Portrayals of East Asians in American film and theatre has been a subject of controversy. These portrayals have frequently reflected an
ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...
perception of East Asians rather than realistic and authentic depictions of East Asian cultures, colors, customs, and behaviors.
Yellowface, a form of
theatrical makeup
Theatrical makeup is makeup that is used to assist in creating the appearance of the characters that actors portray during a theater production.
Background
In Greek and Roman theatre, makeup was unnecessary. Actors wore various masks, allowing ...
used by
European-American
European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...
performers to represent an
East Asian person (similar to the practice of
blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person.
In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
used to represent
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
characters),
continues to be used in film and theater.
In the 21st century alone, ''
Grindhouse
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film ...
'' (in a trailer parody of the
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic ...
serials), ''
Balls of Fury
''Balls of Fury'' is a 2007 American sports comedy
A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete ( ...
'', ''
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
''I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry'' (also simply known as ''Chuck & Larry'') is a 2007 American buddy comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan. It stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James as the title characters Chuck and Larry, respectively, two New Yo ...
'', ''
Crank: High Voltage'', and ''
Cloud Atlas
A cloud atlas is a pictorial key (or an atlas) to the nomenclature of clouds. Early cloud atlases were an important element in the training of meteorologists and in weather forecasting, and the author of a 1923 atlas stated that "increasing use ...
'' all feature yellowface or non-East Asian actors as East Asian
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
s.
Early East Asian American film actors
Sessue Hayakawa
The Japanese actor
Sessue Hayakawa
, known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man i ...
began appearing in films around 1914.
[www.goldsea.com](_blank)
''Sessue Hayakawa: The Legend'' Signed to
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, he had roles in more than 20 silent films including ''The Wrath of the Gods'' (1914) and ''The Typhoon'' (1914), and was considered to be a Hollywood
sex symbol
A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...
.
When Hayakawa's contract with Paramount expired in 1918, the studio still wanted him to star in an upcoming movie, but Hayakawa turned them down in favor of starting his own company.
He was at the height of his popularity during that time.
His career in the United States suffered a bit due to the advent of talkies, as he had a heavy
Japanese accent. He became unemployable during the World War II era due to
anti-Japanese prejudice. He experienced a career revival beginning in 1949 in World War II-themed films, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''
The Bridge on the River Kwai
''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, the pl ...
''.
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
, considered by many to be the first Chinese-American movie star,
[Chan, Anthony B. Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (1905–1961). Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003. p. xi, p. 42.] was acting by the age of 14 and in 1922, at age 17, she became the first Chinese-American to break Hollywood's miscegenation rule playing opposite a white romantic lead in ''
The Toll of the Sea
''The Toll of the Sea'' is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Chester M. Franklin, produced by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, released by Metro Pictures, and featuring Anna May Wong in her first leading role. The film w ...
''. Even though she was internationally known by 1924, her film roles were limited by stereotype and prejudice. Tired of being both typecast and passed over for lead East Asian character roles in favor of European-American actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe.
Interviewed by Doris Mackie for ''Film Weekly'' in 1933, Wong complained about her Hollywood roles: "I was so tired of the parts I had to play."
[Leong, Karen J. The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005. . pp. 83, 187.][Wollstein, Hans J. "Anna May Wong." Vixens, Floozies, and Molls: 28 Actresses of late 1920s and 1930s Hollywood. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. . p. 252.] She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles."
[Parish, James and William Leonard. "Anna May Wong." Hollywood Players: The Thirties. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1976, pp. 532–538. .] In 1935, she was considered for the leading role in ''
The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) ...
'', which went to German actress
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer ( , ; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her ...
. Wong refused the role of the villainess, a stereotypical Oriental
Dragon Lady
Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna Ma ...
.
Keye Luke
Keye Luke
Keye Luke (, Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Cant ...
was a successful actor, starring as the "Number-One Son" Lee Chan in the popular
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
films, as well as the original
Kato in the 1940s
Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media ...
, and Detective James Lee Wong in ''
Phantom of Chinatown
''Phantom of Chinatown'' is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Phil Rosen starring Keye Luke. This is the last of the Mr. Wong films and the only one to star Luke in the role originated by Boris Karloff.
Plot
After participating in an ext ...
'' (1940), a role previously played by the English actor
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
.
Philip Ahn
Korean-American actor
Philip Ahn
Philip Ahn (born Pillip Ahn (), March 29, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was an American actor and activist of Korean descent. With over 180 film and television credits between 1935 and 1978, he was one of the most recognizable and prolific Asi ...
, after rejection for speaking English too well, braved death threats after playing Japanese villains. Ahn would go on to have a prolific career.
Some East and South Asian-American actors nonetheless attempted to start careers.
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...
, an
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
, was able to get starring roles after concocting a phony story about her origins and using skin whitening make-up. There were others pioneering East Asian-American actors like
Benson Fong
Benson Fong (Chinese: ; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor.
Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied ...
(who played the Number Three son in the
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
films),
Victor Sen Yung
Sen Yung, later known professionally as Victor Sen Young (born Sen Yew Cheung; October 18, 1914 – c. November 9, 1980); one source lists his given name as Victor Cheung Young with the birth year 1915)) was an American character actor, best kn ...
(who played the Number Two son in the
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
films),
Richard Loo
Richard Loo (October 1, 1903 – November 20, 1983) was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982.
Early lif ...
(who also played many Japanese villain roles),
Lotus Long
Lotus may refer to:
Plants
*Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly:
** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae
**Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...
(known for her role as Lin Wen opposite
Keye Luke
Keye Luke (, Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Cant ...
in the ''
Phantom of Chinatown
''Phantom of Chinatown'' is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Phil Rosen starring Keye Luke. This is the last of the Mr. Wong films and the only one to star Luke in the role originated by Boris Karloff.
Plot
After participating in an ext ...
''), Suzanna Kim,
Barbara Jean Wong
Barbara Jean Wong (March 3, 1924 – November 13, 1999) was an American actress, primarily on the radio.
Early life and career
Wong was a fourth-generation Chinese-American born in Los Angeles, California, to produce market owners Thomas and Ma ...
,
Fely Franquelli
Fely Franquelli (November 11, 1916 – January 8, 2002) was a Filipino dancer, choreographer, and actress. Franquelli became known in the international dance scene in the 1930s.
Early life and career
Franquelli, who was of Filipino, Spanish and ...
,
Chester Gan
Chester Gan (1908-1959) was an American character actor of Chinese descent who worked in Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Biography
Chester Gan was born in Grass Valley, California, to Wing Hong Gan and Wong Shee. He went to China ...
, Honorable Wu,
Kam Tong
Kam Tong (December 18, 1906 – November 8, 1969) was a Chinese-American actor. He was best known for his role as Hey Boy on the CBS television series '' Have Gun, Will Travel'' and as Dr. Li in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein mu ...
