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Thread: yellow face/white washing.

  1. #106
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    I've always disdained the term 'yellow'. I prefer 'golden'
    I don't savvy with 'white'.
    I prefer Ivory or Creamy.
    Kung Fu is good for you.

  2. #107
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    roflmao

    Quote Originally Posted by David Jamieson View Post
    I don't savvy with 'white'.
    I prefer Ivory or Creamy.
    Creamy! That's awesome. Better than pink.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #108
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    Shu Qi

    “Why don’t you go be a fan of a white person?” actress Shu Qi tells fan who whitened her photos
    She snapped
    by Alex Linder March 13, 2019 in News



    Superstar actress Shu Qi has set the Chinese interwebs alight recently with a fierce rebuttal to a fan’s “whitewashing” of her glamor shots.

    On Weibo, the fan posted four edited photos of the star where her skin had been made noticeably paler. The images were noticed by Shu herself, who did not approve, writing: “Why don’t you go be a fan of a white person?”



    Here’s a comparison of the original and edited images:



    Already known for her candidness, Shu’s fiery defense against conventional beauty standards in China valuing white skin has made her only more beloved. The 42-year-old actress grew up in Taiwan but moved to Hong Kong in the 1990s to pursue an acting career, going from erotic films to blockbusters and becoming one of Asia’s most recognizable actresses.
    I'm not sure it's fair to say Shu Qi started with erotic films. There was Viva Erotica (1996), but she got the HKFA Best Supporting Actress for that. There was also Sex & Zen II that same year, but I still find that ending comment misleading.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #109
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    The funny thing is, MANY white women tan themselves to be even darker than Shu Qi's untouched-up photos.

    In many Asian countries and elsewhere, white(r) skin is seen as a sign of beauty and privilege, because 'they're not outside laboring under the sun'. OTOH, in the West, lighter people often tan because 'it's a sign of beauty, health, and means they can relax and get a tan under the sun' (as opposed to being pale-skinned).

    I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence...

  5. #110
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    Gemma Chan's Allure cover story

    Luv Gemma. Now I luv her even more. I didn't recognize her in Captain Marvel, and did think it was odd for her to play Bess, but I get that now.

    COVER SHOOTS
    Gemma Chan Wants to End Whitewashing — In Hollywood and in History Books
    With a law degree from Oxford and a license to kill in Captain Marvel, Gemma Chan has the world by the tail. For our latest cover story, the actress opens up to Jessica Chia about her love of Hamilton, Hollywood's glass ceiling, and the importance of representation for all — now and in our history books.
    BY JESSICA CHIA
    PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAOLA KUDACKI
    MARCH 19, 2019


    TOM FORD DRESS. FARIS RING ON ALIGHIERI EARRING. ELLERY EARRING. MAKEUP COLORS: UNLIMITED MASCARA IN BLACKEST BLACK, INFALLIBLE LONGWEAR HIGHLIGHTER SHAPING STICK IN GOLD IS COLD, PARADISE ENCHANTED SCENTED BLUSH IN JUST CURIOUS, AND ROUGE SIGNATURE LASTING MATTE LIQUID LIPSTICK IN I AM WORTH IT BY L’ORÉAL PARIS. NAIL POLISH IN WICKED BY ESSIE.

    Gemma Chan is perched on a chair in her dimly lit hotel room, barefoot, hair pulled back into a bun that didn’t quite catch the front pieces. She is telling me that all she wants, after the biggest year yet in her career, is to get a dog. A rescue, probably. For the first time all night, she is just Gemma.

    Moments earlier, she was holding court in a voluminous, rose-colored couture gown. It was like a scene in a movie: two seamstresses flitting about her, making sure that her crinoline petticoat is fluffed just so, that the train grazes the floor perfectly, and that the ruffle on the gown’s bodice flounces at just the right height, all done under the direction of designer Jason Wu. With newfound fame comes newfound scrutiny. The grosgrain ribbon she deftly lobbied to be sewn on at the waist would be noted in the press a week later.

    And yet even after the fitting, in a comfy gray sweater and cropped jeans, she still exudes an otherworldly quality. That’s partly due to her measured, soft, and properly British way of speaking and partly due to her looks. Her face is symmetrical to a degree that seems statistically improbable, complete with high cheekbones, bright eyes, and full lips, which may explain why she’s often cast in extraordinary roles: the self-sacrificing android Mia in the British TV series Humans, Nick Young’s flawless but troubled cousin Astrid in Crazy Rich Asians, and most recently, the sharp-shooting space sniper Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. “I’m not allowed to talk about it very much,” Chan says, “but she’s part of an elite special-forces team that Brie Larson’s character is part of, and Jude Law is our commander. She’s a sniper, and she’s very, very good at her job.”


    HILLIER BARTLEY TOP. MAKEUP COLORS: EXHIBITIONIST MASCARA IN VERY BLACK, TRUBLEND SERVING SCULPT CONTOUR PALETTE IN BLOOM BABE, AND MELTING POUT VINYL VOW LIP COLOR IN NUDIST’S DREAM BY COVERGIRL.

    Speaking of which, Chan almost had another career entirely. She graduated from Oxford University in 2004 with a law degree and was offered a job with a leading law firm in London but turned it down. Instead, she enrolled at the prestigious Drama Centre in London. Prestigious or not, Chan has publicly confirmed that her parents, both hardworking Chinese immigrants who earned advanced degrees in Scotland against tremendous odds (in her father’s case, surviving two years of homelessness and putting his five siblings through school), thought the move to drama was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

    Chan’s laundry list of accomplishments (she was also a competitive swimmer and almost became a professional violinist) strongly suggests exacting, overachiever tendencies. But it’s not so simple. “I was away on an orchestra trip in Italy, and I went missing for a night. They freaked out, thinking I’d gotten lost, but I was in a boys’ room smoking and drinking,” Chan says. “I behaved pretty badly.” She was 12 years old. I tell her about my first drinking experience, in my early teens, drinking vodka straight. “Oh, my God. Did you pass out?” she asks. I did not. I can really hold my liquor. A smile flashes across her face. “I can really hold my liquor as well.”


