Made-Up Asians

Yellowface During the Exclusion Era
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-472-07543-0
Verlag: University of Michigan Press

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Made-Up Asians traces the history of yellowface, the theatrical convention of non-Asian actors putting on makeup and costume to look East Asian. Using specific case studies from European and U.S. theater, race science, and early film, Esther Kim Lee traces the development of yellowface in the U.S. context during the Exclusion Era (1862–1940), when Asians faced legal and cultural exclusion from immigration and citizenship. These caricatured, distorted, and misrepresented versions of Asians took the place of excluded Asians on theatrical stages and cinema screens. The book examines a wide-ranging set of primary sources, including makeup guidebooks, play catalogs, advertisements, biographies, and backstage anecdotes, providing new ways of understanding and categorizing yellowface as theatrical practice and historical subject. Made-Up Asians also shows how lingering effects of Asian exclusionary laws can still be seen in yellowface performances, casting practices, and anti-Asian violence into the 21st century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmtheorie, Filmanalyse

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction – The Persistence of Yellowface
- Chapter 1 – “A Dumb Chinese Slave”: The Stage Chinaman and Clown Yellowface
- Chapter 2 - “Chinee by Nature”: Physiognomy and Scientific Yellowface
- Chapter 3 – “How to Makeup”: Theatrical Makeup Guidebooks and Private Yellowface
- Chapter 4 - “Dainty as Needs Be”: The White Actress and Cosmetic Yellowface
- Chapter 5 – “The Oriental Eye”: Special Effects Technology and Prosthetic Yellowface
- Epilogue – Casting as Gatekeeping
- Appendix - Yellowface Instructions in Theatrical Makeup Guidebooks during the Exclusion Era
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Esther Kim Lee is Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University.