,
Layne Tom Jr.
Layne Tom Jr. (born Richard Layne Tom, Jr.) (June 19, 1927 – January 14, 2015) was an American actor.
Career
He holds the distinction of having played three different Charlie Chan sons: as Charlie Chan Jr. in ''Charlie Chan at the Olympi ...
, Maurice Liu,
Rudy Robles
Rudy Robles (born Pastor Lluviosa Robles, 29 April 1910 – 11 August 1970) was a Filipino film and television actor. He was one of the first Filipino actors to appear in Hollywood movies.
Career
Robles was born in Tacloban, in the Eastern ...
,
Teru Shimada
Teru Shimada (島田輝 ''Shimada Teru'', born Akira Shimada (島田明 ''Shimada Akira''); November 17, 1905 – June 19, 1988) was a Japanese-American actor.
A '' Nikkeijin'' (first-generation Japanese-American), Shimada emigrated to the Unit ...
,
Willie Fung
Willie Fung (3 March 1896 – 16 April 1945) was a Chinese-American film actor who played supporting roles in 125 American films between 1922 and 1944. Like many Chinese actors working in Hollywood during the era, he often played Japanese charac ...
,
Toshia Mori
Toshia Mori (としあ もり) was a Japanese actress who had a brief career in American films during the late 1920s and 1930s. Born as Toshiye Ichioka (としえ いちおか) in Kyoto, Mori moved to the United States when she was 10.
Early lif ...
and Wing Foo, who all began their film careers in the 1930s and '40s.
With the number of East Asian-American actors available, author Robert B. Ito wrote an article that described that job protection for Caucasian actors was one reason Asians were portrayed by Caucasians. "With the relatively small percentage of actors that support themselves by acting, it was only logical that they should try to limit the available talent pool as much as possible. One way of doing this was by placing restrictions on minority actors, which, in the case of Asian actors, meant that they could usually only get roles as houseboys, cooks, laundrymen, and crazed war enemies, with the rare "white hero's loyal sidekick" roles going to the big name actors. When the script called for a larger Asian role, it was almost inevitably given to a white actor."
Recent East Asian American film actors
The 2018 film ''
Crazy Rich Asians
''Crazy Rich Asians'' is a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to "introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience". He claimed the novel was loosely based on his ...
'' starred
Constance Wu
Constance Wu (born March 22, 1982) is an American actress. Wu was included on ''Time'' magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She has earned several accolades, including nominations for a Golden Globe Award, fo ...
,
Henry Golding
Henry Ewan Golding (born 5 February 1987) is a Malaysian-British actor and television host. Golding has been a presenter on BBC's ''The Travel Show'' since 2014. He is known for his film work, playing the role of Nick Young in ''Crazy Rich Asia ...
,
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...
,
Gemma Chan
Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is an English actress. Born and raised in London, Chan attended the Newstead Wood School for Girls and studied law at Worcester College, Oxford before choosing to pursue a career in acting instead, enrolling at t ...
,
Lisa Lu
Lisa Lu Yan (; born January 19, 1927) is a Chinese actress. She won the Golden Horse Awards three times in the 1970s. She is the only person who is a member of both the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts ...
,
Awkwafina
Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and comedian who rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, ''Yellow Ran ...
,
Harry Shum Jr.
Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and singer. He is best known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series ''Glee'' (2009–15), Benson Kwan on the ABC television series ''Grey's Anato ...
,
Ken Jeong
Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong (, ; born July 13, 1969) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, producer, writer and licensed physician. He rose to prominence for playing Leslie Chow in ''The Hangover'' film series (2009–2013) and Ben Chang in the ...
,
Sonoya Mizuno
Sonoya Mizuno (born 1 July 1986) is a Japanese-British actress, model, and ballet dancer.
She notably starred in the miniseries '' Maniac'' and the '' Game of Thrones'' prequel series ''House of the Dragon'', and appeared in all the works direc ...
,
Chris Pang
Christopher Pang (born 29 December 1984) is an Australian actor and producer. He is best known for his role as Colin Khoo in ''Crazy Rich Asians'' (2018) and Lee Takkam in '' Tomorrow, When the War Began'' (2010).
Early life
Pang was born in ...
,
Jimmy O. Yang,
Ronny Chieng
Ronny Xin Yi Chieng (; born 21 November 1985) is a Malaysian comedian and actor. He is currently a senior correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' and the creator and star of the ABC Australia sitcom '' Ronny Chieng: International St ...
,
Remy Hii
Remy Hii (born 24 July 1986) is a Malaysian-Australian actor. Hii attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art for three years, and appeared in various theatre productions, before being cast in his first television role. Hii starred as Van Tuo ...
,
Nico Santos Nico Santos may refer to:
*Nico Santos (actor) (born 1979), American actor
*Nico Santos (singer) (born 1993), German-Spanish singer, songwriter, producer
*Niccolo "Nico" Santos, a character in the Philippine romantic fantasy drama television series ...
,
Jing Lusi
Jing Lusi (Chinese: 陆思敬; born 16 May 1985) is a British actress. She is best known for her roles in ''Stan Lee's Lucky Man'', the 2018 hit film '' ''Crazy Rich Asians' and BAFTA nominated series '' ''Gangs of London'. On stage, Lus ...
and
Carmen Soo
Soo Wai Ming (; born 14 October 1977), better known by her stage name Carmen Soo, is a Malaysian model and actress.
Life and career
Soo was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to a Chinese father and to a half-Chinese, half-British mot ...
, among others.
The 2022 film ''
Everything Everywhere All at Once
''Everything Everywhere All at Once'' is a 2022 American absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo. The plot centers on a ...
'' starred
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...
as main lead,
Stephanie Hsu
Stephanie Ann Hsu (born November 25, 1990) is an American actress. She originated the theatrical roles of Christine Canigula in '' Be More Chill'' and Karen the Computer in '' The SpongeBob Musical'', performing in the Broadway runs of both. On ...
,
Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan (born August 20, 1971), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan (), is a Vietnam-born American actor and stunt choreographer.
Quan played Short Round in ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) and Data in ''The Goonies'' (1985)''.' ...
,
Harry Shum Jr.
Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and singer. He is best known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series ''Glee'' (2009–15), Benson Kwan on the ABC television series ''Grey's Anato ...
, and
James Hong
James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 20 ...
as supporting actors.
European actors who have played East Asian roles
The Welsh American
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
was the "go-to girl" for any portrayal of Asian characters and was
typecast
In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...
in over a dozen films, while Chinese detective
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
, who was modeled after
Chang Apana
Chang Apana (December 26, 1871 – December 8, 1933; ) was a Chinese-Hawaiian member of the Honolulu Police Department, first as an officer, then as a detective. He was acknowledged by Earl Derr Biggers as the inspiration for his fictional Chinese ...