    OSCAR DE LA RENTA AND DRIES VAN NOTEN RINGS.

    Chan recounts another story of her younger, schoolgirl self, her jaw shut tight, soldiering home in blood-stained socks without shedding a single tear after falling from her scooter. It strikes me as extremely fitting when I learn that one of her many early jobs — stocking shelves in the U.K. drugstore chain Boots, working at a mall perfume counter — was as a lifeguard. She assures me it was not glamorous, joking that it “basically involved cleaning people’s pubes from the shower drain.” She does not tell me that she prevented a little girl from drowning until I offer that I was also a lifeguard but never attempted a rescue. When I suggest that she saved a life, she looks visibly uncomfortable and explains: “I saw a girl in trouble. She must have been three or four. But she was within reach, so I just scooped her out. It wasn’t anything major.”

    Then there was the time she saw a man on the sidewalk near a train station get stabbed in the neck. It was rush hour, and she was on her way to see a play. “No one else seemed to notice. People were kind of stepping around him. I went to go help the guy. I turned him over, and then I looked up and just locked eyes with his attacker,” Chan says. “In that moment I thought, This is it. He’s going to come back and stab me, and I probably won’t be able to outrun him.” Luckily, a train pulled into the station, a stream of people exited, and the attacker disappeared into the crowd. Chan asked a passerby to call for medical help. Thinking quickly, she urged another to take a photo of the attacker as he made his getaway. The victim died before the ambulance arrived, but she was able to identify the attacker and later served as a witness in the trial. “I still replay it in my mind. Should I have stuck my fingers in the guy’s neck and tried to, like, hold [a vein]?” she says. “I don’t know.”


    GIVENCHY DRESS AND SHOES. MAKEUP COLORS: LID POP IN PETAL POP, CHUBBY STICK CHEEK COLOUR BALM IN ROBUST RHUBARB, AND DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT LIPSTICK SHAPING LIP COLOUR IN CRUSH BY CLINIQUE.

    Clearly, Chan is not timid in a crisis. But she insists that she is “actually quite shy” and “socially awkward” and that she works hard to mask it. I am surprised that this is one of the few things she tells me outright about her personality, particularly when I think back to our first interaction. She playfully peered over the top of the railing next to the booth where I was sitting, called my name, smiled brightly when I confirmed it was me, and bounded up the stairs to our booth.

    Within five minutes, she had established that my dress and her Breton-stripe shirt were from the same store (an offshoot of the fashion brand H&M called "& Other Stories"), asked about my day, found out where I was from, and ordered us olives to munch on while we sipped orange juice (her, trying to detox from a battery of awards-season after-parties) and wine (me, trying to summon the courage to ask personal questions) and waited for our entrées (both, pasta). She stops midconversation, conspiratorially, and enlists me to people-watch with her. (She thinks she may recognize someone in the booth closest to us.)

    So it’s for good reason that I remain dubious about her shyness claim until she puts a finer point on it: “In a new social situation, I’d much rather sit back and let other people talk first,” Chan says. “I prefer to listen and, I suppose, get the measure of people before I necessarily give them all of me.” She does let me do most of the talking at first and, during our conversation, lets out a torrent of thoughts on a topic before stopping short, as if remembering that I am both a stranger and a reporter, becoming more reserved until a familiar or provocative thought warms her up again. She may think of herself as shy, but she comes across as thoughtful. And acutely self-aware. In all fairness, she has to be.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  6. #111
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    Continued from previous post

    "Why are actors of color only allowed to play their own race? And sometimes they’re not even allowed to play their own race. If John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, I can play Bess of Hardwick."
    Due to the dearth of Asian actresses with significant fame, Chan has become a de facto standard-bearer for Asian representation in film and TV. I assumed that she would be tired of talking about it after doing so in nearly every interview during her Crazy Rich Asians press tour and countless others. She is not. She is fully Chinese by heritage, but Chan describes her racial identity as “compound. I feel British, and European, and English, and Chinese, and Asian.” She brings up the Internet trolls who took issue with her playing Queen Elizabeth’s confidante, Bess of Hardwick, in the period piece Mary Queen of Scots because she isn’t white.

    “Why are actors of color, who have fewer opportunities anyway, only allowed to play their own race? And sometimes they’re not even allowed to play their own race,” Chan says. “In the past, the role would be given to a white actor who would tape up their eyes and do the role in yellowface. John Wayne played Genghis Khan. If John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, I can play Bess of Hardwick.”

    .
    VALENTINO DRESS. OSCAR DE LA RENTA RINGS. DRIES VAN NOTEN RING. MAKEUP COLORS: CAVIAR STICK EYE COLOUR IN INTENSE MOONLIGHT, BLUSH COLOUR INFUSION IN FRESCO, AND STICKGLOSS LIP CONTOUR IN BROWN SUGAR BY LAURA MERCIER.

    “I feel like Hamilton opened minds a lot. We have a black man playing George Washington. They describe it as ‘America then, told by America now.’ And I think our art should reflect life now,” Chan says. And life then, too. Last year, Chan worked on a documentary about the Chinese Labour Corps. “I studied the First World War three times at school. And I never heard that there were 140,000 Chinese in the Allied effort,” she says. “We would not have won the war without them.”

