The Fairy Princess has been trying quite hard to remain positive these last few posts…because the ‘real’ news has been fairly hideous – whether you are concerned about riots in Egypt, or Child Trafficking, or Russia hating LGBT people….(Which is ludicrous, because of course, Russia is like…the Gayest Country on Earth…if you are famous for BALLET….that’s pretty Gay, Russia…pretty Gay), so she has not been posting about theater, because, well…she thought everyone learned their lesson.
The Fairy Princess lecturing Joseph Anthony Foronda in Flower Drum Song at AMTSJ
I mean, she gave a speech at LA Stage Day about the death of Yellowface, and she was totally encouraged by the fact that the audience at LA Stage Day was receptive. Not only were they receptive, the wider, Internet audience that technology makes possible was ALSO accepting of the fact that it’s not cool to put on makeup and bad accents and make fun of Asian people simply because you are too lazy or stupid to do an actual and thoughtful portrayal of Asian culture WITH Asian actors in those roles.
I mean, weren’t we all clear on this? GEORGE? What do you think?
I mean, any educated person would have to take note that demeaning a heritage you know nothing about would be…well… stupid. Any educated person would know that. Educated people, for example, who have just received an Ivy League education at an institution that is known for having high artistic standards….a place like, well…let’s just say it….YALE.
Wow…that is gorgeous…yep, that’s Yale
Yale is a pretty fancy place – it’s graduates include Presidents, Physicians, Performers, Playwrights, in fact, the Fairy Princess’s own cousin holds a PhD from Yale….so she’s been there, and yeah…pretty fancy.
(In case you are reading this post in say….Scotland…or more specifically Edinburgh, it may be worth sharing that Yale Drama School – which is a Masters Program of Study, has some pretty famous Alumni to boast of….much like my own alma mater, Carnegie Mellon….which was founded by a Scot – Andrew Carnegie. GO SCOTS! )
Now, when you think “Yale Drama”, who comes to mind?
Or well, this guy….
TONY Winning Playwright, David Henry Hwang
He won a TONY Award for writing this play:
And DHH is not the only Asian American to have attended Yale Drama….how about this guy?
Actor CS Lee – Dexter
Or THIS guy…..
Actor & 2x TONY Winning Producer, Pun Bandhu
And lest you think that Yale Drama is male dominated…
Actress & TED Speaker, Esther K. Chae
So…as you can see, Yale School of Drama has some fairly distinguished Asian American alumni who are gracing our stages and screens, large & small, today. And Yale School of Drama is NOT what this post is about – because obviously they are forward thinking and embrace diversity in it’s students and alumni. And Bravo to that!
However, there are a LOT of people who attend Yale and they are entitled to pursue Acting, Writing, and Directing just the same as anyone else. Their resumes still say….Yale. The word entitled is a very big one here, and it explains the reason for this post.
Though these bright minded individuals do hold degrees from Yale University, they do NOT hold Degrees from Yale School of Drama.
They do not have the training, they do not have the sensitivity, and they do not have, perhaps, their pulse on the beat of the cultural landscape of American Theater to know that there is a…and well…given the subject matter, The Fairy Princess hesitates to use the word, but it is applicable…a REVOLUTION in American Theater in regards to portrayals of Asian peoples.
Nobody binds our feet and leaves us in a corner ANY more….
The definitive answer, in many respects, to cultural misunderstandings
Which is why it was all the more shocking to hear about THIS
A play currently playing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival written & Performed by YALE Alum
You see…this is the Cast of BEIJING CAKE currently playing at Edinburgh Fringe, and….it’s a play about China….do they look Chinese to you? I see….
Cassie DaCosta, Nathaniel Moore, Sara Rosen, Gabriel Christian the cast of BEIJING CAKE
And HERE is a map of CHINA…real, actual, China….it’s not made up, it does not exist only in pure imagination…it’s right THERE…you see?
Wait! Wait a MINUTE you say that CHINA is a REAL and ACTUAL place?
