Let's start from the very beginning. I am sure many of you have heard the term "yellowface," but let me briefly discuss about this term and how it came to be. Yellowface is a form of makeup to make Non-Asians appear more Asian by making their faces more yellow.
Probably the most famous incident of yellowface is in the Charlie Chan movies. Charlie Chan was a fictional Chinese American detective. However, in the 1930's and 1940's, instead of an Asian actor playing the character, white actors Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters played the role instead. This was at a time when anti-Asian sentiment was running high in America because of World War II and Japanese involvement in the war.
However, there have been many other instances of yellowface after Charlie Chan. To name some, Micky Rooney played a stereotypical Japanese landlord and neighbor in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Marlon Brandon played a Japanese interpreter for the American army in The Teahouse of the August Moon.
Why are people so upset about yellowface? If a director thinks a white actor can play an Asian role best, then is it acceptable to have him/her play the character by using yellowface? No, because there are actual actors to play the role. In both the characters that Micky Rooney and Marlon Brandon played, their representation and acting seemed ridiculous and offensive, to say the least. In addition, yellowface reinforces harmful stereotypes toward Asians and Asian Americans. Yes, you can have white actors playing Asian characters, but where is the humanity in that? It is harmful toward an entire community and all this can be avoided by simply not casting white actors as Asian characters.
Have you seen the show "Master of None" starring Aziz Ansari? In episode 4, they discuss heavily the effects of brownface on Indian-American actors. In fact, the episode focuses on brown stereotypes and how hard it is for an Indian actor to land a role other than the stereotypical accented Indian who drives a taxi or owns a 7-11. I believe the episode and its message is very relevant to the concept of yellowface that you are trying to explain.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with your post. Clearly, there is no lack of talented Asian American actors to play characters who are Asian. This undoubtedly does reinforce Asian stereotypes. The question now is what can be done to remedy this inconsistency. But certainly the first step is to increase awareness of the issue.
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