Examples of yellowface
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Starring_Mickey_Rooney.jpg/200px-Starring_Mickey_Rooney.jpg)
Examples of yellowface mainly include the portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater, though this can also encompass other Western media. It used to be the norm in Hollywood that East Asian characters were played by white actors, often using makeup to approximate East Asian facial characteristics, a practice known as yellowface.
American media portrayals of East Asians have reflected a dominant Americentric perception rather than realistic and authentic depictions of true cultures, customs and behaviors.[1] Yellowface relies on stereotypes of East Asians in the United States.
Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, and Madame Butterfly
- Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan were the most common East Asian characters in film and television of the mid-20th century, and they were almost always played by white actors in yellowface, although Asian actors did portray the Chan character in three silent film productions.[2] (Swedish actor Warner Oland, the first Charlie Chan in sound films, did not use yellowface. He was considered to look Asian, and was typecast in such roles from early in his career.) An updated film version of Charlie Chan was planned in the 1990s by Miramax; this new Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and ... a martial-arts master",[3] but the film did not come to fruition.[3]
- Madame Butterfly, an opera about a Japanese woman who falls in love with an American sailor who leaves her, and when he returns with an American wife, the devastated Cio-Cio San commits suicide. This immensely popular opera is often performed with a non-East Asian singer playing the role of Cio-Cio San.
Before the Civil Rights Movement
Year | Title | Actor(s) and Role(s) | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1915 | Madame Butterfly | Mary Pickford as Cio-Cio San | Sidney Olcott |
|
1918 | The Forbidden City | Norma Talmadge as San San Toy E. Alyn Warren as Wong Li Michael Rayle as The Mandarin L. Rogers Lytton as Chinese Emperor | Sidney Franklin | |
1919 | Broken Blossoms | Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan | D.W. Griffith | |
1919 | Mr. Wu | Matheson Lang as Mr. Wu Meggie Albanesi as Nang Ping | Maurice Elvey |
|
1922 | The Vermilion Pencil | Ann May as Tse Chan's wife Bessie Love as Hyacinth Sidney Franklin as Fu Wong | Norman Dawn |
|
1923 | The Purple Dawn | Bessie Love as Mui Far Edward Peil Sr. as Wong Chong, the Tong leader | Charles R. Seeling | |
1927 | Mr. Wu | Lon Chaney as Mr. Wu Renée Adorée as Wu Nang Ping | William Nigh |
|
1928 | Spione (Spies) | Lupu Pick as Doctor Akira Masimoto | Fritz Lang |
|
1928 | The Crimson City | Myrna Loy as Onoto | Archie Mayo | |
1929 | The Black Watch | Myrna Loy as Yasmani | John Ford | |
1931–1949 | Charlie Chan film series | Warner Oland as Charlie Chan |
| |
1932 | The Hatchet Man | Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young | William A. Wellman |
|
1932 | Frisco Jenny | Helen Jerome Eddy | William A. Wellman |
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1932 | The Mask of Fu Manchu | Myrna Loy as Fah Lo See | Charles Brabin Charles Vidor | |
1932 | Thirteen Women | Myrna Loy | George Archainbaud |
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1933 | The Bitter Tea of General Yen | Nils Asther | Frank Capra |
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1934 | The Mysterious Mr. Wong | Bela Lugosi | William Nigh |
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1936 | Broken Blossoms | Emlyn Williams as Cheng Huan | John Brahm |
|
1937 | The Good Earth | Paul Muni as Wang Lung Luise Rainer as O-Lan All of the Lead Roles | Sidney Franklin |
|
1937 | Lost Horizon | H.B. Warner | Frank Capra |
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1937–1939 | Mr. Moto film series | Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto film series |
| |
1938 | Shadows Over Shanghai | Paul Sutton | Charles Lamont |
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1939 | Island of Lost Men | Anthony Quinn | Kurt Neumann |
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1939 | The Mystery of Mr. Wong | Boris Karloff | William Nigh |
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1940 | The Letter | Gale Sondergaard | William Wyler |
