#TW: YELLOWFACE

[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.)

[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 !

[villainanders]

i think part of what's so interesting is how june and athena are both positioned as fundamentally unable to write without "stealing." and this is a huge spectrum obviously, from the question of athena's right to write books about her family's trauma to june stealing athena's entire first draft to edit and publish under her own name. but there are also pretty egregious examples on both sides (athena using the details of june's rape for a short story immediately comes to mind) and june relies pretty heavily on that to make her case to the reader that what she did Wasn't So Bad, or at least that athena wasn't really a victim. and also the way it's so important to june that the reader understands that the last front never could have been the book it became without june's intervention, that it was transformative that that makes it at very least the same as what athena was doing.

but of course what june did wasn't the same, basically any reader is going to agree that despite her justifications june absolutely crossed the line, but where does the line fall? i think some people might say that athena had crossed the line too - even in her books that pulled from her own family's history (and we hear about in-universe twitter discourse to that effect). yellowface is pretty clearly pulled from some other recent book community dramas like kidneygate and that cat person story where a good deal of people felt that the authors involved had no write to write stories based on other people's lives at all. but then we have june's debut, which was hers and hers alone, pulled from her own childhood, and it just.. wasn’t that good*

of course, june comes to racist conclusions about no one wanting to hear white women's stories, but there is something interesting about june's inability to create good art when she pulls from her own life, and her success when she works with other people's. i saw someone joke that june would be happier writing fanfic which like. lmao yeah honestly, but also i think the book does address this in a way when june's agent suggests she writes ip work (basically, legally profitable fanfic). i feel like this gets positioned as essentially the same as june searching athena's notebooks for ideas, and with athena interviewing victims of wars to use their trauma for her books. none of these ideas belong to them, the stories they create are not theirs but they ARE theirs because if they hadn't written them down, maybe no one else would have

i'm obsessed with the scene where an old man tells june he's glad the book was written and published because it's the first time he's seen his family's story told, and even reassures her when she admits she's not sure she was the right person to tells the story. of course he doesn't know the full context behind june's actions and it doesn't make what june did okay at all regardless, but it is a testament to the complicated effects even really heinous actions can have. the last front probably would never have been published if june didn't steal it - maybe there's a chance another author could have gotten permission to finish it and have it published under both their names - but it's more likely it would have been a go set a watchman, a messy first draft that just tarnishes the author's legacy. it doesn't make what she did okay, and in this conversation about the lines around theft I'm definitely not trying to say that june and athena had equal rights to the last front. aside from the Stealing The Whole First Draft of it all, there's obviously something to be said about parts like june erasing some of the most horrific parts of the actual historical racism in the last front for being "too heavy handed." june may have done research - but she doesn't have athena's lived experience as an asian woman and she arrogantly refused to have a sensitivity reader even look at her manuscript. it's not that june is right at all in her argument - but the spectrum she evokes when arguing that she is is so interesting and I feel like the book did a great job exploring it

*i'm running with the idea that june's debut wasn't very good for the sake of this train of thought but it's probably worth taking that idea with several grains of salt. one critique i do have of the book is the way her debut is used to show how the lack of support mid-list authors receives sets them up for failure vs a lucky few authors that publishing decides will be successes and therefore turns them into successes. the fact that one of these authors is able to then produce a smash hit as her sophomore novel (even if it was stolen from a more successful author) muddies this a bit imo. like so ARE we supposed to believe that june's debut was just straight up bad? idk

thinking about yellowface.. aside from being an extremely good satire of the publishing industry (and a really biting condemnation of the racism within it) it also had such interesting ideas about the lines between theft and inspiration that goes into art without really coming to any firm conclusions itself. it’s been a few weeks since I read it but I keep thinking about it and chewing on some of the ideas that came up in different scenes

[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

[capitainerowen]

LECTURES DE 2024 : Babel ou la nécessité de la violence, Histoire secrète de la révolution des traducteurs d'Oxford - R.F. Kuang

Lecture terminée le 18 novembre 2024 (106/110)

768 pages lues

Genre: fantastique, dark academia

-M. Baylis." Robin sentait ses doigts vibrer d'une énergie étrange, brûlant d'être libérée, mais ne savait pas s'il avait envie de s'enfuir ou de frapper cet homme. "Je suis chinois, M. Baylis." Baylis, pour une fois, resta muet. Ses yeux scrutèrent le visage du jeune homme, comme s'il cherchait à détecter dans ses traits la véracité de cette assertion. Puis, à la grande surprise de Robin, il éclata de rire. "Non, pas du tout." Il se pencha en arrière et posa les deux mains sur sa poitrine, toujours scoué d'hilarité. "Doux Jésus. C'est désopilant. Non, vous n'êtes pas chinois."

