Chay Yew, in “Porcelain” and “Wonderland,” examines various notions of “queer” through his characters, who desperately seek relationships and love. , with the people around them. Their lives are marked by death, violence and tragedy, which occur not only because they are queer, but also because these events distinguish them from the rest of society, which “queer” them. But above all, they are survivors and, like the word “queer” itself, escape simple definition by having many definitions, or facets, of their diverse and interesting selves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Yew's "Porcelain," the protagonist, whose name is John, murders his lover in a public restroom. The plot of this play is interspersed with scenes from a tale John's father told him when he was a young boy, of a lonely crow who longed to be with the graceful, happy sparrows who lived on the other side of the field. The crow eventually flew across the field and lived with the sparrows, but he was still a stranger due to his appearance and behavior. After realizing he would never belong, he returns home, but his experience has changed him: he is now different from the other crows. With that, he flies off to look for another life, with another family. Many of the characters in Yew's play, especially John, embody this metaphor of the raven among the sparrows in their desire for a better life and greener pastures. John feels strange - like a stranger among strangers - because he is not only gay, but Chinese too. His father tells an interviewer about John, saying, “I only have one son. Alone. I don't know why he changed his name to John--English. Maybe be like your English friends at school – don’t be different. Be like them” (84). Yew chooses the name "John" to call his protagonist, to refer to the term that many scammers use to refer to their clients, who are indistinguishable from each other. He also associates this name with his character's tendency to engage in sexual acts in public restrooms. By changing his name to an English one, John hopes to change the way others perceive him and blend in like the crow into the sparrow family. However, many aspects of his identity prevent him from assimilating. His father also recounts how when John worked in his restaurant, and how “Deep down, I know he hates working here. Remind him too much of who he is. Where he comes from. I came from Singapore a long time ago – in my sixties – and I sacrifice everything I have so that the children can have a good life in England” (85). John's father, like the raven, moves from one place to another in search of a better life and better fortune. However, once his children grow up and absorb English culture, he realizes that he has no idea who his children are: his daughter dates many white men, his son was involved in a scandal gay, and both seem very disconnected from their Chinese identity. Because everyone knows his son is gay, John's father also comes to feel like an outsider in his own Chinese community in England due to his shame for his son and his fear of how people perceive himself and his family. John admits to wishing that. he was white so he could feel a sense of belonging, saying he saw "pictures of handsome white guys kissing, kissing, holding hands in magazinesas if they were made for each other. Always white men. But always happy” (58). While the raven longs for the company of the sparrows because of how happy they always seem, John envies the happiness and love he sees white gay men enjoying and receiving. He views love as a way to help him find a sense of self-acceptance and wholeness, and views his Chinese identity as the part of himself that prevents him from finding someone to connect with and who will love it. Both John and his father have strong reactions to their Chinese culture - while John hates this part of himself, his father fights to preserve it in his own way of life as well as that of his children . The dishonor and strangeness that John's father experiences due to his son's homosexuality places them in the same social position, but instead of causing his father to reach out to him, it marks him in the eyes of his father as a source of shame, and he rejects John. with other members of society. John and his lover meet while “cottaging” in a public toilet – a queer space that is both public and private in nature. John reveals that he hates going to the bathroom to have sex in public, but "[he] just wants to be held by these men." For a while they do it… Then [he] goes back and takes a long hot shower. Wash away every memory, every touch and every smell. Only, he never leaves it completely. It doesn't matter how strong or long your laundry is. The dirt, the filth penetrates deep into [his] skin” (60). Filth refers not only to the unsanitary connotations that public restrooms carry, but also to the dirty, worn-out feelings that John suffers after performing sexual acts there. In the bathroom, he can receive physical affection despite the skin he lives in, his racial appearance, and his identity. But not much more: it's only skin, only sex, and the sensations are fleeting. His desires for a deeper connection, for a deeper meaning to these sexual acts are never realized - until he meets William Hope. William Hope, as his last name suggests, becomes everything John desired and hoped for – his place among the sparrows. . Their relationship is abusive and possessive - Will rapes and beats John in order to control and dominate him, and John accepts it as part of love and belonging. This treatment influences John's idea of ​​love, and when John shoots him, it is partly because John feels that Will "belonged to [John]." Only [John]” (95). “Belonging” therefore has two connotations in this piece: “belonging” to someone, possessing them and being possessed by them as an object, or “belonging” to a larger group like a community, integrating oneself and being possessed by him as an object. acceptable. In this way, Yew takes a critical look at society and its language of love and relationships, commenting on its materialistic nature even when it comes to ephemeral and intangible things like love and sex. And those who don't own or possess anyone are the queers who stay outside the circle of social acceptance, far from the houses of the sparrows. Later, Will ends the relationship and rejects John, telling him, "I'm not a queer, Johnny." ! I'm not your species. I–I have nothing at all against you, your kind,” (96). By marking himself as distinct from John, Will reaffirms that John is a stranger among strangers by the very nature of who he is: a crow who can stay only a short time among the sparrows. By denying their connection, he undoes the love John feels, and John's sense of belonging and finding home is reduced to the same filth of public toilets, tofeelings that are only superficial. John, once again, is a faggot - alone because he's Chinese and gay. John doesn't give up hope, however - when the criminal psychologist points out