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1942 | Little Tokyo, U.S.A. | Harold Huber as Takimura, American-born spy for Tokyo, June Duprez as Teru | Otto Brower |
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1943 | Batman | J. Carrol Naish | Lambert Hillyer |
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1944 | Dragon Seed | Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon, Turhan Bey, Agnes Moorehead, J. Carrol Naish, and Hurd Hatfield | Harold S. Bucquet and Jack Conway |
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1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, and Gale Sondergaard | John Cromwell |
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1946 | Ziegfeld Follies | Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer | Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Vincente Minnelli, Merrill Pye, George Sidney, Charles Walters |
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1955 | Blood Alley | Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix, and Mike Mazurki | William A. Wellman |
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1955 | Love is a Many Splendored Thing | Jennifer Jones | Henry King |
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1956 | The Conqueror | John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, and others | Dick Powell |
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1956 | The King and I | Yul Brynner and Rita Moreno | Walter Lang |
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1956 | The Teahouse of the August Moon | Marlon Brando | Daniel Mann |
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1957 | Sayonara | Ricardo Montalbán as Nakamura | Joshua Logan |
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1958 | The Quiet American (1958 version) | Giorgia Moll as Phuong | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
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1958 | The Inn of the Sixth Happiness | Curd Jürgens and Robert Donat | Mark Robson |
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1961 | Breakfast at Tiffany's | Mickey Rooney | Blake Edwards |
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1961 | The Devil's Daffodil | Christopher Lee as Ling Chu | Ákos Ráthonyi | |
1961 | The Terror of the Tongs | Christopher Lee as Chung King and others | Anthony Bushell | |
1961 | Flower Drum Song | Juanita Hall | Henry Koster |
|
1962 | The Manchurian Candidate | Henry Silva | John Frankenheimer | |
1962 | A Majority of One | Alec Guinness | Mervyn LeRoy | |
1962 | Dr. No | Joseph Wiseman, Zena Marshall, Marguerite LeWars | Terence Young |
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1962 | God's Chessboard | Dorothy Dandridge and others | Christian-Jacque |
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1963 | 55 Days at Peking | Flora Robson | Nicholas Ray | |
1963 | Have Gun - Will Travel | Bethel Leslie, William Schallert | Richard Boone |
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1964 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao | Tony Randall | George Pal | |
1965 | Pierrot le fou | Anna Karina | Jean-Luc Godard |
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1965 | Genghis Khan | Robert Morley, James Mason and others | Henry Levin | |
1965 | Marco the Magnificent | Anthony Quinn, Robert Hossein and others | Denys de La Patellière, Noël Howard |
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1965 | Gilligan's Island | Vito Scotti |
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1965 | Get Smart | Leonard Strong and Joey Forman |
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1965 | The Return of Mr. Moto | Henry Silva | Ernest Morris |
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1966 | 7 Women | Woody Strode and Mike Mazurki | John Ford | |
1967 | The Time Tunnel | Arthur Batanides, Vitina Marcus, and others | Sobey Martin |
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1968 | Bewitched | Richard Haydn | R. Robert Rosenbaum |
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1968-69 | Hawaii Five-O | Ricardo Montalban, Mark Lenard | Alvin Ganzer, Nicholas Colasanto |
|
After the Civil Rights Movement
Note: This is also after the anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in the United States of America that prevented East Asian actors from playing opposite white actors as love interests.
