In the play Ching Chong Chinaman, Lauren Yee brings awarness to the issues of cultural identity and assimilation through the use of dark humor as well as ominous topics. The play centers on the Wongs, a Chinese American family whose cultural identity appears to have been lost due to their extreme assimilation into American culture. The play does a good job in ridiculing and mocking the way that people in today’s world go through life without having a clear sense about who they truly are.

In Scene 4, the Wongs sit in front of the kitchen table, as they wait for their Chinese food order to be delivered to their home. Ed begins to ask J (who he refers to as ching chong), questions about how he feels and his thoughts of America. “If you don’t speak his language, don’t talk to him. It’s insulting”, Desdemona tells Ed. I found this to be quite satiric because although the Wong’s are of Chinese descent just like J, the entire family is so out of touch with their roots that they can’t communicate with a person who shares the same culture. Yee incorporated distasteful humor by having the Wong family butcher J’s full name (Jingqiang) and calling him Ching Chong which is an ethnic slur that is often used to imitate the Chinese language. Although It’s a bit odd having such a slur being said by a man who is also Chinese, I believe that Yee purposely does this to really depict how Americanized the Wong’s truly were.

Later in the scene, Grace enters with the takeout they had ordered and unpacks the food onto the kitchen table. “Look! They even gave us chopsticks” Grace states in a shocked manner. Desdemona, who unlike Grace, doesn’t come to a surprise when she sees the chopsticks states that they are always given out with the Chinese food. Grace comes up with the idea that “Ching Chong” could teach the Wong’s how to use the chopsticks correctly. Yee makes this part in the scene absurd and ridiculous because usually people who are of Chinese heritage should know how to use these traditional utensils that are most widely used in the East and SouthEast parts of Asia. The scene points out to the audience how assimilating to a different culture can make you so out of contact and uninformed about your true identity.

Overall, I think that Lauren Yee uses both dark humor and derogatory slurs in order to portray this Americanized Chinese family and how lost they are when it comes to their cultural heritage and their identity.