One of the main reasons that I started this site was because of the lack of Asian representation on Australian TV aside from the stereotypical depictions, and during my search of online material I also came across some forums where Asian Australian actors/actresses voiced their discontent with the state of affairs in the performing arts sector. I previously posted one of the rants here - Frustrated! Where's the colour-blind casting in this bloody country!!!. It shouldn't come as a surprise that TV shows and Plays are affected in similar ways as the writers and casting agents are always white.
I am working on a piece that summarises the state of affairs in the TV industry but in the meantime I hope you enjoy the following by Ming-Zhu Hii. (Note, the article was a jpeg and I couldn't ffind the online article so I typed it all out for the search engines. I have a shocking typing accuracy so if something doesn't make sense, read the jpeg version)
The question of ethnic diversity in the performing arts is largely avoided - Ming-Zhu Hii
I am now playing a Russian actor (pictures below) in realism at the MTC, alongside a predominantly white cast who are also all playing Russian characters. I am brown, yellow or olive-skinned, depending on the light in which you choose to view me. No matter how hard you might squint, however, you couldn’t call me white.
When asked about my race, I generally answer, “I’m Australian. My father is Chinese from Malaysia and my mother is a fifth-generation, mixed-bag, white, Anglo-Celtic Tasmanian.” I was born in Hobart, given a Chinese name, and grew up speaking only English. An only child of mixed-race parents in (at the time) a very white little city, I am, as they say, as Chinese as a Chiko roll.
I graduated from the VCA in 2002 with a degree in dramatic art. In my first year out, I auditioned for two Filipino roles, on Japanese, one Chinese, and one half-French, half Native-American character. Who was I to complain? At the tender age of 23, with an unclear path before me, all I was interested in was getting out of the dole queue and onto the stage. I accepted all the roles I was offered, irrespective of how uncomfortable they variously made me feel.
I realise now that everyone of them was conceived of, written and cast by a white person. They weren’t always horrific stereotypes – one was even brilliantly satirical – but they were all created largely from a white perspective, and, I can imagine, without serious ethnic consultation.
The question of race in casting is really only the beginning of the discussion. A lasting solution must embrace change in the whole sector.
For my part, as the years have passed, I have been more discerning about the projects in which I act. I have tried for or taken roles that specify race only if they are as genuinely interesting and three-dimensional as their white counterparts, but largely have favoured jobs in which race is not an issue.
In Australia, the question of racial diversity in the performing arts is largely avoided.
Cross-racial casting (otherwise known as colour-blind casting) is often regarded as a taboo subject. A Ghanaian-Australian actor doesn’t want to appear ungrateful for the opportunities she is offered, even if somewhere deep down she finds many of them to be insulting and stereotypical; similarly an Anglo-Saxon actor doesn’t want to be implicated in a matter that might jeopardise her career.
It’s increasingly ridiculous, this fear we’ll be offending those who offer us jobs by saying “I’m sick of playing sweatshop workers and taxi drivers; why can’t I get an audition for Juliet?”. Considering that two out of four Victorians were either born overseas or have a parent from overseas, almost three-quarters of these people speak languages other than English, and that nationally 2.5 percent of the population is indigenous, I can’t help but feel the performing arts have quite a long way to go.
It is not unheard of for mainstream Australian theatre casts to include one or even a few non-white artists in roles traditionally assigned to white actors. But this is rare, and the widely held view remains that cross-racial casting is a political act that might detract form the play’s content.
In the great majority of productions in this country that have been cross-racially cast, actors of various races have appeared on stage without it distracting anyone. It is only regarded as such when our primary concern is with the colour of an actor’s skin.
In theatre, more so than in film and television, where we all know that what we see on stage isn’t real – where the audience actively suspends disbelief for the duration of the performance, the reluctance to cast diversely can be regarded as a far more political gesture.
Lee Lewis wrote an in-depth analysis of how Australian theatre can overhaul its casting habits in her 2007 Platform Paper, Cross Racial Casting: Changing the Face of Australian Theatre, in which she suggests that what we see on our stages is how we go on to see our world embodied.
If this is true, and I believe it is, then we as audience members and theatre workers (actors, directors, producers alike) have an incredible opportunity now to change the way we see ourselves as Australians, to reflect how we truly are now as a nation, and how we want to be in the future. There is no quick fix for the whiteness of Australian stages, but if we can begin to look at the way we cast our plays, we will begin to re-examine the way we run our theatres, and in so doing, re-imagine how we tell our stories.
- Also check out Ming-Zhu Hii on Lee Lewis' Challenge to Australian Theatre
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