    I never heard about those Chinese laborers, either. In large part, it’s because of the images that remain. Chan tells me about a mural made to commemorate that war. It was massive, she says. There was a whole section dedicated to the Chinese, but it was painted over when the Americans joined the war effort. “They left one kneeling Chinese figure, which you can still see,” she says. “If people understood that, my parents [might not] have been told, ‘Go home, go back to where you came from’ multiple times. If we portray a pure white past, people start to believe that’s how it was, and that’s not how it was.”


    BALENCIAGA DRESS. MOUNSER EARRINGS. MAKEUP COLORS: GRANDIÔSE LINER IN MATTE SAPHIR, DÉFINICILS MASCARA IN BLACK, AND LE MONOCHROMATIQUE BLUSH IN MADEMOISELLE BY LANCÔME.

    Chan playing Bess of Hardwick is a step toward visibility. Chan playing Minn-Erva is, too (the Marvel character is blue and has dark hair, but the alien’s race in the comics is ambiguous). Chan’s newfound media prominence gives her a platform, and she’s embracing it. Wu is just one of several Asian designers whose clothes Chan has worn in recent red-carpet appearances. After seeing photos of a New York City screening of Crazy Rich Asians hosted by Prabal Gurung and other prominent Asian-Americans in fashion, and attended by Asian designers, editors, and makeup artists, Chan committed to wearing Asian designers (Prabal Gurung, Kenzo, Altuzarra, Adeam) for the majority of that press tour. “I was just so moved,” she says.

    "If we portray a pure white past, people start to believe that’s how it was, and that’s not how it was. If people understood that, my parents might not have been told, ‘Go home, go back to where you came from’ multiple times."
    Chan repeatedly underscores that it’s not just about Asian representation. She mentions Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther as important for their nearly all-black casts. Captain Marvel features the first stand-alone woman title character in the Marvel franchise. It’s also the first Marvel movie directed by a woman. Chan also celebrates “what Prabal Gurung’s been doing — putting models on the runway who are plus-size, who are transgender,” she says. “I love opening up a magazine and seeing a whole mixture of body types, gray hair, dark skin, wrinkles — we’re saying that we find these things beautiful.”


    COLOR COATED MARC JACOBS COAT. GIVENCHY SHOES. DRIES VAN NOTEN RINGS. MAKEUP COLORS: HIGHLINER GEL EYE CRAYON EYELINER IN BLUE ME AWAY, AIR BLUSH SOFT GLOW DUO IN KINK & KISSES, AND LE MARC LIP CRÈME LIPSTICK IN SLOW BURN BY MARC JACOBS BEAUTY

    Chan could talk about this all night. We nearly do. And don’t get her started on U.K. politics (I do anyway) — it’s such a mess, she tells me. “My issue with politicians like David Cameron, of the Conservative Party, whose fault all of this Brexit stuff is — he went from Eton to Oxford, then I think he worked for a time in communications before going straight into Parliament. He’s lived such a privileged life without any real interaction with anyone who’s having to live under his government’s policy. And I think that distance, that disconnect, is so damaging,” Chan says. “I’m so grateful for my work. But sometimes it feels almost absurd to be going onto a set to play kind of make-believe. There are so many things that demand our attention.”

    Like Time’s Up — Chan is involved with the Justice and Equality Fund, the U.K. equivalent of the movement’s Legal Defense Fund. “You have to attack [the problem] on a regulatory level while also trying to change the culture,” she says. “This is all going to take time.” She also partnered with fellow British actress Ruth Wilson and the British Film Institute to do educational workshops with more than 400 drama-school students on how to protect yourself from compromising audition situations, understand nudity clauses, and recognize other abuses of power. “What’s going to be expected of you if you have to do a sex scene? What if you get asked to do something you’re not comfortable with? How can you say no?” Chan says. “These are things they don’t teach you in drama school.”

    “What’s going to be expected of you if you have to do a sex scene, [or] asked to do something you’re not comfortable with? How can you say no? These are things they don’t teach you in drama school.”
    Between aiming to shift industry norms and taking on superhuman roles, what could be next on Chan’s list of things to do? Being vulnerable, it turns out. In an as-yet-untitled Dominic Savage drama coming out later this year, she’s playing an ordinary (OK, ridiculously beautiful) woman “who is feeling very under pressure to start a family,” Chan says. “Everyone she knows is having babies, settling down, becoming a mother, and, um, she feels like she’s an anomaly for not being sure whether she wants that.”

    She doesn’t share details about her own relationship, but it’s been widely reported that Chan is dating actor Dominic Cooper after splitting from longtime beau Jack Whitehall more than a year ago. She and Cooper made their first public appearance together at the British Fashion Awards in December. Something about Chan’s tone of voice, the way she talks about this role, makes it feel a little nearer than fiction. But I don’t have to ask. “It’s drawing on a lot of me in it,” Chan admits. “It’s exciting and terrifying in equal measure.”

    Fashion stylist: Karen Kaiser. Hair: Kevin Ryan. Makeup: James Kaliardos. Manicure: Casey Herman. Set design: Juliet Jernigan. Production: Heather Robbins.

    A version of this article originally appeared in the April 2019 issue of Allure.
    THREADS:
    yellow face/white washing
    Crazy Rich Asians
    Captain Marvel
    Gene Ching
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  7. #112
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    Another great VICE article



    RACISM
    |
    By Marvin Xin Ku
    |
    Mar 28 2019, 4:53am
    What I Learned About Racism as the Only Chinese Person at a 'Chinese' Festival
    Every year, 20,000 people come together to wear eyeliner and shout "Ni hao" at each other at a Chinese festival in the Bavarian town of Dietfurt.

