Written in May 2015 Wrote this in order to explore casting issues related to representation of Asian/Asian-American characters (and actors) in both stage and cinema, with particular attention paid to the “whitewashing” trend that has become rather prevalent in film (as well as theater) and seems to have risen out of a desire to replace the deemed more offensive “yellowface”.
Borrowed Faces: The Effect of Whitewashing Asian Roles in Theatre and Cinema
We speak of actors and then of ethnic actors, as though they were of different kinds…If someone said, ‘I saw a terrific white play last night,’ it would sound ludicrous. Why is it acceptable the other way around? It is time to recognize all artists as individual artists first, apart from categories that only serve to limit our imaginations.
– Harry Newman
Though steps have been taken to move away from overtly racist practices such as “yellowface” on stage and in film, a visible lack of Asian or Asian-American representation continues to exist in both media. When Asian or Asian-American actors are given roles, they usually maintain the same stereotypical ideology that has been dominant for decades. But more often the presence of minority characters are “whitewashed” out of the cast entirely, a trend that has risen out of an apparent desire to replace the deemed more offensive “yellowface”. Whether “whitewashing”, however, is indeed better and less offensive than “yellowface” is still questionable. Although arguments in defense of “whitewashing” rationalize its existence and deny it being a discriminatory practice, it has the potential to be even more damaging than “yellowface” in terms of perpetuating stereotypical representation of Asian or Asian-Americans as well as depriving minority actors of valuable opportunity.
“Whitewashing” differs from earlier practices like “yellowface” in which white actors assume the roles of pose as Asians using makeup, prosthetics, etc. As Robert Lee describes in his book on Asian American presence in popular culture:
[“Yellowface”] marks the Asian body as unmistakably Oriental; it sharply defines the Oriental in a racial opposition to whiteness… [it] exaggerates ‘racial’ features that have been designated as ‘Oriental,’ such as ‘slanted’ eyes, overbite, and mustard-yellow skin color…[“yellowface”] marks the Oriental as indelibly alien. (2)
Lee however makes the distinction that what is being “racialized” is not “actual Asians”, but a distorted view of “Oriental” that prevented or discouraged Asian actors from representing themselves “honestly”. Swedish American film actor Warner Oland, for example, when preparing to perform his role as Calvin Chan, was reported to have a “few drinks to make his speech more halting and to put a grin on his face” (Corrigan). Despite this, Calvin Chan was lauded in Shanghai for being Hollywood’s first Chinese protagonist. And yet when the Chinese film industry set about making their own series of Calvin Chan films, rather than revise Oland’s depiction of the Chinese detective to make him more “authentic”, Chinese actors playing Chan took pains to scrupulously copy the exact set of (“yellowface”) mannerisms and speech patterns that Oland had presented. Thus white actors appearing in “yellowface” were presenting an image of Asian-ness so distorted that actual Asian actors were being seen as inauthentic.
Panda Samurai 