Yellowface

For other uses, see Yellow Face.

Portrayals of East Asians in American film and theatre has been a subject of controversy. These portrayals have frequently reflected an ethnocentric perception of East Asians rather than realistic and authentic depictions of East Asian cultures, colors, customs, and behaviors.

Yellowface, a form of theatrical makeup used by European-American performers to represent an East Asian person (similar to the practice of blackface used to represent African-American characters), continues to be used in film and theater. In the 21st century alone, Grindhouse (in a trailer parody of the Fu Manchu serials), Balls of Fury, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Crank: High Voltage, and Cloud Atlas all feature yellowface or non-East Asian actors as East Asian caricatures.

American media portrayals of East Asians have reflected a dominant Americentric perception rather than realistic and authentic depictions of true cultures, customs and behaviors. Yellowface relies on stereotypes of East Asians in the United States.

Film

Old Hollywood

See also: Racism in early American film

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 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 was in the original Broadway cast, appearing under his original name Frank Wupperman.

Lon Chaney Sr. and Renée Adorée 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 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.The plot centers around an inter-racial romance between a Chinese princess (Norma Talmadge) 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)

Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess in Broken Blossoms

The film Broken Blossoms is based on a short story, "The Chink and the Child", taken from the book Limehouse Nights by Thomas Burke. It was released in 1919, during a period of strong anti-Chinese feeling in the U.S., a fear known as the Yellow Peril. 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 dharma of the 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.

Dr. Fu Manchu

Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

In 1929, the character Dr. Fu Manchu made his American film debut in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu played by the Swedish-American actor Warner Oland. Oland repeated the role in 1930s The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu and 1931's Daughter of the Dragon. Oland appeared in character in the 1931 musical Paramount on Parade, where the Devil Doctor was seen to murder both Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes.

In 1932, Boris Karloff took over the character in the film The Mask of Fu Manchu. The film's tone has long been considered racist and offensive, but that only added to its cult status alongside its humor and Grand Guignol 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

Main article: 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, Sidney Toler and Roland Winters. Swedish actor Warner Oland typecasted as 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 (decades later, Afro-European American TV actor Khigh Dhiegh, 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).

An updated film version of Charlie Chan was planned in the 1990s by Miramax; this new Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and ... a martial-arts master", but the film did not come to fruition.

The Good Earth

American actor Luise Rainer as O-Lan in 1937 film The Good Earth

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 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 Machatý (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 and Luise Rainer for the lead roles. Both had won Oscars the previous year: Rainer for her role in The Great Ziegfeld and Muni for the lead in The Story of Louis Pasteur. When questioned about his choice of the actors, producer Irving Thalberg responded by saying, "I'm in the business of creating illusions."

Anna May Wong 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's anti-miscegenation 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 including Best Picture, Best Direction (Sidney Franklin), Best Cinematography (Karl Freund), and Best Film Editing (Basil Wrangell). In addition to the Best Actress 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, the cover photo had her holding a dagger.

Tea House of the August Moon (1956)

The original story of this film was from a novel written by Vern Sneider in 1952. The Tea House of the August Moon film 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 concerns 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 Japanese actors and actresses for the roles of the Japanese characters in the film, such as Machiko Kyō, Jun Negami, Nijiko Kiyokawa, and Mitsuko Sawamura, the main character, Sakini, is played by a white American actor, Marlon Brando.

New Hollywood

Flower Drum Song (1961)

Flower Drum Song 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 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.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Main article: I. Y. Yunioshi

Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

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 wore makeup to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person. 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". 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". 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 has been criticized for the character of Long Duk Dong. 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.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 American drama directed by Wayne Wang. The story is based the novel of the same name by Amy Tan. 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.

2000s

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)

Better Luck Tomorrow is a 2002 American crime-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 material excess. Better Luck Tomorrow introduced film audiences to a cast including Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan and John Cho.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is a 2004 American buddy stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner, written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and starring John Cho and Kal Penn. The writers said that they were really sick of seeing teen movies that were one-dimensional and had characters who didn't look like any of their friends, who were a fairly diverse group. This prompted them to write a film that was both smart and funny and cast two guys who looked like their best friends. They had been putting Harold and Kumar, who were Asian American, into all of their screenplays as the main characters, but had difficulty pitching to studios. "Our logic at the time was like nobody else is writing a stoner comedy about an [East] Asian dude and an Indian dude going to get White Castle," said Hurwitz, though director Danny Leiner remembered, "Before the casting and trying to get the money before Luke [Ryan, the executive producer] came on, we were going to a couple of the studios and one was like, "Look, we really love this movie. Why don't we do it with a white guy and a black dude?" John Cho mentioned the writers wanted to avoid whitewashing the main leads, so they wrote ethnic specific scenes in the script. Cho recalled, "It had to be rooted in that as a defense mechanism so that they wouldn't get turned white." Schlossberg commented, "There had never been an Asian character without an accent except for [Cho] as the MILF guy. A lot of people read the script and just assumed they might be foreign exchange students, so you really had to emphasize that these guys were born in America. It was a totally different world."

Kal Penn stated that the reason the movie was green-lit was because there were two junior execs at New Line Cinema who were given this new project and decided to take a chance on it. Penn explained, "The older people around Hollywood, the older people in town were like, 'We don't know if America is ready for two Asian American men as leads in a comedy.'"

Saving Face (2004)

Saving Face is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Alice Wu. The film's Wil (Michelle Krusiec) is a lesbian, but she is too afraid to tell her widowed mother Hwei-lan (Joan Chen) 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).

