Yellowface: Information from Answers.com

Yellowface is the practice in cinema, theatre, and television where East Asian characters are portrayed by predominantly white actors, often while wearing heavy makeup in order to approximate "Asian" or "Oriental" facial characteristics. The term racebending is also being used in the case of White actors cast to portray Asian characters.

Yellowface was once a commonly accepted practice in the motion picture industry, with many Hollywood actors playing yellowface roles. The use of yellowface makeup endured when blackface makeup became taboo. It is still used in modern Hollywood films. ^[1]

Recurring stereotypes such as the Fu Manchu-style Asian villain or the Madame Butterfly-style Asian female love interest (always for a white hero) were going largely unchallenged. Asian Americans formed groups such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (M.A.N.A.A.) to counter the practice. ^[2]

Actor Robert Ito explains that job protection for Caucasian actors was one reason yellowface persisted. "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." ^[3]

1 Notable examples
2 Filmography
3 See also
4 External links
5 Sources
6 References

Notable examples

The Good Earth (film)

The Good Earth (1937) is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel The Good Earth by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck The film was directed by Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming (uncredited) and Gustav Machaty (uncredited).

Back in 1935, when MGM Studios was looking to make The Good Earth into a movie, Anna May Wong was considered a top contender for the role of O-lan, the Chinese heroine of the novel. Instead–as typical of the time–MGM gave the role of O-lan to a white actress and offered Wong the role of Lotus, the story’s villain. Wong turned them down.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The 1961 film has been criticized for its portrayal of the character Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's bucktoothed, stereotyped Japanese neighbor. Played by Caucasian Mickey Rooney, Rooney wore Yellowface makeup to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person. The issue was raised in the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, when Bruce Lee and his girlfriend Linda Emery (portrayed in the film by Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly) watch Breakfast at Tiffany's in the theater, but Linda suggests they leave midway through the picture after she notices that Bruce is upset at the stereotypical depiction of an Asian man portrayed by Mickey Rooney.

In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd repeatedly apologizes, saying, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie."^[4] Director Blake Edwards 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."^[4] 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.^[5]

A free outdoor screening in Sacramento, California, scheduled for August 23, 2008, was replaced with the animated film Ratatouille after protests about the character Mr. Yunioshi. The protest was led by Christina Fa of the Asian American Media Watch. In light of the protest, Sacramento vice mayor Steven Cohn stated that "the intent was never to create controversy, to make political statements or to be on the avant garde of the movie world, let alone to offend significant members of our community."^[6]^[7]

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender is an upcoming 2010 fantasy film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It is a live-action film adaptation of the first season of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, which has its influences from Asian art, mythology, and various martial arts fighting styles.

The official casting call from Paramount, for the heroic characters solicited applicants who were “Caucasian or any other ethnicity.” This led to the four principal actors being Caucasian. Shyamalan originally offered the roles of Aang to Tae Kwon Do-trained Texan Noah Ringer; Sokka to Jackson Rathbone (Twilight); Katara to Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls); and Zuko to Jesse McCartney.^[8] The casting of all the main leads with white actors in the Asian influenced Avatar universe triggered negative fan reaction marked by accusations of racism, a letter-writing campaign, and a protest outside of a Philadelphia casting call for movie extras.^[9]^[10]^[11] Rathbone dismissed the complaints, saying "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan. It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."^[12]

In February 2009, Dev Patel replaced McCartney, whose tour dates conflicted with a boot camp scheduled for the cast to train in martial arts.^[13]^[14] Aasif Mandvi will play Admiral Zhao, Shaun Toub will play Uncle Iroh, Cliff Curtis will play Fire Lord Ozai and Keong Sim has been cast in the role of an Earthbender.^[15] Katharine Houghton and Seychelle Gabriel are expected to play "Gran Gran", the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, and Princess Yue, another of Sokka's love interests and princess of the Northern Water Tribe, respectively.^[16] According to Paramount Pictures, some of the Asians cast in the film are Keong Sim, playing an Earthbending Father and Isaac Jin Solstein playing an Earthbending boy.^[17]

The main cast now features three Caucasian champions and one dark complexioned antagonist. For the inconsequential background actors, Paramount’s casting call requested “Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean, and Latino.”