, a real-life Chinese Hawaiian detective, was portrayed by several European and European-American actors including
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American ...
,
Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his p ...
, and
Peter Ustinov
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...
. Loy also appeared in yellowface alongside
Nick Lucas
Dominic Nicholas Anthony Lucanese (August 22, 1897 – July 28, 1982), known professionally as Nick Lucas, was an American jazz guitarist and singer. Known as the Crooning Troubadour, he was the first jazz guitarist to record as a soloist. His p ...
in ''
The Show of Shows
''The Show of Shows'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost $850,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor.
''The Show of Sho ...
''.
The list of actors who have donned "Yellowface" to portray East Asians at some point in their career includes:
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
Sr.,
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
,
Paul Muni
Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895– August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in ...
,
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...
,
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
,
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
,
Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...
,
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
,
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
,
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Noted for her work across different areas of the entertainment industry, she has appeared in numerous film, television, and thea ...
,
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what ...
,
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
,
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
,
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
,
Lupe Vélez
María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944), known professionally as Lupe Vélez, was a Mexican actress, singer and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Vélez began her career as a performer in Mexican ...
,
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing comedies, including ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (194 ...
,
Tony Randall
Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play ''The Odd Couple'' by Neil Sim ...
,
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Briti ...
,
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
,
Linda Hunt
Lydia Susanna "Linda" Hunt (born April 2, 1945) is an American actress of stage and screen.
She made her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in ''Popeye'' (1980). Hunt portrayed the male character Billy Kwan in '' The Year of Living Dangerously'' ...
,
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
,
David Carradine
David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series ''Kung Fu'', playi ...
,
Joel Grey
Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical ''Cabaret'' on Broadway as well as in the 1972 fil ...
,
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
,
Yul Brynner
Yuliy Borisovich Briner (russian: link=no, Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the ...
, and many others.
''Madame Butterfly''
"Madame Butterfly" was originally a short story written by Philadelphia attorney
John Luther Long
John Luther Long (January 1, 1861 – October 31, 1927) was an American lawyer and writer best known for his short story "Madame Butterfly", which was based on the recollections of his sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husba ...
. It was turned into a one-act play, ''
Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', by
David Belasco
David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of m ...
.
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long li ...
re-made the play into the Italian opera ''
Madama Butterfly
''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther ...
'', set in 1904.
The 1915 silent film version was directed by
Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.
Biography
Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...
and starred
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
.
All the versions of Madame Butterfly tell the story of a young Japanese woman who has converted to Christianity (for which she is disowned by her family) and marries Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a white lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. For him, the marriage is a temporary convenience, but Butterfly's conversion is sincere, and she takes her marriage vows seriously.
Pinkerton's naval duties eventually call him away from Japan. He leaves Butterfly behind and she soon gives birth to their son. Pinkerton eventually meets and marries a white American woman (the fact he stopped paying the rent on Butterfly's house amounted to a divorce under Japanese law at the time).
Pinkerton returns to Japan with his new wife, Kate, to claim his son. Butterfly acquiesces to his request, and then kills herself as Pinkerton rushes into the house, too late to stop her. In the ''original'' story by Long, Butterfly is on the point of killing herself when the presence of her child reminds her of her Christian conversion, and the story ends with Mr and Mrs Pinkerton arriving at the house the next morning to find it completely empty.
Pre-2010s film
Americans have been putting Asian characters into films since 1896; however, it was historically common to hire white actors to portray Asian characters. Although some Asian characters are played by Asian actors in early films that surround an Asian story or setting, most of the main characters are played by white actors, even when the role is written as an Asian character.
''Mr. Wu'' (1913)
''Mr. Wu'' was originally a stage play, written by Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon. It was first staged in London in 1913, with
Matheson Lang
Matheson Alexander Lang (May 15, 1879 – April 11, 1948) was a Canadian-born stage and film actor and playwright in the early 20th century. He is best remembered for his performances roles in Great Britain in Shakespeare plays.
Biography
Lang w ...
in the lead. He became so popular in the role that he starred in a 1919 film version. Lang continued to play Oriental roles (although not exclusively), and his autobiography was titled ''Mr. Wu Looks Back'' (1940). The first U.S. production opened in New York on October 14, 1914. The actor
Frank Morgan
Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous soun ...
was in the original Broadway cast, appearing under his original name Frank Wupperman.
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
Sr. and
Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée (born Jeanne de la Fonte; 30 September 1898 – 5 October 1933) was a French stage and film actress who appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s. She is best known for portraying the role of Melisande, the love intere ...
were cast in the
1927 film. Cheekbones and lips were built up with cotton and collodion, the ends of cigar holders were inserted into his nostrils, and the long fingernails were constructed from stripes of painted film stock. Chaney used fishskin to fashion an Oriental cast to his eyes and grey crepe hair was used to create the distinctive Fu-Manchu moustache and goatee.
''The Forbidden City'' (1918)
''
The Forbidden City
''The Forbidden City'' is a 1918 American silent drama film starring Norma Talmadge and Thomas Meighan and directed by Sidney Franklin. A copy of the film is in the Library of Congress and other film archives.Norma Talmadge
Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent film, silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among ...
) and an American. When palace officials discover she has fallen pregnant she is sentenced to death. In the latter part of the film Talmadge plays the now adult daughter of the affair, seeking her father in the Philippines.
''Broken Blossoms'' (1919)
The film ''
Broken Blossoms
''Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl'', often referred to simply as ''Broken Blossoms'', is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars ...
'' is based on a short story, "The Chink and the Child", taken from the book ''
Limehouse Nights
''Limehouse Nights'' is a 1916 short story collection by the British writer Thomas Burke. The stories are set in and around the Chinatown that was then centred on Limehouse in the East End of London. The book was a popular success and features ...
'' by
Thomas Burke.
[www.tcm.com](_blank)
''Spotlight: Broken Blossoms'' It was released in 1919, during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the U.S., a fear known as the
Yellow Peril
The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racist, racial color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a ...
. Griffith changed Burke's original story to promote a message of tolerance. In Burke's story, the Chinese protagonist is a sordid young Shanghai drifter pressed into naval service, who frequents
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
dens and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
missionary whose initial goal is to spread the
dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
of the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
and peace (although he is also shown frequenting
opium dens
An opium den was an establishment in which opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America, and France. Throughout the West, opium dens were ...
when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
''Tea House of the August Moon'' (1956)
The original story of this film was from a novel version written by Vern Sneider in 1952. ''Tea House of the August Moon'' film version was adapted in 1956 from the play version in 1953, written by John Patrick. This American comedy film is directed by Daniel Mann. The plot is surrounded by the concept of the United States military government trying to establish power and influence over Japan, specifically in Okinawa, during wartime. Although the cast does include actual Japanese actors and actresses that fit the Japanese characters in the film, such as
Machiko Kyō
was a Japanese actress who was active primarily in the 1950s.