2010s

Cloud Atlas (2012)

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.

Gook (2017)

Gook tells the story of Asian Americans during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. It was released in 2017 with its director Justin Chon, David So, 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. It was directed by Rupert Sanders and featured Scarlett Johansson 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 and whitewashing in film. 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. 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. The film 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 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.

Searching (2018)

Searching (film) is a 2018 American screenlife mystery thriller film directed by Aneesh Chaganty, written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. It is the first mainstream Hollywood thriller headlined by an Asian American actor, John Cho.

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. The film stars Lana Condor and Noah Centineo 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. Moreover, none of the film adaptation of the romantic comedy's five male love interests were of Asian descent, the ethnicity of at least one love interest in the film having been changed from that of his counterpart of Asian ancestry in the book, a move seen as a perpetuation of the emasculation of Asian men in Hollywood media.

The Farewell (2019)

The Farewell is a 2019 American comedy-drama 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 in April 2016. Based on Wang's life experiences, the film stars Awkwafina 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 including Best Foreign Language Film 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

The Half of It (2020)

The Half of It is a 2020 Netflix original movie written and directed by Alice Wu. 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 is a 2021 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Shang-Chi, produced by Marvel Studios and set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Starring Simu Liu as Shang-Chi and Tony Leung as Wenwu, 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 origins, which depicted negative stereotypes of East Asians. According to producer Kevin Feige, 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 is a 2022 film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (a.k.a. The Daniels), and produced by A24. Starring Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Harry Shum Jr., 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.

Television

1970s

Actors Nancy Kwan and David Carradine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu

A prominent example of the whitewashing of Asian roles is the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, 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.

2010s

Selfie (2014)

Selfie is an American romantic comedy sitcom starring Karen Gillan and John Cho. The show is loosely based on Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. Cho was featured as the first romantic comedy Asian American male lead. He was cast as Henry Higgs on March 13, 2014.

Warner Brothers Television initially intended to cast Henry Higgs as a white Englishman who was several generations older modeling after the original character. The casting process was very extensive. The creator, Emily Kapnek said, "We looked at tons of different actors, and really once we kind of opened our minds and said let's get off of what we think Henry is supposed to be and just talk about who is, we just need a brilliant actor—and John [Cho]'s name came up." She also mentioned that the ABC network was the first to suggest color-blind casting. Julie Anne Robinson, one of the directors and executive producers who later worked on Bridgerton, revealed in 2021 interviews that she advocated casting Cho and had to persuade "top to bottom of everybody in that chain" that he was the perfect choice for the role, which took a long time to consider. Robinson fought for Cho and won, saying, "That's what I'm most proud of about that whole pilot."

Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020)

Fresh Off the Boat is an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan, a loose adaptation of author Eddie Huang'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 is an American sitcom created by actor and writer Ken Jeong. 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 is a Canadian TV series adapted from Ins Choi's 2011 play of the same name. 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 securing rights to broadcast it outside of Canada.

Warrior (2019–2023)

Warrior is an American action-drama television series executive-produced by Shannon Lee and Justin Lin, based on an original concept and treatment by Lee's father Bruce Lee. The show follows a martial arts prodigy and his involvement in the Tong Wars of 1870s San Francisco. Bruce Lee developed the show in 1971, but had trouble pitching it to Warner Bros. and Paramount. The show premiered on Cinemax on April 5, 2019, and was subsequently renewed for two more seasons.

2020s

Interior Chinatown (2024)

Interior Chinatown is an action-comedy drama series based on the same book by Charles Yu. Starring Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, and Chloe Bennet.

Theatre

Vanishing Son (1995)

Vanishing Son is an American action series starring Russell Wong. Prior to the series, there were 4 television films. It is of one the earliest television shows portraying an Asian American male character as the romantic lead.

Miss Saigon

Main article: 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 Madama 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 wore heavy prosthetic eyelids and skin-darkening cream in playing The Engineer, a mixed-race French-Vietnamese pimp.

Once the London West End 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 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.

Madame Butterfly

Main article: Madame Butterfly (play)

Madame Butterfly (1898) was originally a short story written by Philadelphia attorney John Luther Long. It was turned into a one-act play, Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, by David Belasco. Giacomo Puccini re-made the play into the Italian opera Madama Butterfly, set in 1904. The 1915 silent film version was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Mary Pickford.

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 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.

The Mikado

Main article: The Mikado

The Mikado, a comic operetta with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, premiered in 1885 in London and still performed frequently in the English-speaking world and beyond. 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 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. After Lamplighters Music Theatre 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

Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner in the original production of The King and I

Main article: 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 (based on Anna Leonowens), a British schoolteacher hired as part of King Mongkut of Siam'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."

Animated films

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944)

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips is an 8-minute animated short directed by Friz Freleng and produced through Warner Bros. Cartoons as part of the Merrie Melodies 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 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 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, 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 a Chinese Canadian community. The plot concerns a story about a Chinese Canadian 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.

Kpop Demon Hunters (2025)

Kpop Demon Hunters is an animated movie about K-pop idols hunting demons, and it became Netflix's most watched title. The movie contains Korean representation.

East Asian American film actors

Old Hollywood

Sessue Hayakawa

Sessue Hayakawa c. 1918

The Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa began appearing in films around 1914. Signed to Paramount Pictures, 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. 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.

Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong c. 1935

Anna May Wong, considered by many to be the first Chinese American movie star, 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. 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." She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles." In 1935, she was considered for the leading role in The Good Earth, which went to German actress Luise Rainer. Wong refused the role of the villainess, a stereotypical Oriental Dragon Lady.

Keye Luke

Keye Luke was a successful actor, starring as the "Number-One Son" Lee Chan in the popular Charlie Chan films, as well as the original Kato in the 1940s Green Hornet, and Detective James Lee Wong in Phantom of Chinatown (1940), a role previously played by the English actor Boris Karloff.

Philip Ahn

Korean American actor Philip Ahn, after rejection for speaking English too well, braved death threats after being mistaken for being Japanese. Ahn would go on to have a prolific career.

Some East and South Asian American actors nonetheless attempted to start careers. Merle Oberon, an Anglo-Indian, 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 (who played the Number Three son in the Charlie Chan films), Victor Sen Yung (who played the Number Two son in the Charlie Chan films), Richard Loo (who also played many Japanese villain roles), Lotus Long (known for her role as Lin Wen opposite Keye Luke in the Phantom of Chinatown), Suzanna Kim, Barbara Jean Wong, Fely Franquelli, Chester Gan, Honorable Wu, Kam Tong, Layne Tom Jr., Maurice Liu, Rudy Robles, Teru Shimada, Willie Fung, Toshia Mori, and Wing Foo, who all began their film careers in the 1930s and 1940s.

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."

New Hollywood

The 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians starred Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang, Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Remy Hii, Nico Santos, Jing Lusi, and Carmen Soo, among others.

The 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once starred Michelle Yeoh as main lead, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Harry Shum Jr., and James Hong as supporting actors.

Film characters utilizing yellowface as a disguise

In some films, white characters, played by white actors, have played East Asians, often as a disguise.

Year	Title	Actor(s)	Director	Notes
1945	First Yank into Tokyo	Gordon Douglas	Tom Neal	A US soldier undergoes plastic surgery to look Japanese in order to rescue an American scientist held in Japan.
1961	The Twilight Zone	Dean Stockwell	Buzz Kulik	Stockwell plays an American officer in World War II who mysteriously finds himself in the body of a Japanese officer three years earlier.
1962	My Geisha	Shirley MacLaine	Jack Cardiff
1965	Gendarme in New York	Louis de Funès and Geneviève Grad	Jean Girault	Officer Cruchot and his daughter Nicole disguise themselves as Chinese in one scene.
1967	You Only Live Twice	Sean Connery	Lewis Gilbert	James Bond disguises himself as a Japanese bridegroom in order to elude SPECTRE assassins.
1978	Revenge of the Pink Panther	Peter Sellers	Blake Edwards	Inspector Clouseau had many disguises and this included the quintessential Chinaman stereotype.
1981	Hardly Working	Jerry Lewis	Jerry Lewis
1987	Snow White	Diana Rigg	Michael Berz	The Evil Queen disguises herself as an evil geisha merchant, even going as far as to do a mock Japanese accent, to kill Snow White with poisoned combs.
1999	Galaxy Quest	Tony Shalhoub	Dean Parisot	Tony Shalhoub's character, Fred Kwan played Tech Sergeant Chen wearing yellowface makeup in the fictional 1970s TV series Galaxy Quest. Shalhoub's role is a parody of yellowface casting in the past.
2001	Vidocq	Inés Sastre	Pitof	Sastre's character, Préah, who is a dancer in a brothel, disguises as an East Asian in order to attract audience.
2008	Be Kind Rewind	Jack Black	Michel Gondry	Black's character Jerry tapes his eyes back to pretend to be Jackie Chan when recreating a scene from the film Rush Hour 2.
2008	Tropic Thunder	Robert Downey Jr.	Ben Stiller	The character of Kirk Lazarus donned yellowface to disguise himself as a Southeast Asian farmer in order to infiltrate a drug facility.
2011	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	Robert Downey Jr.	Guy Ritchie	The character of Sherlock Holmes donned yellowface to disguise himself as a Chinese man for a short while in the film.
2014	Magic in the Moonlight	Colin Firth as Wei Ling Soo	Woody Allen	Colin Firth portrays an Englishman who dons yellowface in order to pass as a Chinese illusionist.

Examples of yellowface

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. 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 with 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.

The Welsh American Myrna Loy was the "go-to girl" for any portrayal of Asian characters and was typecast in over a dozen films, while Chinese detective Charlie Chan, who was modeled after Chang Apana, a real-life Chinese Hawaiian detective, was portrayed by several European and European American actors including Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Peter Ustinov. Loy also appeared in yellowface alongside Nick Lucas in The Show of Shows.

The list of actors who have donned yellowface to portray East Asians at some point in their career includes Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Anthony Quinn, Shirley MacLaine, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Moreno, Rex Harrison, John Wayne, Mickey Rooney, Marlon Brando, Lupe Vélez, Alec Guinness, Tony Randall, John Gielgud, Peter Sellers, Yul Brynner, and many others.