And here is a…well…a Chinese person…one who is actually, supposedly portrayed IN this play:
The Chairman…and no, not a fan as he put my Great Aunt into a concentration camp…but he was a real and actual person of which there are MANY images
Though none of the Cast appears to BE of Asian descent, appearances CAN be deceiving so let’s see their Kickstarter video, because perhaps that would show them to be a sensitive, thoughtful bunch, who can cheerfully bring us all up to speed on the Chinese experience…http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2114703258/bring-beijing-cake-to-the-edinburgh-fringe-festiva
Yeah…not so much. Although the repeated GONGS throughout the kickstarter video are a nice touch….
The Fairy Princess has hit a wall….
She has hit a wall because this is a project that is coming from young people! In their twenties! And Whitney Houston always told us that Children were the future!
Whitney lied. These children are as whack as crack.
The Fairy Princess is FRUSTRATED.
Remember what happened the FIRST time she got this frustrated? (MR KAUFMAN? REMEMBER?)
OK here is the deal….this show at The Fringe is billed as a comedy, it’s billed as hilarious…and apparently, those who have done the billing are the playwright, director and Cast themselves, because when core members of the British East Asians attended the show this is what they saw….
Ummmmm…..
You know who should be upset about this? More than The Fairy Princess, more than the British East Asian Artists?
Man if I went there, I would be SO pissed!
And here is why...they make Yale Alumni look like culturally insensitive a**holes.
Cuz ya wanna see how they bill themselves….?
Wow…yeah, YALE is all over those bios….huh?
Yale, Yale, Yale…and you know what – Yale is actually a very sophisticated school with quite an international reputation. And now this bunch is going around the world to spread Yellowface makeup, made up Chinese and…well…racism. I mean, they do not even seem to be aware that Chinese can be broken down into various dialects like Mandarin and Cantonese!
REALLY? Because even ELMO knows what Mandarin is!
THIS is what they came out of YALE with? An entitled sense of being able to make fun of Asian people…an entitled opinion that they are able to portray us, to speak on our issues, to mock a language that is thousands of years old?
OMG Yale – you failed. You were supposed to educate them to take their place in the world and hold forth the tradition of excellence that you are known for. They ran off waving their sheepskin and decided it was a great idea to mock the Country that holds America’s dollar by the proverbial balls.
What a great endorsement for a Yale Education! I’m sure their Parents will be thrilled that they PAID for their kids to learn that you can step all over Chinese people at tens of thousands of dollars per semester! The one who will be absolutely the MOST proud?
The Director’s FATHER….
Because EVERYONE knows that Oscar Winning Screenwriters really want to be known for having Daughters who perpetuate stereotype utilizing Yellowface and made up Chinese adjacent languages! What a shame, when you, yourself, are so meticulous in your brilliant work. But perhaps, she is a late bloomer. You have faith in her.
The Fairy Princess….not so much.
Let’s break it down people, these Actors and this Playwright and this Director are from groups that have ‘Minority’ written all over their names and faces and gender…possibly even their sexual preferences, who knows or who cares, but it’s possible. So if you are, yourself, a member of a Minority group, how DARE you mock another one? Forget what you obviously did NOT learn at YALE about cultural sensitivity, what the heck were you learning at home that makes this in ANY way ok?
Well now, they are probably upset….they are saying HOW DARE I call them on this racist play that they love doing. Who am I to expect them to strive for excellence and artistic bravery? Ok Kids…fine, but let’s turn this around….because turnabout is fair play, yes?
Foghorn Leghorn says Yes, Turnabout is fair play
Now…if Asian American actors were to go over to Edinburgh, slap on some Blackface make up and talk like Amos & Andy – would that be ok?
Yeah, remember when people thought THIS was ok? (TOTALLY NOT OK!)
No.
If Asian American Directors and Writers got together a made up a mockery of the Hebrew language which they THEN set it to the tune of “Yiddishe Mama” would that be ok?
No.
Cuz The Bottle Dance from Fiddler On The Roof is just Jerome Robbin’s choreo…we could learn it
Tradition my ASS!
