Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays of David Henry Hwang Read Online Free PDF

card, no time flat, buddy.
     
    (Dale removes his hand; Steve stops.)
     
    Uh-uh-uh. You must do it yourself. Come. There—now
     
doesn’t that make you feel proud?
     
    (Dale takes his hand off again; Steve stops. Dale gives up, crosses downstage. Steve remains at the table, still . )
     
    Jesus! I’d trade him in for a vacuum cleaner any day.
    GRACE: You shouldn’t humiliate him like that.
    DALE: What humiliate? I asked him to wipe the table, that’s all.
    GRACE: See, he’s different. He probably has a lot of servants at home.
    DALE: Big deal. He’s in America, now. He’d better learn to work.
    GRACE: He’s rich, you know.
    DALE: So what? They all are. Rich FOBs.
    GRACE: Does that include me?
    DALE: Huh?
    GRACE: Does that include me? Am I one of your “rich FOBs”?
    DALE: What? Grace, c’mon, that’s ridiculous. You’re not rich. I mean, you’re not poor, but you’re not rich either. I mean, you’re not a FOB. FOBs are different. You’ve been over here most of your life. You’ve had time to thaw out. You’ve thawed out really well, and, besides—you’re my cousin.
    (Dale strokes Grace’s hair, and they freeze as before. Steve, meanwhile, has almost imperceptibly begun to clean with his sponge. He speaks to the audience as if speaking with his family:)
     
    STEVE (Drops accent) : Yes. I will go to America. “Mei Guo.” (Pause. He continues wiping with the sponge) The white ghosts came into the harbor today. They promised that they would bring us to America, and that in America we would never want for anything. One white ghost told how the streets are paved with diamonds, how the land is so rich that pieces of gold lie on the road, and the worker-devils consider them too insignificant even to bend down for. They told of a land where there are no storms, no snow, but sunshine and warmth all year-round, where a man could live out in the open and feel not even discomfort from the nature around him—a worker’s paradise. A land of gold, a mountain of wealth, a land in which a man can make his fortune and grow without wrinkles into an old age. And the white ghosts are providing free passage both ways. (Pause) All we need to do is sign a worker’s contract. (Pause) Yes, I am going to America.
    (At this point, Grace and Dale become mobile, but still fail to hear Steve. Grace picks up the box.)
     
    DALE: What’s that?
    STEVE (His wiping becomes increasingly frenzied) : I am going to America because of its promises. I am going to follow the white ghosts because of their promises.
    DALE: Is this for me?
    STEVE: Because they promised! They promised! AND LOOK! YOU PROMISED! THIS IS SHIT! IT’S NOT TRUE.
    DALE (Taking the box) : Let’s see what’s inside, is that okay?
    (Steve shoves Dale to the ground and takes the box.)
     
    STEVE: IT IS NOT! (With accent) THIS IS MINE!
    DALE: Well, what kind of shit is that?
    STEVE: She gave this to me.
    DALE: What kind of... we’re not at your place. We’re not in Hong Kong, you know. Look—look all around you—you see shit on the sidewalks?
    STEVE: This is mine!
    DALE: You see armies of rice-bowl haircuts?
    STEVE: She gave this to me!
    DALE: People here have their flies zipped up—see?
    STEVE: You should not look in it.
    DALE: So you’re not in Hong Kong. And I’m not one of your servant boys that you can knock around—that you got by trading pornographic playing cards—that you probably deal out to your friends. You’re in America, understand?
    STEVE: Quiet! Do you know who I am?
    DALE: Yeah—you’re a FOB. You’re a rich FOB in the U.S. But you better watch yourself. ’Cause you can be sent back.
    STEVE: Shut up! Do you know who I am?
    DALE: You can be sent back, you know—just like that.’Cause you’re a guest here, understand?
    STEVE (To Grace) : Tell him who I am.
    DALE: I know who he is—heir to a fortune in junk merchandise. Big deal. Like being heir to Captain Crunch.
    STEVE: Tell him!
    (Silence . )
     
    GRACE: You know it’s not like