Before the Civil Rights Movement

Year	Title	Actor(s) and Role(s)	Director	Notes
1915	Madame Butterfly	Mary Pickford as Cio-Cio San	Sidney Olcott	Many of the film's leading roles are white actors donning yellowface to play Asian roles
1918	The Forbidden City	Norma Talmadge as San San Toy E. Alyn Warren as Wong Li Michael Rayle as The Mandarin L. Rogers Lytton as Chinese Emperor	Sidney Franklin
1919	Broken Blossoms	Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan	D.W. Griffith
1919	Mr. Wu	Matheson Lang as Mr. Wu Meggie Albanesi as Nang Ping	Maurice Elvey	British version
1922	The Vermilion Pencil	Ann May as Tse Chan's wife Bessie Love as Hyacinth Sidney Franklin as Fu Wong	Norman Dawn	Many of the film's leading roles are white actors donning yellowface to play Asian roles
1923	The Purple Dawn	Bessie Love as Mui Far Edward Peil Sr. as Wong Chong, the Tong leader	Charles R. Seeling
1927	Mr. Wu	Lon Chaney as Mr. Wu Renée Adorée as Wu Nang Ping	William Nigh	American version
1928	Spione (Spies)	Lupu Pick as Doctor Akira Masimoto	Fritz Lang	A German spy thriller Romanian-German actor Pick plays the Japanese diplomat; his three couriers are played by Asian actors
1928	The Crimson City	Myrna Loy as Onoto	Archie Mayo
1929	The Black Watch	Myrna Loy as Yasmani	John Ford
1931–1949	Charlie Chan film series	Warner Oland as Charlie Chan		Warner Oland: 1931-1937 Sidney Toler: 1937-1946 Roland Winters: 1946-1949
1932	The Hatchet Man	Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young	William A. Wellman	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.
1932	Frisco Jenny	Helen Jerome Eddy	William A. Wellman	Helen Jerome Eddy, portrays Frisco Jenny's loyal servant Amah. Although not a success on the original release, in recent years, Frisco Jenny has been among the pre-Code films rediscovered and re-evaluated thanks to theatrical revivals and cable television screenings.
1932	The Mask of Fu Manchu	Myrna Loy as Fah Lo See	Charles Brabin Charles Vidor
1932	Thirteen Women	Myrna Loy	George Archainbaud	Ursula Georgi (Myrna Loy), a half-Javanese Eurasian woman who was subjected to harsh bigotry from the other women during her school days due to her mixed-race heritage. Georgi exacts revenge by using a suborned swami to manipulate the women into killing themselves or each other. Not a popular success either critically or financially, Thirteen Women has achieved a "cult classic" status in recent years. A pre-Code era film, modern critics have stated that its theme was ahead of its time and out of step with the tastes of 1930s cinema patrons.
1933	The Bitter Tea of General Yen	Nils Asther	Frank Capra	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. According to a New York Times review, Nils Asther's make-up is impressive, with slanting eyes and dark skin. He talks with a foreign accent. 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 Asther. This was her most significant film role; she returned to minor characters in her subsequent films.
1934	The Mysterious Mr. Wong	Bela Lugosi	William Nigh	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. They did not even bother to disguise Lugosi's thick Hungarian accent. It was directed by William Nigh, who three years later directed Boris Karloff in the Mr. Wong detective films.
1936	Broken Blossoms	Emlyn Williams as Cheng Huan	John Brahm	Remake
1937	The Good Earth	Paul Muni as Wang Lung Luise Rainer as O-Lan All of the Lead Roles	Sidney Franklin	All of the lead roles were played by actors in yellowface while all the extras and minor roles were played by Asians. Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as O-Lan.
1937	Lost Horizon	H.B. Warner	Frank Capra	H.B. Warner as Chang, an ancient Chinese man who rescues the plane crash survivors and takes them to Shangri-La. Warner lost the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor to Joseph Schildkraut for The Life of Emile Zola.
1937–1939	Mr. Moto film series	Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto film series		Between 1937 and 1939 eight motion pictures were produced by 20th Century Fox starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Kentaro Moto. Unlike in the novels, Moto is the central character, wears glasses, and no longer has gold teeth. He is still impeccably dressed in primarily Western suits, only wearing a yukata when he is relaxing at home. The stories are action-oriented due to Moto's liberal use of judo (only hinted at in the novels) and due to his tendency to wear disguises.
1938	Shadows Over Shanghai	Paul Sutton	Charles Lamont	Paul Sutton is in yellowface and portrays a Japanese officer. Victor Sen Yung changed his name to Victor Young.
1939	Island of Lost Men	Anthony Quinn	Kurt Neumann	Anthony Quinn is in yellowface and portrays Chang Tai, a "Chinese" agent.
1939	The Mystery of Mr. Wong	Boris Karloff	William Nigh	Boris Karloff was in yellowface as the detective. Amongst the Asians in the background: Chester Gan, Lotus Long as the maid, Lee Tung Foo as Mr. Wong's Butler and door opener.
1940	The Letter	Gale Sondergaard	William Wyler	Sondergaard plays a Eurasian, a trope of the Dragonlady. Variety said, "Sondergaard is the perfect mask-like threat".
