Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

In this remarkable volume Lee (theater studies, Duke Univ.) illustrates how performances of Asians living in the US during the exclusion era were not based on or performed by actual Asian Americans living in the US or in Asia. Made-Up Asians demonstrates the use and power of so-called yellowface during the period of exclusion (1862-1940) in US history. Exclusionary laws were deeply entrenched in US society and were normalized in the acting industry, in which almost all major roles on the stage and the screen were played by white actors. Whiteness was the default racial barometer in the acting profession, and Lee argues that for a white person performing an Asian character was a demonstration of artistry. Thus, Asian actors were doubly excluded, and Lee shows that even in the contemporary era casting is based on that notion. Lee provides a detailed exploration of the impact of this racist practice. She illustrates how the practice of yellowface affected the makeup industry, how Asian actors had to negotiate this practice, how white European and American actors prepared for Asian roles, and how scientific racism created the intellectual milieu for yellowface to develop.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.