"Unlike minstrelsy or blackface in the United States, this make up was done as a sign of empathy and realism."

OBJECTIVITY IS WHITE SUPREMACY @NPR

This is UNACCEPTABLE reporting. You cannot divorce the Black experience from "A Raisin in the Sun." https://www.npr.org/2020/09/03/908274058/first-chinese-language-production-of-a-raisin-in-the-sun-is-staged-in-beijing?fbclid=IwAR3TRiQI8aKEk5azoMgg2vnxEqb5sSgDFZJcw_AfzhT4eUT41ruLxqtfqQk">https://www.npr.org/2020/09/0...

"The thorniest issue at hand: how to convey to a mostly Chinese audience that an all-Chinese cast is portraying an African American family."

This is not thorny! Make a pre-show announcement with the context. Have a post-show talk that offers further contextualization.

But also, where are the Black Chinese artists who could have been cast instead? THEY EXIST.

This is horrendous on so many levels.

"Can stage make-up meant to indicate Blackness be disassociated from minstrelsy and exoticizing racial caricatures?"

NO NO NO NO NO

No, it cannot.

"For A Raisin in the Sun, Ying Da consulted his friends and family, many of whom advised him to abandon all forms of stage make-up to indicate the Blackness of the Younger family."

AND YET:

https://twitter.com/YasminZacaria/status/1301606861624442882">https://twitter.com/YasminZac...