1942	Little Tokyo, U.S.A.	Harold Huber as Takimura, American-born spy for Tokyo, June Duprez as Teru	Otto Brower	While other works had used Asian make-up to ridicule or vilify Asian features, this B movie used yellowface directly to deny a group of Asian Americans their civil rights. Twentieth Century-Fox seized on one of the most controversial aspects of the homefront, the roundup and internment of people of Japanese descent on the West Coast. Little Tokyo basically developed the theme that anyone of Japanese descent, including American citizens, was loyal to the emperor of Japan and a potential traitor to America. The movie employed a quasi-documentary style of filming. Twentieth Century sent its cameramen to the Japanese quarter of Los Angeles to shoot the actual evacuation. However, after the evacuation, night shots were difficult in the deserted "Little Tokyo". Night scenes were filmed in Chinatown instead. Chinese actor Richard Loo played one of the lead Japanese roles in the film.
1943	Batman	J. Carrol Naish	Lambert Hillyer	J. Carrol Naish is in yellowface and portrays Dr. Tito Daka, a Japanese mad scientist. The speaking roles of Japanese Navy sailors were also played by actors of non-Japanese descent in yellowface.
1944	Dragon Seed	Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon, Turhan Bey, Agnes Moorehead, J. Carrol Naish, and Hurd Hatfield	Harold S. Bucquet and Jack Conway	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).
1946	Anna and the King of Siam	Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, and Gale Sondergaard	John Cromwell	At the 19th Academy Awards ceremony, the film received two Oscars; for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction (Lyle R. Wheeler, William S. Darling, Thomas Little, Frank E. Hughes) Gale Sondergaard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
1946	Ziegfeld Follies	Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer	Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Vincente Minnelli, Merrill Pye, George Sidney, Charles Walters	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.
1955	Blood Alley	Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix, and Mike Mazurki	William A. Wellman	Despite the star power of its lead actors and director, Blood Alley received a lukewarm reception from critics. The New York Times proclaimed, "Blood Alley, despite its exotic, oriental setting, is a standard chase melodrama patterned on a familiar blueprint." Far better were Paul Fix, Berry Kroeger, and Anita Ekberg, who weren't the most convincing "Chinese" in the world but who seem to fit right in with the blood-and-thunder proceedings.
1955	Love is a Many Splendored Thing	Jennifer Jones	Henry King	Set in 1949–50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter (played by William Holden), who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from Mainland China (played by Jennifer Jones), only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong society. Apart from Jennifer Jones, the rest of the family were cast with East Asian actors. The film won Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Music, Song (for Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster for "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing"). It was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Jones), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Lyle Wheeler, George Davis, Walter M. Scott, Jack Stubbs), Best Cinematography, Color, Best Picture and Best Sound, Recording.
1956	The Conqueror	John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, and others	Dick Powell	The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s). 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	Yul Brynner and Rita Moreno	Walter Lang	Brynner (who was born in Asia, in Vladivostok, which is now in Russia, and has both European and Asian ancestry including Swiss and Mongolian Buryat) reprised his role as King Mongut of Siam from the original Broadway production. Moreno, who is of Puerto-Rican heritage, played Tuptim. The film was banned in Thailand (formerly Siam in King Mongkut's days).
1956	The Teahouse of the August Moon	Marlon Brando	Daniel Mann	Brando spent two hours a day for the standard prosthetic eyepieces and makeup. His role was made all the more noticeable because he is the only actor in yellowface in a sea of Asian extras and secondary characters. Brando actually attempted an "authentic" Japanese accent and he even has some Japanese dialogue.
1957	Sayonara	Ricardo Montalbán as Nakamura	Joshua Logan	A movie dealing with racism, prejudice, and interracial marriage in post war Japan
1958	The Quiet American (1958 version)	Giorgia Moll as Phuong	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	Adaptation of Graham Greene's novel.
1958	The Inn of the Sixth Happiness	Curd Jürgens and Robert Donat	Mark Robson	The two leads, British actor Robert Donat and German actor Curt Juergens, portrayed Chinese characters. The filmmakers have also 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.
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Mickey Rooney	Blake Edwards	Rooney's performance of Japanese character Mr. Yunioshi was later criticized in subsequent years as an offensive stereotype. The 2009 DVD re-release of the film included "a brief and necessary featurette on the character of Mr. Yunioshi, offering an Asian perspective on yellowface".
1961	The Devil's Daffodil	Christopher Lee as Ling Chu	Ákos Ráthonyi
1961	The Terror of the Tongs	Christopher Lee as Chung King and others	Anthony Bushell
