Yellowface

The alteration of a white actor’s appearance for the performance of AAPI characters by yellowing their skin with makeup and tightly taping their eyelids. More recently, this term has come to refer more widely to casting white actors in specifically AAPI roles as well as the use of digital alteration in lieu of makeup and prosthetics. As in Blackface minstrelsy, the practice originally accompanied the performance of offensive racial caricatures for the purpose of mockery and the confirmation of white superiority. (78)(79)(80)

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Citations

78. Yellowface: Asians on White Screens – IMDiversity

79. It's "Ah Sin" to be Yellow in America: Theatrics of Racial Humor in Protesting Injustice

80. MANAA Asserts Offensive Use of Yellowface, Exclusion of Asian Actors in 'Cloud Atlas'

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