What I liked
I liked how honestly the play explored the Asian American experience, especially the confusion and frustration of feeling like an outsider in your own country. It captured moments I’ve lived through but never seen represented on stage before.
What I didn't like
The stage felt unnecessarily large, using a smaller space might have created a more focused, intimate experience. Scene transitions were often distracting, with noticeable footsteps and prop movement coming from the other side of the stage. This issue repeated throughout the performance and made it hard to stay immersed in the story.
My overall impression
My Tiger resonated deeply with me as an Asian American. It brought to the surface things I’ve rarely dared to say out loud, experiences that are personal, but shared by so many in our community.
One moment in the play that struck me was when Didi, is asked, “Where are you from?” by a white person, a question I, and many other Asians in America, have heard too often. Despite living here most of my life, I still struggle to answer it. I’m never quite sure what the person really means, or why they’re asking. Is it curiosity? Is it something else? And why does it feel like the question itself pushes me further from belonging?
The play also captures how easily acceptance can turn into rejection. Didi gets along just fine with his white peers, until another white boy enters the scene and suddenly things shift. A familiar, ugly side comes out. I’ve experienced that shift myself, and I still do, even today. It’s subtle sometimes, but it’s there.
What My Tiger does so powerfully is show this experience with honesty, raw and unfiltered. It captures the internal confusion many Asian Americans face; the sense of being an outsider, of not being fully accepted as American, even when we were born and raised here. It reveals the silent emotional cost of constantly being treated like a foreigner in your own country.
This play is more than a story. It’s a mirror, and for many of us, a quiet kind of validation we rarely get to see on stage.