Filmography

Gale Sondergaard in the trailer for The Letter (1940)

Early Hollywood and Anti-miscegenation Laws

Promotional poster for 1965 film The Face of Fu Manchu

Film
Year	Film	Actor/s	Notes
1915	Madame Butterfly	Mary Pickford
1919	Mr. Wu	Matheson Lang	Mr. Wu was originally a stage play, written by Harold Owen and Harry M. Vernon. It was first staged in London in 1913; the first U.S. production opened in New York on October 14, 1914.^[18] The actor Frank Morgan was in the original Broadway cast, appearing under his original name Frank Wupperman. Matheson Lang was the first actor to portray Mr. Wu (in the 1913 West End production), who became so popular in the role that he starred in a 1919 film version. (The better-known Lon Chaney production is therefore a remake.) Lang continued to play Oriental roles (although not exclusively), and his autobiography was titled Mr. Wu Looks Back (1940).
1919	Broken Blossoms	Richard Barthelmess	Broken Blossoms was released during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the USA, a fear known as the Yellow Peril.^{[citation needed]} 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 dens and whorehouses; in the film, he becomes a Buddhist missionary whose initial goal is to spread the word of Buddha and peace (although he is also shown frequenting opium dens when he is depressed). Even at his lowest point, he still prevents his gambling companions from fighting.
1927	Mr. Wu	Lon Chaney Sr. and Renée Adorée	Wu Li Chang, a Spanish-language version of Mr. Wu, was produced in 1930. In 2000, Turner Classic Movies presented the television premiere with a music soundtrack composed, produced, edited and mixed by Maria Newman, who also conducted the Viklarbo Chamber Symphony.
1929 - 1935	Fu Manchu	Warner Oland
1931 - 1937 film series	Charlie Chan	Warner Oland	Shanghai Express (1932), The Painted Veil (1934), Werewolf of London (1935), and Shanghai (1935) ^[19] youtube :Charlie Chan in Shanghai : Number One Son
1938 - 1942	Charlie Chan film series	Sidney Toler	Notes
1932	The Hatchet Man	Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young	Makeup artists had noticed that audiences were more likely to reject Western actors in Asian disguise if the faces of actual Asians were in near proximity. Rather than cast the film with all Asian actors, which would have then meant no star names to attract American audiences, studios simply eliminated most of the Asian actors from the cast. Oriental Hollywood excesses like The Hatchet Man make for rather uncomfortable viewing today, even when directed by such cinematic experts as William Wellman. The director obviously wished to address the clash between ancient culture and modern American life, tradition versus modernity, but the bizarre "Oriental" makeup of Occidental stars Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young simply gets in the way of the message, especially when contrasted to such genuine Asian supporting players as Toshia Mori and Willie Fung, both briefly spotted skulking about in the background.
1932	The Mask of Fu Manchu	Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy	The Mask of Fu Manchu at the Internet Movie Database
1932	Frisco Jenny	Helen Jerome Eddy	Notes
1933	The Bitter Tea of General Yen	Nils Asther	General Yen was a box office failure upon its release and has since been overshadowed by Capra's later efforts. In recent years, the film has grown in critical acclaim. In 2000, the film was chosen by British film critic Derek Malcolm as one of the hundred best films in The Century of Films. Toshia Mori who in 1932 became the only Asian actress to be selected as a WAMPAS Baby Star, an annual list of young and promising film actresses, was billed third in the film's credits, behind Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther. This was her most significant film role, she returned to minor characters in her subsequent films.
1934	The Mysterious Mr. Wong	Bela Lugosi	Bela Lugosi stars as Mr. Wong, a "harmless" Chinatown shopkeeper by day and relentless blood-thirsty pursuer of the Twelve Coins of Confucius by night.
1937	The Good Earth	Luise Rainer and Paul Muni	Please look at notable entries, regarding this film.
1937	Lost Horizon	H.B. Warner	Notes
1937 - 1939	Mr. Moto film series	Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto film series	Notes
1938 - 1942	Charlie Chan film series	Sidney Toler	Charlie Chan film series