    This article originally appeared on VICE Germany

    It's everywhere. The local butcher shop has been renamed "The China Butcher Shop", while the bakery has transformed into a "Chinese Bakery" selling fresh "Chinese donuts and pretzels". There's light beer, dark oak furniture and red Chinese lanterns. The phrase "Ni hao!" is being shouted out at will.

    Amid all this, I am the only real-life Chinese person in sight.


    Dietfurt locals in "traditional Asian outfits" enjoy a drink.

    The source of my confusion lies in the small German city of Dietfurt, situated along the Altmühl river in the south-east of the country. Every Thursday before Ash Wednesday, the city is transformed into "Bavarian China", and its inhabitants become "Chinese", dressing up in "traditional" clothing and wearing yellowface makeup. This annual festival is not some niche sideshow – around 20,000 people flock to Dietfurt every year to take part.

    I grew up in northern Germany as the child of Chinese immigrants, and had experienced racism by the time I was in kindergarten – before I even knew what it was. I've come to Dietfurt to get an understanding not only of this bizarre tradition, but also the people behind it. What motivates the people of Dietfurt to hold this seemingly racist celebration year after year? And can "tradition" ever be a good enough excuse?

    The Wake-Up Call

    It's 1AM on the morning of the carnival. Thirty locals dressed in fur vests, red wigs and colourful face paint are gathered in a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of the city. Loud, celebratory singing can be heard coming from inside. This is the traditional wake-up call. From here, the group of clowns will noisily make their way through the town to wake everyone up and officially inaugurate the carnival.

    One of these clowns is Franz, a Dietfurt native with a strong local accent, tattooed arms and a flashy metal necklace. He's wearing a yellow bathrobe embroidered with flowers and a wig that looks like a giant piece of candy floss. His beard is braided into two pigtails tied with colourful bobbles. Franz is 56 years old, and for the last 38 of them he's participated in the carnival wake-up call.

    "In the past, we've covered over 24 kilometres in a day," he tells me, adding that he and his fellow clowns take their roles very seriously – promising that nothing will stop them from completing their duties. "It doesn't matter if we get blitzed by ice or 15 centimetres of snow."


    Franz.

    Instead of the racist Chinese jokes I had expected, they're serving hot and sour soup with rye bread today. Franz beckons to the Chinese chef, Yuen, and orders another bowl for me. "Want some more bread, lad?" he asks. I've been at the table with Franz for less than 30 minutes, but I already feel like I belong here.

    At 2AM we set off to wake up the local celebrities – the mayor, the dentist and the carnival's organising committee. Some play trumpets and trombones, and two men push a giant antique double-barrel cannon. "Whenever it goes off, the neighbouring town stands to attention," says Franz. Together, we march towards the city centre.

    Dietfurt has 6,000 inhabitants but looks much smaller. There are more butchers than supermarkets, more inns than kebab shops. The one main street is called "Main Street", and there's a street named after the town's train station – though there's no longer a train station. A bus leaves five times a day and residents delight in telling me that it's easier to get out of Dietfurt than in.

    So how did this festival wind up here?



    Legend has it that long ago, the Bishop of the nearby town of Eichstätt sent his treasurer to Dietfurt to collect taxes. The people of Dietfurt got wind of it, so they barricaded the city gates and left the treasurer outside. He stomped back in a rage and complained that the Dietfurtians were hiding behind their walls "like the Chinese". If and when this might actually have happened isn't exactly clear.

    Either way, Dietfurt has chosen to identify itself with Chinese culture ever since. In 1928, the Dietfurt City Orchestra were the first to play dress up – 16 men and women wearing rice hats, Chinese plaits and robes. In 1954, Dietfurt chose its first emperor.
    continued next post
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  8. #113
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    Continued from previous post

    The Emperor

    Sixty-five years later, Manfred Koller looks into his bathroom mirror and carefully applies some eyeliner. The 51-year-old bricklayer is leaning over the sink holding a small bottle of golden glitter with a pot of kohl and an eyeliner pencil nearby. In a few hours he will become "Emperor Fu-Gao-Di".

    The emperor has a full day planned: a visit to a kindergarten, a lunch of traditional white sausage, a press reception and a podium gala. He picks up the pot of kohl and dabs a bit of colour into the corner of his eye.


    Koller putting on his makeup.

    I ask him what he's doing. "I'm trying to make the shape of my eyes look like slits," he says. I see.

    If he thinks it's awkward to paint on slitty eyes while I'm standing right next to him, he doesn't show it. "Have you ever stopped to think that you might be offending some people with all this?" I ask. "Nah, not at all, because it's just a way of emphasising facial contours, so it's not that bad," he says.

    The emperor licks a cotton swab and fills in his facial hair – which is already shaped like a Fu Manchu beard – with black makeup. He finds this subject matter "a bit tough" to talk about. His intentions aren't bad, he says – on the contrary, in fact. "We think Chinese culture is very interesting," he says. "There's never been a real Chinese person who had a problem with it."


    The emperor is ready.

    The emperor believes he's making more of an effort to pay homage to Chinese culture by importing his costumes from China. When he can't, for whatever reason, he wears custom-made replicas.

    In his "carnival corner", a sort of shrine to China, stands a stone statue of Guan Yu protected by three samurai swords. Guan Yu was an ancient general who is seen today as a symbol of strength. At first, the emperor claims the statue and swords were "a gift from China", but later admits "they're not from China, but they sure look like it".

    For his emperor name he wanted something "authentic", he says. A Chinese friend helped Manfred do research and decided upon the name Fu-Gao-Di. "'Spot on,' I thought at the time. 'I can pronounce that!'" the emperor laughs.


