Yellowface and Stereotypes

Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) In this homonymous adaptation of Truman Capote’s short-story, Mr. Yunioshi is given a stereotypical depiction by Mickey Rooney despite showing no stereotypes in Capote’s characterization. In a 2008 interview with Stephen Magagnini, Rooney claimed he was “shocked" that his portrayal was deemed racist by Asian-Americans and added “those who didn’t like it, I forgive them and God bless America […]” 

Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously (1984) Linda Hunt’s yellow-face performance of a Chinese-Australian photographer working in Jakarta not only won her an Academy Award, but was also included in an Academy Award 2018 montage showing past Best Supporting Actress winners. Hollywood has a long history of yellow-face. In 1937, MGM refused to cast Chinese-American Anna May Wong as O-Lan in The Good Earth, opting for Luise Rainer won Best Actress for her performance.  

Long Duk Dong in 16 Candles (1985) In this John Hughes film, Long Duk Dong doesn’t speak a single word of English and serves as the comic relief. His name, an obvious innuendo, feeds into his characterization as a sex-crazed exchange student. All though it’s hard to assess whether yellow-face representation or stereotypical caricature is worse, Long Duk Dong shows how little agency Hollywood has historically given Asian actors.