1939	Island of Lost Men	Anthony Quinn	Notes
1939	The Mystery of Mr. Wong	Boris Karloff	Notes
1940	The Letter	Gale Sondergaard	Sondergaard plays a Eurasian, a trope of the Dragonlady. Variety said, "Never has [the W. Somerset Maugham play] been done with greater production values, a better all-around cast or finer direction. Its defect is its grimness. Director William Wyler, however, sets himself a tempo which is in rhythm with the Malay locale . . . Davis' frigidity at times seems to go even beyond the characterization. On the other hand, Marshall never falters. Virtually stealing these honors in the pic, however, is Stephenson as the attorney, while Sondergaard is the perfect mask-like threat". ^[20]
1944	Dragon Seed	Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon, Turhan Bey, Agnes Moorehead, J. Carrol Naish, and Hurd Hatfield	Based on a best-selling book by Pearl S. Buck, the film portrays a peaceful village in China that has been invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese war. The men in the village choose to adopt a peaceful attitude toward their conquerors, but Jade (played by Hepburn), a headstrong woman, stands up to the Japanese. Aline MacMahon was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress. In Lion of Hollywood author Scott Eyman wrote that this was one of the worst of all MGM pictures (p. 364). ^[21]
1946	Anna and the King of Siam	Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, and Gale Sondergaard	Notes
1946	Ziegfeld Follies	Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer	Limehouse Blues: Conceived as a "dramatic pantomime" with Astaire as a proud but poverty-stricken Chinese labourer whose infatuation with the unattainable Bremer leads to tragedy. The story serves as bookends for a dream ballet inspired by Chinese dance motifs in an unfortunate, racially stereotyped setting.
1955	Blood Alley	Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix, and Mike Mazurki	Notes
1955	Love is a Many Splendored Thing	Jennifer Jones	Notes
1956	The Conqueror	John Wayne	The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s), which is remarkable given the stature of the cast. Wayne, who was at the height of his career, had lobbied for the role after seeing the script and was widely believed to have been grossly miscast. (He was so "honored" by The Golden Turkey Awards.)
1956	The King and I	Rita Moreno	Notes
1956	The Teahouse of the August Moon	Marlon Brando	Notes
1957	Sayonara	Ricardo Montalban	Notes
1958	The Inn of the Sixth Happiness	*Curd Jürgens and Robert Donat	The film makers, since release, have been criticised for casting, Ingrid Bergman, a tall woman with a Swedish accent, as Gladys Aylward who was in fact short and had a cockney accent. Likewise, the two leads, British actor Robert Donat and Austrian actor Curt Jurgens were not even Chinese.
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Mickey Rooney	Please look at notable entries, regarding this film.
1961	Flower Drum Song	Juanita Hall	The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author C.Y. Lee. This movie was unusual (for its time) in featuring nearly all Asian American cast members (one of the few speaking Caucasian parts being that of a mugger), including dancers, though two of the singing voices were not by Asian ones. Starring in this movie were Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Benson Fong, James Hong, Reiko Sato and the original Broadway cast members Jack Soo, Miyoshi Umeki and Juanita Hall (an African American actress who previously played the Pacific Islander Bloody Mary in the Broadway and film productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific). In 2008, Flower Drum Song was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". ^[22]
1962	The Manchurian Candidate	Henry Silva	Notes
1962	My Geisha	Shirley MacLaine	Notes
1962	A Majority of One	Alec Guinness	Notes
1963	55 Days at Peking	Flora Robson	Notes
1964	7 Faces of Dr. Lao	Tony Randall	Notes
1965	Pierrot le fou	Anna Karina	Notes
1965	Genghis Khan	Robert Morley, James Mason and others	Notes
1965	Gilligan's Island	Vito Scotti	Notes
1966	7 Women	Woody Strode and Mike Mazurki	Notes

Late 20th Century

After 1967, anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in the United States of America, but Hollywood practices still found it normal to racebend or yellowface white actors.