    Dietfurt school children perform in a gymnasium.

    Two hours later, the name roars through a school gymnasium. "Fu-Gao-Di! Fu-Gao-Di!" The gym is lined with Hulks, clowns and Princess Elsas.

    "Greetings to you, my offspring!" the emperor roars into a microphone. The children scream "Fu-Gao-Di! Fu-Gao-Di!" in delight and stomp their feet on the floor. At the front door there are two Chinese camera crews capturing every moment of this display.



    It's 11AM and a journalist from a local Bavarian TV station is besieging anyone who looks Asian to ask what what they think of the whole thing.

    Next, it's time for a morning pint. The Sheippl Tavern is overflowing and smells of beer and fresh pretzels. I squeeze in at the emperor's table and greet him with a hearty "Ni hao!" He's wearing a golden robe and an oblong hat with pearls, which makes him look like a Bavarian version of the emperor in Mulan. He orders white sausage with mustard, which we share with a man dressed as a Buddhist monk.


    Enjoying some bratwurst with the emperor.

    This doesn't really feel right, but it doesn't feel completely wrong either. Yes, the streets are teeming with visitors in yellowface and people dressed as Chinese caricatures. And yes, this is all clearly utter nonsense, justified with claims that no harm is meant. But at the same time, there are a few people from Dietfurt who are trying to make an honest effort. There's Pia, who works at the tourist office and brings speakers who are actually Chinese to take part in the festival. There's Horst, who is wearing a changshan, a traditional men's tunic that he bought in Beijing in 1996. There's Max, who spent 110 hours carving the dragon's crown for the emperor.

    Dietfurt has a cultural partnership with the city of Nanjing, which holds a Bavarian-Chinese Friendship Festival every summer. The Chinese Consul General is invited to Dietfurt's Carnival every year. Of course, there is no excuse for yellowface, but deep down, in some parts of Dietfurt, there does seem to be a genuine appreciation of Chinese culture.



    The Parade

    By 1PM, the people of Dietfurt are out in full force. Next to me, a group of Chinese people from Munich take photos, astonished. "How can an entire town love Chinese people so much?" one of them asks me.

    When the parade begins, it's so crowded you can hardly move. Soon, I'm being hit in the head with sweets thrown from floats to the crowd below. But I'm too much in the zone to be annoyed, and I roar back: "FU-GAO-DI!" The emperor is coming.

    He climbs off his dragon float, makes his way up to his throne and starts reading from a golden book, telling the crowd about the eternal friendship that exists between China and Germany. Dietfurt goes ballistic.


    20,000 people turned up to greet the Emperor.

    The next day, the town is recovering from a collective hangover. The streets are littered with noodles and broken glass bottles. I walk into a butcher's shop and bump into six drunk men who are still celebrating.

    "Konnichiwaaa!" one shouts.
    "Good god! A real Chinese person, what's he doing here?" another adds.
    "You know, being Chinese isn't a very good costume," a third says.

    Comments like these don't make me angry anymore, unfortunately. I know them all too well, which is exactly the problem. If you look different, racism remains a constant part of your life. The question is how you choose to live with it.


    The author in his natural habitat.

    For me, racism means writing people off based entirely on their origin or skin colour. Or when people think a "Chinese costume" consists of a kimono and chopsticks, "because it's all Asian anyway". But how devaluing is it when a whole city celebrates their perception of Chinese culture? Calling themselves Chinese, having a Chinese landmark in their town and regularly receiving guests from China?

    In Dietfurt, I learned that intent and appreciation play a role in all of this. To me, there's a big difference between people who put on yellowface or wear a clumsy outfit, and those who show a genuine interest in Chinese culture. The qipao and changshan are traditional Chinese garments that aren't worn much anymore in modern China. Cultural appropriation? Maybe. But it's somewhat touching to see some people in Dietfurt more concerned with "my culture" than I am.

    Yes, considerable portions of Dietfurt's Chinese carnival are racist, but that doesn't reflect on everyone taking part. I was welcomed warmly during the festivities – as a Chinese person, and as a human being in general. The racism I experienced didn't necessarily come from the people dressing up in awkward cultural clichés. It came from the people – often visitors from outside of town – who couldn't or didn't want to distinguish between what's fake Chinese and what's genuinely Chinese.

    This article originally appeared on VICE DE.
    This takes 'yellow face' to a whole new level.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  9. #114
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    We are Siamese if you please

    We are Siamese if you don't please

    MAY 6, 2019 8:00AM PT
    ‘Lady and the Tramp’ Will Reinvent Problematic Siamese Cat Song, Feature New Music From Janelle Monae (EXCLUSIVE)

    By MATT DONNELLY and CHRIS WILLMAN



    Grammy winner Janelle Monae will contribute new music to the Disney Plus streaming title “Lady and the Tramp,” in addition to her voice role in the live-action reboot.

    Monae will perform two original songs for the film, led by Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux. Monae’s artist collective Wondaland is also “reinventing” a track from the original 1955 animated movie, individuals close to the project said.

    That would be “The Siamese Cat Song,” originally recorded by Peggy Lee for the feline duo Si and Am in the animated version. Those characters and their famous refrain — “We are Siamese if you please / We are Siamese if you don’t please” — have long been considered a cringe-worthy depiction of Asian culture.

    Wondaland contributors Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Roman GianArthur are working on a different take for the pair, who in the new film are not Siamese cats, the insiders added. Walt Disney Studios confirmed Monae’s musical involvement, as did a rep for the singer.

