 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(October 2012) |
| Yellow Face | |
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| Directed by | Han Tang |
| Produced by | Han Tang |
Release date |
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Running time | 45 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Yellow Face [1] is a 2010 independent documentary film directed by Han Tang about the big-budget feature film The Last Airbender and its use of Yellowface and casting of white actors in the Asian inspired lead roles of the film and the controversy that surrounds that issue.
Yellow Face is one Chinese actress' journey to discover what it means to be "Asian" in America. The filmmaker is the first Chinese National to be accepted into the Juilliard School's Drama Division. Since her graduation in 2008 she has followed the protest against 'Yellow Face' in Hollywood. Avatar: The Last Airbender, a children's show on Nickelodeon, featured Asian and Inuit characters in a fantasy setting. The creators of the show were inspired and informed by Asian and Inuit culture. The live action feature 'The Last Airbender' produced by Paramount cast all three leads white, and filled background roles and non-speaking extras with Asian, Hispanic and Middle Eastern nationalities. Although the 'Yellow Face' casting outraged many fans, others remain at peace with it. The filmmaker raises these questions: Is Whitewashing Racist? Why does 'Yellow Face' still exist in 2009? And this idea of what's 'Asian' in America today, is it racist? And what is the societal impact on future generations?
The film starts out discussing and exploring the history of Yellow Face in the American media and its relation to Blackface and media perceptions of Asians in America today.
Throughout the film explores the issue of whitewashing of Asian Americans throughout the American media as well as other minority races in American society leading to the accumulation of Hollywood's modern day use of Yellow Face and thus its use in the film The Last Airbender . Other than exploring the controversy of the use of Yellow Face in The Last Airbender and its casting of white actors in the films Lead roles the film also interviews various individuals, discuss, and explore various Asian American issues. Such issues that arise in the film are as follows: Restriction of Minority actors as a form of Job Protection for White actors and its relation to Asian actors in America, the Marginalization of Asian American history in the American education system, internment of Japanese Americans, the rejection of World War II Filipino veterans benefits and their denial of U.S. citizenship, internalization of racism and its impact on Asian American children as well as other minority races due to the emphasis and the subliminal messaging of white superiority in the American media, the questioning of who and what is the American family and its exclusion of Asian Americans, the consequences of the belief of a post-racial society, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the perpetual foreigner stereotype of Asians in America, the consequences of the Model Minority stereotype and its creation in the 1960s during the social climate of the Civil Rights Movement.
The film ends with a slide show of showcasing various pictures of famous actors who have performed in Yellowface in films throughout Early Hollywood all the way until recently with The Last Airbender and afterwards it shows upcoming big-budget Hollywood films that will and or might be using Yellowface in their productions.
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Dante Roman Basco is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's Hook, and for voicing the titular protagonist of American Dragon: Jake Long and Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States are ethnic stereotypes found in American society about first-generation immigrants and their American-born descendants and citizenry with East Asian ancestry or whose family members who recently emigrated to the United States from East Asia, as well as members of the Chinese diaspora whose family members emigrated from Southeast Asian countries. Stereotypes of East Asians, analogous to other ethnic and racial stereotypes, are often erroneously misunderstood and negatively portrayed in American mainstream media, cinema, music, television, literature, video games, internet, as well as in other forms of creative expression in American culture and society. Many of these commonly generalized stereotypes are largely correlative to those that are also found in other Anglosphere countries, such as in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as entertainment and mass media are often closely interlinked between them.
Portrayals of East Asians in American film and theatre has been a subject of controversy. These portrayals have frequently reflected an ethnocentric perception of East Asians rather than realistic and authentic depictions of East Asian cultures, colors, customs, and behaviors.
Asian Americans have been involved in the entertainment industry since the first half of the 19th century, when Chang and Eng Bunker became naturalized citizens. Acting roles in television, film, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters. Early Asian American actors such as Sessue Hayakawa, Anna May Wong, and Bruce Lee encountered a movie-making culture and industry that wanted to cast them as caricatures. Some, like actress Merle Oberon, hid their ethnicity to avoid discrimination by Hollywood's racist laws.
Asian American theatre is theatre written, directed or acted by Asian Americans. From initial efforts by four theatre companies in the 1960s, Asian-American theatre has grown to around forty groups today. Early productions often had Asian themes or settings; "yellowface" was a common medium for displaying the perceived exoticism of the East in American performance. With the growing establishment of second-generation Asian-Americans in the 21st century, it is becoming more common today to see Asian-Americans in roles that defy historical stereotypes in the United States.
