However, in visualizing the scene in Short Eyes, Wong modifies several important elements, including the races of the characters and the specific location of the prison in which it is supposed to have occurred. Most significantly, Wong depicts the interaction of the two men as a spiritually transcendent encounter, while Piñero's text emphasizes the brutality of Paco's treatment of Cupcake. Following the imagery traditionally used in Catholic altarpieces of the Annunciation, Wong shows Paco bending down with one knee on the ground, as he raises an arm in salutation to Cupcake. In the play, Cupcake emphatically rejects Paco, but Wong shows Cupcake with an ambiguous, rather puzzled expression on his face as he turns toward Paco. Thus, Wong leaves open the possibility that Cupcake may accept Paco's offer of love.

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Wong's conception of the Annunciation probably was influenced by the writings of Jean Genet, who fused Catholic imagery and in his fictionalized accounts of prison life. The roses that Wong has drawn on the background wall may have been intended as an allusion to Our Lady of the Flowers (1942), one of Genet's most famous books.

Homoerotic Paintings of the Later 1980s

During his first years in New York, Wong seems to have been reluctant to represent homosexual themes directly, although many pieces (such as Stanton Near Forsyth Street) have potential homosexual implications. However, expanding upon the achievement of the Annunciation According to Mikey Piñero, Wong created many paintings that celebrate male sexuality forthrightly throughout the rest of his career.

For instance, in the provocatively titled Big Heat (1988), Wong depicts two ruggedly handsome, Latino firemen, passionately kissing before a burnt-out brick tenement building in the background. As many commentators have suggested, it is possible that these firemen put out a blaze in the background structure before quenching their own "big heat." However, as no fire-fighting equipment is visible, it seems more likely that these simply are two gay men who enjoy dressing in uniforms, as Wong did. Indicative of the intense queer sexual energy of this image is the fact that a large reproduction of it was featured in the 1994 Halloween poster of The Saint, a popular gay club in the Lower East Side.

In a considerably more romantic vein, Gemini (1988) shows two Latino men dressed in fire-fighting apparel standing with their arms intertwined. It seems very possible that Wong intended the circular shape to recall tondo pictures, used in the Italian Renaissance to celebrate marriage. In support of this proposal, one can note other aspects of the painting that recall Italian Renaissance art. Differing significantly from Wong's usual depictions of architecture, the arrangement of simplified, cubic buildings resembles cityscapes in fifteenth-century Italian paintings. Moreover, the ornate frame designed by Wong closely corresponds with Renaissance examples.

Paintings of Chinatown

After the death of Piñero in 1988, Wong's art took a significant turn in direction. Until then, Wong generally avoided subjects that were obviously linked to his own ethnic heritage because he did not want to be categorized as a Chinese artist. But in the early 1990s, as he stated in an interview with Elisa Lee, he decided "whether I want to think about it or not, I am Asian. . . . what the hell, you might as well just be in your face about it."

In visualizing Chinatown, Wong drew inspiration from American popular culture, as well as personal memories and family stories. His use of stereotyped images of Chinese culture provoked charges of racism from some commentators. However, Wong brilliantly succeeded in celebrating his multiple identities as queer, Chinese, and American through his fusion of popular and personal motifs.

Wong intended his Chinatown paintings to compensate for the lack of Chinese-American themes in the large-scale murals, commissioned during the 1930s by the WPA for major public buildings throughout the United States. Thus, it is probably not coincidental that the vibrant colors and exuberant compositions of such paintings as Chinese New Year's Parade (1992) correspond with the bold and direct style often utilized by artists associated with the WPA. The lively patterns of the Chinatown paintings also could have been influenced by graffiti art, which Wong avidly collected.