The 1980s was also the decade where the phenomenon of the white ninja kid trope grew ascendant. Young all-American White kids who were trained by the Ninja Masters of Japan.

Film
Year	Film	Actor/s	Notes
1972 – 1975	Kung Fu	David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine	In her memoirs, Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, asserts that Lee actually created the concept for the series, which was then stolen by Warner Bros.^[23] In a December 8, 1971 television interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Bruce Lee himself makes reference to both Warner Brothers and Paramount wanting him to do a TV series. After Pierre Berton comments, "there's a pretty good chance that you'll get a TV series in the States called "The Warrior", in it, where you use what, the Martial Arts in Western setting?" Lee responds, "that was the original idea, ...both of them (Warner and Paramount), I think, they want me to be in a modernized type of a thing, and they think that "The Western" type of thing is out. Whereas I want to do the Western. Because, you see, how else can you justify all of the punching and kicking and violence, except in the period of the west?" Later in the interview, Berton asks Lee about "the problems that you face as a Chinese hero in an American series. Have people come up in the industry and said 'well, we don't know how the audience are going to take a non-American'"?. Lee responds "Well, such question has been raised, in fact, it is being discussed. That is why "The Warrior" is probably not going to be on." Lee adds, "They think that business wise it is a risk. I don't blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there."^[24] What Lee called "The Warrior" and "Kung Fu" shared the idea of a lead character in a TV series who performs Martial Arts in a Western setting. Based on Lee's comments to Berton, he was talking to both Warner Brothers and Paramount about "The Warrior" as late as December 1971.
1973	Lost Horizon	John Gielgud as Chang	Notes
1975	One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing	Peter Ustinov and others	Notes
1976	Murder by Death	Peter Sellers	Peter Sellers plays Inspector Sidney Wang, based on Charlie Chan and appropriately accompanied by his adopted, Japanese son Willie (Richard Narita). Wang wears elaborate Chinese costumes, and his grammar is frequently criticized by the annoyed host.
1978	Revenge of the Pink Panther	Peter Sellers	Inspector Clouseau had many disguises and this included the quintessential Chinaman stereotype.
1980	The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu	Peter Sellers	Notes
1980	Flash Gordon	Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming	Ming the Merciless is the sci fi version of Fu Manchu.
1981	Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen	Peter Ustinov as Charlie Chan	In 1980, Jerry Shylock proposed a multi-million dollar comedy film, to be called Charlie Chan and the Dragon Lady. A group calling itself C.A.N. (Coalition of Asians to Nix) was formed, protesting the fact that two white actors, Peter Ustinov and Angie Dickinson, had been cast in the primary roles. Others protested that the film itself contained a number of stereotypes; Shylock responded that the film was not a documentary.^[25] The film was released the following year as Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen and was an "abysmal failure."^[26] More successful was Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing (1982), which was a spoof of the older Chan films.^[27] An updated film version of the character was planned in the 1990s by Miramax; this new Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and ... a martial-arts master",^[27] but the film did not come to fruition.^[27]
1981	Hardly Working	Jerry Lewis