The Last Airbender is a 2010 American action adventure fantasy film written, co-produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on Book One: Water, the first season of the 2005–08 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The film stars Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, and Cliff Curtis. The plot follows Aang, a young Avatar who must master all four elements of air, water, fire, and earth and restore balance to the world while stopping the Fire Nation from conquering the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom.
The portrayal of Native Americans in television and films concerns indigenous roles in cinema, particularly their depiction in Hollywood productions. Especially in the Western genre, Native American stock characters can reflect contemporary and historical perceptions of Native Americans and the Wild West.
Racism in early American film is the negative depiction of racial groups, racial stereotypes, and racist ideals in classical Hollywood cinema from the 1910s to the 1960s.
I. Y. Yunioshi is a fictional character in Blake Edwards's 1961 American romantic comedy film Breakfast at Tiffany's, which George Axelrod adapted for the movie based on the 1958 novella of the same title by Truman Capote. The character in the film is significantly different from the character as presented in Capote's original novella, and the film version of Mr. Yunioshi, as portrayed by Mickey Rooney, has been the subject of extensive critical commentary and review since its theatrical release due to its use of ethnic stereotypes.
The presence of African Americans in major motion picture roles has stirred controversy and been limited dating back decades due to lingering racism following slavery and segregation. "Through most of the 20th century, images of African-Americans in advertising were mainly limited to servants like the pancake-mammy Aunt Jemima and Rastus, the chef on the Cream of Wheat box." While African American representation in the film industry has improved over the years, it has not been a linear process; "Race in American cinema has rarely been a matter of simple step-by-step progress. It has more often proceeded in fits and starts, with backlashes coming on the heels of breakthroughs, and periods of intense argument followed by uncomfortable silence."
Whitewashing in beauty is a phenomenon in the intersection of the fashion industry, digital photography, mass media, marketing and advertising. It describes a situation in which the skin tone of non-white people – when depicted in magazine covers, advertisements, commercials, music videos, etc. – is digitally retouched or physically modified to appear whiter. Whitewashing can also present itself in the alteration of hair texture to resemble Eurocentric beauty ideals of straight hairPassage(s) to be sourced. Whitewashing can be seen in the form of skin whitening, either digitally or with harmful skin bleaching products, or by chemically relaxing textured hair to make it conform to Eurocentric beauty standardsPassage(s) to be sourced. Additionally, plastic surgery can be used to alter features to make them appear more European, such as double eyelid surgery.
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.
Racebending was coined as a term of protest in 2009 as a response to the casting decisions for the live-action film adaptation of the television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The starring roles of the show were coded as being of East Asian (Aang) and Inuit descent, but were played by actors of European descent in the film. The initial protests such as "Saving the World with Postage," were created in a LiveJournal online forum that initially responded to the casting decisions by "inundating Paramount with protest mail." However, the cast went unaltered and when production began, the leaders of this protest responded by founding the advocacy group and accompanying website Racebending by "playfully borrowing the concept of manipulating elements (bending) from the Avatar universe."
Racial stereotyping in advertising refers to using assumptions about people based on characteristics thought to be typical of their identifying racial group in marketing.
Whitewashing is a casting practice in the film industry in which white actors are cast in non-white roles. As defined by Merriam-Webster, to whitewash is "to alter...in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as...casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character." According to the BBC, films in which white actors have played other races include all genres. African-American roles and roles of Asian descent have been whitewashed, as well as characters from the ancient world in the genre of classical and mythological films.
Depictions of race in horror films has been the subject of commentary. Critics have discussed the representation of race in horror films in relation to the presence of racist ideas, stereotypes and tropes within them. The horror genre has conversely also been used to explore social issues including race, particularly following popularization of social thrillers in the 2010s.
Brownface is a social phenomenon in which a white or light-skinned person attempts to portray themselves as a "brown" person of color, but less overtly and with a lighter complexion than traditional blackface. This may include mimicry of North African, West Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Melanesian, Micronesian, Polynesian, Hispanic/Latino, Native American or other Indigenous groups, including olive-skinned Caucasians such as Southern Italians, Sicilians, Greeks, Arabs, Persians and/or ethnic identity by using makeup, hair-dye, and/or by wearing traditional ethnic clothing. It is typically defined as a racist phenomenon, similar to blackface.
