Examples of yellowface explained

Examples of yellowface mainly include the portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater, though this can also encompass other Western media. It used to be the norm in Hollywood that East Asian characters were played by white actors, often using makeup to approximate East Asian facial characteristics, a practice known as yellowface.

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.

Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, and Madame Butterfly

See main article: Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan and Madama Butterfly.

• Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan were the most common East Asian characters in film and television of the mid-20th century, and they were almost always played by white actors in yellowface, although Asian actors did portray the Chan character in three silent film productions.^[1] (Swedish actor Warner Oland, the first Charlie Chan in sound films, did not use yellowface. He was considered to look Asian, and was typecast in such roles from early in his career.) 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.
• Madame Butterfly, an opera about a Japanese woman who falls in love with an American sailor who leaves her, and when he returns with an American wife, the devastated Cio-Cio San commits suicide. This immensely popular opera is often performed with a non-East Asian singer playing the role of Cio-Cio San.

Before the Civil Rights Movement

Year	Title	Actor(s) and Role(s)	Director	Notes
1915	Madame Butterfly	Mary Pickford as Cio-Cio San		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
1919	Broken Blossoms	Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan
1919	Mr. Wu	Matheson Lang as Mr. Wu Meggie Albanesi as Nang Ping		British version
1922	The Vermilion Pencil	Ann May as Tse Chan's wife Bessie Love as Hyacinth Sidney Franklin as Fu Wong		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		American version
1928	Spione (Spies)	Lupu Pick as Doctor Akira Masimoto		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
1929	The Black Watch	Myrna Loy as Yasmani
1931–1949	Charlie Chan film series			Warner Oland 1931-1937 Sidney Toler 1937-1946 Roland Winters 1946-1949
1932	The Hatchet Man			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.^[2]
1932	Frisco Jenny			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.^[3]
1932	The Mask of Fu Manchu	Myrna Loy as Fah Lo See
1932	Thirteen Women		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.^[4]
1933	The Bitter Tea of General Yen			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.^[5] 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 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		Remake
1937	The Good Earth	Paul Muni as Wang Lung Luise Rainer as O-Lan All of the Lead Roles		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 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.^[6]
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 is in yellowface and portrays a Japanese officer. Victor Sen Yung changed his name to Victor Young.
1939	Island of Lost Men			Anthony Quinn is in yellowface and portrays Chang Tai, a "Chinese" agent.
1939	The Mystery of Mr. Wong			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			Sondergaard plays a Eurasian, a trope of the Dragonlady. Variety said, "Sondergaard is the perfect mask-like threat".^[7]
1942	Little Tokyo, U.S.A.	Harold Huber as Takimura, American-born spy for Tokyo, June Duprez as Teru		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.^[8] 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.^[9] ^[10] 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 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			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).^[11]
1946	Anna and the King of Siam			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)^[12] Gale Sondergaard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
1946	Ziegfeld Follies			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			Despite the star power of its lead actors and director, Blood Alley received a lukewarm reception from critics.^[13] The New York Times proclaimed, "Blood Alley, despite its exotic, oriental setting, is a standard chase melodrama patterned on a familiar blueprint."^[14] 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.^[15]
1955	Love is a Many Splendored Thing			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.^[16]
1956	The Conqueror	John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, and others		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			Brynner (who was born in Asia, in Vladivostok,^[17] 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			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.^[18] Brando actually attempted an "authentic" Japanese accent and he even has some Japanese dialogue.
1957	Sayonara	Ricardo Montalbán as Nakamura		A movie dealing with racism, prejudice, and interracial marriage in post war Japan
1958	The Quiet American (1958 version)	Giorgia Moll as Phuong		Adaptation of Graham Green's novel.
1958	The Inn of the Sixth Happiness			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			Rooney's performance of Japanese character Mr. Yunioshi was later criticized in subsequent years as an offensive stereotype.^[19] ^[20] 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".^[21]
1961	The Devil's Daffodil	Christopher Lee as Ling Chu
1961	The Terror of the Tongs	Christopher Lee as Chung King and others
1961	Flower Drum Song			The film and stage play were based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese-American author C.Y. Lee. In 1960, producer Ross Hunter cast Anna May Wong in Flower Drum Song. However, Wong became ill in December 1960 and was replaced by Juanita Hall. This movie was unusual (for its time) in featuring nearly all Asian-American cast members (one of the few speaking white parts being that of a mugger), 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 the original Broadway cast members Jack Soo, Miyoshi Umeki and Juanita Hall (an African-American actress who previously played the Pacific Islander Bloody Mary in the Broadway and film productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific). 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".^[22]
1962	The Manchurian Candidate
1962	A Majority of One
1962	Dr. No			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		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
1963	Have Gun - Will Travel			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
1965	Pierrot le fou			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
1965	Marco the Magnificent	Anthony Quinn, Robert Hossein and others		Adventure film based on the travels of Marco Polo. Anthony Quinn plays Kublai Khan.
1965	Gilligan's Island			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	Get Smart			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".
1965	The Return of Mr. Moto			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.
1966	7 Women
1967	The Time Tunnel	Arthur Batanides, Vitina Marcus, and others		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.
1968	Bewitched		R. Robert Rosenbaum	Haydn portrays Japanese businessman, Kenzu Mishimoto in "A Majority of Two" (Season 4, Episode 29).
1968-69	Hawaii Five-O			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".

