I think this play is very much about the meaning of race and the extent to which we represent race on stage or in life: race is, in fact, re-established as a presence intrusive into collective American life in the second part of the work, when Hwang's father and other members of the community become victims of the 1996 Congressional investigation into the loyalty of Chinese Americans suspected of espionage and shadowy financial dealings with China, thus imposing the reality of racism to a post-racial sensibility. (Botelho 92) Hwang's father has been a victim of racism since 1996, we don't know from his last name or appearance where they are from. We are not legally allowed to ask a person's race at auditions. Therefore, the fact that a DHH 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