Why and how Asian characters have been represented by non-Asian actors on stage and screen
Description
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.
Esther Kim Lee is Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University.
Reviews
“An extraordinary, much-needed history of yellowface, focusing on its English origins through usage in classical Hollywood. The book makes an enormous contribution to theater studies, performance studies, film studies, Asian American studies, material cultures, and U.S. history. Like the author, I hope that this book will teach readers about yellowface and inspire them to take anti-racist action.”
- Donatella Galella, University of California, Riverside
“Written for a wide audience from theater aficionados to Asian American performance makers to academics, this timely book illuminates a fascinating archive of make-up conventions derived from instructional manuals and specific case studies from both the stage and the cinema.”
- Sean Metzger, University of California, Los Angeles
"What is notable and made clearer by Lee’s book is how that “science” and things like acting performances worked together to produce the racist ideas that persisted throughout society. ...Esther Lee helps us to recognize and understand how the persistence of these practices comes from their deep roots and connections to the ways that race has been constructed in the US across history."
- Ethnic and Racial Studies
"Essential."
- Choice, G. R. Butters Jr., Aurora University
News, Reviews, Interviews
Winner: 2023 American Theatre and Drama Society John W. Frick Award | August 15, 2024
Winner: 2023 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Outstanding Book Award with Distinction in Scholarly Achievement | July 22, 2024
Winner: 2023 American Society for Theatre Research Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History | March 1, 2024
Finalist: 2022 Theater Library Association George Freedley Memorial Award | October 4, 2023
Read: Author Q&A | July 5, 2022
Read: Interview with Esther Kim Lee with Duke | September 9, 2022
Listen: Made-Up Asians discussed on the On TAP Podcast | May 6, 2022
Read: Interview with Esther Kim Lee | February 2, 2022