London storm turns spotlight on ‘whitewashing’ in film and theatre

Jingan Young says the practice of casting Caucasian actors in East Asian roles and criticism of it go back a long way, but recent events prove ‘yellowface’ is far from history

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Matt Damon plays European mercenary William Garin in Zhang Yimou’s ‘The Great Wall’, a casting choice that has sparked criticism about ‘whitewashing’. Photo: TNS

Published: 1:53pm, 30 Dec 2016Updated: 7:01pm, 30 Dec 2016

The West London theatre venue, the Print Room, recently announced its latest seasonal offering: Howard Barker’s In The Depths of Dead Love.

The play, set to open in January, is “set in ancient China” and “tells of a poet exiled from the Imperial Court”, and follows four characters with names such as Mrs Hu and Chin. However, it features no actors of Chinese or East Asian descent.

Unsurprisingly, the outcry of disbelief from the London theatre community, including Equity, the UK’s trade union for performers, and Harry Potter actress Katie Leung, led to a perfunctory apology on the venue’s blog. However, this failed to address the issue directly with regard to racial erasure, furthermore stating that the characters’ names were “never intended to be taken literally”.

A later statement from the venue in response to the criticism ran: “It (the play) is not about Chinese society, culture or perspectives (but is) in fact a very ‘English’ play”.

Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, a Tibetan man in the original Marvel comic books, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange in the eponymous film which was released in October. Photo: Marvel Studios

Tilda Swinton feels ‘collateral damage’ of Doctor Strange ‘whitewashing’ controversy

So “English”, in fact, that all of its cast is of Caucasian background. In other words, the Print Room has decided to not only instigate the practice of “yellowface”, but to suggest that “English” roles may only be represented by white actors.

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