#tw yellowface

[cjbolan]

Up to Chapter 5 of RF Kuang’s Yellowface. Trying a new thing where I read more chapters of a book before I give my opinions on it. That way I’ll have more to say.

Nearly all of June’s secret microaggressions towards Chinese people are things people IRL have said to or in front of me. Like:

1) her complimenting Chinese people’s’ English (this seems like a compliment, but it shows you really don’t expect us to speak proficient English).

2) her complaints about Chinese food.

3) how she said Chinese characters look like a bunch of chicken scratch

4) her jealous complaints about her Chinese friend being “diverse enough” to become more famous than her.

5) Her immediate excuses for her subtle racism. Like she knows someone’s gonna tell her she’s racist.

Also kinda funny June likens herself to Kanye. After his very bigoted comments, maybe she and him are more alike than she thinks.

Well, gonna keep reading !

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A T C H I N G

Interesting Trivia:

On the film's opening matinee showing at a Picture House in Sauchiehall Street Glasgow, a crowd of rowdy teenagers and young adults both male and female ran down the street shouting "tongs" causing a melee in which the police had to be called. To this day in Glasgow gang culture the cry of "tongs ya bass" can often be heard wherever youths come together to fight in a show of territorial loyalty to the "Real Calton Tongs" a 1960-1970s Glasgow gang, the surrounding gang area is unofficially referred to as "Tongland".

(Although it may be an apocryphal urban myth.)

[the-blue-fairie]

Tom Thumb (1958) - Fairy Tale Movie Challenge

(TW: discussions of racism/yellowface ahead.)

Since thealmightyemprex is doing a Fairy Tale Month, I'm at last doing my writeups for the Fairy Tale Movie Challenge. I shall start with Tom Thumb, which thealmightyemprex suggested, directed by George Pal.

Now, I associate George Pal with special effects extravaganzas of fantasy and sci-fi from the 50s and 60s, sometimes with a kitschy charm to them. He made Destination Moon, he made When Worlds Collide, he made the 50s War of the Worlds, he made the 60s Time Machine, he made the 7 Faces of Dr. Lao! This film fits right in among these (sometimes not for the best of reasons, but we'll get there.) They're all a similar kind of "wonder movie." They remind me of Harryhausen films, but sometimes with a more American Christian preachy vibe. But I consider his Time Machine and War of the Worlds classics and excellent films in themselves, not just as 50s special effects time capsules.

Tom Thumb (1958) tells the story of a woodcutter and his wife who are blessed by a wood spirit with three wishes. After squandering them in a comedic sequence, she takes pity on them and grants them their wish for a child, the diminutive Tom Thumb, played by Russ Tamblyn of Twin Peaks and The Haunting. It's based on the Grimms' "Thumbling" tale (and there ARE elements of it) but you get the sense it's... essentially Disney's Pinocchio, for better or worse, George Pal style. Tom is duped by a pair of shady schemers a la Honest John and Gideon, has to save his parents to make amends, etc.

Ironically, the opening of the film before the introduction of Tom is one of the strongest things about it. Bernard Miles (oh MY GOSH he was in 1956 Moby Dick! I know the Manxman in a small role in the film, but he gets that monologue about Moby Dick so it's cool! AND he was Joe Gargery for David Lean!) and Jessie Matthews have such a great comedic chemistry and they make roles that, in other hands, could be overly treacly, work and work well. The sausage-nose routine is classic "squandering three wishes" material and it's really fun.

After Tom is introduced, things get a little shakier. It's not that Russ Tamblyn is bad. He's extraordinarily acrobatic and that makes the long dance among the toys a great watch, even if the pacing drags. But since it feels like the film is going for a Disney Pinocchio innocent child vibe to his characterization, he feels too old for the part. I still like him, though! It's just that line delivery can feel clunky in a way that reflects the worst of George Pal-isms.

AND ON THE SUBJECT OF THE WORST OF GEORGE PAL-ISMS, I made a gloomy quip about the use of yellowface in Dr. Lao just seconds before THIS GUY shows up.

Now, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao was interesting because, although Lao was played by Tony Randall in yellowface and that's awful, at least the character of Dr. Lao wasn't written to be the standard 60s-70s Chinese caricature. Lao was actually able to push back/shoot barbs back at racist white folks in the film. That makes him interesting. Yes, he's still one of those "mystical Chinese characters," but as Arthur Dong pointed out on the Criterion Channel, Lao has more depth and sympathy than most portrayals of the period.