Year | Title | Actor(s) and Role(s) | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go | James Mason as Y.Y. Go | Burgess Meredith | |
1972 | The Paul Lynde Show | Ray Walston as Mr. Temura | George Tyne |
|
1972–1975 | Kung Fu | David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine |
| |
1973 | Lost Horizon | John Gielgud as Chang Charles Boyer as The High Lama | Charles Jarrott | |
1974 | Arabian Nights | Salvatore Sapienza as Prince Yunan | Pier Paolo Pasolini |
|
1975 | One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing | Peter Ustinov and others | Robert Stevenson | |
1975 | The White, the Yellow, and the Black | Tomas Milian as Sakura ("The Yellow") | Sergio Corbucci | |
1975 | Vivát, Benyovszky! | Ferenc Zenthe and others | Igor Ciel |
|
1976 | Murder by Death | Peter Sellers | Robert Moore |
|
1977 | Doctor Who | John Bennett as Li H'sen Chang[26] | David Maloney | Serial: The Talons of Weng-Chiang |
1980 | The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu | Peter Sellers | Piers Haggard Peter Sellers Richard Quine |
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1980 | Flash Gordon | Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming | Mike Hodges |
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1981 | Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen | Peter Ustinov as Charlie Chan |
| |
1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Malcolm Weaver as "The Ratty Nepalese" | Steven Spielberg | Malcolm Weaver plays a Nepalese man at 36:56 in. |
1982 | Conan the Barbarian | Gerry Lopez as Subotai | John Milius |
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1982 | The Year of Living Dangerously | Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan | Peter Weir |
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1983 | Reilly, Ace of Spies | David Suchet as Inspector Tsientsin | Martin Campbell |
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1983 | Go for It | Jeff Moldovan as "Charlie Chan" | Enzo Barboni |
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1983 | Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre | Mick Jagger as the Chinese Emperor, Barbara Hershey as the Maid, Edward James Olmos as the Prime Minister, and others | Ivan Passer |
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1984 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai | Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai | W.D. Richter |
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1985 | Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins | Joel Grey as Chiun | Guy Hamilton |
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1986 | Short Circuit | Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya | John Badham |
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1988 | Short Circuit 2 | Fisher Stevens as Ben Jahveri | Kenneth Johnson |
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1991 | Twin Peaks | Piper Laurie as Mr Tojamura (a disguise worn by Catherine Martell) | Mark Frost, David Lynch |
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1994 | Sabotage | Adam Yauch | Spike Jonze |
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1996–1998 | Tracey Takes On... | Tracey Ullman as Mrs. Noh Nang Ning |
| |
1997 | The Pest | John Leguizamo | Paul Miller |
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1997–2002 | MADtv | Alex Borstein and Guest Star Role Susan Sarandon as Ms. Swan[30] | ||
1998 | Something Stupid | Magda Szubanski as Chu Yang Phat |
| |
1999-2002 | Ushi & Van Dijk | Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki | Dutch TV show in which Dutch actress Wendy van Dijk plays Ushi Hirosaki, a Japanese journalist. The show had local versions in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Hungary.[31][32][33] |
21st century
Year | Title | Actor(s) | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Micukó: A világ ferde szemmel | Judit Stahl as Micukó | Hungarian version of Ushi & Van Dijk. Canceled after Hungarian TV channel TV2 received protest letters from the Embassy of Japan in Budapest, claiming the program was discriminatory towards the Japanese people.[34][35] | |
2003 | Oumi | Mi Ridell as Oumi | Swedish version of Ushi & Van Dijk | |
2004 | Noriko Show | Outi Mäenpää as Noriko Saru | Finnish version of Ushi & Van Dijk | |
2005 | Little Britain | Matt Lucas as Ting Tong Macadangdang | Declan Lowney |
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2005 | We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year | Chris Lilley as Ricky Wong |
| |
2006 | Cloud 9 | Paul Rodriguez as Mr. Wong |
| |
2007 | Balls of Fury | Christopher Walken as Feng | Ben Garant |
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2007 | Norbit | Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong | Brian Robbins |
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2007 | Grindhouse | Nicolas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu | Rob Zombie |
