What is Whitewashing? Well, it is a casting practiced in which white actors/actresses are cast for historically non-white roles. Since the beginning of film making the practice of whitewashing has come to be known as terms like blackface or yellowface. These two terms are deemed from white actors who were told to exaggerate the "perceived" behavior of minorities. This type of practice happened very often especially among African American and Asian roles. Some examples from the early-mid 1900s would be the film of Shakespeare's Othello where Laurence Olivier (a white actor) played the main character, Othello, who is described as being of North African descent; in the 1960s movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, yellowface was practiced by Mickey Rooney who played the Japanese landlord.
A quick list of movies where "Whitewashing" has occurred in the past that really bothered me as a Chinese American:
Dragon Ball Evolution (2009)
Justin Chatwin plays Goku. A very popular manga/anime/television show Dragon Ball Z portrays it's characters as of Asian descent. The manga of Dragon Ball Z is based off a character from a Chinese novel, Sun Wukong. In other words this character is also known to be "the monkey king". Henceforth also why I believe Goku can transform into a Great Ape other than the fact he's a Saiyan.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2012)
Noah Ringer plays the role of the Avatar Aang. Avatar: The Last Airbender was originally first a cartoon/anime which was an amazing television series. The characters were perceived as East Asian, Inuit, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and New World Societies. None of which this movie used with the exception of the earth benders. I think the Director thought it'd be unique if he were to make each nation a different race? However the Avatar fan base and I were very disappointed to see that the movie was no where as good as the television show.
The Last Samurai (2003) (however with this one, it somewhat is ok due to the story line but still)
Tom Cruise is an American Military Officer who trains Japans first army in modern warfare. Basically it's just Tom Cruise with all Japanese actors throughout the whole movie with the exception with two or three other Caucasian actors.
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
This one really annoyed me once it came out. The first time in years where two great martial artists (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) were to star in the same movie, and to be honest I believed it was going to be a Chinese film until the whole beginning of the film just disappointed me. Michael Angarano plays a boy in New York who somehow ends up travelling through time and goes on a mission to save the Monkey King. First off I just believe that casting a white actor who travels through time with no relevance to the other characters is a bit much, and the reason he was "the one" to be chosen to go through time was because he was obsessed with Kung Fu movies?! Come on. Like seriously. They could have cast an asian actor and made him the "chosen one' because of his heritage/descent/culture or even family ties to the past, that would have made for a better and smooth story line. Also when the cover of the movie was being presented it was a picture of both my favorite childhood action stars (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) and I was led to believe this was going to be a traditional bad-ass Chinese movie that would have been one for the books.
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Scarlet Johansson plays Motoko Kusanagi from Japan who is a cyborg policewoman who attempts to bring down a notorious computer hacker. This has become a huge controversy among manga readers and anime viewers across the nation. The reason is because this is a prime example of whitewashing, the whole story line is set in Japan and throughout the whole series the setting does not change as well as the history behind it. By casting a white actress to play a japanese character takes away from the originality of the story, which is what most viewers or fans want. The movie business takes away that factor believing that if a popular white actor/actress is cast, then more viewers would be enticed to watch it. Well, You're wrong and many fans would disagree.
What brought me to write this article was the trailer for a new movie called The Great Wall. This movie is set in ancient China over 1,000 years ago and set as the main character is Matt Damon. The trailer came out recently, about a week ago, and when I saw it I saw one of my favorite Chinese actor Andy Lau. After seeing him I assumed this was going to be a film that tells a tail or story from Chinese tradition or at least seem like it was. Then I saw Matt Damon appear on my screen and I just blanked. Seeing him in this trailer just made him seem so out of place, it took away from the idea that it was from ancient Chinese History and it just pissed me off to be really honest. As an Chinese American citizen, I openly explore my culture and heritage because it interests me and everything about it is personal to me. I am proud of my background and recently I've watched more Chinese movies with some of my new favorite actors like Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Siu-Wong Fan, Simon Yam, Dennis To, Yu Xing, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, and Tony Leung. To be honest with the list I just made, Universal Pictures could have cast any one of these Asian actors and would have come out with a great movie. Even today, Asian actors are growing into bigger roles, especially actor Donnie Yen. His amazing role in the Ip Man trilogy has made him very popular among viewers and martial art fans around the world. He's even being cast in the new Star Wars: Rogue One movie coming out in 2017. By whitewashing it takes away from the whole Chinese history idea and minorities that could have a personal connection with a movie like this would lose interest in watching this movie. For me specifically, I watched the trailer and everything looked amazing, but then I saw Matt Damon and was like "Oh its one of those movies...". I went from really wanting to watch this movie, especially with the title and all, to being able to live with myself not seeing it. I grew up watching or being in the presence of Chinese movies whether it be a Bruce Lee movie, or some Chinese drama my grandparents love to watch, or the Infernal Affairs series, or even comedies like Kung Fu Mahjong. All of these movies in some way connect with me personally and in all honesty I think it's because it's cast with people who are of the same race/culture/heritage as I am. As for now I'm hoping the movie industry will try and steer away from this next time due to all of the controversial comments they are receiving from fan bases, I guess we'll see.