Early life and education
Kyō, an only child, was born in Osaka in 1924. Her father left when she was five years old, and she was raised by her mother and grandmother. She adopted ...
,
Jun Negami
(September 20, 1923, Tokyo, Japan - October 24, 2005, Shinjuku, Tokyo) was a Japanese actor, and the grandson of Rudolf Dittrich, an Austrian musician.
He appeared in 128 films.
Filmography Film
* ''Pen itsuwarazu, bôryoku no machi'' (19 ...
, Nijiko Kiyokawa, and Mitsuko Sawamura, the main character, Sakini, is played by a white American actor,
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
.
''Flower Drum Song'' (1961)
''
Flower Drum Song
''Flower Drum Song'' was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, ''The Flower Drum Song'', by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the ...
'' is a 1961 film adaptation of the 1958 Broadway
play of the same title. This adaptation tells the story of a Chinese woman emigrating to the U.S. and her subsequent arranged marriage. This movie featured the first majority Asian cast in Hollywood cinema, setting a precedent for the following ''
The Joy Luck Club'' and ''
Crazy Rich Asians
''Crazy Rich Asians'' is a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to "introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience". He claimed the novel was loosely based on his ...
'' to have a majority Asian casting. It became the first major Hollywood feature film to have a majority Asian cast in a contemporary Asian-American story.
''The Joy Luck Club'' (1993)
''
The Joy Luck Club'' is a 1993 American drama directed by
Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong Americans, Hong Kong–American Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese Americans, ...
. The story is based the
novel of the same name by
Amy Tan
Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books.
Tan has written ...
. This movie explored the relationship of Chinese immigrant mothers and their first-generation Chinese-American daughters. This movie was only the second in Hollywood cinema to feature an Asian majority casting.
''Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002)
''
Better Luck Tomorrow
''Better Luck Tomorrow'' is a 2002 American crime film, crime-Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Justin Lin. The film is about Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime and ma ...
'' is a 2002 American
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
-
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Justin Lin
Justin Lin (, born October 11, 1971) is a Taiwanese Americans, Taiwanese-American film director. His films have grossed US$2.3 billion worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on ''Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002), the ...
. The film is about
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...
overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime and material excess. ''Better Luck Tomorrow'' introduced film audiences to a cast including
Parry Shen
Parry Shen (born June 26, 1973) is an American actor, author, screenwriter, and producer. Shen's first major acting role was in '' Better Luck Tomorrow'' as Ben Manibag, the film's leading character. He also starred in another Asian American film, ...
,
Jason Tobin
Jason Tobin, credited in Chinese as To Jun Wai (杜俊緯), is a Hong Kong-British film and television actor best known for his work in the lead role of Young Jun in the Cinemax series ''Warrior''.
Early life and education
Tobin was born in Hon ...
,
Sung Kang
Sung-Ho Kang (born April 8, 1972) is an American actor. His first major role was as Han Lue in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise, a character he first portrayed in ''Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002). Kang also played John Mak in the television serie ...
,
Roger Fan
Roger Fan (born August 11, 1972) is a Taiwanese-American film, theater, and television actor best known for his collaborations with Justin Lin and his appearances in the films '' Annapolis'', '' Finishing the Game'' and '' Better Luck Tomorrow''. ...
and
John Cho
John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the ''Harold & Kumar'' films, and Hikaru Sulu in the ''Star Trek'' rebooted film series.
Early in his career, Cho also starred in the Asian Ame ...
.
Saving Face (2004)
Saving Face is a 2004 American
romantic comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed by
Alice Wu
Alice Wu (; born April 21, 1970) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for her films '' Saving Face'' (2004) and ''The Half of It'' (2020).
Both of her films feature Chinese-American main characters and explore the lives of intel ...
. The film surrounds Wil (
Michelle Krusiec
Michelle Jacqueline Krusiec (born Ya-Huei Yang; ; October 2, 1974) is an American actress, writer and producer.
Early life
Krusiec was born in 1974 in Taiwan. She was adopted at age five and raised in America by her father's elder sister, who ha ...
) is a lesbian, but she is too afraid to tell her widowed mother Hwei-lan, (
Joan Chen
Joan Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese-American actress and film director. In China, she performed in the 1979 film and came to the attention of American audiences for her performance in the 1987 film ''The Last Emperor''. She is also ...
) or her strict grandparents. She is shocked to discover that her 48-year-old mother is pregnant, and that she is not the only member of her family with romantic secrets. Hwei-lan is kicked out of her parents' house and forced to live with Wil, straining Wil's growing friendship with the out and proud Vivian (
Lynn Chen
Lynn Chen () is a Taiwanese-American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Vivian Shing in the film ''Saving Face (2004 film), Saving Face'', a role for which she won the "Outstanding Newcomer Award" at the 2006 Asian Excellence Awar ...
).
2010s in film
''Gook'' (2017)
''Gook'' tells the story of Asian Americans during the
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
. It was released in 2017 with its director
Justin Chon
Justin Jitae Chon (born May 29, 1981) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has directed three films, ''Gook'' (2017), '' Ms. Purple'' (2019), & ''Blue Bayou'' (2021). He is also known for portraying Eric Yorkie in '' The Twilight Saga'' film ...
,
David So
David So (born March 30, 1987) is an American comedian, YouTuber, actor, entrepreneur, and musician. He is known for his comedy videos on YouTube. As of January 2020, his main channel David So (formerly DavidSoComedy) has amassed over 1.45 m ...
, Sang Chon, Curtiss Cook Jr. and Ben Munoz.
''Ghost in the Shell'' (2017)
''Ghost in the Shell'' is a 2017 American adaptation of the Japanese manga
''Ghost in the Shell'' by
Masamune Shirow
, better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga ''Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television movie, an an ...
. It was directed by
Rupert Sanders
Rupert Miles Sanders (born 16 March 1971) is an English film director. He has directed the movies ''Snow White and the Huntsman'' (2012) and ''Ghost in the Shell (2017 film), Ghost in the Shell'' (2017). In 2021, he directed the pilot episode of ...
and featured
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...
as the main character. This movie was set in the future and revolved around a story of a cyborg discovering her past. This film was controversial due to the fact that the casting featured a Caucasian with the movie being accused of
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
and
whitewashing in film
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 ...
.
After the controversy erupted, it was reported that Paramount Pictures examined the possibility of using CGI to make Scarlett Johansson appear "more Asian".