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan	The Year of Living Dangerously was entered into the 1983 Cannes Film Festival^[28] where it was well-received by audiences and critics.^[29] Actress Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.^[30]
1982	Marco Polo (TV miniseries)	Leonard Nimoy as Achmet	American television mini-series
1985	Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins	Joel Grey as Chiun	Film based on the Destroyer book series. The role garnered Joel Grey a Saturn Award and a second Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actor".
1989	True Believer (1989 film)	James Woods as Eddie Dodd	The film is loosely based on an investigative series of articles written by Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist K. W. Lee on the conviction of immigrant Chol Soo Lee for a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gangland murder. The news coverage led to a new trial, eventual acquittal and release of the prisoner from San Quentin's Death Row. Screenwriter Wesley Strick based the character of Eddie Dodd on real-life Bay Area defense attorney Tony Serra. The contributions of K.W. Lee are completely brushed aside, as are those of the other Asian Americans who worked tirelessly on the case, including Jay Yoo, Grace Kim, Ranko Yamada, Tom Kim, Warren Furutani and Luke Kim. At the time of True Believer’s release, K.W. Lee told the Charleston Gazette he enjoyed the film “as fiction … but it was not a true picture. They have completely preempted the struggle of Asians.” ^[31] Strick's screenplay was nominated for a 1990 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Motion Picture.
1991	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Christopher Plummer as General Chang	Although technically a Klingon, he is made-up to resemble an Asian man and is given a surname as such.
1994	Sabotage	Adam Yauch	Beastie Boys music video.
1995	Mortal Kombat	Christopher Lambert as Raiden	Raiden is in the Japanese religion Shinto, from which the character is derived, Raiden (also known as Raijin). His appearance in the games resembles more the Taoist thunder god presented in the Chinese temples, right down to his attire. In a case of racebending, Lambert was cast to portray the god. The movie was well received by fans of the series and became a financial success, eventually grossing $70 million in the U.S. (and over $125 million worldwide) while jump starting the Hollywood careers of Paul W. S. Anderson and Robin Shou as Liu Kang, among others.
1997	Mortal Komabt: Annihilation	James Remar as Raiden	Sequel that replaced Lambert with Remar. However, in a rare case of race-switching favoring Asians, Asian actress Irina Pantaeva was featured as Jade, a character who was portrayed as white in her first appearance in Mortal Kombat II, but black in every game thereafter to this day.
1997	Fist of the North Star	Gary Daniels as Kenshiro, Costas Mandylor as Shin, Malcolm McDowell as Ryuken and Chris Penn as "Jackal" (actually a renamed Jagi)	Film based on the Japanese Anime.
1997	Starship Troopers	Casper Van Dien as Juan "Johnnie" Rico	Juan Rico is Filipino in the book, in the films Starship Troopers (1997) and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008), John Rico is played by Casper Van Dien. There is a vast divergence between the original book and film. A report in an American Cinematographer article around the same time as the film's release states the Heinlein novel was optioned well into the pre-production period of the film, which had a working title of Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine; most of the writing team reportedly were unaware of the novel at the time. According to the DVD commentary, Paul Verhoeven never finished reading the novel, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both "bored and depressed."^[32]
1999	Galaxy Quest	Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan / Tech Sergeant Chen	Notes

