While there are Chinese-American dimensions to Ping Chong's theatre, the frequent application of the label ‘Asian-American’ to Chong reflects a problematic tendency to see certain artists as ‘ethnic’. ‘Postmodern’ and ‘multimedia’ are the two other labels that stick to, and have often distorted, his work. My overview of Ping Chong's oeuvre, and its critical reception, homes in on selected Chong pieces and on particular critical habits. While there are many continuities and discontinuities within a career spanning fifty pieces and three decades, I suggest that Chong oscillates, both visually and thematically, between surface and depth, like the Barthesian ‘outsider within’ who partly inhabits/partly mythologizes the culture(s) they encounter, and who is always changing. There is a need for greater recognition of the distinctiveness of Chong's authorial signature, the multiplicity of his influences, and the ways in which his work challenges the narratives and categories used to study performance.