that Will is lost to John because he killed him, John responds that "He'll never leave... [and that he] finally [has] Will all alone now” (110). While incarcerated, John folds a thousand paper cranes according to Japanese tradition, hoping that if he does so, his wish will come true. In this way, he moves from one family of birds to another, always searching for acceptance, belonging and searching for love. Even though this tragedy has deeply affected him and those around him, he does not lose sight of hope and continues to believe that he can be happy. In the final scene, John hands a paper crane to the audience, smiling. In this way, Yew fulfills his character's wish by connecting the audience to him, questioning and asking them to go beyond their own societal, racial and cultural positions and ask for their understanding and empathy. Similarly, in Yew's play "Wonderland," a Chinese family struggles to find their place in America. In one scene, the father takes his son to a place where they can see the reflection of the sun on the ocean water, and they describe it as a "miracle from God: a yellow brick road... A magnificent golden carpet » (317). . This golden rug becomes a metaphor for a welcoming rug, a path to the family's hopes and wishes; more specifically, each member's desire to achieve their own version of the American dream. Throughout the play, the characters pursue these dreams, only to discover that they are as intangible and fleeting as sunlight on water. The character named “Woman” arrives in America after marrying the American “Man” of Chinese origin. She dreamed of making a home in America, insisting to the Man that "America should be just like in the movies Like Sandpiper... In that movie [Elizabeth Taylor] lives in a beach house near the ocean We must live by the ocean We must We must just like Sandpiper” (295). The Woman builds her dreams on the glittering images of Hollywood-style America, and her sense of belonging becomes just as illusory. Her marriage to her husband was built on lies: in order to force his hand, she lies about her pregnancy so that he will marry her and take her back to America with him. After his experiences change him, she no longer knows how to support and comfort him, and their relationship becomes increasingly strained and distant. Additionally, as her son grows up, the two begin to drift apart and she does not understand his Americanized mannerisms or his antipathy toward his Chinese heritage. Her dream of an ideal family and home is shaken when she sees her son kissing her boyfriend and she pushes him away because he doesn't live up to her vision and is unable to realize the dreams she has for him. a place for herself in America is also intangible and incomplete. Having five years of experience in Singapore, she tries to find work as a saleswoman in a department store, but she is stopped in her tracks by the racism of those she is looking for to employ her (306-307). They use her inability to speak, read or write properly as an excuse not to hire her, viewing her as a Chinese foreigner and a foreigner, and she remains a homosexual despite her most ardent efforts. Her son also bothers her in the way he views and acts towards her, mocking her fractured English and Chinese-influenced views. Eventually, her family falls apart and, at the same time, she begins to spend less and less time at the Sandpiper, doing her best to get by.move as far away as possible. By the end of the play, she has become literally and figuratively homeless, sleeping in the shell of the mall that her now-deceased husband had built, with no son or husband to support her. The man also wants to find his place in America, as well as in the world of architecture. His wife, Wife, describes him as a "model minority, always polite and quiet, don't rock the boat like he was a guest in someone's house" (327). All his life, he feels set apart because of his nationality: as a child, he is teased for being Asian, and the man meets his wife, the wife, when his company sends him to China for a project , assuming he will. to be able to communicate better with the natives because he is also Chinese. But instead of going against these racist norms, he does nothing, not wanting to stand out and stand out from the rest by making waves. Ironically, because he never takes a stand, he makes himself an outsider and a queer by accepting his position as a second-rate American. Although Man dreams of building monuments and skyscrapers and becoming a revolutionary in the architectural world, Man the only missions his company will entrust to him are shopping centers. He adapts to these orders, and builds a fantastic super-mall called "Wonderland" which earns him recognition for his skills. This dream, however, ends up turning against him: he "imported more expensive materials, Italian marble, teak wood, titanium [and he] skimmed compromises on the rest" (396), which resulted in the deaths of many people when the building collapsed as a result. to be architecturally unsound. The man's compromise in building materials for his mall becomes a parallel to the way the man compromises his dreams: after the deaths, his permit is revoked and he is never able to build a mall again. other structures. Man's dreams disappear like rays of light beyond the horizon, and this experience leaves its irrevocable imprint on the man's soul, until he becomes an empty shell that his wife no longer recognizes. The scandal that followed his death also made him even weirder: he was seen by many as a murderer and went from being a contributing member of society to a stigmatized drunk from a broken family. The son also struggles to find his place in America. , feeling like a strange hybrid as the son of Chinese and Chinese-American parents. As a young child, he tells his father how the other children at school “come running up to [him] and call him ching chong chinaman ching chong chinaman” (330). He comes to hate this part of his identity because of the way it sets him apart from those around him, and fervently denies any association with his culture and with others of his culture. However, this alienates him from his mother, who embodies everything he dislikes about himself. The son is also weirded out because of his homosexuality and falls in love with his best friend George. When the Son tries to communicate these feelings about his relationship with his father, his father stops him by quoting Leviticus twenty and thirteen - and then "The Man... mumbles the magic verse and sets everything in motion... he has not of sons” (386). . The Son, just like the character of Jean from "Porcelain", is a stranger among strangers due to his double otherness: his classmates will not accept him because he is Chinese, and his Chinese parents will not accept him. will not accept because he is homosexual. The family, although going through similar experiences as Chinese and Chinese Americans living in America, are unable to connect and support each other.