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2007 | I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry | Rob Schneider as Morris Takechi | Dennis Dugan |
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2008 | My Name Is Bruce | Ted Raimi as Wing | Bruce Campbell | |
2009 | Crank: High Voltage | David Carradine as Poon Dong | Neveldine/Taylor |
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2009 | Chanel – Paris – Shanghai A Fantasy – The Short Movie | Freja Beha, Baptiste Giabiconi | Karl Lagerfeld |
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2009 | Hanger | Wade Gibb as Russell | Ryan Nicholson |
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2009 | Ushi & Dushi | Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki | Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk | |
2010–2011 | Come Fly with Me | David Walliams and Matt Lucas as Asuka and Nanako | Paul King |
|
2010 | Ushi & Loesie | Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki | Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk | |
2011-2012 | Ushi & The Family | Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki | Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk | |
2011 | Angry Boys | Chris Lilley as Jen Okazaki |
| |
2012 | Cloud Atlas | Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, James D'Arcy, and Keith David | Lana and Lilly Wachowski |
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2012 | Wrong | William Fichtner as Master Chang | ||
2013 | Ushi Must Marry | Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki | Paul Ruven |
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2013 | The Walking Dead: A Hardcore Parody | Danny Wylde as Glenn Rhee | Danny Wylde |
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2014 | Baby Geniuses and the Treasures of Egypt | Jon Voight as Moriarty | Sean McNamara | |
2014 | How I Met Your Mother | Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor |
| |
2015 | Aloha | Emma Stone as Alison Ng | Cameron Crowe | |
2016 | Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie | Janette Tough as Huki Muki | Mandie Fletcher | |
2017 | Ghost in the Shell | Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi | Rupert Sanders | The film was criticized in the United States for casting Johansson (who is not of Japanese descent) as Motoko Kusanagi. However, some fans in Japan pointed out that Motoko Kusanagi has an artificial (cyborg) body, and thus, does not have to be ethnically Japanese.[43] Michael Pitt also plays the villain Hideo Kuze, a role that is ethnically Japanese in the source material. |
Yellowface worn by a character in a film
In some films, white characters, played by white actors, have played East Asians, often as a disguise.
Year | Title | Actor(s) | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1945 | First Yank into Tokyo | Gordon Douglas | Tom Neal |
|
1961 | The Twilight Zone | Dean Stockwell | Buzz Kulik |
|
1962 | My Geisha | Shirley MacLaine | Jack Cardiff | |
1965 | Gendarme in New York | Louis de Funès and Geneviève Grad | Jean Girault |
|
1967 | You Only Live Twice | Sean Connery | Lewis Gilbert |
|
1978 | Revenge of the Pink Panther | Peter Sellers | Blake Edwards |
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1981 | Hardly Working | Jerry Lewis | Jerry Lewis | |
1987 | Snow White | Diana Rigg | Michael Berz |
|
1999 | Galaxy Quest | Tony Shalhoub | Dean Parisot |
|
2001 | Vidocq | Inés Sastre | Pitof |
|
2008 | Be Kind Rewind | Jack Black | Michel Gondry |
|
2008 | Tropic Thunder | Robert Downey Jr. | Ben Stiller |
|
2011 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | Robert Downey Jr. | Guy Ritchie |
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2014 | Magic in the Moonlight | Colin Firth as Wei Ling Soo | Woody Allen |
|
Books about yellowface
- Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era (2022) by Esther Kim [45] - provides history and examples of yellowface
See also
- Chung Ling Soo, stage name of white American magician William Ellsworth Robinson
- Ghost Bath, an American black metal band who claimed to be from Chongqing, China.
- Michael Derrick Hudson, a white American poet who was accused of "yellowface" for employing a Chinese female pseudonym
- Portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater
- Racebending
- Yellowface (novel)
- Whitewashing in film
References
- ^ Kashiwabara, Amy, Vanishing Son: The Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation of the Asian-American Man in American Mainstream Media, UC Berkeley Media Resources Center, archived from the original on September 22, 2018
- ^ "Charlie Chan".
- ^ a b c Sengupta, Somini (January 5, 1997). "Charlie Chan, Retooled for the '90s". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2009.
- ^ "The Hatchet Man". Tcm.com. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "Frisco Jenny". Tcm.com. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ Basinger, Jeanine (June 16, 2008). "Few female ensemble films". Variety.