(BTW, The Fairy Princess knows every damn word to Fiddler On The Roof and made her Mom take her to see it 5 times in a row when she was six years old and then she memorized the Cast recording…but she ALWAYS knew that it was a show she would NEVER do)
But we are not going to. Because we have standards.
I would have thought that you would have them too…being that you know….you went to Yale and all….so many whacks with the wand…you need to grab a mirror and take a good look at yourselves and HONESTLY wonder how you EVER thought that this was in ANY way ok….. OH….and BY THE WAY….
KISS MY FAN TAN FANNIE
fairyprincessdiaries 
Oh FFS! NOT AGAIN!!! When I took Suzy Wrong Human Cannon to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1994 — my little show lampooning Asian stereotypes and the idiots who use them — little did I know the same issues would still need addressing nearly 20 years later. What did they get at Yale? A degree in fuckwittery with dishonour which they only got through parents with more money than grace and style, hothousing them with an army of tutors ’cause they didn’t fancy their chances on a level playing field with bright working classes?
“A DEGREE IN FUCKWITTERY’ is the best thing I have read today. 🙂
One small political point: Your map of China includes Taiwan. Thing is, Taiwan hasn’t been a part of China for a good sixty-plus years, de facto or otherwise, regardless of what China itself or the UN say.
Ironic that no detail of real or perceived racial or ethnic offence, large or small, goes unnoticed, yet this glaring error slips under the radar.
As you said, it is a political distinction, not one of ethnicity, as no one debates that Taiwan shares ethnic heritage with China, you calling attention to that fact is only to try and negate my points by calling in to question my use of a map, which is older- which was chosen specifically to show where, ethnically a group of people being lampooned hail from.
And it is NOT ‘every little thing’ – this show was and IS blatant racism and Caucasian people – OF WHICH I AM ONE- need to acknowledge these Mis-steps in taste and judgement.
But once AGAIN- nice try, White Boy
I didn’t say anything regarding the play itself, which I agree sounds rather offensive, though I haven’t seen it. I’m just saying that there are 24 million people out there who would take issue with your use of a map purporting to show that China includes Taiwan (never mind the hot potato of Tibet). It’s a total miscue on your part.
I’m also not white, though I don’t recall mentioning that, and I don’t see what that has to do with the issue. Your use of the term “white boy” and the assumption behind it does, rather, seem to reflect on the caliber of your argument.
Not white? So only a wannabe Anglo Saxon, then? Think they’ll let u into the club now?
This is from a British East Asian actor who told the BEAAs about Beijing Cake:
The latest from Julie Cheung-Inhin Anh Chu Emily Siu-see Hung
Julie Cheung-Inhin
Yesterday we, Siu-See Hung, Anh Chu and Julie Cheung-Inhin, went to see a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival called Beijing Cake. With a name like Beijing Cake and Chairman Mao’s picture on its posters, we assumed it was going to be a Chinese play, probably with Chinese actors in it. We never expected it to, God forbid, be from the point of view of an East Asian, but we did not expect in 2013 to experience yellow-face and racism to this degree. Firstly, we want to point out that this is not a review. Indeed, it cannot be: although we went to Beijing Cake to see what a play with such an intriguing name was about, and potentially (naively) to support East Asian artists, we were unable to finish watching the play. We stayed for 15 minutes of what felt like being slapped in the face while approximately 30 audience members laughed away.
The play starts off with two white actors and two black actors coming out in traditional Chinese costumes to perform a mock Chinese dance waddle that made our fists clench. The dialogue then began with the white American protagonist (Sarah Rosen) talking loudly and slowly to the black actress (Cassie Da Costa) playing Mie Hwa, asking how to say certain words in Chinese. Da Costa replied in a made-up “Chinese” language that was clearly meant to sound Chinese. (Indeed, it felt like “Chinky Chonky shu shu shu” mockery). Later on when talking to the playwright, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, about the “Chinese” used in the play, she explained they wanted to make up the Chinese language rather than use real Chinese (and let’s not even start on how old this language is!) so as to not offend the Chinese people.
