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
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.
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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.
The arts are more often than not a celebration of differences but, throughout history, the Chinese/East Asian community has suffered from severe misrepresentation on stage and screen, from Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Katherine Hepburn in Dragon Seed, the practice of “yellowface” has perpetuated negative Asian stereotypes. This in turn has detrimentally affected roles for Asian actors, alongside what stories can be and are told. I myself struggle to be heard and the UK is one of the worst offenders.
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Rather troublingly, 2016 has seen an overwhelming amount of “whitewashing” of Asian roles in Hollywood. Think Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange or Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell.
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Sherman said the Print Room’s casting decisions were “forging forward with abstract, disingenuous excuses that fool no one who actually understands what diversity and inclusion genuinely mean”.
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Barker’s play originally premiered on BBC’s Radio 3 in 2013, and starred noted film and theatre actor Richard E. Grant. A review concluded that the Chinese setting “proved nothing more than a convenient pretext”. This echoes the Print Room’s sentiments of using it as a metaphorical setting, so why then use Chinese settings, names and cultural practices, if these are irrelevant?
Jingan Young is a freelance writer and playwright