Whitewashing and the Movie Intustry

This post covers the issue of whitewashing in The Last Airbender, the live action retelling of the critically acclaimed show Avatar; The Last Airbender. First and foremost, let me start with a brief rundown of the Avatar universe: The world is divided into 4 nations, each of them representing a specific element (earth water fire and air) and drawing heavily on various asian and inuit cultures. The show was immensely popular with fans and created a massive uproar when it was revealed that all major roles would be covered by white actors. I won't get in too deep since there are many others who have written more extensively, but this issue is specifically labeled as Yellowface; and like many others I had no idea until now, and I'm not happy. Following are exerpts from http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/voynar/2009/090422.html

There was a similar controversy surrounding the casting of white American Justin Chatwin to play the lead part of Goku in Dragonball Evolution, which opened earlier this month, and last year blackjack drama 21 stirred accusations of white-washing for its casting  of white talent Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth in roles that in real-life were played by Asian-American males. The Last Airbender is the most recent example, but racial white-washing has been a part of  Hollywood since its beginning. Website Buns of Yogurt offers a pretty thorough visual history of the "yellowfacing" of Asian parts in film, noting Hollywood's long and storied history of casting white faces in Asian role, from Mary Pickford in Madame Butterfly way back in 1915, to Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) to Bruce Lee being shut out of playing the character in Kung Fu that he came up with, in favor of white actor David Carradine.

And it's not just in the casting of white actors in Asian roles that's a problem; this 2008 article for Asian Week by Philip W. Chung also points to films like Come See the Paradise (1990), which stuck a story about a white man in love with a Japanese woman in the middle of a story about interment of Japanese-Americans during WWII to make it more palatable, and True Believer (1989), which effectively erased the contributions of numerous Asian-Americans to the real-life story of the freeing of a Korean-American jailed for a crime he didn't commit. And even when Hollywood does cast actual Asians in Asian roles, they don't always get it right -- as in the controversial decision to cast Chinese actresses in the three lead roles in Memoirs of  a Geisha, which is set in Japan (oh, those darn Asians, they all look alike anyhow, who's going to notice, right?)

When it comes to casting white faces over Asian roles, especially for an adaptation of a manga or anime series, studios no doubt seek to sell beyond the demographic of the source material; some number-cruncher at the studio probably has spreadsheets and a nifty Powerpoint presentation that prove conclusively to the studio pockets that Asian faces don't open films or create crossover. But isn't that the same argument Hollywood's been using since time out of mind in casting white actors to play Asian parts? Hollywood's a tough business with an eagle eye on the box office bottom line, and the attitude toward race in casting decisions isn't likely to change until Asian-Americans band together to show Hollywood shirts the financial impact their united weight can bear by boycotting films they feel white-wash Asian parts, and supporting those that do cast Asian actors in lead roles.

It's 2009, folks. We have an African-American man in the highest elected office of our country. Can't we have an adaptation of an Asian-themed series with actual Asian actors playing the lead roles?

- by Kim Voynar 

For my part, I've joined the facebook group, at least. And I'm not going to go see that movie when it's out. Kim Voynar is right. The big wigs of any industry are not likely to enact more than surface (reparatory) changes unless there is a dramatic and tangible public response to the issue. In other words, until they realize that people might actually be angry enough not to buy the product. Which is exactly what I'm going to be doing this June, that and telling everyone I know what I think. It's unacceptable that any industry should make unethical decisions simply because the greater percentage of the population will not notice...