We hoped that the joke or irony would come out soon, but when the yellow-faced black actor (Gabriel Christian) started to portray an elderly Chinese man chucking money at a white woman to buy her unborn child, we could take no more. Perhaps the most insensitive and hurtful part of the play was the portrayal of the ghost of Mao Zedong as a kindly paternal figure that Rosen’s character repeatedly goes to for comfort and hugs. A parallel of this would be painting Hitler or Mugabe as a friendly confidante.
After walking out in total anger, we regrouped ourselves to talk to the people behind the project. First of all we approached the cast who told us to wait with a man until the writer was free to see us. This man did not tell us who he was until asked directly; he was in fact one of the producers of the show. We asked him why he did not cast East Asians in the East Asian roles, and he smiled and stated that he believed white actors should be able to play any colour role they liked as otherwise the industry would be very limiting. When we questioned this point again he deferred responsibility to the writer and said he didn’t want to talk to us unless we were lawyers. When we eventually spoke to Kauder Nalebuff, she was the perfect politician. She apologised about the fact that we found it offensive, but maintained that she had tested the play with many different audiences to make sure it did not offend and that she believes this was achieved. We then asked her how many of these audience members were of East Asian decent and she did not reply. We also asked her about her casting choices. She said that in her play (a play we hasten to add is called Beijing Cake and is set in Beijing) she did not want to pinpoint the Chinese, but that casting was to represent that people are different and she wanted people to ruminate on stereotypes.
As mentioned this is an account of the events that took place. As yet we have been unable to speak to Edfringe or the Space Venue to voice these concerns. We will be doing all this today, and will keep you informed.
I think it is smashing that you all calmed down and waited to talk to the Author. I do find it suspicious that they were hesitant to talk to you
unless you were Lawyers, and that they were unable to answer a question about screening it before Asian audiences.
It is the height of arrogance to tell you that a Caucasian girl is going to break down the walls of stereotype for Asian people…
and I am shocked that the African American Cast Members would not instantly spot that the performances they are giving are offensive.
Whatever is in the water at Yale must make you self-deluded.
Bravo to you all for trying to sit through it and come to some sort of understanding/resolution. I am dismayed that The Festival
would not pay heed to what you said, and honestly, that Theater Manager sounds like a complete tool.
The latest from Julie Cheung-Inhin Anh Chu Emily Siu-see Hung
Julie Cheung-Inhin
Yesterday we, Siu-See Hung, Anh Chu and Julie Cheung-Inhin, went to see a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival called Beijing Cake. With a name like Beijing Cake and Chairman Mao’s picture on its posters, we assumed it was going to be a Chinese play, probably with Chinese actors in it. We never expected it to, God forbid, be from the point of view of an East Asian, but we did not expect in 2013 to experience yellow-face and racism to this degree. Firstly, we want to point out that this is not a review. Indeed, it cannot be: although we went to Beijing Cake to see what a play with such an intriguing name was about, and potentially (naively) to support East Asian artists, we were unable to finish watching the play. We stayed for 15 minutes of what felt like being slapped in the face while approximately 30 audience members laughed away.
The play starts off with two white actors and two black actors coming out in traditional Chinese costumes to perform a mock Chinese dance waddle that made our fists clench. The dialogue then began with the white American protagonist (Sarah Rosen) talking loudly and slowly to the black actress (Cassie Da Costa) playing Mie Hwa, asking how to say certain words in Chinese. Da Costa replied in a made-up “Chinese” language that was clearly meant to sound Chinese. (Indeed, it felt like “Chinky Chonky shu shu shu” mockery). Later on when talking to the playwright, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, about the “Chinese” used in the play, she explained they wanted to make up the Chinese language rather than use real Chinese (and let’s not even start on how old this language is!) so as to not offend the Chinese people.
We hoped that the joke or irony would come out soon, but when the yellow-faced black actor (Gabriel Christian) started to portray an elderly Chinese man chucking money at a white woman to buy her unborn child, we could take no more. Perhaps the most insensitive and hurtful part of the play was the portrayal of the ghost of Mao Zedong as a kindly paternal figure that Rosen’s character repeatedly goes to for comfort and hugs. A parallel of this would be painting Hitler or Mugabe as a friendly confidante.