Ma 106ème lecture de l'année a été l'excellent Babel écrit par R.F. Kuang, largement au niveau de Yellowface (par la même autrice) dont je vous avais parlé cet été!

Résumé: En 1828, une maladie mortelle ravage la ville de Canton. Un garçon en est alors arraché de justesse et se voit alors transporté jusqu'en Angleterre où il sera rebaptisé Robin Swift et éduqué sur l'apprentissage des langues jusqu'à son admission à l'institut royal de traduction des langues: Babel. Là-bas, Robin se rend compte qu'il n'est qu'un outil pour l'université, dont la seule utilité est de renforcer la puissance de l'Empire colonialiste britannique.

CW/TW: agression physique, alcool, deuil, esclavagisme, exploitation de mineurs, maltraitance, manipulation mentale, meurtre, misogynie, mort d'un proche, parricide, racisme, sang, sexisme, suicide, torture, violence, xénophobie

Les TW sont tirés du livre lui-même

L'an dernier, je me suis acheté Babel, de R.F. Kuang. J'ai longuement hésité à me le prendre en anglais plutôt qu'en français parce que le travail de traduction de la maison d'édition De Saxus est célèbre pour être pourri (ce qui est d'autant plus ironique dans un roman dont le thème principal est la traduction et son importance), mais je craignais ne pas pouvoir le trouver dans sa langue originale et il m'intéressait sérieusement alors, comme le livre n'était plus édité fin 2023 (si peu de temps après sa sortie!?), j'ai craqué pour le tome en français. Ironie du sort, après que je l'ai commandé en librairie, je l'ai vu dans sa langue originale en magasin, mais vu qu'il était déjà commandé, je ne l'ai pas pris. J'aurais dû! Parce que, je confirme, De Saxus est vraiment POURRIE pour la traduction, c'est épuisant.

M'enfin, là n'est pas le sujet. Ai-je aimé Babel, de R.F. Kuang? C'est son cinquième livre publié, son second One-Shot à ce jour, et j'ai adoré l'écriture tordue et cynique (/pos) de Yellowface que j'ai reçu pour mon anniversaire il y a 5 mois... et oui, je l'ai adoré. En fait, il m'est même très difficile de déterminer lequel des deux tomes de l'autrice j'ai préféré. Les deux sont diamétralement opposés mais aussi tous les deux excellement bien écrits, alors difficile de les départager.

Déjà, il faut savoir quelque chose sur moi. Je suis FAIBLE pour le trope "found family", au point où ça me rend naïf, presque idiot, et l'utilisation de ce trope dans le roman est superbement bien faite. C'est parfait, ça fait mal exactement là où il faut! Robin, Ramy, Victoire, Letty... J'y ai cru à leur histoire, à leurs émotions, à leurs sentiments! Et en fait, c'est très difficile pour moi de parler de ce livre sans le spoiler. Y'a des choses que je veux dire et que je ne peux pas vous dire, et donc je joue volontairement sur mes formulations et sur les informations que je vous donne pour ne pas vous spoiler.

Je dois bien le dire, Babel est violent. Les termes abordés sont violents, les actions qu'on y trouve aussi, les morales, etc... Tout y est. Et l'utilisation même des mots est violente, mais c'est nécessaire. Babel va vous faire mal, vous rendre triste, vous mettre dans une colère terrible et c'est ce qu'il faut! On ne peut pas toujours lire des livres pour aller mieux, pour être heureux, parfois on lit des livres parce qu'il faut reprendre pied avec la réalité, et là c'est un sacré coup de poing au visage, mais je conseille ce roman à tout le monde. Si vous êtes à l'aise avec la lecture, lisez-le, si vous ne l'êtes pas, essayez les audio-livres, mais sincèrement, donnez sa chance à Babel.

Aussi! Le livre est bourré de notes de bas de page. Loin de gêner l'avancée de la lecture, vous pourrez vite vous rendre compte qu'elles sont là pour aider à la compréhension de l'histoire, en nous renseignant sur des choses que Robin, notre narrateur, ne peut pas savoir, car elles sont, elles, omniscientes.

Je vous conseille en tout cas très fort Babel. Je ne peux pas vous le conseiller de la même manière que Yellowface, ni pour les mêmes raisons, mais je vous le recommande avec le même enthousiasme. Babel est d'une violence nécessaire, comme son titre complet l'annonce. Ce n'est pas l'histoire d'étudiants qui vivent leur petite existence tranquille dans une grande université, c'est une histoire de révolte, de guerre, de racisme et de haine... Le roman entier est une merveille boulversante et brutale qui se doit d'être lue.

