Oh, he looks like an alien.

East asians react to yellowface.

In early hollywood, white actors were often made up to portray characters of other races.

Yellowface is using makeup to make someone look east Asian.

Marlon Brando, "Teahouse of the August Moon" [1996]

Brando's character is a Japanese interpreter for the American army.

Rest of world, not like Okinawa.

[Voiceover] Wait, is that him?

World filled with delightful variation.

Example...

f*ck

(laughter)

My stomach is turning, watching this.

Oh my god.

"My name is Marlon Brando."

Actors, themselves, aren't funny things

like somebody trying to learn a new language.

[Voiceover] Is that all it takes

to make yourself look Asian?

Just looks like a white dude doing a shitty accent.

Marlon Brando is also one of the greatest

American actors and seeing this,

you're like "No, you're not."

Watching this feels really dehumanizing.

Mickey Rooney, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" [1961]

Rooney plays a cranky Japanese landlord.

[Voiceover] Oh, that's painful.

(angry yelling)

Now, this is really racist.

This guy could have been an Orge in Lord of the Rings.

That's how much makeup he has on right now.

Literally, a political cartoon.

The Asian guy is not human.

He's clearly not supposed to be human.

An early example of the way Asian men

are portrayed as gross.

Oh, Audrey Hepburn, she's so gorgeous and graceful

and then all of a sudden you get Mickey Rooney.

But is yellowface gone now?

James D' Arcy, "Cloud Atlas" 2012

"Cloud Atlas" Involves characters being reborn in different eras, sometimes as different races.

Like rawwwr, rawwwr, rawwwr.

It's like a kick in the nuts.

(movie dialogue) - [Voiceover] Whoa!

Oh my god!

He looks like a f*ck alien.

Just because they break all the rules

and have everybody race-bend doesn't

mean that it's still okay to do yellowface.

With this kind of makeup you don't transcend time,

you just look really bad.

The actors did a great job,

but you just cannot make a white man look Asian.

Level of discomfort is not like diarrhea discomfort,

like before, but more like mild indigestion.

Asian men are either portrayed as dweeby children

or like a scary, alien, cold monk.

Alyson Hannigan, "How I Met Your Mother" [2014]

This episode was explained to be a tribute to old kung fu movies.

Can you teach me how to do that?

No, I retired from teaching long ago.

I am Alyson Hannigan.

The problem with this is the term "Orientalism".

Yep.

[Voiceover] It's not homage anymore when

you start playing someone else's race.

It just makes me feel so exoticized.

It kind of just reads, "We're gonna take a

hodgepodge of Asian influences."

You could have easily done an homage,

where you exist in that universe of the "Far East"

but you're still a white character.

Could you have imagined if How I Met Your Mother

decided to do a whole episode where they did

the same thing, but it was blackness?

We would not have accepted that.

[Voiceover] It's so tough because I love the show,

I'd like to watch it every day.

For them to do this, like really breaks my heart.

I think that people confuse interest in another

culture with understanding for that culture.

Final thoughts

You get to a point where you're just like "I don't expect

"anything better from my media, than what I've been given."

Yellowface, you can't get past the damn makeup!

I think it's sort of like "Oh, well the Asians

"are louder now and they'll get mad at us if

"we do straight up yellowface."

There are no Asian, bankable stars

because no Asian has been cast in a role where

they've been allowed to become a bankable star.

The blame should not be on the actors

it should be on the directors and the casting.

Hollywood doesn't have as much of an excuse

to say "I can't cast an Asian actor."

because there are Asian actors.

[Voiceover] I'm sure the people making these

decisions think the media has gotten better.

If you ask an Asian person,

I feel like they would tell you a very different...

Hey, do you think the media has gotten better?

But better doesn't mean good enough.

To be honest, yes.