After walking out in total anger, we regrouped ourselves to talk to the people behind the project. First of all we approached the cast who told us to wait with a man until the writer was free to see us. This man did not tell us who he was until asked directly; he was in fact one of the producers of the show. We asked him why he did not cast East Asians in the East Asian roles, and he smiled and stated that he believed white actors should be able to play any colour role they liked as otherwise the industry would be very limiting. When we questioned this point again he deferred responsibility to the writer and said he didn’t want to talk to us unless we were lawyers. When we eventually spoke to Kauder Nalebuff, she was the perfect politician. She apologised about the fact that we found it offensive, but maintained that she had tested the play with many different audiences to make sure it did not offend and that she believes this was achieved. We then asked her how many of these audience members were of East Asian decent and she did not reply. We also asked her about her casting choices. She said that in her play (a play we hasten to add is called Beijing Cake and is set in Beijing) she did not want to pinpoint the Chinese, but that casting was to represent that people are different and she wanted people to ruminate on stereotypes.
As mentioned this is an account of the events that took place. As yet we have been unable to speak to Edfringe or the Space Venue to voice these concerns. We will be doing all this today, and will keep you informed.
I wonder….
…if any of these pointy headed Yalies would have the nerve to list this show on their resume in the states? Particularly at an Asian American theatre?
As they wanted legal representatives there to even SPEAK to British East Asians, I assume not. They have not an artistic leg to stand on, and they know it. They just think it is funny to make fun of Asian peoples. They are bullies of privilege and entitlement.
Review from Anonymous Audience Member-Four reasons why “Beijing Cake” is offensive
For the uninitiated: Beijing Cake is a Northern American play which explores the racial stereotyping of Chinese people and the issues surrounding immigration and culture. In Beijing cake this is presented to us as a world where roles are reversed and American people desperately want to live in China. Produced by Year of the Horse, a virgin theatre company, the play casts African Americans as the Chinese, who dress in full 18th century Chinese dress, speak in “chinky-chonky” Chinese accents and talk gobbildy gook in lieu of any Chinese dialect. The play aims to lampoon such stereotypes, using its own absurdity to highlight the absurdity of racial stereotypes.
Many people in the East Asian community have taken offense at the play, and the responses to their outrage from the producers and others involved in the production has been apathetic and dismissive.
Here are four reasons why the play has failed to lampoon racism, and has unfortunately embraced it instead.
1. Universality.
At first glance it would seem offensive to stick a black man in a Chinese costume and have him perform a “Chinese dance” which was as inaccurate as it was offensive. After all, I’m guessing the black community probably wouldn’t take kindly to a white bloke donning a grass skirt, smearing himself in grease paint and running around in a field with a spear making clicking noises with his mouth. This is, in effect, why “blacking up” is considered offensive and taboo. However, when questioned as to why they had cast yellow face (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrayal_of_East_Asians_in_Hollywood) African Americans in East Asian parts instead of East Asians, a producer told us that it was to “emphasize the universality of the characters”.
This makes no sense.
Firstly; it is fairly hard to argue that the portrayal of Chinese people in this play was in anyway “universal”. By sticking the actors in traditional Chinese garb (a point I’ll get to in a minute), making them speak in Chinese accents and setting the play in Beijing, it is made explicitly clear to us that these characters are very Chinese; or at least a perverse distortion of the Chinese. If these characters were not Chinese, then the “hilaaarious” cultural misunderstandings between the two peoples would not work.
However, it is paradoxical to simultaneously lampoon a stereotype, whilst trying to illustrate the universality of that stereotype. By its very definition a stereotype embraces an exclusive, semi-fictional, construct of an ethnic, or cultural group. Therefore, surely it is impossible for a stereotype to be universal?
I think perhaps what the producer failed to express was that the play was trying to illustrate the universality of being stereotyped, as opposed to the universality of this particular stereotype. If this is the case, however, then why are most of the laughs aimed at the Chinese characters, instead of at the misinterpretations of our white protagonists? Sure, the play revels in taking the piss out of WASP Americans, but it is worth noting that these are American stereotypes of American people. The writer, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff lived in China for years, so why were White stereotypes which are embraced by the Chinese not explored? I can assure you, there are plenty, and the Chinese will make them very known, if given half the chance! Surely something can only be universally mocked, if it is universally applied?