''Crazy Rich Asians'' (2018)
''Crazy Rich Asians'' is a 2018 film adaptation of the
book by the same name by
Kevin Kwan
Kevin Kwan (born ) is a Singapore-born American novelist and writer of satirical novels ''Crazy Rich Asians'', ''China Rich Girlfriend'', and '' Rich People Problems''. His latest book, '' Sex and Vanity'', was released in June 2020.
In 2014, ...
. Despite being a critical and commercial success, the film received controversy over the casting of mixed race actors and non-Chinese actors in ethnically Chinese roles, as well as portraying the characters speaking British English and American English instead of
Singaporean English
Singapore English (SgE, SE, en-SG) (similar and related to British English) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Singapore. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English (indistinguisha ...
.
The movie was also criticized for its lack of diversity, with critics stating that the movie did not properly depict the variety of ethnic groups in Singapore.
Lead actress
Constance Wu
Constance Wu (born March 22, 1982) is an American actress. Wu was included on ''Time'' magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She has earned several accolades, including nominations for a Golden Globe Award, fo ...
responded to criticisms, stating that the film would not represent every Asian American given that the majority of characters depicted in the movie were ethnically Chinese and extremely wealthy.
''Time'' magazine also noted that the film was the "first modern story with an all-Asian cast and an Asian-American lead" since the release of the 1993 film
''The Joy Luck Club''.[ (physically published in August 27, 2018 issue; digitally published on August 15)]
''To All the Boys I've Loved Before'' (2018)
''To All the Boys I've Loved Before'' is a 2018 Netflix Original movie based on the
book by the same name by
Jenny Han
Jenny Han is an American author of young adult fiction and children's fiction. She is best known for writing the '' To All the Boys'' series and ''The Summer I Turned Pretty'' trilogy, which were adapted into a film series and TV series, respec ...
. The film stars
Lana Condor
Lana Therese Condor (born Trần Đồng Lan; May 11, 1997) is an American actress, producer, and singer. She made her acting debut starring as Jubilee in the superhero film '' X-Men: Apocalypse'' (2016), and gained international recognition for ...
and
Noah Centineo
Noah Gregory Centineo ( ; born May 9, 1996) is an American actor. He began his career performing on television and had a main role in the television series '' The Fosters'' from 2015 to 2018. He achieved wider recognition by starring in the Net ...
and has been credited along with ''Crazy Rich Asians'' as helping to garner more representation for Asian Americans in film. Of the film, Han stated that she had to turn down initial offers to adapt the book, as some of the studios wanted a white actress to play the main character of Lara Jean. Ironically, none of the film adaptation of the
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
's five male love interests were of Asian descent, despite changing the ethnicity of at least one love interest from the book, which was seen as a perpetuation of the emasculation of Asian men in Hollywood media.
''The Farewell'' (2019)
''
The Farewell'' is a 2019 American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film written and directed by
Lulu Wang, based on a story called ''What You Don't Know'' that was initially shared by Wang on ''
This American Life
''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internation ...
'' in April 2016.
Based on Wang's life experiences, the film stars
Awkwafina
Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and comedian who rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, ''Yellow Ran ...
as Billi Wang, a Chinese American who upon learning her grandmother has only a short time left to live, is pressured by her family to not tell her while they schedule family gathering before she dies. The film received critical acclaim; the film was nominated for two awards at the
77th Golden Globe Awards
The 77th Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2019, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Produced by Dick Clark Productions and the HFPA, the ceremony was broadcast live on January 5, 2020, fro ...
including
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
and Awkwafina winning for
Best Actress – Musical or Comedy, making her the first person of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe Award in any lead actress film category.
2020s in film
''The Half of It'' (2020)
''
The Half of It
''The Half of It'' is a 2020 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Alice Wu. It stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire, with Enrique Murciano, Wolfgang Novogratz, Catherine Curtin, Becky Ann Baker, and Co ...
'' is a 2020
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
Original movie written and directed by
Alice Wu
Alice Wu (; born April 21, 1970) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for her films '' Saving Face'' (2004) and ''The Half of It'' (2020).
Both of her films feature Chinese-American main characters and explore the lives of intel ...
. The Cyrano de Bergerac spin-off is about Ellie Chu, a shy, introverted student helps the school jock woo a girl whom, secretly, they both want. They find themselves connecting and learn about the nature of love.
''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' (2021)
''
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' is a 2021 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Shang-Chi. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 25th film ...
'' is a 2021
superhero film
A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature Action film, ac ...
based on the
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
character
Shang-Chi
Zheng Shang-Chi ( ), also known as the Master of Kung Fu and Brother Hand, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin, debuting in '' ...
, produced by
Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Mar ...
and set in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...
. Starring
Simu Liu
Simu Liu ( ; ; born 19 April 1989) is a Canadian actor. He is known for portraying Shang-Chi in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings''. He also played Jung Kim in the CBC Television sitcom ''Kim's ...
as Shang-Chi and
Tony Leung as
Wenwu
Xu Wenwu ( ; zh, c=徐文武, p=Xú Wénwǔ) is a Character (arts), fictional character portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film franchise, a composite character based on the Marvel Comics char ...
, the film is Marvel's first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist. A film based on Shang-Chi was planned in 2006, but development did not begin in earnest until December 2018, following the success of ''Crazy Rich Asians''. The film modernizes the problematic elements of Shang-Chi and the Mandarin's
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
origins, which depicted negative stereotypes of East Asians. According to producer
Kevin Feige
Kevin Feige ( ; born June 2, 1973) is an American film and television producer who has been the president of Marvel Studios and the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise since 2007. The films he has produced have a combin ...
, ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' features a cast that is "98% Asian" and is "much more than a
kung fu movie."
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
''
Everything Everywhere All at Once
''Everything Everywhere All at Once'' is a 2022 American absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as "Daniels"), who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo. The plot centers on a ...
'' is a 2022 film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka. The Daniels), and produced by
A24
A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City.
A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...
. Starring
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...
,
Stephanie Hsu
Stephanie Ann Hsu (born November 25, 1990) is an American actress. She originated the theatrical roles of Christine Canigula in '' Be More Chill'' and Karen the Computer in '' The SpongeBob Musical'', performing in the Broadway runs of both. On ...
,
Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan (born August 20, 1971), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan (), is a Vietnam-born American actor and stunt choreographer.
Quan played Short Round in ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) and Data in ''The Goonies'' (1985)''.' ...
,
James Hong
James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 20 ...
,
Harry Shum Jr.
Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and singer. He is best known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series ''Glee'' (2009–15), Benson Kwan on the ABC television series ''Grey's Anato ...
, among other actors, it is an absurdist action-comedy film where an aging Chinese-American immigrant must save the world by exploring other universes and reliving the lives she could have led.