Also, each townsperson's encounter with a different "face" of Dr. Lao is gorgeously written and endlessly interesting.

BUT THIS GUY? He's a toy that serves a bit as Tom's "super-dooper-magical-Chinese-man" to paraphrase Spike Lee. He doesn't have the depth of a character like Lao because he's either Tom's imagination or, if not that, doesn't have a character outside of entertaining/supporting our white lead. Also, his name is the worst thing I've seen since I saw the way that a certain character was credited in the 1925 Larry Semon Wizard of Oz.

Also, they never show the toy in the foreground here up close while looking at it head-on (the one who in this shot has its back facing the camera) but...

...is that a g*lliwog toy? Because if so, yikes.

The romance between Alan Young's mortal character, Woody, and The Forest Queen is a mixed bag. I found Woody initially bland and irritating, but he grew on me. Whereas I found Queenie so interesting, and possessed of such radiant charisma thanks to June Thorburn's performance, that I felt she could do much better than him. I warmed up to their relationship as the film went on, though. They're sweet.

The show-stealers, however, are Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers as the villains (also, if we wanted to talk about Hollywood yellowface and stereotyping, we could teach a whole class on certain Sellers roles and... whatever Blake Edwards' whole deal was, ooof), especially Terry-Thomas. That man is hilarious. They're doing what they do best, stealing gold and stealing the movie!

Also, the coin-counting routine gave me big "Gandalf tricks the trolls in The Hobbit" vibes and I love that.

Overall, Tom Thumb (1958) gave me what I expected, good and bad - a very late-50s, very George Pal diversion that is not among Pal's best, but which has some fun moments and a lot of charm... as well as some Yikes moments that I was at least bracing myself for, knowing the period and other Pal projects.

@thealmightyemprex @ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @theancientvaleofsoulmaking

[rown-cheese]

LECTURES DE 2024 : Yellowface de Rebecca F. Kuang

Lecture terminée le 10 juin 2024 (61/70) je passe à un objectif de 70 livres en tous genres pour cette année !

Nombre de pages : 352 pages

Ma 61ème lecture a até un autre livre reçu pour mon anniversaire, Yellowface de Rebecca F. Kuang ! Il m'intriguait pas mal, j'ai été surpris d'apprendre qu'il n'est pas aussi vieux que je le croyais. Je pensais qu'il avait au moins 5 ans, mais il a été publié l'an dernier, c'est marrant.

Résumé : June est une bonne personne, promis ! Elle ne pensait pas à mal quand, alors qu'Athena est morte sous ses yeux, elle a pris son manuscrit fraîchement terminé. Après tout, si elle ne s'en occupe pas, personne ne saura comment rendre justice à cette œuvre finale ! Et puis, si elle l'a fait publié à son nom plutôt que celui de son amie, c'est bien sûr parce que son travail de correction a été tout aussi important que celui d'écriture d'Athena, aucune autre raison mal intentionnée...

CW/TW : mort accidentelle, nourriture, étouffement, menaces de mort, agressions psychologiques et physiques, racisme et xénophobie, sexisme, mépris de classe, dénigrement, chantages, etc...

C'était tellement bien ?? Si bien que quand je l'ai fini, j'étais sur le cul. Par moments, j'ai eu du mal à savoir comment me placer, j'avais l'impression d'être manipulé tout le temps (faut dire que je suis franchement crédule parfois), et j'ai été dégoûté, mal-à-l'aise, choqué... ce qui était génial !

Si je devais être honnête, Yellowface est bien un thriller psychologique, oui, mais c'est clairement un roman d'horreur surtout. Les personnages sont horribles, l'histoire est crade et choquante, tout est incroyablement bien fait.

Franchement, je vous conseille Yellowface, c'est génial dans son écriture, n'hésitez surtout pas !

[livingfictionsystem]

BOOK REVIEW: 3/5

The story pivots between the three main characters--- Jin, who tries to rescue her sister who was sold off to the Walled City. Mei Yee, who is the sister who dreams of escaping the brothel. And Dai, who has his own agenda, playing with fire on a deadline.

