since i took a fork in the road, i want to put together a brief 'VIEW' of the way 'ASIANS' (or 'orientals'...the more
common expression back then) were portrayed. what a GIFT youtube is to help create this visual montage...
it didn't matter, whether it was chinese or japanese characters...the way that asians were portrayed in western culture and cinema was not only stereotyped.....but to add to this 'LIMITED' way of viewing and projecting asian images....
the use of NON asian actors was common. (for the few asian roles that were even written).
this was why sessue hayakawa was such a surprise to me. i had no idea that there was a japanese actor of merit during hollywoods early days of silent screen. since sessue sans lack of (english) verbal skills were a hinderance to his career in the 30's...(along with a growing anti japanese sentiment) what follows is a small example of what the predominant 'FACE' of asians in hollywood looked like from the 1930's to the 1960's.
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CHARLIE CHAN DETECTIVE
earl derr biggers wrote the CHARLIE CHAN books and WARNER OLAND was one of a few NON asian actors to play this role. (sidney toler played him in the 1940's) this is a clip from a 1931 film called THE BLACK CAMEL with warner.
of interesting note is that in a 1981 film, (charlie chan and the curse of the dragon queen) PETER USTINOV was cast in the lead, rather than an asian actor.
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MR. MOTO
from imdb:
Mr. I. A. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the
American author John P. Marquand. Moto's name is apparently an alias,
and he is better known simply as "Mr. Moto". Marquand originally created
Moto for the Saturday Evening Post, which encouraged him to write
Asian-flavored mystery stories after the death of Charlie Chan's
creator, Earl Derr Biggers. apparently, they gave the character the first name of kentaro in the movies.
PETER LORRE. a hungarian actor known for mostly character parts played the diminutive mr. moto seen here in 1939.
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MR. YUNIOSHI
...speaking of diminutive.....in 1961, MICKEY ROONEY played mr. yunioshi in the film classic, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. it is possibly the most reviled portrayal of a japanese character (among asian american groups) and is held up as one of the most insulting examples of stereotyping asian mannerisms and accent. while i do understand their 'IRE' it was SUCH an "over the top" piece of acting, and he played it as such a 'CARICATURE' that i thought of it more like a 'jerry lewis' performance, and therefore found it somewhat funny, when i watched it. (altho i don't personally care for jerry lewis films)
there are more examples, but i'll stop here....because by this time, a few asian males are beginning to make an impression (albeit small) in hollywood....(james shigeta, mifune san, mako, etc), so the look of hollywood and 'THE ORIENT' begins to shift....it's a small shift...but a welcome one.
if you are at all interested, here is a link to an article addressing this issue http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_yellow.html
written by robert b. ito, it covers a MUCH broader scope of films, and the a deeper analysis of the 'ISSUE' itself, (and mentions the mickey rooney portrayal specifically...) but the list of some of the actors who played 'yellowface' is quite amazing....
from the robert ito article:
The list of actors appearing in yellowface is disturbingly long: Katharine Hepburn; Fred Astaire; Myrna Loy; Ricardo Montalban; Ingrid Bergman; John Wayne as Genghis Khan; Marlon Brando as a comical Okinawan; Mickey Rooney, complete with "slanted eyes," thick glasses, and buck teeth, doing the "Jap thing" in Breakfast at Tiffany's; Peter Sellers; Helen Hayes; Peter Lorre; Lon Chaney; Anthony Quinn; and that perennial, "probably still believes he's an Asian" David Carradine.

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