Vraiment, si vous devez demander un livre à Noël à votre famille, choisissez Babel, de R.F. Kuang, 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

[princesssarisa]

Snow White Winter: "Cannon Movie Tales: Snow White" (1987 film)

Any child of the '80s or '90s probably has at least vague memories of the Cannon Movie Tales. This series of star-studded direct-to-video musicals was produced (of course) by the Cannon Group and filmed in Israel, allegedly conceived both as an answer to Disney's animated fairy tales and as a tribute to the German fairy tale films of the '50s and '60s (e.g. the films of Fritz Genschow or Erich Kobler) that were once a staple of "kiddie matinees." While only nine films were made, the series still stands out in the memories of countless fairy tale lovers. It most definitely stands out in mine!

1987's Snow White was the fifth entry in the series. It opens with the Prince (James Ian Wright) riding home from long travels through the snow (massive quantities of paper and salt used to transform the Israeli landscape into a European winter wonderland), and yearning, as princes do, to find a princess. Straight away he finds one, but unfortunately, she's lying lifeless in a glass coffin. Beside it, he meets the seven dwarfs, Iddy, Biddy, Diddy, Fiddy, Kiddy, Giddy and Liddy, and the story leading up to this point is told as a flashback, narrated to the Prince by the eldest dwarf Iddy (Billy Barty).

Compared to most other non-German Snow Whites, this version is remarkably faithful to the Grimms' tale. It features the Grimms' opening with Snow White's mother wishing for a child with snow white skin, followed by her death in childbirth. This is also the only screen adaptation of the tale to portray Snow White as just a small child (Nicola Stapleton) when the wicked Queen (Dame Diana Rigg) resolves to be rid of her. The Queen isn't yet told by her magic mirror that Snow White is the fairest in the land, though. Her initial motive is jealousy of her husband the King's loving bond with his little daughter – hearing him playfully call her "the most beautiful lady in the kingdom" is the last straw. It's only some seven to ten years later, when Snow White (now played by 17-year-old Sarah Patterson) has grown into a lovely maiden in the dwarfs' cottage, that the mirror proclaims her to be the fairest. Meanwhile, the poor King dies during the time skip, thinking his daughter was killed by wild animals.

All three of the Queen's attempts to kill Snow White are included: the suffocating bodice, the poisoned comb and the poisoned apple. Each attempt sees her adopt a distinctly different disguise and accent, and unfortunately, the first two are embarrassing by today's standards, as she delivers the bodice in brownface as a Romani woman and the comb in yellowface as a Japanese geisha. Only for the apple does she dress as the conventional old peddler woman.

After hearing the story, the lovesick Prince begs to take Snow White's coffin to his castle to keep her safe from harm. But as his entourage rides home, a blizzard blows up, a falling tree startles the horses, and the coffin is thrown from its wagon, jolting the piece of apple from Snow White's throat. As for the Queen, this version revives the old tradition of "she breaks the magic mirror in her rage over Snow White's survival and its magic backfires on her." As the cracks gradually spread across the glass, she slowly transforms into an ugly old hag, and when the mirror finally shatters altogether, her body shatters too and crumbles to dust.

This is no perfect Snow White, but without question it has charm. Its settings and costumes strike an excellent balance between fairy tale whimsy and folksy realism. The Queen's often outlandish gowns and headdresses perfectly suit her larger-than-life personality, while the blue and white royal castle surrounds her with coldly beautiful elegance. Particularly in the eerie room containing the magic mirror, which speaks from a sinister man's face (Julian Chagrin) carved into its ornate white frame while other carved faces on the sides of the frame underscore his speech with high-pitched chatter and laughing. In contrast to this world is the rustic warmth of the dwarfs' cottage, with the endearingly eccentric dwarfs (all played by actors with dwarfism) portrayed as raggedy nature-gnomes with leaves and twigs in their scruffy hair. The songs – "Where Is The One I Long For?" "Let It Snow," "Hopping On My Daddy's Knee," "More Beautiful Than Me," "The Bed Song," "Iddy, Biddy" and "Every Day" – are tuneful and appealing too, if not Disney quality.

The film's main weakness (besides the Queen's racially stereotyped disguises) is a slight lack of heart. The scenes with the most feeling come at the beginning, where Snow White's parents are shown as a truly loving couple, her mother is given is given a brief yet touching deathbed scene, and young Snow White's sweet bond with her father is highlighted. But the second half of the script seems more concerned with moving through each plot point than with emotions. The King is perfunctorily killed off (I would have preferred to see him live to reunite with Snow White in the end), and Snow White's "death" is less poignant than usual, because the dwarfs barely mourn before comforting themselves with the hope that she's only under a spell.

