Your Face, My Face, Blackface, Yellowface
From Rooney to Schneider: how far have we come?
The question is simple: can we call it "yellowface" if the actor beneath the makeup and the pulled back eyes is, in fact, Asian?
Before you answer, consider this: in his last film role the legendary Pat Morita donned a salt and pepper bowl-cut wig and thick rimmed glasses to play an egotistical Chinese newspaper editor in "American Fusion." In fact, Morita's character in the charming film looks a lot like the now reviled preacher character in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," played by Rob Schneider.
And yes, Schneider is Asian Pacific American. So when, if ever, is it acceptable for an actor to put on makeup and a thick accent to entertain?
Yellow Fever
"Here in the 21st century, I think Schneider's performance could only work if he somehow subverted the caricature ... turned it on its head," said David Mills, a screenwriter from Glendale, Calif., who went to see "Chuck and Larry" and then took to his blog to rage about Schneider's "Japanese caricature that turns back Hollywood's clock 50 years."
We can blame old Hollywood for making many APAs feel invisible by historically casting Caucasian actors in Asian roles. It's a deeply psychological wound that continues to bleed today when we see black and white examples of yellowface in films like D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" and the Pearl S. Buck inspired "Dragon Seed," where some makeup is meant to help us forget Katherine Hepburn is white.
But it is 2007, right? The overt racism of yellow makeup is supposed to be a relic of the past. That's why APAs get so angry when they see a reemergence in the occasional cartoon or used as a tasteless gimmick for bad Chinese fast food.
But has mainstream Hollywood progressed since the days of Mickey Rooney's bucktooth, slanty-eyed caricature in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?
"[This month], Americans can go see 'Chuck and Larry' or 'Rush Hour 3,'" said James Lu, a 22-year-old moviegoer who was going to see "Rescue Dawn" at an Arcadia, Calif. theater Aug. 5. Earlier, Lu had watched Schneider's performance as the Asian minister in "Chuck and Larry." "I didn't think it was funny," said Lu. But a group of APA girls in front of him seemed to enjoy the portrayal.
"They laughed ... I don't know if that says anything, but what about in states where there aren't many Asians?"
Asian Enough?
And while APA groups like the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) and the JACL have vehemently condemned Schneider for his monolid character, the internet is alive with qualifying comments about Schneider's ethnicity.
"He was portraying a stereotype in a comedy. He was poking fun at his own people. I thought it was funny. No big deal," one fan wrote on Schneider's IMDB.com profile page.
People wondered, is Schneider half Filipino or one-fourth? He made a passing reference to his ethnicity on his recent appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and attended the Asian Excellence Awards in May with his mom, Pilar.
The underlining question behind all this internet-based dialogue seemed to be: is Schneider Asian enough to pull this off?
If Schneider is deserving of criticism because one-fourth is not "Asian enough", then would one-half be enough? asked filmmaker Eric Byler.
"It's absolutely not acceptable for Rob Schneider or any other person to portray a racially offensive character regardless of whether the actor is non-Asian, fully Asian or of multiracial Asian descent," said Jenn Fang of the political blog, reappropriate.com. "For an Asian American to portray such a character may be even more harmful because it incorporates into the role a false assurance that the caricature is condoned by the community or even based in reality."
For others, Schneider's role in "Chuck and Larry" isn't even worth talking about - his uncredited role as the Asian minister gave him less than 10 minutes to speak gibberish and interchange his "l's" and "r's." Filmmaker Michael Kang hasn't seen the film, but he imagines Schneider's performance to be so annoying and over the top that it's not even worth getting upset about.
"To me, the really dangerous representations are the more sneaky ones that purport to be positive, but are actually subversive justifications of racist notions," said the "West 32nd" director.
A Personal Note to Rob
But in the name of research, the Pacific Citizen took one for the team. We bought a ticket to see "Chuck and Larry" and invited Schneider to respond to the criticism levied against him by the APA community for not only his Asian minister character, but other unflattering ones he has played in the past (remember his wild-eyed native character named Ula in "50 First Dates"? Yeah, neither do we).
We even tempered our invitation with acknowledgment that he was the first APA to break into "Saturday Night Live." But despite numerous attempts to reach him through his management company and his entourage, Schneider couldn't afford the time to address the APA community who accused him of bringing back yellowface.
"Rob is currently on location for a film," wrote Shara Koplowitz, Scheider's publicist, in an e-mail to the P.C. She went on to say that she would ask him again in a month.
It's safe to say that if Schneider were to call the P.C. office next month with his side of the story, we will not be taking any notes.
After all, we have to think about our own "face" even if Schneider doesn't care about his.
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