2. The costumes.
Playwright Rachel Kauder Nalebuff lived in Beijing for a number of years. Therefore, she will know that Asian cities are, by our standards, literally like the future. Wandering around any modern Chinese city is like stumbling into a Star Trek fan’s wet dream, but without all the gratuitous alien sex. Walking around Hong Kong’s Times Square, you would not blink an eye if a hover car zoomed past and I’m fairly sure the vending machines on the underground have more processing power than C-3PO. In fact, in many aspects (human rights and not spitting everywhere duly omitted) the urban Chinese are arguably more advanced than us here in the West. Of course, there are parts of China which are still very backwards and primitive, but there are limits to how fast a country can take its populous from “famine stricken” to “global superpower” in Kevin Bacon’s lifetime.
So why, I have to wonder, did Nalebuff decide to stick her modern Chinese Beijingers in 18th Century traditional Chinese costumes?
I can only assume that, once again, this was meant to illustrate “racial stereotypes held by Westerners”.
So satire, then.
The thing is, satire only works when it is timely and/or relevant. For example it would be ridiculous, unfunny and just generally shit if Ian Hislop randomly starting making jokes about Harold Macmillan on “Have I Got News For You” 60 years after the fact. So too, is it ridiculous, unfunny and generally shit for Beijing Cake to lampoon these dusty, old stereotypes.
Of course, anachronisms can be used by satirists to demonstrate parallels between old and new, however, the tired clichés that Beijing Cake embraces are more worn out than Kerry Katona’s femidom, and as such they don’t really make any impact.
In fact, if anything, they only perpetuate this negative stereotype because, in 2013, NO ONE still thinks Chinese people wander around in traditional garb behaving like savages. 37% of Americans are of Chinese descent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American#Statistics_of_the_Chinese_population_in_the_United_States_.281840.E2.80.93present.29) therefore it is ridiculous to think that such a large group of people would remain, to the white majority, unknown and stereotyped.
The most tragic thing is, there are plenty of genuinely funny Chinese idiosyncrasies to mock, and by embracing a more nuanced outsider’s perspective on Chinese culture, the play might then have more accurately reflected the nature of stereotyping that Chinese people have to put up with in the West.
3. Chairman Mao.
I don’t need to waste much time with this one.
Mao was directly responsible for the deaths of an estimated 50 million human beings. It is hard to think of a more significant loss for a country, but arguably the loss of China’s culture and heritage during the Cultural Revolution is just as tragic. Heritage and culture form so much of a person’s identity, being at once a sense of pride, belonging and in some ways a moral compass. After all, progress can only be measured against what has already passed.
Chairman Mao is not a friendly paternal figure, Beijing Cake. This one really is indefensible, on par with writing a play about a man moving to Israel and striking up an imaginary friendship with Adolf Hitler.
I suggest you do some research and grow some sensitivity.
4. The New Chinese Century.
We are at the precipice of a new age. Western Europeans, or their descendants, have been the dominant political, economic and cultural force for around 400 years. People often talk of increasing global “Westernization” but it is fairly hard to argue against the fact that the whole world already is Westernised and has been for centuries.
The times, however, are changing. China is now the world’s foremost superpower, and as the West struggles to remove itself from the economic quagmire of the last half decade, China continues to grow, and continues to amass debts owed to it from the U.S.
After being torn apart by Western imperial interests, after being savaged by warlords and civil unrest, after weathering the Japanese invasion and the communist revolution, now China is finally earning its place as humanity’s Middle Kingdom.
Within our lifetime we will have to adjust as the world becomes more and more Eastern. Your children will learn Mandarin at school. Already legions of young people are flocking to China to learn about the culture and work there. The premise of Beijing Cake isn’t some ludicrous fictional premise; it’s happening right now!