    “We’re dealing with Wondaland, her team of incredibly creative writers and producers that she works with. So our director has engaged with her in terms of what the storytelling [of] the song needs to be,” Kaylin Frank, a vice president in Creative Music and Soundtracks at Disney, said at the recent MUSEXPO Creative Summit in Burbank, Calif.

    Frank reassured the conference that while the film is set in 1910 and has a blues-ragtime vibe, Monae’s personal sound will be represented. There’s also a possibility Wondaland will do a pass on the film’s signature song “He’s A Tramp,” another individual added.

    In a 2013 analysis of the cat song at culture blog Flavorwire, one author found the depiction of Si and Am a result of a post WWII anxiety America had about the foreign “other,” saying they came to represent a duplicitous and seductive team with shady motives.

    “They have no individuality; their innocent blue eyes bend into a sinister glare as they cave at the slant. They are jaundiced and sly; sick and feral; domesticated, though nevertheless propelled by their mischievous, impish nature to deceive and intimidate,” wrote author Marcus Hunter, who called them a “colonist nightmare.”

    A retooling of the cat song would not be the first upgrade Disney has given to an animated classic seeing live-action translation. Who among us will soon forget the noise around the “exclusively gay” moment director Bill Condon added to Emma Watson’s “Beauty and the Beast” — in service of Josh Gad’s character Le Fou, who in that original animation pined for the beefy alpha male Gaston with no clear motivation.

    Upcoming live-action takes like “Aladdin” and “Mulan” will also accurately represent the racial makeup of their respective characters.

    The OTT service Disney Plus is expected to launch in mid-November, and “Lady” soon after.
    I confess, I kinda luv that song.
    Gene Ching
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  10. #115
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    not Miss India...nooooooooooo

    Photograph of Miss India finalists stirs debate over country's obsession with fair skin
    Published 31st May 2019


    Credit: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto via Getty Images
    Photograph of Miss India finalists stirs debate over country's obsession with fair skin

    Written by
    Tara John, CNN
    Swati Gupta, CNN

    What began as an innocent collage of this year's Miss India finalists has evolved into a heated social media debate about India's obsession with fair skin.
    The image, published in the Times of India newspaper, had 30 head-shots of glossy-haired finalists who all appeared to share the same fair skin tone.
    In a country with 1.3 billion people, hundreds of languages and myriad ethnic groups, Twitter users suggested that beauty pageant organizers were only choosing contestants that perpetuate Eurocentric beauty ideals.
    "They all have the same hair, and the SAME SKIN COLOUR, and I'm going to hazard a guess that their heights and vital stats will also be similar," another Twitter user Prasanna Ratanjankar wrote.

    View image on Twitter

    labellagorda
    @labellagorda
    Miss India contestants. They all have the same hair, and the SAME SKIN COLOUR, and I'm going to hazard a guess that their heights and vital stats will also be similar. So much for India being a 'diverse' country.

    1,490
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    While the contestants' skin tone looks particularly light and appearance especially uniform in the collage that caused a stir online, other photographs and videos of the contestants reveal them to be not as fair-skinned as the Times of India's image. The Times of India and Femina, the organization that hosts the pageant, have the same parent company -- Bennett, Coleman & Co.
    The controversy around the Times of India's photograph, however, highlighted a sensitive issue in India, where Miss India is a huge cultural event.
    The competition helped to launch the careers of actress Priyanka Chopra and Bollywood icon Aishwarya Rai, and has become a beacon of national pride when winners go on to bring home international titles, such as Miss World.
    The winner of Miss India titles are typically "groomed for the global beauty stage," said Radhika Parameswaran, a professor at Indiana University's Media School. "There is a perception they have to emulate Western beauty standards to win."
    The organizers of Miss India declined to comment.
    The fact that India has won the Miss World contest six times could have convinced pageant organizers to stick to a type, says Kavitha Emmanuel, founder of the Indian NGO Women of Worth, which campaigns for gender equality and against the bias toward lighter skin.
    The infatuation with fairness now goes much deeper than pageants. "It is a toxic belief that has become part of our culture," Emmanuel explained.
    Parameswaran is currently researching the backlash against colorism, a term that means "a form of skin color stratification and skin color discrimination that assigns lighter-skinned individuals and particularly women greater worth and value." It's an issue, she said, that is very much alive in India.
    "Colorism and racism are Siamese twins and cannot be separated," she added.
    National obsession
    The obsession with fairness can begin before a baby is even born in some parts of India, with some pregnant Indian women drinking saffron-infused milk to make their infant's skin fairer. Others avoid iron supplements in the misplaced belief it will make their unborn child darker. These practices, however, have become far less common in areas where wealth and education levels have improved.
    "We still have matrimonial adverts in newspaper which say, 'wanted: fair, slim brides,'" Emmanuel said.
    Escape the corset: How South Koreans are pushing back against beauty standards
    It is a problem that primarily affects women, as men's financial worth is generally deemed more important than their beauty. "Women's bodies are their currency," Parameswaran said.
    Cosmetic brands globally have profited from the insecurity, cashing in on a multi-million dollar industry of creams, skin bleaches and invasive procedures that promise to lighten skin. The demand for whiteners is projected to reach $31 billion by 2024, up from $18 billion in 2017, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, according to market intelligence firm Global Industry Analysts. Routine skin whitener use ranges from 25% in Mali to 77% in Nigeria, and it's 40% in China, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea, according to the World Health Organization.
    "Very little of the world is untouched by colorism," Parameswaran said.
    A 2017 study found that more than half of 1,992 men and women surveyed about product use in India had tried skin whiteners and close to half (44.6%) felt the need to try such products due to media such as TV and advertisements.