2010s television
''Fresh Off the Boat'' (2015–2020)
''
Fresh Off the Boat
The phrase fresh off the boat ''(FOB)'', off the boat ''(OTB)'', are sometimes-derogatory terms used to describe immigrants who have arrived from a foreign nation and have yet to assimilate into the host nation's culture, language, and behavior ...
'' is an American sitcom created by
Nahnatchka Khan
Nahnatchka Khan (born June 17, 1973) is an American television writer and Television producer, producer. She created and executive produced the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy series ''Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23'' (2012–20 ...
, a loose adaptation of author
Eddie Huang
Edwyn Charles Huang (born March 1, 1982) is an American author, chef, restaurateur, food personality, producer, and former attorney. He was a co-owner of BaoHaus, a gua bao restaurant in the East Village of Lower Manhattan. Huang previously h ...
's ''Fresh off the Boat''. This show followed the life of an Asian-American family in the early 1990s. It is the first Asian-American sitcom to be featured prime-time in America. It was released in February 2015 and has been renewed several times, ending with a two-part finale on February 21, 2020.
''Dr. Ken'' (2015–2017)
''
Dr. Ken
''Dr. Ken'' is an American multi-camera sitcom that aired on ABC from October 2, 2015, to March 31, 2017. The series was created, written, and co-executive produced by its lead actor, Ken Jeong, who based the concept on his experience as a physici ...
'' is an American sitcom created by actor and writer
Ken Jeong
Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong (, ; born July 13, 1969) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, producer, writer and licensed physician. He rose to prominence for playing Leslie Chow in ''The Hangover'' film series (2009–2013) and Ben Chang in the ...
. This show followed the story of an Asian-American doctor and his family. This show aired between October 2, 2015, and March 31, 2017.
''Kim's Convenience'' (2016–2021)
''
Kim's Convenience
''Kim's Convenience'' is a Canadian television sitcom that aired on CBC Television from October 2016 to April 2021. It depicts the Korean Canadian Kim family that runs a convenience store in the Moss Park neighbourhood of Toronto: parents "Appa ...
'' is a Canadian TV series adapted from
Ins Choi
Insub "Ins" Choi () is a Korean Canadian actor and playwright best known for his Dora Mavor Moore Award-nominated 2011 play ''Kim's Convenience'' 's 2011
play of the same name
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* Pla ...
. This show revolves around the life of a family and their family-run convenience store located in Toronto. It debuted in October 2016 and has since been renewed for a fourth season. This show has been globally brought to attention with
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
securing rights to broadcast it outside of Canada.
''Warrior'' (2019–present)
''
Warrior
A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste.
History
Warriors seem to have been p ...
'' is an American action-drama television series executive-produced by
Shannon Lee
Shannon Emery Lee Keasler (born April 19, 1969) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the only living child of martial artist Bruce Lee and retired martial arts teacher Linda Lee Cadwell, the granddaughter of Cantonese opera singer L ...
and
Justin Lin
Justin Lin (, born October 11, 1971) is a Taiwanese Americans, Taiwanese-American film director. His films have grossed US$2.3 billion worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on ''Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002), the ...
,
based on an original concept and treatment by Lee's father
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...
.
The show follows a martial arts prodigy and his involvement in the
Tong Wars
The Tong Wars were a series of violent disputes beginning in the late 19th century among rival Chinese Tong factions centered in the Chinatowns of various American cities, in particular San Francisco. Tong wars could be triggered by a variety o ...
of 1870s
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. Bruce Lee developed the show in 1971, but had trouble pitching it to
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
and
Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
. The show premiered on
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...
on April 5, 2019, and was subsequently renewed for a second season.
Classic Hollywood cinema
Dr. Fu Manchu
In 1929, the character
Dr. Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comi ...
made his American film debut in ''
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu'' played by the Swedish-American actor
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American ...
. Oland repeated the role in 1930s ''
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu'' and 1931's ''
Daughter of the Dragon
''Daughter of the Dragon'' is a 1931 American pre-Code crime mystery film directed by Lloyd Corrigan, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Anna May Wong as Princess Ling Moy, Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee, and Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu ...
''. Oland appeared in character in the 1931 musical ''
Paramount on Parade
''Paramount on Parade'' is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Ot ...
'' where the Devil Doctor was seen to murder both
Philo Vance
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish— ...
and
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
.
In 1932,
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
took over the character in the film ''
The Mask of Fu Manchu
''The Mask of Fu Manchu'' (1932) is an American pre-Code adventure film directed by Charles Brabin. Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf and John Willard, it was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Sax Rohmer (the sixth in the serie ...
''. The film's tone has long been considered racist and offensive,
[Gregory William Mank, ''Hollywood Cauldron: 13 Horror Films from the Genres's Golden Age''. McFarland, 2001 (pp. 53-89); ] but that only added to its cult status alongside its humor and
Grand Guignol
''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' (: "The Theatre of the Great Puppet")—known as the Grand Guignol–was a theatre in the Quartier Pigalle, Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it spe ...
sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
Charlie Chan
In a series of films in the 1930s and 1940s, Chinese-Hawaiian-American detective Charlie Chan was played by white actors
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American ...
,
Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his p ...
and
Roland Winters
Roland Winters (born Roland Winternitz; November 22, 1904 – October 22, 1989)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 287. was an Ame ...
. The Swedish-born Oland, unlike his two successors in the Chan role, actually looked somewhat Chinese, and according to his contemporaries, he did not use special makeup in the role. He also played East Asians in other films, including ''
Shanghai Express'', ''
The Painted Veil'', and ''
Werewolf of London
''Werewolf of London'' is a 1935 horror film directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull as the titular werewolf. The supporting cast includes Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, and Spring Byington. Jack Pierce, who is best ...
'' (decades later, Afro-European American TV actor
Khigh Dhiegh
Khigh Alx Dhiegh ( or ; born Kenneth Dickerson; August 25, 1910 – October 25, 1991) Includes short biographical summary of Khigh Dhiegh. was an American television and motion picture actor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese ancestry, noted for portr ...
, though of African and European descent, was generally cast as an East Asian because of his appearance, and he was often included on lists of East Asian actors).
''The Good Earth''
![Luise Rainer in The Good Earth trailer 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Luise_Rainer_in_The_Good_Earth_trailer_2.jpg)
''
The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) ...
'' (1937) is a
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
about
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by
Talbot Jennings
Talbot Lanham Jennings (August 25, 1894 – May 30, 1985) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received two Academy Award nominations for co-writing the screenplays for ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935) and '' Anna and the King of Siam' ...
,
Tess Slesinger
Theresa "Tess" Slesinger (July 16, 1905 – February 21, 1945) was an American writer and screenwriter and a member of the New York intellectual scene.
