Dragon Seed Yellowface – 26.02.011.IMG_WOM.DragonseedYellowFace.1944.McLeanHistoricalSociety.MCMH_2012_070_6020

White American actress Katherine Hepburn played the Chinese character Jade in the film Dragon Seed (1944). Following the film’s success, local theaters adopted the practice of yellowface to reproduce the story, including this 1944 show in Bloomington, Illinois.

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The Asian American Studies Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors), ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.

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