I see a lot of people in the reviews call this 'adrenaline-packed', but I found nothing that happened really all that shocking. Granted, I do read a lot of, 'Homeless kids have to turn to a life of crime to survive and protect each other' fiction, so that may be on me. The Walled City was actually a real place in Hong Kong (Kowloon City), something I found out in the Acknowledgements in the back of the book. This lawless and densely populated area was torn down in 1987, which, given the book's chronological ambiguity, helped me gain context that the narration didn't. The inspiration had a lot of promise that the author fell short of. The characters were fine, but forgettable. Their POV and struggle for survival was interesting, but none of them really stood out as far as personality went. They seemed to simply Be their circumstances, a vessel for the story to continue. We have Good At Running, Has a Secret, and Traumatised. If you can't tell by the names, the book has a vaguely Chinese feel. And I do mean vaguely. It's primarily the names and the fact that pork buns and noodles are referenced so often. (One character even describes emotions as overcooked noodles?) It doesn't really have a lot of specific culture that I could catch. It could easily take place in just about any other country that also has drug problems, human trafficking, crime lords, homeless children, etc. It's also confusing because the characters were not speaking English, the dialogue is just translated for the reader's benefit. But they even had one character with an accent, saying, 'Let's get 'im!' Are we translating a version of English dialect to Cantonese? Is this a cockney version? Is he really skipping over the H's or is this an equivalent? This happens again when it's mentioned that 'Dai' rhymes with 'death', something one of the characters notes from their POV. How do you know that??? These characters do not understand English; there's even a scene where foreigners are in the same room and the character notes that she cannot understand it. So, it definitely has some identity issues. (The hilarious irony is that I, through hilarious coincidence, started reading this about the same time I read Kuang's 'Yellowface', about a white woman writing about Chinese culture so I tried not to linger too much on this. The author did actually live near the inspiration of this for at least a few months, so fair enough.) It's definitely gritty, and I do like that the author took it upon herself to tackle an issue like human trafficking, with even some nuanced nods towards PTSD. But in my opinion, there's more intensity in the setting than in the plot, and especially in the characters, but it wasn't a bad read. The prose and atmosphere make for good reading and the bond between the three does end up wholesome and rather sweet, but that also made for some odd tonal switches. So, yeah, it was a fine book. Not a good one, not a bad one, just fine.

TW for: Intense animal abuse, human trafficking, drug addiction, homelessness.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, so at the end, when everyone's scrambling for the ledger, it felt like a damn cartoon. You know how in Scooby Doo, you see the endless opening and closing of doors where the characters are both chasing and being chased by something? And the combination is changed up every time? That was this ending. I thought the Benny Hill theme was about to start playing. It also bothered me that apparently Dai and Jin both waited about two years to really put their plans to fruition. The book tried to draw out the suspense for making everything down to the wire, but it almost makes it funny when you sit there and think of Dai twiddling his thumbs or Jin being on the streets and having nothing to show for it. 

-Xanthe

[storytellersumayyah]

The Happy Moments (01/06/23)

tw: food mention

I got a 78 in my essay, and whilst this is still pending the approval of the board of examiners, I am going to take it

Me and my friend had a catch-up and debrief about the feedback which was nice

I brought Yellowface

My dad got us pizza

[ariel-seagull-wings]

Faerie Tale Theatre Cast Tag

Thanks for tagging me @superkingofpriderock

@the-blue-fairie @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @princesssarisa @astrangechoiceoffavourites @mademoiselle-princesse @amalthea9

Favorite Narrator

Eric Idle in The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Favorite Prince

Matthew Broderick in Cinderella

Favorite Princess

Jennifer Beals in Cinderella

Favorite Villain

Brock Peters in Puss N Boots

Favorite Villainess

Vanessa Redgrave in Snow White

Favorite Hero

Peter Weller in The Dancing Princesses

Favorite Heroine

Mary Steenburgen in Little Red Riding Hood

Favorite Non Human Character

Been Vereen in Puss N Boots

Favorite Supporting Character

The Tailors in The Emperour's New Clothes

Weirdest Casting

Mick Jagger in The Nightingale

Honorable Mention: Malcolm McDowell in Little Red Riding Hood

[hadescavedish]

I can't believe it. It's really 'astonishing' that Granada had the guts did blackface twice in Jeeves and Wooster. And the second time it wasn't even in the books. Didn't they know Miss Saigon was immediately criticised for "yellowface" in late 1980s and early 1990s?

Oh yeah I forgot, Miss Saigon was only criticised for being racist when it appeared in Broadway, British newspapers said nothing of it at the time. 🙃

I'm not mad, but I find it ridiculous.