This is perhaps the biggest shortfall for Beijing Cake; that in the midst of an epoch shattering exchange of world power, the best Nalebuff could muster were some black people in yellow face speaking chinky chonk English.
I welcome a response from the producers and/or writer, and am looking forward to reading it. This is maybe the only time in my life that I actually hope that I’m too dumb to understand the concept of a play, because the alternative is just too infuriating.
This is great.
Incidentally, CY Lee who wrote the novel Flower Drum Song was also a Yale grad.
But even that show when it was adapted on Broadway featured a mostly Asian American cast. Strange that people find it so difficult to cast Asian today when Rodgers and Hammerstein managed to do it back in the 1950s when it was harder.
There were a few Caucasians in the original Bway production, in Asian roles, and Juanita Hall was black, but largely YES, it was a mix of Asian Canadians and Asian Americans.
I’m surprised @edfringe hasn’t looked into this. After all, this theatre company are paying them a HUGE amount of money to come over here and use an accredited venue. Indeed, it seems that the Fringe are happy to profit from racism. If they want to avoid a PR scandal, they can’t possibly continue to ignore this.
The best thing to do is to keep making noise about it and send the information to local papers etc.
Thanks Lucy, anh and I bumped into Charles (the manager of all the Space venues) and he said he didn’t care about it, which we weren’t surprised about really. He did say it’s all subjective and that hethinks we’re wasting our time, and that apparently in America it’s the in thing at the moment to do blackface (thus insinuating that yellow face, which he didn’t even know the meaning of, was even less controversial)
Emily Siu-see Hung
I assure you, it is NOT ‘the thing’ to do Blackface in America.
Emily Siu-see Hung
Hi Lucy. Just a quick update on what response we had up here from the venue. So a pretty shocking response from the Venue Manager of Beijing cake. He told us we were wasting our time. He blew the issue off by saying its all subjective and that we are the only ones that are offended. He tried to silence us by stating he understood what we were going through as he had a stutter at school. He strongly believed Beijing Cake is not racist, even though he has not seen and refused to listen to our experience at the show.
This is from Scott Masson
Things I’ve learnt from the recent #BeijingCake #Beijingcake #Edfringe debacle: Racism directed at black people= instant public outrage among middle class twitter hawks.
Racism against Chinese= ignoring the problem/playing Devil’s advocate/ telling people to stop being so sensitive/intimidation tactics from theater company directors.
I’d love to pen a play about modern black people eating fried chicken and stealing things. I’d cast blacked up white actors in cow hides and have them perform wildly inaccurate “tribal dances” to see if people also see no problem with that, too. But remember, guys, it’s fine because it’s “lampooning” racism instead of being racist.
So in other words everyone’s ok with me calling all black people ni**ers ironically then, yeah? Because it’s only a joke to show how, like, racism works and all that? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah?
No.
Thanks for posting for ‘Anonymous” – this whole situation is more disgusting as details continue to air.
Blogged on this today: http://madammiaow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/edinburgh-fringe-greenlights-yellowface.html
🙂 Great points, well written.
Oh, yes, and I tweeted Lyn Gardener of the Guardian but haven’t heard back. @lyngardner Does theSpace manager’s claim that yellow face & BLACK FACE is OK mark backward step for British theatre? @edfringe #beijingcake
My favorite line: Whitney Houston always told us that Children were the future!Whitney lied. These children are as whack as crack.
Just saw their kickstarter video… oh dear lord, this looks bad. Like, really bad. That black dude can’t even do a good Chinese accent! They don’t deserve this press.
This show brings such shame to Yale. As a Yale grad, I’m embarrassed by the lack of cultural sensitivity and the lack of intellectual and dramaturgical rigor, particularly in regards to the use of the Mao character.
Black people doing yellow face is not somehow more acceptable. Conflating the histories of two races does not show us the universality of racism. It’s just plain lazy.
[…] cannot contain myself any longer! I simply must describe one of the most offensive and outrageous plays that I have ever […]
I got to see this show–the controversy is way blown out of proportion. I wish that the three women who walked out of the show shortly after its start had bothered to sit through to the end. The piece is entirely about cultural appropriation and stereotypes, what it means to belong to a society, and the way that misguided Westerners don’t manage to understand the experiences of others.