Life and career
She was born as Theresa Slesinger in New York City, as the fourth child of An ...
, and
Claudine West
Claudine West (1890–1943) was a British novelist and screenwriter who was a three-time Academy Award nominee. She moved to Hollywood in 1929, and was employed by MGM on many films, including some of their biggest productions of the late 1930s ...
from the play by
Donald Davis and
Owen Davis
Owen Gould Davis (January 29, 1874 – October 14, 1956) was an American dramatist known for writing more than 200 plays and having most produced. In 1919, he became the first elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He received t ...
, which was itself based on the 1931 novel ''
The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) ...
'' by
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
-winning author
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck ...
. The film was directed by
Sidney Franklin,
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best ...
(uncredited) and
Gustav Machaty
Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to:
*Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin
Art, entertainment, and media
*Primeval (film), ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film
*Gustav (film series), ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hu ...
(uncredited).
The film's budget was $2.8 million, relatively expensive for the time, and took three years to make. Although Pearl Buck intended the film to be cast with all Chinese or Chinese-American actors, the studio opted to use established American stars, tapping Europeans
Paul Muni
Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895– August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in ...
and
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer ( , ; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her ...
for the lead roles. Both had won Oscars the previous year: Rainer for her role in ''
The Great Ziegfeld
''The Great Ziegfeld'' is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna L ...
'' and Muni for the lead in ''
The Story of Louis Pasteur
''The Story of Louis Pasteur'' is a 1936 American black-and-white biographical film from Warner Bros., produced by Henry Blanke, directed by William Dieterle, that stars Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise and Donald Woods, and Paul Muni as the ...
''. When questioned about his choice of the actors, producer
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
responded by saying, "I'm in the business of creating illusions."
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
had been considered a top contender for the role of O-Lan, the Chinese heroine of the novel. However, because Paul Muni was a white man, the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
's
anti-miscegenation
Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races. Anti-misc ...
rules required the actress who played his wife to be a white woman. So, MGM gave the role of O-Lan to a European actress and offered Wong the role of Lotus, the story's villain. Wong refused to be the only Chinese-American, playing the only negative character, stating: "I won't play the part. If you let me play O-Lan, I'll be very glad. But you're asking me—with Chinese blood—to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters." MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s".
''The Good Earth'' was nominated for five
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
including
Best Picture
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
,
Best Direction (
Sidney Franklin),
Best Cinematography (
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was an Austrian cinematography, cinematographer and film director best known for photographing ''Metropolis (1927 film), Metropolis'' (1927), ''Dracula (1931 English-language film), Dracul ...
), and
Best Film Editing (Basil Wrangell). In addition to the
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
award (Luise Rainer), the film won for
Best Cinematography. The year ''The Good Earth'' came out, Wong appeared on the cover of ''
Look'' magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Stereotyped in America as a
dragon lady
Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna Ma ...
, the cover photo had her holding a dagger.
''Breakfast at Tiffany's''
The 1961 film ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's'' has been criticized for its portrayal of the character Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's bucktoothed, stereotyped Japanese neighbor.
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
wore makeup to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person. In the 45th-anniversary-edition DVD release, producer
Richard Shepherd
Sir Richard Charles Scrimgeour Shepherd (6 December 1942 – 19 February 2022) was a British politician who was Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills from 1979 to 2015. A Eurosceptic, Shepherd was one of the Maastricht Rebels that had ...
repeatedly apologizes, saying, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie".
[''Breakfast at Tiffany's'': The Making of a Classic] Director
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.
Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...
stated, "Looking back, I wish I had never done it ... and I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it's there, and onward and upward".
In a 2008 interview about the film, 87-year-old Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism and that he had never received any complaints about his portrayal of the character.
''Sixteen Candles''
The 1984 American film ''
Sixteen Candles
''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes ...
'' has been criticized for the character of
Long Duk Dong
Long Duk Dong is a fictional character who appears in ''Sixteen Candles'', a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes. Played by Japanese American actor Gedde Watanabe, the character is an Asian foreign exchange ...
. This Asian character became an "Asian American stereotype for a new generation".
Long Duk Dong displayed a variety of stereotypes in the film such being socially awkward and difficult to understand, and the "lecherous but sexually inept loser".
The idea of Asians being more feminine and therefore "weaker" is further exemplified through Long Duk Dong's romantic relationship with one of the characters in the film. He assumes the more feminine role while the American girl becomes the more masculine of two in the relationship.
Theater
"Yellowface" in theatre has been called "the practice of white actors donning overdone face paint and costumes that serves as a caricatured representation of traditional Asian garb." Founded in 2011, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) works in an effort to, "expand the perception of Asian American performers in order to increase their access to and representation on New York City's stages." This group works to address and discuss "yellowface" controversies and occurrences.
''Miss Saigon''
''Miss Saigon'', a musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. and book by Boublil and Schönberg, is a modern adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly". Miss Saigon tells the story of a doomed romance involving a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier set in the time of the Vietnam War.
When ''Miss Saigon'' premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London on September 20, 1989, Welsh actor
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he wa ...
wore heavy prosthetic eyelids and skin darkening cream in playing The Engineer, a mixed-race French-Vietnamese pimp.
Once the London production came to Broadway in 1990, Pryce was slated to reprise his role as The Engineer, causing a major rift in American theater circles and sparking public outcry. Tony Award-winning playwright
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...
wrote a letter to the Actors' Equity Association protesting this portrayal of a Eurasian character being played by a White actor.
Despite these protests, Pryce performed the Engineer to great acclaim and ''Miss Saigon'' became one of Broadway's longest-running hits.
''The Mikado''
''
The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...
'' is a comic operetta, with music by
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
and libretto by
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...
, premiered in 1885 in London and still performed frequently in the English-speaking world and beyond.
[Steinberg, Neil.]
"Updated ''Mikado'' promises to be as rousing as ever"
''Chicago Sun-Times'', December 6, 2010 In setting the opera in a fictionalized 19th-century Japan, Gilbert used the veneer of Far Eastern exoticism to soften the impact of his pointed satire of British institutions and politics.
[
Numerous 21st-century U.S. productions of ''The Mikado'' have been criticized for the use of yellowface in their casting: New York (2004 and 2015), Los Angeles (2007 and 2009), Boston (2007), Austin (2011), Denver (2013), and Seattle (2014)] The press noted that the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society cast the 10 principal roles and the chorus with white actors, with the exception of two Latino actors.