    Priyanka Chopra won Miss World when she was 18 years old. Credit: HUGO PHILPOTT/AFP/Getty Images

    The country's enduring legacy of caste is often credited as a root cause of the problem, with those from the lower caste group, known as the Dalits, being associated with darker skin, Parameswaran said.
    "That is because caste is an occupational-based hierarchy with the lowest of the caste being assigned the tasks of manual labor," she added, which is often outdoor work. The Dalits are discriminated against as being "unclean," are considered untouchable by the higher castes, which are associated with fairness.
    There are also regional differences, especially between North and South India, at play as well.
    Both Parameswaran and Emmanuel said the obsession with fair skin could lead to a range of socio-economic problems, including low self-worth and mental health issues, as well as have an impact on job and marriage prospects.
    "A small survey we did found children are affected the most," Emmanuel said, adding that some three-year-olds were being told they were "not fair enough" at school.
    Paradigm shift needed


    The demand for whiteners is climbing and is projected to be worth more than $30 billion in the next five years. Credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images

    Within this landscape, there are voices pushing for change. Emmanuel founded the Dark is Beautiful campaign, which includes advocacy programs to address color bias and has been endorsed by Bollywood actor Nandita Das.
    In a series of posts in 2017, another Bollywood star, Abhay Deol, called out his fellow actors for endorsing skin-whitening brands. Since then, a number of Instagram influencers and brands have jumped on the inclusivity bandwagon.
    "There is no one face that represents India," Anushka Kelkar, the 22-year-old photographer behind the Instagram account browngirlgazin, which won plaudits for its honest portrayal of Indian women from different backgrounds.
    "I have friends from Kashmir who are asked if they are Indian and friends from Kerala who have been asked if they are African. People look different and it is time we started embracing that," she said.
    But the fact there is a conversation about color bias in India means things are moving forward, Kelkar added.
    Still, Emmanuel and Parameswaran said they believe the country is a long way off real change. "We need a paradigm shift in the way we think about what people look like," Emmanuel said.
    "Indians have not only misrepresented what Indians should look like to themselves, they have misinterpreted Indians to the rest of the world," Emmanuel added. "We have not represented our country well."

    CNN's Marian Liu and Tanzina Vega contributed to this report.
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  11. #116
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    yellow face in DSPR?

    Asian Art Advocates Accuse the Shed of ‘Yellow-Face Casting’ in Its Kung-Fu Musical. But Its Director Says the Character Is Actually White
    Advocacy groups wrote a letter calling the "Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise" casting "offensive and unacceptable."
    Taylor Dafoe, July 24, 2019


    Dancers from Dragon Spring Phoniex Rise attend a rehearsal at the Tisch Skylights inside the The Shed. Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

    Asian American advocacy groups are accusing the Shed of promoting racial stereotypes in its new “kung fu musical,” Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise. The production follows a twin brother and sister who uncover a secret group in Queens that has developed the power to extend human life. It was directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and co-written by Kung Fu Panda creators Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

    Last week, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition laid out its complaints in an open letter submitted to the Shed’s director, Alex Poots, and its board of directors. (The letter was co-signed by the Asian American Arts Alliance and eight other cultural groups working in theater and the arts.)

    “Your production appropriates Chinese culture, mixing it with western pop influences, relying on the most reductive tropes of the kung fu genre while providing no cultural context,” the letter reads. “It makes little effort to humanize or add nuance to the Chinese American characters, but instead, relies on stereotypes for characterization.”

    The letter castigates the museum for employing white writers, musicians, and production teams, and for casting a white actor in one of the show’s main roles, a Grandmaster named Lone Peak. “The decision to use yellow face casting is offensive and unacceptable to us and we demand a public explanation,” the letter reads.



    Poots offered that response this week in an email to group leaders: “We value your raising important issues. One of our primary goals is to be inclusive, and respectful to all. We will take into account your thoughts as we continue to commission works and would be happy to meet with members of your organization.”

    The Shed has also released a statement, credited to Poots, that further addresses the concerns raised in the letter. “This new work, which was commissioned by The Shed and privately funded, uses multiple art forms—kung fu, dance, music, song, and text—to create an allegory for the immigrant experience, transforming iconic Chinese images, movement, and ideas into a contemporary American context and modern-day fable,” the statement reads.

    It goes on to “acknowledge that some important aspects of Dragon need clarification.” Most significantly, that the character of Lone Peak, played by and written for David Patrick Kelly, was intended to be white and was “actually based on a Caucasian American instructor” who taught the actor during his own 30 years of martial arts training.

    “This feels to us like whitewashing, using Asian tropes to tell a story that is not really about Asians at all,” a representative of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition told artnet News, referring to Poots’s statement.

    The organization is in the process of putting together a response to the Shed’s director, but has no other plans for action at this time.
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  12. #117
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    The HBO TV show

    So is this Parasite TV series going to be whitewashed?

    Mark Ruffalo Talks 'Parasite' TV Role & Disney+'s 'She-Hulk'
    As well as addressing Martin Scorsese’s thoughts on the MCU.


    Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For Disney
    Entertainment
    2 Hrs ago
    By Eric Brain

    Mark Ruffalo, who recently appeared at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo to answer a number of fan questions, has alluded that he may be taking a roll in the TV adaptation of Parasite.

    Addressing the speculation that he would be joining the HBO series, Ruffalo said “We’ve met. I love him [Bong Joon-ho], I love that movie… I might be playing the father in Parasite on a television show. I would love to do it. We’re sort of waiting on the script and all that, but yeah, that’s pretty much true and in the works.”