1961	Flower Drum Song	Juanita Hall as Madame Liang	Henry Koster	This movie was unusual for its time in featuring nearly all Asian-American cast members, including dancers, though two of the singing voices were not Asian ones. Starring in this movie were Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Benson Fong, James Hong, Reiko Sato, and original Broadway cast members Jack Soo and Miyoshi Umeki. The only non-Asian cast member playing an Asian role was African-American actress Juanita Hall, who had played the same role in the Broadway cast. Her role in the film had originally been cast with Anna May Wong, but Wong became ill in December 1960 and had to be replaced. The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese-American author C.Y. Lee. 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".
1962	The Manchurian Candidate	Henry Silva	John Frankenheimer
1962	A Majority of One	Alec Guinness	Mervyn LeRoy
1962	Dr. No	Joseph Wiseman, Zena Marshall, Marguerite LeWars	Terence Young	In the first James Bond film Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman played the titular villain, self-described as half-Chinese and half-German. Kenyan-born English actress Zena Marshall played the villainess Miss Taro. White Jamaican model Marguerite LeWars played the minor role of photographer Annabel Chung.
1962	God's Chessboard	Dorothy Dandridge and others	Christian-Jacque	Early unfinished version of Marco the Magnificent (see below). African American actress Dorothy Dandridge played Empress Zaire in yellowface makeup.
1963	55 Days at Peking	Flora Robson	Nicholas Ray
1963	Have Gun - Will Travel	Bethel Leslie, William Schallert	Richard Boone	Bethel Leslie in two roles in the episode, "The Lady of the Fifth Moon", as well as William Schallert appeared in yellowface makeup in this episode which is full of stereotypical dialog with Schallert narrating the episode presenting his voice in an East Asian stereotypical pitch and accent.
1964	7 Faces of Dr. Lao	Tony Randall	George Pal
1965	Pierrot le fou	Anna Karina	Jean-Luc Godard	Lead actress Anna Karina donned yellowface makeup during a mid-film skit satirizing the American involvement in the Vietnam War.
1965	Genghis Khan	Robert Morley, James Mason and others	Henry Levin
1965	Marco the Magnificent	Anthony Quinn, Robert Hossein and others	Denys de La Patellière, Noël Howard	Adventure film based on the travels of Marco Polo. Anthony Quinn plays Kublai Khan.
1965	The Face of Fu Manchu	Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu	Don Sharp
1965	Gilligan's Island	Vito Scotti	Alan Crosland, Jr., Christian Nyby	Scotti portrayed a Japanese sailor who was not aware that World War II had ended in two episodes: "So Sorry, My Island Now" (Season 1, Ep 15) and "Diogenes, Won't You Please Go Home" (S1 E31).
1965	The Return of Mr. Moto	Henry Silva	Ernest Morris	In 1965, Mr. Moto's character was revived in a low-budget Robert Lippert production filmed in England starring Henry Silva. In Mr. Moto Returns, a.k.a. The Return of Mr. Moto, Mr. I.A. Moto is now a member of Interpol. The extremely tall Silva conveyed an almost James Bond-like playboy character; in the fight scenes he is clearly not proficient in martial arts. He speaks in a lazy 'Beatnik' manner. Nowhere in the film is it even mentioned that Moto is Japanese. He is referred to as an "oriental" and, oddly, in the trailer, Moto is referred to as a "swinging Chinese cat". It is only when he is disguised as a Japanese oil representative, Mr. Takura, that a more stereotypical portrayal of a Japanese businessman is given.
1965-1966	Get Smart	Leonard Strong and Joey Forman	Paul Bogart, Gary Nelson	Leonard Strong guest stars as "The Claw" in two episodes of season 1; "Diplomat's Daughter" and "The Amazing Harry Hoo", where he would pronounce his name as "The Craw" due to his stereotypical inability to pronounce the letter L, and would angrily respond "Not Craw, Craw!" whenever addressed by his mispronounced name. He is joined by Joey Forman in "The Amazing Harry Hoo", who plays the role of "Detective Harry Hoo", a parody of Charlie Chan. Forman reprises his role as Harry Hoo in the season 2 episode: "Hoo Done It".
1966	7 Women	Woody Strode and Mike Mazurki	John Ford
1966	The Brides of Fu Manchu	Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu	Don Sharp
1967	The Time Tunnel	Arthur Batanides, Vitina Marcus, and others	Sobey Martin	The episode "Attack of the Barbarians" takes place in 13th century East Asia and all Mongol characters, including Batu Khan are played by white actors in makeup.
1967	The Vengeance of Fu Manchu	Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu	Jeremy Summers
1968	Bewitched	Richard Haydn	R. Robert Rosenbaum	Haydn portrays Japanese businessman, Kenzu Mishimoto in "A Majority of Two" (Season 4, Episode 29).
1968	The Blood of Fu Manchu	Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu	Jesús Franco
1968-1969	Hawaii Five-O	Ricardo Montalban, Mark Lenard	Alvin Ganzer, Nicholas Colasanto	Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban plays Japanese crime lord Tokura in the first season episode "Samurai". White American actor Mark Lenard plays a Japanese ninja in the second season episode "To Hell with Babe Ruth".
1969	The Castle of Fu Manchu	Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu	Jesús Franco

