Made-Up Asians

Winner of the 2023 American Society for Theatre Research Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre HistoryWinner of the 2023 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Outstanding Book Award with Distinction in Scholarly AchievementWinner of the 2023 American Theatre and Drama Society John W. Frick Award Finalist of the 2022 Theater Library Association George Freedley Memorial Award Made-Up Asians traces the history of yellowface, the theatrical convention of non-Asian actors putting on makeup and costume to look East Asian. Using specific case studies from European and U.S. theater, race science, and early film, Esther Kim Lee traces the development of yellowface in the U.S. context during the Exclusion Era (1862–1940), when Asians faced legal and cultural exclusion from immigration and citizenship. These caricatured, distorted, and misrepresented versions of Asians took the place of excluded Asians on theatrical stages and cinema screens. The book examines a wide-ranging set of primary sources, including makeup guidebooks, play catalogs, advertisements, biographies, and backstage anecdotes, providing new ways of understanding and categorizing yellowface as theatrical practice and historical subject. Made-Up Asians also shows how lingering effects of Asian exclusionary laws can still be seen in yellowface performances, casting practices, and anti-Asian violence into the 21st century.