[letterboxd-but-make-it-a-meme]

[0swaldthatendswald]

The sheer amount of Asian fishing in the cosplay community is absolutely horrendous. Especially seeing it on sexy cosplayers. You’re putting us in danger, you absolute leech of society. Go do something useful with your existence.

And y’all say gatekeeping is bad. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to call out and gatekeep these kinds of people

[cjbolan]

Up to page 62 of RF Kuang’s Yellowface . Yet again I can very much relate to June, on 2 accounts.

I also lived in a lot of different places due to my dad’s work.

As a mixed-race ABC I also was heavily judged for being “not Chinese”. From some blatant ways like my university’s Asian student group telling me as a bad joke “you’re not a pure-blood…” (they did apologize to me later), to random statements like “you don’t look Chinese” or “but you’re half Chinese”, to creepy behaviors like strangers staring at me in public.

As much as I condemn June’s actions, I think she has valid concerns about the “own voices” stance. I agree more people should write about their own culture, but why should people only write about their own? Where’s the harm in doing deep research into a culture that isn’t your own?Can mixed people like me depict cultures they’re not 100% in, or is that also not their own? How far will you go if you have to prove a culture/subject are your “own”? Reminds me of how people like Sacheen Littlefeather and Ian Ousley lied about their tribal membership to achieve their fame. Or Rachel Dolezal who lied about being Black in order to speak on matters specific to Black people.

[unwelcome-ephestion]

The above recording is incredible archival footage, though a trigger warning for yellowface and Asian stereotyping is definitely necessary. Rodgers and Hammerstein would later stand against yellowface in the stage and film productions of Flower Drum Song, insisting that only Asian actors play in their musical about Chinese Americans, but The King and I comes earlier and suffers from attitudes of white people at the time.

But what incredible archival footage it is! This comes from Richard Rodgers’s home movies, filmed through the original run of The King and I. Eagle-eyed viewers will note three actors playing Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner; the original actor, Gertrude Lawrence, Celeste Holm (perhaps better known as the original Ado Annie in Oklahoma!, or Frank Sinatra’s love interest in High Society) and Broadway regular Constance Carpenter. The reason for this is actually very sad; Lawrence became very ill during the run, missing several shows, and eventually collapsed backstage, and died only two weeks later from undiagnosed liver cancer. She was eulogised by Oscar Hammerstein II and was buried in the iconic dress from the Shall We Dance? number, immortalised in most minds by Deborah Kerr in the film as one of the largest dresses ever, and seen in full splendour at the end of the archive footage. Julie Andrews would later play Gertrude Lawrence in the biopic Star, and indeed Andrews would also do a turn as Anna Leonowens, completing the circle!

Yul Brynner, the original King, became obsessed with the role and completed over 4,000 performances in it, including in the film, despite being a hugely in-demand Hollywood actor. This was the role he shaved his head for, which became his signature look - he had to keep shaving it! The first production of The King and I premiered in 1951 - incredibly, Yul Brynner was still performing as the King (although obviously not consistently for all that time - he had a separate career!) in 1985, the year of his death, spending the final three years struggling with terminal cancer even whilst he played the role. There was something about the role which utterly captivated him; it seems he just couldn’t stop.

[butch-bakugo]

LMAO u must have such a hard time being alive if you consider jenna marbles problematic. im sorry you have to live your life this way

Just some examples of jenna marbles being a typical cishet white youtuber; slut shaming, mysogny, black and yellow face, racism and sympathizing with other racists.

A link to the Reddit thread that explains it all while having links to each one of these incidents

Just some images of her doing black and yellow face in the same video

+bonus! a collage of the many times shane daweson, another white and cis youtuber she CONSTANTLY associates with and is still friends with after all the nasty shit hes done from anti-Semitism to out right saying the n-word with a hard r, did black face!

But yeah, white cishet lady funny so her rampant racism dosent matter right?

[susielesbianism]

In hindsight I don’t know how we ever feared something terrible would happen after Kris ripped the SOUL out

[ID: A cropped screenshot of Deltarune. Kris stands on the carpet of their room, their back toward the camera. They have a knife in their outstretched left arm and are looking back with red glowing eyes and a violent, bare-toothed grin. End ID]

This is EXACTLY the face of a kid who’s about to eat all the fucking pie

[tenpixelsusie]

wow these spot the difference games are getting hard

[quasiimodo]

women of disney 15. lady and the tramp (1955)