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (January 12, 1933). "Radio City Music Hall Shows a Melodrama of China as Its First Pictorial Attraction". The New York Times.
- ^ "Lost Horizon (1937)". Tcm.com. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "The Letter". Variety. December 31, 1939. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "Selective Filmography". Archived from the original on July 21, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
- ^ Hal Erickson (2012). "Movies: About Little Tokyo, USA". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012.
- ^ "At the Palace". The New York Times. August 7, 1942. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (July 10, 2005). "'Lion of Hollywood': Mogul of Make-Believe". The New York Times.
- ^ "NY Times: Anna and the King of Siam". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2010. Archived from the original on March 22, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
- ^ "Blood Alley". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ W, A. (October 6, 1955). "In Formosa Strait". The New York Times.
- ^ "Blood Alley (1955) – Releases". AllMovie. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on January 15, 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2008.
- ^ "Yul Brynner". Biography. December 2, 2021.
- ^ Robert B. Ito. "Bright Lights Film Journal :: "A Certain Slant": A Brief History of Hollywood Yellowface". Brightlightsfilm.com. Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ Durant, Yvonne (June 18, 2006). "Where Holly Hung Her Ever-So-Stylish Hat". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (July 20, 2007). "Dude (Nyuck-Nyuck), I Love You (as If!)". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
- ^ Bell, Robert (January 12, 2009). "DVD Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's – Centennial Collection". The Trades. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
- ^ "'Flower Drum Song' Among 25 Films Inducted Into Registry – BWWMoviesWorld". Broadwayworld.com. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "The Paul Lynde Show | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
- ^ Deen, Sarah (March 9, 2020). "BritBox adds warning to Doctor Who episode with slurs and 'yellowface' amid racism row". Metro. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
- ^ Chan, Jachinson (2001). Chinese American Masculinities: from Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee. Taylor & Francis. p. 58. ISBN 0-8153-4029-X.
- ^ Pitts, Michael R. (1991). Famous Movie Detectives II. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 301. ISBN 0-8108-2345-4.
- ^ Worrell, Denise; Clarke, Gerald (April 23, 1984). "The Night off the Great Prom". Time. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
- ^ Harris, Aisha (July 28, 2016). "The New MadTV Is Not Nearly as Offensive as the Original. Or as Interesting". Slate.
- ^ "Japánok a Micukó azonnali letiltásáért". index.hu (in Hungarian). May 20, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
- ^ ""Det är ingen som känner igen mig"". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). May 29, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
- ^ "Hon rasar mot skämtshowen". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). September 7, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
- ^ "A Micuko műsor japán szemmel". Magyar Nemzet (in Hungarian). April 25, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
- ^ "A japánok tiltakoznak a Micuko miatt". index.hu (in Hungarian). April 19, 2003. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
- ^ "Gold Derby". Los Angeles Times. February 27, 2009.
- ^ "Review of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"". afterelton.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2007.
- ^ "Karl Lagerfeld Talks Shanghai and Fashion – WWD Fashion Features". WWD.com. December 3, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ "Karl Lagerfeld Opened His Pre-Fall Show in Shanghai With a Film That Included Yellow Face – The Cut". New York. December 4, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
- ^ Kang, Peter (January 30, 2013). "Walking Dead Porn Parody Actor's Interesting Makeup". iamkoream.com. KoreAm. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
- ^ Morrissey, Tracie (January 31, 2013). "Walking Dead Porn Parody Relies on Yellowface". jezebel.com. Jezebel. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
- ^ Botelho, Greg (January 16, 2014). "Asian-Americans up in arms over 'How I Met Your Mother' episode". CNN. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
- ^ "Scarlett Johansson in 'Ghost in the Shell': Japanese Industry, Fans Surprised by "Whitewashing" Outrage". The Hollywood Reporter. April 19, 2016.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (February 22, 2008). "Be Kind Rewind". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
- ^ Lee, Esther Kim (July 11, 2022). Made-Up Asians. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-07543-0.