But regardless of any flaws in the writing, the cast is excellent. The real star is Diana Rigg as the Queen, whose deliciously campy comic villainy is unforgettable. But both of the two Snow Whites, child and adolescent, are perfectly cast too, and the dwarfs, the Prince and the rest of the supporting actors all fill their roles very well.

For anyone who might like to see a charming musical Snow White that's more faithful to the Grimms' tale than the Disney version, and who doesn't mind a little camp, I recommend this version highly.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @superkingofpriderock

[ddaa-rin]

hey tumblr uhh what the actual FUCK

[bitter-opal]

Yellowface is Alive and Well in Steven Universe

Ok, so I know this post is going to get a lot of hate, but

Steven Universe treats its POC horribly. Today Is I’ll be talking about the racism towards Asians and Asian-coded characters in the show since I have personal experience with that.

Definitions and Terms:

A quick overview of Yellowface: Yellowface consists of very narrow eyes, buck teeth or tooth gaps, and very yellow skin. This was used as justification to keep Chinese people out of the US using Chinese Exclusion Acts during the 19th century after Chinese immigrants were used to build railroads or clean laundry. It was used as an argument for US imperialism of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War concluded. It was also used as anti-Japanese sentiment to justify the shameful Japanese internment camps of the 1940s.

Remember the episode “Steven’s Dream” where Greg and Steven go to visit Korea. They made an anti-Asian joke. The joke here was that all Asians look the same. Asians have to deal with this kind of shit everyday. That we all look alike or that our cultures are interchangeable. But oh, it gets even worse than that.

Connie: Connie is Southeast Asian. But she constantly gets shunted to the side as Steven’s sidekick. First, Connie is portrayed as a nerd, and although I am a nerd, that is a hint that they would go the stereotypical route. The nerdy Asian is a stereotype used to hold Asians to perfectionistic standards and justify being shunted to the side because we’re “nerds.” In season 2, Pearl conditions her to serve Steven and put her own safety last, which is extremely unhealthy. She’s even called a “pet” by Blue Diamond, which is super racist. A brown kid should never ever be called a pet. And then I see people on Tumblr defending Blue Diamond, but if you want to avoid being racist, awful epithets like this are something to avoid completely. Also, whenever she fuses with Steven into Stevonnie, their fusion is sexualized, which is typical of Asian fetishization (something I have had to deal with unfortunately irl) When she is rightfully upset at Steven, her concerns and feelings are considered non-issues. Why? Because she’s a POC and POC don’t matter in Steven Universe.

Lars: just everything about his character was done completely wrong by the crew. Lars has always been colored orange on the show, which is pretty weird unless you contextualize it as another form of racism. If they were going for tan, then the tan they did was really shitty. Lars is implied to be Filipino based on the dish he makes right before he gets kidnapped. His dish ends up thrown in the trash out of shame, which is a big old middle finger to Asian culture and food. He’s portrayed as a jerk before he gets kidnapped. He’s the only human character to explicitly die...Apparently the only way an Asian character is good is if they die for the white hero and/or get their skin turned much, much lighter. And then, Steven leaves him stranded in space. Like hell, this kid had a very high chance of dying again, and you fucking left him?! But if it was your racist Uncle Andy, I’m sure you wouldn’t leave him behind. That is pure racism. But here’s what really shocked me to the core:

Blatant Yellowface with Jade: This one may require some historical context since many people think that it’s impossible in modern day cartoons, but I see it on a regular basis. Yellowface is defined above. Can you figure out what’s wrong here? Hint: It’s the facial features of the fusion. Neither of Jade’s components have the features of the fusion: specifically the tooth gap and the “slanted eyes.” Jade is also stereotypically associated with East Asian cultures especially China. When using such a culturally charged gemstone, you need to make sure that you’re not being racist about it. This is what the crewinverse failed to do. They gave the fusion “slanted” eyes and a tooth gap even though a quick Internet search says this screams Yellowface. This blatant example of Yellowface is not talked about a lot and I wished to draw more attention to this extremely problematic depiction. When I watched the episode that night, that shit seriously traumatized me. It made me stop watching the show for any kind of pleasure because a show that shows this much disrespect and mockery of Asians does not deserve my viewership.

Conclusion: This kind of racist motherfuckery by the show is extremely upsetting especially to kids who grew up in racist or intolerant environments. All the time, Asians are often considered foreign even if they were born and/or raised here. Asians are often fetishized, which often leads to sexual harassment and/or assault. Just because something claims to be “progressive” or “racially diverse” does not mean it is unproblematic or anti-racist. Because this allegedly progressive cartoon committed at least 4 majorly racist acts against just Asian people..

[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

[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.

[tenpixelsusie]

wow these spot the difference games are getting hard

[quasiimodo]

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

[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

[capitainerowen]

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 re��u 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 !