I’d say any thoughtful analysis of Beijing Cake–rather than the knee-jerk one presented here–would have understood how the “color-blind” casting (a common practice in the United States) and faux-Chinese speech were central to the play’s themes. Certainly the play is edgy–this is, after all, the Fringe. But it is fundamentally about understanding and destroying stereotypes, not perpetuating them.
I love it when the Creatives or Cast of the show in question, write under a false name to give a dissertation on the where’s and whys that justify Yellowface IN YOUR OPINION.
Yellowface is wrong. Period. We do NOT need Caucasians and African Americans ‘explaining’ discrimination OF us TO us.
What you did or even if you are just a friend that saw the show that is trying to be supportive- IS WRONG.
EVERYONE in this show was OUT of Line. PERIOD.
Let it go, grow up and figure out that the world is changing and you do NOT get to lecture us on race relations by mocking our Heritage.
Sooooo ridiculous – and the REVIEW of the show STATED that the points you are attempting to state – what this show is ‘about’- Did Not Work.
The review said it was unfunny and offensive.
Failure is good, because it is an opportunity to LEARN something- so I hope you HAVE learned that your arrogance and privilege is Misplaced.
Learn something.
I should also add that another British East Asian did indeed make it to the end and found the whole thing thoroughly dire.
It;s interesting though the venue manager seems to be taking your line about “color-blind” casting” being “a common practice in the United States”. What crock of bull that is. You wouldn’t get Caucasians or other minorities pretending to be African-Caribbeans and attempting to explain away crude racial impersonation as “color-blind” casting is a frankly piss-poor excuse,
I hope all connected with Beijing Cake will set down and reflect on this and come back do something better next time.
Color Blind Casting does not mean what he thinks it means. Color Blind Casting, in the USA, means that if there is a role where the description lists 40’s Caucasian Man that they will be open to seeing any Actor who is in the right age range. OR – for example this is actually happening to ME this week, likely because OF Color Blind Casting – I am going in for a role that was written for a man, but could easily be a woman. So that, for all intents and purposes, is what Color Blind Casting means.
It is not meant for Caucasians to play other races, it is meant to OPEN the door so that Actors of color are seen for roles that they fit the description for in every way, except skin color.
That manager is a moron.
Ellen’s arrogant comment is like a throwback to some 12 year-old’s colonialist wet dream. I saw the trailer and it was an embarrassment on every single level. A bunch of over-privileged pseuds who aren’t bright enough to understand that “thoughtful” is what this Beijing cack is not.
This sounds like an ignorant and stupid play. But censorship is not the answer. The EdFringe doesn’t police its plays, and a good thing too — it enables ignorant and racist plays like this to be put on — exposing themselves to rightly earned ridicule and scorn.
It’s helpful to give examples of other kinds of racist caracatures that probably wouldn’t be put on.
On that note…. For future racist play comments, I would encourage all to make connections with British South Asian actors, and British Black actors — who I’m sure would identify with these issues — of blackface and brownface, and of their cultures being mocked over in the name of stylisation. And who would lend their comments. 🙂 There’s power in coalition building!
I don’t think ‘censorship’ is the right word, and I did not call for it in the post at any point. I think ‘poor taste’ would be more my take on EdFringe’s allowing this work into their festival – because they had to have read a script at some point. Perhaps they did not know that there would be African Americans in Yellow face makeup speaking gibberish trying to represent a culture, perhaps they thought it would be better executed. Perhaps these kids just spent their way in with their Kickstarter money….We’ll never know.
The reason for the post was to call Yale Educated Alumni on their lack of cultural awareness and to shame them into never doing it again. (Although based on one response that is clearly either the writer or director of that play -on this post, they are deliberately missing the point.) This play and it’s players may be small potatoes now, but it is best to expose mold to the light, in order that it does not grow.
All comments by Professional Actors who identify with issues raised are welcome, and I think we should all continue to dialogue as much as we can, regardless of country of origin.
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my
comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to
say fantastic blog!