After the Civil Rights Movement

Note: This is also after the anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in the United States of America that prevented East Asian actors from playing opposite white actors as love interests.

Year	Title	Actor(s) and Role(s)	Director	Notes
1970	The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go	James Mason as Y.Y. Go	Burgess Meredith
1972	The Paul Lynde Show	Ray Walston as Mr. Temura	George Tyne	Season 1, Episode 11: "Meet Aunt Charlotte"
1972–1975	Kung Fu	David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine		David Carradine wore yellowface makeup to look Eurasian
1973	Lost Horizon	John Gielgud as Chang Charles Boyer as The High Lama	Charles Jarrott
1974	Arabian Nights	Salvatore Sapienza as Prince Yunan	Pier Paolo Pasolini	Film commentator Tony Rayns said this casting decision was likely done because the native Nepalese actors would probably have taken issue with being nude on film
1975	One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing	Peter Ustinov and others	Robert Stevenson
1975	The White, the Yellow, and the Black	Tomas Milian as Sakura ("The Yellow")	Sergio Corbucci
1975	Vivát, Benyovszky!	Ferenc Zenthe and others	Igor Ciel	Czechoslovak-Hungarian TV series about the life of traveler and writer Maurice Benyovszky. The Asian characters are played by Hungarian, Czech and Slovak actors in makeup.
1976	Murder by Death	Peter Sellers	Robert Moore	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 much the same way that Inspector Clouseau. It could be argued that Sellers' role is in itself a parody of yellowface casting in earlier films.
1977	Doctor Who	John Bennett as Li H'sen Chang	David Maloney	Serial: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
1980	The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu	Peter Sellers	Piers Haggard Peter Sellers Richard Quine	This is the last Fu Manchu created.
1980	Flash Gordon	Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming	Mike Hodges	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	Clive Donner	In 1980, Jerry Shylock proposed a multimillion-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. The film was released the following year as Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen and was an "abysmal failure". More successful was Wayne Wang's Chan Is Missing (1982), which was a spoof of the older Chan films.
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Malcolm Weaver as "The Ratty Nepalese"	Steven Spielberg	Malcolm Weaver plays a Nepalese man at 36:56 in.
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan	Peter Weir	Actress Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of an Asian man.
1983	Reilly, Ace of Spies	David Suchet as Inspector Tsientsin	Martin Campbell	British ITV television mini-series Episode 2: "Prelude to War"; Suchet dons eyelid makeup/prosthetics to play the Chinese character, who remarks on the disadvantages of "not being white".
1983	Go for It	Jeff Moldovan as "Charlie Chan"	Enzo Barboni	Italian spy comedy film. Venezuelan-American stuntman Jeff Moldovan plays an East Asian martial artist henchman nicknamed "Charlie Chan".
1983	Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre	Mick Jagger as the Chinese Emperor, Barbara Hershey as the Maid, Edward James Olmos as the Prime Minister, and others	Ivan Passer	Season 2 episode 2 "The Nightingale" features a cast of mostly white actors in yellowface makeup playing Chinese characters.
1984	The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai	Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai	W.D. Richter	Buckaroo Banzai is supposed to be half-Japanese, with a Japanese father played by James Saito and American mother played by Jamie Lee Curtis.
1985	Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins	Joel Grey as Chiun	Guy Hamilton	Film based on the Destroyer book series. Joel Grey garnered a Saturn Award and a second Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" for his yellowface portrayal.
1987	Kung Fu: The Next Generation	David Darlow as Kwai Chang Caine	Tony Wharmby	The role of Asian character Kwai Chang Caine was originally played by David Carradine. Carradine was replaced by Israeli-American actor David Darlow.
1988	Remo Williams: The Prophecy	Roddy McDowell as Chiun	Christian I. Nyby II	TV pilot for a spin-off of Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins where Roddy McDowell plays Chiun, an asian martial arts instructor
1991	Twin Peaks	Piper Laurie as Mr Tojamura (a disguise worn by Catherine Martell)	Mark Frost, David Lynch	Episodes 11 through 14. Catherine Martell who is presumed dead in a fire inexplicably returns as Mr. Tojamura, a Japanese banker who offers to buy the Great Northern Hotel. Laurie wears both prosthetics and makeup to portray Mr Tojamura.
1994	Sabotage	Adam Yauch	Spike Jonze	Beastie Boys music video.
1996–1998	Tracey Takes On...	Tracey Ullman as Mrs. Noh Nang Ning		Ullman wore prosthetics to make her look East Asian.
1997	The Pest	John Leguizamo	Paul Miller	Leguizamo sings and dances dressed in East Asian disguise for film's opening.
1997–2002	MADtv	Alex Borstein and guest star role Susan Sarandon as Ms. Swan
1998	Something Stupid	Magda Szubanski as Chu Yang Phat		Magda Szubanski plays Chu Yang Phat, the host of a Chinese variety show called Rei-Jing. Szubanski wore a black wig, and donned a stereotypical Chinese accent.
1999-2002	Ushi & Van Dijk	Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki		Dutch TV show in which Dutch actress Wendy van Dijk plays Ushi Hirosaki, a Japanese journalist. The show had local versions in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Hungary.

