About
a week ago, I stumbled across a fairly recent movie by the name of Cloud Atlas (2012), starring Tom Hanks,
Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and some more prestigious actors. It
tells the story of a sort of reincarnation narrative in which each character’s
actions and personalities affect others in their past, present and future in
the form of vignettes. This is done all while keeping the same recurring cast
by changing their appearances during time periods with extensive hair and
makeup. Although I enjoyed the plot and character development, one thing stood
out to me the most: Yellowface and hypersexualization of Asian women. After
watching this movie, only one question crossed my mind: Why is Yellowface still
being used in today’s films? {WATCH a clip from the movie}
In this vignette within the movie,
the characters reside in a futuristic place called Neo Seoul, which is in Korea
and it is sustained on consumerism. This dystopia-like place is characterized by
two types of beings: consumers who are labeled “pure bloods” portrayed by the
non-Asian actors as Asian men and cloned human women who serve the pure-bloods
and are named “fabricants” who are actual Asian women. These fabricants serve
as actual waitresses, however along with that, they serve the pure-bloods in a
sexual way in order to bribe them to reach redemption. The men are also
represented as depraved, sexually deviant and corrupt officials who take
advantage of the fabricants. In addition, the Asian women in this vignette hold
strong and traditional representations as they did in films fifty years ago. In
a movie about the future, it is compelling to see concurrent themes of racism
seen throughout movies in the past.
The act of making the White actors
Asian with prosthetics seems to be serving the purpose of the reincarnation
narrative; however, it is no different from the racist representations shown in
Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Was it an
attempt to “blur” the race factor? Due
to the fact that the Yellowface is so noticeable, it only enhances the race
factor within this movie. These characters are given a typical “Asian look”
with slanted and hooded eyes and they all have British accents yet want us to
believe they all look the same and are of Korean descent- a stereotype commonly
used, that all Asians look the same. If Production wanted the characters to
look Asian, they could have casted a few extra Asian actors as main characters.
Perhaps another reason for this was to somehow show that racism, as well as
gendered stereotypes will never die, and even so, it was a horrible attempt
because the use of Yellowface was so horrendous.
Yellowfacing and hyper sexualized
Asian women are still being used in films today. This is because racism is so
rampant within today’s sociological norms. Due to the historical roots of these
depictions, there is a difficulty in abandoning the examples of racism in
Hollywood’s films. These representations
of Asian men and women, as well as stereotypical facial features are so
engrained in us that we have generated movies that have racist touches by both subconscious
and conscious efforts; not all of these representations are by “accident” in
that it is done to produce a reaction and effect from the general public. The
fact of the matter is that just as racism is not dead, neither is the act of Yellowface
or the stereotypical representations of all Asians in media and film. As long as this continues through popular
culture, it will keep affecting Asian Americans in negative ways. Almost as a
self-fulfilling prophecy, many Asian Americans internalize the racism,
stereotypes and discrimination, and become detached from their own cultural
roots to stray away from the shame placed on them. For many minorities,
especially Asian Americans, they buy into these racial stereotypes to support
the discourse for racial hegemony from the superior white man against the
others.
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