Whitewashing the Movies

Asian Erasure and White Subjectivity in U.S. Film Culture

By David C Oh

Rutgers University Press

Whitewashing the Movies addresses the popular practice of excluding Asian actors from playing Asian characters in film. Media activists and critics have denounced contemporary decisions to cast White actors to play Asians and Asian Americans in movies such as Ghost in the Shell and Aloha. The purpose of this book is to apply the concept of “whitewashing” in stories that privilege White identities at the expense of Asian/American stories and characters. To understand whitewashing across various contexts, the book analyzes films produced in Hollywood, Asian American independent production, and US-China co-productions. Through the analysis, the book examines the ways in which whitewashing matters in the project of Whiteness and White racial hegemony. The book contributes to contemporary understanding of mediated representations of race by theorizing whitewashing, contributing to studies of Whiteness in media studies, and producing a counter-imagination of Asian/American representation in Asian-centered stories.

David Oh offers a compelling study into the ways that Whiteness has shaped films. His analysis sheds light on the ways how films are influenced, and frames how are they are consumed in a process he calls whitewashing. His brilliant and insightful study challenges how we understand Asian and Asian American media representation.

David C. Oh’s Whitewashing the Movies: Asian Erasure and White Subjectivity in U.S. Film Culture makes a strong case that these are still relevant approaches for scholars and critics seeking to make sense of Hollywood’s continued displacement of Asian characters on-screen, even when box-office analysis confirms over and over that stories about nonwhite characters reap significant financial returns....[I]f Oh’s target is Hollywood, he strikes it with example after example, a repetitive bull’s-eye that shows no mercy for the liberal hypocrisy and creative stagnation of Hollywood’s 'colorblind' racism. Film Quarterly

David Oh’s Whitewashing the Movies proffers an incisive and captivating critique of the cinematic Whitewashing work that has stripped Asian American subjectivity since 2008. Oh provides a detailed and thoughtful dissection of the operations and elements in such Whitewashing. And the book does not stop there though; it reimagines what Asian American subjectivities would look like if no such cinematic Whitewashing took place. With this, Oh provides a reimagination of Asian American representational and real worlds (our own cinematic future).'

David C. Oh’s Whitewashing the Movies: Asian Erasure and White Subjectivity in U.S. Film Culture makes a strong case that these are still relevant approaches for scholars and critics seeking to make sense of Hollywood’s continued displacement of Asian characters on-screen, even when box-office analysis confirms over and over that stories about nonwhite characters reap significant financial returns....[I]f Oh’s target is Hollywood, he strikes it with example after example, a repetitive bull’s-eye that shows no mercy for the liberal hypocrisy and creative stagnation of Hollywood’s 'colorblind' racism. Film Quarterly

David Oh offers a compelling study into the ways that Whiteness has shaped films. His analysis sheds light on the ways how films are influenced, and frames how are they are consumed in a process he calls whitewashing. His brilliant and insightful study challenges how we understand Asian and Asian American media representation. Tom Nakayama, Editor of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication

David Oh’s Whitewashing the Movies proffers an incisive and captivating critique of the cinematic Whitewashing work that has stripped Asian American subjectivity since 2008. Oh provides a detailed and thoughtful dissection of the operations and elements in such Whitewashing. And the book does not stop there though; it reimagines what Asian American subjectivities would look like if no such cinematic Whitewashing took place. With this, Oh provides a reimagination of Asian American representational and real worlds (our own cinematic future).'
Rona Tamiko Halualani, Professor of Intercultural Communication, San Jose State University

DAVID C. OH is an associate professor of communication arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah.

Introduction
1 Whitewashing Romance in Hawai’i: Aloha
2 White China Experts, Asian American Twinkies: Shanghai Calling and Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong
3 White Grievance, Heroism, and Postracist, Mixed-Race Inclusion in 47 Ronin
4 Satire and the Villainy of Kim Jong-un: The Interview
5 White Survival in Southeast Asia: No Escape and The Impossible
6 Whitewashing Anime Remakes: Ghost in the Shell and Dragonball Evolution
7 Transnational Coproduction and the Ambivalence of White Masculine Heroism: The Great Wall, Outcast, and Enter the Warriors Gate
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index

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