21st century

Year	Title	Actor(s)	Director	Notes
2003	Micukó: A világ ferde szemmel	Judit Stahl as Micukó		Hungarian version of Ushi & Van Dijk. Canceled after Hungarian TV channel TV2 received protest letters from the Embassy of Japan in Budapest, claiming the program was discriminatory towards the Japanese people.
2003	Oumi	Mi Ridell as Oumi		Swedish version of Ushi & Van Dijk
2004	Noriko Show	Outi Mäenpää as Noriko Saru		Finnish version of Ushi & Van Dijk
2005	Little Britain	Matt Lucas as Ting Tong Macadangdang	Declan Lowney	Matt Lucas plays Ting Tong, a kathoey mail-order bride. The character repeats such catchphrases as "Please Mr. Dudley!" (in a stereotypical accent) "My name Ting Tong, Ting Tong Macadangdang." "Did you have good time?" The character also appeared in Little Britain Abroad (2006)
2005	We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year	Chris Lilley as Ricky Wong		We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year is an Australian Television series, 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
2007	Balls of Fury	Christopher Walken as Feng	Ben Garant	Feng is a parody of the yellow peril and Fu Manchu stereotype.
2007	Norbit	Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong	Brian Robbins	For his portrayal Eddie Murphy received a Golden Raspberry Award. Worst Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Mr. Wong)
2007	Grindhouse	Nicolas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu	Rob Zombie	Fake Trailer: Werewolf Women of the SS
2007	I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry	Rob Schneider as Morris Takechi	Dennis Dugan	Schneider's use of prosthetics for his role were criticized as an offensive stereotype. Nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor but lost to Eddie Murphy.
2008	My Name Is Bruce	Ted Raimi as Wing	Bruce Campbell
2009	Crank: High Voltage	David Carradine as Poon Dong	Neveldine/Taylor	Poon Dong, played by David Carradine, is the head of the Chinese Triad. The name of the character is a pun, being both a stereotypical Chinese-sounding name and slang for genitalia.
2009	Chanel – Paris – Shanghai A Fantasy – The Short Movie	Freja Beha, Baptiste Giabiconi	Karl Lagerfeld	Karl Lagerfeld Opened His Pre-Fall Show in Shanghai With a Film That Included Yellow Face. 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." Chinese persons played the maid, a courtesan and background characters.
2009	Hanger	Wade Gibb as Russell	Ryan Nicholson	A black comedy in which a Chinese man with Down syndrome is portrayed by a White actor under heavy prosthetics and make-up.
2009	Ushi & Dushi	Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki		Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk
2010–2011	Come Fly with Me	David Walliams and Matt Lucas as Asuka and Nanako	Paul King	Walliams and Lucas play two Japanese girls who have flown to the airport to see their idol, Martin Clunes.
2010	Ushi & Loesie	Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki		Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk
2011-2012	Ushi & The Family	Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki		Spin-off from Ushi & Van Dijk
2011	Angry Boys	Chris Lilley as Jen Okazaki		Jen Okazaki is the mother of fictional teen skateboarding superstar, Tim Okazaki, who live in the city of Santa Barbara, California after migrating from Japan. Jen is portrayed as a stereotypical tiger mum, often pushing her son with extremely strict homeschooling and training regimes. She also has excessive control on Tim's skateboarding career, marketing him as not only a cute Japanese boy, but as a homosexual, of which she monetises by selling phallic merchandise under the name "GayStyle Enterprises."
2012	Cloud Atlas	Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, James D'Arcy, and Keith David	Lana and Lilly Wachowski	A significant number of cast members applied makeup, focusing mostly on the eyes, to make their features appear more Korean/East Asian in one of the film's stories. The film is based on the idea of having the same actors reappear in different roles in six different story lines, one of which is set in 'Neo Seoul' in the year 2144. The film thus also has Asian actresses Bae Doona and Zhou Xun appear in non-Asian roles, and African-American actress Halle Berry portrayed a white character. Blackface is not used in the film, however.
2012	Wrong	William Fichtner as Master Chang
2013	Ushi Must Marry	Wendy van Dijk as Ushi Hirosaki	Paul Ruven	Spin-off from Dutch TV show Ushi & Van Dijk. Last work in which Wendy van Dijk plays Ushi Hirosaki.
2013	The Walking Dead: A Hardcore Parody	Danny Wylde as Glenn Rhee	Danny Wylde	A pornographic parody of The Walking Dead, controversy erupted over the character Glenn being portrayed by a White actor under heavy make-up and prosthetics.
2014	Baby Geniuses and the Treasures of Egypt	Jon Voight as Moriarty	Sean McNamara
2014	How I Met Your Mother	Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor		Season 9, Episode 14 "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra"; main cast dressed as East Asian martial arts masters using stereotypical garb, makeup, and Fu Manchu moustache
2015	Aloha	Emma Stone as Alison Ng	Cameron Crowe
2016	Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie	Janette Tough as Huki Muki	Mandie Fletcher
2017	Ghost in the Shell	Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi	Rupert Sanders	The film was criticized in the United States for casting Johansson (who is not of Japanese descent) as Motoko Kusanagi. However, some fans in Japan pointed out that Motoko Kusanagi has an artificial (cyborg) body, and thus, does not have to be ethnically Japanese. Michael Pitt also plays the villain Hideo Kuze, a role that is ethnically Japanese in the source material.

See also

• Blackface in contemporary art
• Covert racism
• Dragon Lady
• Portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater
• Racebending
• Racism in early American film
• Reel Bad Arabs
• Reel Injun
• Whiteface (performance)
• Whitewashing in film
• Yellowface (novel)

Further reading

• Hodges, Graham Russell (2004). Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hamamoto, Darrell; Liu, Sandra, eds. (2000). Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism. Asian American History and Culture. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-4399-0878-5. OCLC 43287149.
• Pham, Vincent N.; Ono, Kent A. (2009). Asian Americans and the Media. Media and Minorities. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-4273-4. OCLC 236321398.
• Marchetti, Gina (1993). Romance and the "Yellow Peril" Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Ito, Robert B. "A Certain Slant: A Brief History of Hollywood Yellowface". Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
• Lee, Esther Kim (2022). Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era. ISBN 978-0-472-07543-0.
• Metzger, Sean. "Charles Parsloe's Chinese Fetish: An Example of Yellowface Performance in Nineteenth-Century American Melodrama." Theatre Journal 56, no. 4 (2004): 627–651. JSTOR 25069532
• Moon, Krystyn R. (2006). Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s–1920s. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
• Paul, John Steven (Spring 2001). "Misreading the Chinese Character: Images of the Chinese in Euroamerican Drama to 1925 (review)". Asian Theatre Journal. 18 (1). University of Hawaiʻi Press: 117–119. doi:10.1353/atj.2001.0006. S2CID 162327661.
• Prasso, Sheridan (2005). The Asian Mystique: dragon ladies, geisha girls, & our fantasies of the exotic orient.
• Wang, Yiman (2005). "The Art of Screen Passing: Anna May Wong's Yellow Yellowface Performance in the Art Deco Era". In Catherine Russell (ed.). Camera Obscura 60: New Women of the Silent Screen: China, Japan, Hollywood. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. pp. 159–191. ISBN 978-0-8223-6624-9.
• Young, Cynthia Ann. "AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics (review)." Journal of Asian American Studies 10, no. 3 (2007): 316–318. doi:10.1353/jaas.2007.0033.

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
• "A Certain Slant" by Robert B. Ito, Bright Lights Film Journal
• "Monitoring Asians in the American mass media" at Asian American Media Watch
• "Asian Images in Film: Introduction" at TCM
• "Roundtable: The Past and Present of 'Yellowface'", at NPR
• "I am not a Fetish or Model Minority" by CAPE and Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media