a penguin of very little brain

esprit-follet:

Introduction

• Introduction
• Early 1900s: The Golden Age
• The 1930s: The Talkies
• The 1940s: World War II and Yellow Peril
• The 1950s: Post-War America
• The 1960s/70s: Civil Rights Movement
• The 1980s-1990s
• The 2000s: America Today

(More pictures and details @ Yellowface: A Story in Pictures « Racebending.com)

Yellowface, at its core, is not only the practice of applying prostheses or paint to simulate a crude idea of what “Asians” look like; it is non-Asian bodies (usually white) controlling what it means to be Asian on screen and stage, particularly in lead/major roles.

Tied to blackface and the portrayal of African Americans on the stage by whites in the nineteenth century, the term yellowface appears as early as the 1950s to describe the continuation in film of having white actors playing major Asian and Asian American roles and the grouping together of all makeup technologies used to make one look “Asian.”

Thanks to the power of film executives in casting, Asian and Asian Americans who had decades of theatrical experience in vaudeville were unable to find work or were relegated to stereotypical roles–laundrymen, prostitutes, or servants.

- Krystyn R. Moon
Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850-1920s (page 164)

The yellowface controversy is not about the quality of the films or performances. It is about systematic bias in casting as much as it is about individual choices made by directors, performers, and production companies.

History is complex and a full analysis of the influences and cultural attitudes of each time period is far beyond the scope of this article. However, we hope that readers keep an open mind and allow the pictures to speak for themselves.

Included below are examples of whitewashing of Southern and Middle Eastern Asian characters (more properly considered brownface).

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ohmyasian:

(fuck-yeah-tumblrs-best-posts:chickenshit)

Bus stops don’t have to be boring! In the Japanese town of Konagai, part of Isahaya City in Nagasaki Prefecture, along the road you’ll find some juicy bus stops, built in the shape of strawberries, melons, watermelons, oranges and tomatoes. There are a total of 16 stops that look like this:

(Source)