21st century

Film
Year	Film	Actor/s & Role	Notes
2004	Legend of Earthsea	Shawn Ashmore as Ged	a loose adaptation of the award-winning Earthsea novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. It premiered as a two-night television event on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2004. Le Guin, was not involved in the development of the material or the making of the production. She has written a number of responses to the mishandling of this adaptation of her works, including "A Whitewashed Earthsea"^[33] and "Frankenstein's Earthsea"^[34].
2005 Australian television series	We Can Be Heroes	Chris Lilley as Ricky Wong	Ricky Wong is a 23-year-old Chinese physics student who lives in the suburb of Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, Victoria. He is often exuberant and tells his colleagues that "Physics is Phun" and that they are in the "Wong" laboratory. This character is largely a vehicle for parodying the stereotypical "Chinese overachiever", or model migrant
2006	Cloud 9	Paul Rodriguez as Mr. Wong	Cloud 9 ^[35]
2007	Balls of Fury	Christopher Walken as Feng	Feng is a parody of the yellow peril and Fu Manchu stereotype.
2007	Norbit	Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong	For his portrayal. Eddie Murphy received a Golden Raspberry Award. Worst Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Mr. Wong) ^[36]
2007	Grindhouse	Nicolas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu	Fake Trailer: Werewolf Women of the SS ^[37]
2007	I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry	Rob Schneider as the Asian minister and photographer	Schneider is in fact one quarter Filipino by descent, but wore prosthetics for the role which were criticised as an offensive stereotype.
2008	My Name Is Bruce	Ted Raimi as Wing	Notes
2008	The Forbidden Kingdom	Michael Angarano as Xuanzhang renamed as Jason Tripitikas	One of the recent films where racebending occurs. The Asian character is changed into a White character. In this case, an all-American Caucasian kid saves ancient China, helped along the way by Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
(2008)	21	Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell	Jeff Ma was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team in the mid 1990s. He was the basis for the main character of the book Bringing Down the House (where he was renamed Kevin Lewis) and the film 21 (where he was renamed Ben Campbell). Studio executives determined that "most of the film's actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female."^[38] Nick Rogers of The Enterprise wrote "The real-life students mostly were Asian-Americans, but 21 whitewashes its cast and disappointingly lumps its only major Asian actors (Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira) into one-note designations as the team's kleptomaniac and a slot-playing "loser."^[39] Supporters of the decision to cast Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell claim that producers simply sought the best actor for the job, regardless of race. Ultimately, this meant passing over many Asian-American talents in favor of London-born Jim Sturgess, who required a dialect coach to speak with an American accent.^[40]
2009	Crank: High Voltage	David Carradine as Poon Dong	Poon Dong, played by the late David Carradine, is the head of the Chinese Triad. In Crank: High Voltage. The name of the character is a pun, being both a stereotypical Chinese-sounding name and slang for genitalia.
2009	Dragonball Evolution	Justin Chatwin as Son Goku (Dragon Ball)	Chatwin was cast as Goku, a White kid raised by his Asian Grandfather Randall Duk Kim. Also, like The Forbidden Kingdom, the story is based on Journey to the West and this character is the Monkey King, bearing the character's traditional Japanese name.
2009	Chanel - Paris - Shanghai A Fantasy - The Short Movie	Freja Beha , Baptiste Giabiconi	Karl Lagerfeld Opened His Pre-Fall Show in Shanghai With a Film That Included Yellow Face.^[41] Lagerfeld defended this as a reference to old films. “It is an homage to Europeans trying to look Chinese,” he explained. “Like in ‘The Good Earth’, the people in the movie liked the idea that they had to look like Chinese. Or like actors in ‘Madame Butterfly’. People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities.” "It is about the idea of China, not the reality." ^[42] Chinese persons played the maid, a courtesan and background characters. The film is currently on youtube ^[43]
2009	The King of Fighters	Sean Faris as Kyo Kusanagi,	Leader of Japan Team The movie premise has been unfavourably compared to the Mortal Kombat film.^{[citation needed]} Other criticism has involved the casting of the Caucasian Sean Faris as the Japanese Kyo Kusanagi. Also the film has been frequently mistaken for a Hollywood production by many even though Hollywood is not involved.^[44]
2010	The Last Airbender	Noah Ringer as Aang, Jesse McCartney as Zuko, Jackson Rathbone as Sokka and Nicola Peltz as Katara	After complaints from the fans over the whitewashing, Zuko was recast with Dev Patel , after Jesse McCartney cited scheduling conflicts with his tour. The Sokka and Katara parent culture, are based on the Inuit and Yupik, respectively. There are ongoing calls to boycott the movie, set for release in 2010.
(2010)	The Weapon (comics)	David Henrie as Tommy Zhou	The Weapon is a comic book series about a Hawaiian born Chinese American, super hero ^[45] It is early in production but Italian American David Henrie has been cast to portray Tommy Zhou, a Chinese American. ^[46].

External links

Sources

"Yellowface: Asians on White Screens", by Yayoi Lena Winfrey, IM Diversity.com.
"A Certain Slant." by Robert B. Ito, Bright Lights Film Journal.
Wang, Yiman (2005). "The Art of Screen Passing: Anna May Wong's Yellow Yellowface Performance in the Art Deco Era". in Catherine Russell. Camera Obscura 60: New Women of the Silent Screen: China, Japan, Hollywood. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. pp. 159–191. ISBN 0-8223-6624-X.