    Ruffalo also addressed rumors surrounding Disney+‘s She-Hulk, and although he was considerably quiet on the matter, he did say that “preliminary talks” were in place in reigniting his character, the Hulk, in the new series. Other notable moments from Ruffalo’s panel discussion include him discussing Martin Scorsese, who recently told Empire in an interview that the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are not “cinema.”

    At the time, Scorsese said, “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

    According to Comicbook and despite Scorsese’s thoughts, Ruffalo answered an audience member’s question about who he’d like to work with on an MCU movie. He said, “That hasn’t done any Marvel movies? Martin Scorsese? I have worked with him, but I think he would make an amazing Marvel movie. It would be so dark. It would look a lot like Joker. That’s a great question, I need to put more time into that.”
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  13. #118
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    Feige regrets white washing

    May 20, 2021 7:27am PT
    Kevin Feige Admits Marvel Shouldn’t Have Whitewashed Tilda Swinton’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Character


    By Jordan Moreau


    Courtesy of Marvel
    Marvel film “Doctor Strange” courted some controversy when it cast actor Tilda Swinton, a white woman, in the role of The Ancient One, who is typically portrayed in the comics as an Asian man. Marvel Studios defended the casting leading up to the release, but now president Kevin Feige has addressed the controversy and admitted the company could have handled it differently.

    In 2016, Marvel Studios released a statement about Swinton’s casting, saying “Marvel has a very strong record of diversity in its casting of films and regularly departs from stereotypes and source material to bring its MCU to life. The Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic. We are very proud to have the enormously talented Tilda Swinton portray this unique and complex character alongside our richly diverse cast.”

    On Wednesday, Feige spoke to Men’s Health for a cover story on the upcoming Asian-led Marvel film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” saying that “Doctor Strange” could have cast an Asian actor.

    “We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge,” he said. “We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

    At the time, “Doctor Strange” director Scott Derrickson and co-star Benedict Wong defended Swinton’s casting, while other Asian actors and visibility groups criticized it.

    In a major push for diversity, “Shang-Chi” will be the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly Asian cast, with the lead role being played by Simu Liu. The film hits theaters September 3.
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  14. #119
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    I'm going to the screener of Bullet Train tomorrow

    ‘Bullet Train’ Director, Writer and ‘Maria Beetle’ Author Explain Choice to Cast Non-Japanese Actors: The Characters Are “Not Real People”
    Author Kōtarō Isaka says his story's ragtag crew of killers are maybe "not even Japanese," in response to criticism of how the film cast most of the assassins from his popular novel set in Japan.

    BY ABBEY WHITE
    JULY 28, 2022 9:45AM

    Bryan Tyree Henry and Brad Pitt in 'Bullet Train' SCOTT GARFIELD

    The Maria Beetle author, alongside the director and writer of its big screen adaptation Bullet Train, have opened up about the film’s decision to cast non-Japenese actors in the upcoming Sony feature film.

    In an interview with The New York Times, author Kōtarō Isaka was asked about how his story — which was originally published in Japan in 2010 and had its English language debut in print last year — has been adapted by Hollywood.

    According to the Times, the author regards his characters as “ethnically malleable,” and maintains his original Japanese setting and context do not matter as much, as the story’s ragtag crew of killers are “not real people, and maybe they’re not even Japanese.”

    Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, said Isaka’s stance on Bullet Train‘s casting “gave us comfort in honoring its Japanese soul but at the same time giving the movie a chance to get big giant movie stars and have it work on a global scale.”

    For Bullet Train screenwriter Zak Olkewicz, the decision to cast beyond Japanese — or even more broadly with different Asian talent — “just shows you the strength of the original author’s work and how this could be a story that could transcend race anyway.”

    The decisions around the film’s casting choices have been heavily criticized online, including by Asian American media and cultural groups, who have argued that the movie whitewashes the original story’s ensemble of Japanese assassins by casting non-Japanese actors in many of the film’s most prominent roles. (The exception is Japanese actor Koji, who plays Kimura, one of the main assassins in the movie out in theaters on Aug. 5.)

    Speaking to AsAmNews in March, David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, echoed sentiments that the movie’s casting was an act of whitewashing, as Bullet Train is a story that remains set in Japan and is based around characters that were originally Japanese.

    “Foreigners, or gaijin, remain a distinct minority in Japan, and to populate the movie with so many in the leading roles is ignoring the setting,” he said, before speaking to how the film undermines recent progress made in Hollywood around casting Asian and Asian American talent. “This movie seeks to affirm the belief that Asian actors in the leading roles cannot carry a blockbuster, despite all the recent evidence indicating otherwise, beginning with Crazy Rich Asians and extending to Shang Chi.”

    While speaking to the New York Times, Bullet Train director David Leitch noted that a discussion around whether to keep the story in Isaka’s original setting of Tokyo was broached, but he ultimately decided that “Tokyo is as international of a city as anywhere.”

    “We had conversations like, ‘Maybe it could be Europe, maybe it could be a different part of Asia,'” Leitch said. “Where could we see all these international types colliding?”

    And while the movie remains set in Japan, it wasn’t actually filmed in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it was captured on a sound stage, shifting it into “Japan’s future or like a Gotham City,” according to Isaka, who says he was “relieved” Bullet Train is now based in “a world that people don’t know.”

    As for how the movie features its Japanese characters, according to the Times, Olkewicz said the team worked to “preserve” the three generations of one Japanese family featured in Isaka’s novel — though they are not at the center of the film like many of the other characters are.

    “People who haven’t necessarily seen the movie will be surprised to find out that the plot pretty much kind of is about the Japanese characters and their story lines getting that resolution,” Olkewicz said. “We were all really aware and wanted to make it super inclusive and international.”
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  15. #120
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    A two-fer on Den of Geek

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