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
1972	The Paul Lynde Show	Ray Walston as Mr. Temura	George Tyne	Season 1, Episode 11: "Meet Aunt Charlotte"^[23]
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
1974	Arabian Nights	Salvatore Sapienza as Prince Yunan		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
1975	The White, the Yellow, and the Black	Tomas Milian as Sakura ("The Yellow")
1976	Murder by Death			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^[24]		Serial: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
1980	The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu			This is the last Fu Manchu created.
1980	Flash Gordon	Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming		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		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.^[25] The film was released the following year as Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen and was an "abysmal failure".^[26] More successful was Wayne Wang's Chan Is Missing (1982), which was a spoof of the older Chan films.^[27]
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Malcolm Weaver as "The Ratty Nepalese"		Malcolm Weaver plays a Nepalese man at 36:56 in.
1982	Conan the Barbarian	Gerry Lopez as Subotai		The character Subotai is a 'Hyrkanian' who in the mythos of Conan the Barbarian are the ancestors of Asians and further the character is named after Subotai one of the general so Genghis Khan, but the character however is played by the Hawaiian actor Gerry Lopez.
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan		Actress Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of an Asian man.^[28]
1983	Reilly, Ace of Spies	David Suchet as Inspector Tsientsin		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"		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		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		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		Joel Grey as Chiun		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.
1986	Short Circuit	Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya		Fisher Stevens plays a character from India.
1988	Short Circuit 2	Fisher Stevens as Ben Jahveri		Fisher Stevens plays a character from India, whose last name has been changed from Jabituya to Jahveri in this sequel.
1991	Twin Peaks	Piper Laurie as Mr Tojamura (a disguise worn by Catherine Martell)		episodes 11,12,13,14. 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			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			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^[29]
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.^[30] ^[31] ^[32]

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.^[33] ^[34]
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		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		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		Feng is a parody of the yellow peril and Fu Manchu stereotype.
2007	Norbit	Eddie Murphy as Mr. Wong		For his portrayal Eddie Murphy received a Golden Raspberry Award. Worst Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy; as Mr. Wong)^[35]
2007	Grindhouse			Fake Trailer: Werewolf Women of the SS
2007	I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry	Rob Schneider as Morris Takechi		Schneider's use of prosthetics for his role were criticized as an offensive stereotype.^[36] Nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor but lost to Eddie Murphy.
2008	My Name Is Bruce	Ted Raimi as Wing
2009		David Carradine as Poon Dong		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			Karl Lagerfeld Opened His Pre-Fall Show in Shanghai With a Film That Included Yellow Face.^[37] 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."^[38] Chinese persons played the maid, a courtesan and background characters.
2009	Hanger	Wade Gibb as Russell		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		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			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			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.^[39] ^[40]
2014	Baby Geniuses and the Treasures of Egypt	Jon Voight as Moriarty
2014	How I Met Your Mother			Season 9, Episode 14 ""; main cast dressed as East Asian martial arts masters using stereotypical garb, makeup, and Fu Manchu moustache^[41]
2015	Aloha	Emma Stone as Alison Ng	Cameron Crowe
2016		Janette Tough as Huki Muki	Mandie Fletcher
2017	Ghost in the Shell			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.^[42] Michael Pitt also plays the villain Hideo Kuze, a role that is ethnically Japanese in the source material.

Yellowface worn by a character in a film

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			A US soldier undergoes plastic surgery to look Japanese in order to rescue an American scientist held in Japan.
1961	The Twilight Zone			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
1965	Gendarme in New York			Officer Cruchot and his daughter Nicole disguise themselves as Chinese in one scene.
1967	You Only Live Twice			James Bond disguises himself as a Japanese bridegroom in order to elude SPECTRE assassins.
1978	Revenge of the Pink Panther			Inspector Clouseau had many disguises and this included the quintessential Chinaman stereotype.
1981	Hardly Working
1987	Snow White		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's character, Fred Kwan played East Asian Chief Engineer 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			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			Black's character Jerry tapes his eyes back to pretend to be Jackie Chan when recreating a scene from the film Rush Hour 2.^[43]
2008	Tropic Thunder			The character of Kirk Lazarus donned yellowface to disguise himself as a Southeast Asian farmer in order to infiltrate a drug facility.
2011				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		Colin Firth portrays an Englishman who dons yellowface in order to pass as a Chinese illusionist.

Books about yellowface

• Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era (2022) by Esther Kim ^[44] - provides history and examples of yellowface

See also

• Chung Ling Soo, stage name of white American magician William Ellsworth Robinson
• Ghost Bath, an American black metal band who claimed to be from Chongqing, China.
• Michael Derrick Hudson, a white American poet who was accused of "yellowface" for employing a Chinese female pseudonym
• Portrayal of East Asians in American film and theater
• Racebending
• Yellowface (novel)
• Whitewashing in film

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charlie Chan .
2. Web site: The Hatchet Man . Tcm.com . 2014-02-10.
3. Web site: Frisco Jenny . Tcm.com . 2014-02-10.
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