. He insists on criticizing
Steves idiosyncracy, bringing first-generation Asian American Grace and her family low,
repudiating his parents, and picturing Hong Kong as a dumpy, tacky Chinatown.
Even though Dale seems adamant in his intolerance of anything fob-like, at the end of the
play he appears alone in the backroom, examining the swords, tablecloth and the box while
neutrally reporting his FOB explanation. While in the prologue he interpolates what he considers
witty remarks about FOBs, in the coda Dale seems to recite a FOB manifesto, something to hold on
to when his misconceptions have shattered and all that is left is converting. His transformation at
the end of the revealing game, Group Story, is subtle but unequivocally expressed in his soft tone
and laughter, and in what coming from Dale seems to be a compliment to Steve: You know . . . I
think you picked up English faster than anyone Ive ever met 24. His inner self struggles to surface
and like a banana or a coconut, at the end Dale shows his true colors once the inside is revealed.
That is, the twinkie awakens as a result of the mortal confrontation between Steve and Grace.
(Series of strikes. Steve falls)
DALE: Okay! Thats it!
(Grace stands over Steve, her sword pointed at his heart. Dale snatches the sword
from her hands. She does not move)
DALE: Jesus! Enough is enough!25
In a moment of truth, Dale realizes that Steve and Grace embody the collective concerns of
extremist groups of Asians and politically-conscious Asian Americans striving to bridge the gaps
among the different factions of essentially the same people. In the process he learns that FOBs
should not be stereotyped as clumsy, ugly, greasy, loud, stupid, four-eyed, or horny, but considered
human beings with the same flaws and virtues as his own.

15
This analysis reveals Hwangs main claim in FOB: that the Asian American identity is
composed of contradictory yet harmonious pieces that make up a whole. His characters are more
real depictions of Asian Americans who do not need to belong to one of the three generations in
order to fit in. What the three-generation model lacked, new handbooks of Chinese American types
like the more updated What Kind of An Asian Are You and The Different Types of Asians
tackle. Formerly stereotyped as intolerant of each other, immigrants and second-generation Asian
Americans emerge as beings capable of bridging the gap by capitulating. They do not need an
intermediary anymore, as was proposed by the three generation model. Thus, the third generation
Asian American ceases to be the link between first and second generations, but becomes just one
more category in a vast Asian American universe encompassing twinkies, chiggers, rice boys,
hoochie tabs, bananas, coconuts, FOBs, and others. As bizarre as this universe might seem, the
truth is that there an angry Asian has the potential to become fobulous, a politically-correct Asian
might actually prove to be a tab, and a twinkie can be a fobabee.

Bibliography

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Endnotes

Lai Sai Acn Chan, Asian American and Chinese American Literary History, Kina: Revista de Artes y Letras de la

Universidad Costa Rica, Nmero especial, 23.3 (1999): 93-102.

2

The Hapa Issue, Magazine: Inside Asian America Jun-Jul. 2001: 34-39.

Jason Chang, "Gay Asian Men," Magazine: Inside Asian America Feb-Mar. 2001: 52-53.

Henry David Hwang, FOB and Other Plays, (N.Y.: Plume, 1988) 10.

Hwang 11.

Hwang 6.

Hwang 11

Hwang 42

Hwang 43.

10

Hwang 44.

11

The Different Types of Asians, Asiazine, 3.1 (2001), 12 January 2003. <http://www.asiazine.com>

12

Hwang 9.

13

Hwang 24.

14

Hwang 21.

15

Hwang 30.

16

Hwang 29.

17

Hwang 37.

18

Hwang 22.

19

Hwang 46-47.

20

Hwang 47.

21

Hwang 18.

22

Hwang 32.

23

Hwang 25.

24

Hwang 49.

25

Hwang 47