In 2015, the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players
New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (often known as NYGASP) is a professional repertory theatre company, based in New York City that has specialized in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan for over 40 years. It performs an annual season in N ...
cancelled a production of ''The Mikado'' that was set to feature their repertory company of mostly White actors, due to complaints from the East Asian-American community. The company redesigned its production in collaboration with an advisory group of East Asian-American theater professionals and debuted the new concept in 2016, receiving a warm review in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. After Lamplighters Music Theatre Lamplighters Music Theatre is a semi-professional musical theatre company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1952 by Orva Hoskinson and Ann Pool MacNab, the Lamplighters specialize in light opera, particularly the works of Gilbert and Su ...
of San Francisco planned a 2016 production, objections by the East Asian-American community prompted them to re-set the operetta in Renaissance-era Milan, replacing all references to Japan with Milan. Reviewers felt that the change resolved the issue.
''The King and I''
''The King and I'' is a musical by Richard Rodgers (composer) and Oscar von Hammerstein II (lyricist). Based on the 1944 novel ''Anna and the King of Siam'' by Margaret Landon, the story illustrates the clash of Eastern and Western cultures by relaying the experiences of Anna, a British schoolteacher hired as part of the King's drive to modernize his country. The relationship between the King and Anna is marked by conflict and constant bickering throughout the musical, as well as by a love that neither can confess.
The 2015 Dallas Summer Musicals' production of the musical caused controversy in the casting of a European-American actor as King Mongkut. In an open letter to Dallas Summer Musicals, the AAPAC criticized the choice, saying "the casting of a white King dramaturgically undermines a story about a clash between Western and Eastern cultures"; moreover, "Asian impersonation denies Asians our own subjecthood. It situates all the power within a Caucasian-centric world view."
Asian representation in American animated films
''Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips'' (1944)
''Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
''Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips'' is a 1944 ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon, released on April 22, 1944, features Bugs Bunny. The film depicts Bugs fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific War. The ...
'' is an 8-minute animated short directed by Friz Freleng and produced through Warner Bros. Cartoons as part of the ''Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' cartoon series. It portrays Japanese stereotypes of the Japanese Emperor and military, a sumo wrestler, and a geisha through Bugs Bunny and his interactions with a Japanese soldier on an island.
Siamese cats in ''Lady and the Tramp'' (1955)
''Lady and the Tramp
''Lady and the Tramp'' is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. The 15th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hami ...
'' is an animated musical film directed by Clyde Geronimi Wilfred Jackson. Voice actors include Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucon, Steve Freberg, Verna Felton, Alan Reed, George Givot, Dallas, McKennon, and Lee Millar. Although this animation is about dogs, the portrayal of the Siamese cats with buck-teeth and slanted eyes was criticized by many who believed that it was a racist representation of stereotypical Asians. The exaggerated accents were also mocking of the Thai language.
''Mulan'' (1998)
The animated film ''Mulan
Hua Mulan () is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century CE) of Chinese history.
According to legend, Mulan took her aged father's place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as ...
'' was produced by the Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures in 1998. It is based on an old traditional Chinese folktale about a young girl, Hua Mulan
Hua Mulan () is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century CE) of Chinese history.
According to legend, Mulan took her aged father's place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as ...
, who disguises as a man to take her father's spot in the army. It boasted international popularity and distribution. This film was so successful that in 2004 ''Mulan II'', its sequel, was produced. However, this is not the first or only animation to adapt Mulan's story. In 1998, United American Video Entertainment produced an animation called ''The Secret of Mulan'', that uses six-legged caterpillars to represent the characters in a friendlier way for young children.
''Bao'' (2018)
''Bao'' is one of Pixar's animated shorts produced in 2018 and directed by Domee Shi. It portrays the importance of family and culture in the Chinese American community. The plot surrounds a story about a Chinese mother who creates a baby dumpling that comes to life to help her cope with the loneliness and grief in missing her son who has grown up.
Other examples in Western media
A prominent example of the whitewashing of Asian roles is the 1970s TV series, ''Kung Fu
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...
'', in which the leading character—a Chinese monk and martial arts master who fled China after having accidentally slain the emperor's nephew—is portrayed by European-American actor, David Carradine
David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series ''Kung Fu'', playi ...
. The film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' describes to some extent the struggles that ensued when Hollywood moguls attempted to cast Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...
in the starring role of Caine but were overruled. American actress Emma Stone
Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she ...
played a half-Asian character in the film ''Aloha''. In the film ''Cloud Atlas'' every major male character in the Korean story line was played by a non-Asian actor made up in yellowface makeup.
Michael Derrick Hudson
Michael Derrick Hudson (born 1963) is an American poet and librarian. Hudson is employed at the Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne where his job includes encoding articles for the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). , an American poet, used a Chinese female pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
.
See also
*Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person.
In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
and blackface in contemporary art Blackface in contemporary art covers issues from stage make-up used to make non-black performers appear black (the traditional meaning of blackface), to non-black creators using black personas. Blackface is generally considered an anachronistically ...
*Covert racism
Covert racism is a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. Concealed in the fabric of society, covert racism discriminates against individuals through often evasive or seemingly passive methods. ...
*Examples of yellowface
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, oft ...
*Racism in early American film
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.
From its inception, Hollywood has largely been dominated by white male fil ...
*''Reel Bad Arabs
''Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People'' is a documentary film directed by Sut Jhally and produced by Media Education Foundation in 2006. This film is an extension of the book of the same name by Jack Shaheen, which also analyzes how H ...
''
*''Reel Injun
''Reel Injun'' is a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes that explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film. ''Reel Injun'' is illustrated with excerpts from clas ...
''
*Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States
Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians in the United States refers to ethnic stereotypes of first-generation Asian immigrants as well as Americans with ancestry from East and Southeast Asian countries that are found in American society. Ste ...
*Whiteface (performance)
Whiteface is a type of performance in which a person wears theatrical makeup in order to make themselves look like a white person. The term is a reversal of the form of performance known as blackface, in which makeup was used by a performer to mak ...
* Whitewashing in film
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 ...
Notes
References
Further reading
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*
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*
*
* Metzger, Sean. "Charles Parsloe's Chinese Fetish: An Example of Yellowface Performance in Nineteenth-Century American Melodrama." Theatre Journal 56, no. 4 (2004): 627–51. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25069532.
* Young, Cynthia Ann. "AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics (review)." Journal of Asian American Studies 10, no. 3 (2007): 316–18. .
External links
''Hollywood Chinese''
a 2007 documentary film about the portrayals of Chinese men and women in Hollywood productions
"Yellowface: Asians on White Screens"
by Yayoi Lena Winfrey, ''IM Diversity.com''
by Robert B. Ito, ''Bright Lights Film Journal''
at Asian American Media Watch
"Asian Images in Film: Introduction"
at TCM
"Roundtable: The Past and Present of 'Yellowface'"
at NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
{{Racism
History of racism in the cinema of the United States
Cultural appropriation
Asian-American culture
Asian-American issues
Stereotypes of Asian Americans
Race-related controversies in film