You might have heard a lot about “yellowface” in recent months. It’s

You might have heard a lot about “yellowface” in recent months. It’s the word widely used to refer to someone donning makeup or clothing to present the appearance of looking Asian. But why are we seeing the word — and the phenomenon it refers to — so much this year? Is it because it’s happening more? Or are we just more aware?

In the past month, Seattle’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society came under fire for its production of The Mikado. The operetta premiered in London in 1885 and was intended to be a satirical commentary of British society — except it was set in Japan. (The Mikado in the opera’s early years.)

Sharon Pian Chan, a columnist for The Seattle Times, :

“The opera is a fossil from an era when America was as homogeneous as milk, planes did not depart daily for other continents and immigrants did not fuel the economy.”

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society in Seattle wrote its own op-ed in the same paper. “the ethnicity of the actor or the production is only an issue if one is looking for issues.”

A few years ago, Rick Shiomi found a way to produce The Mikado in Minneapolis .

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/08/13/337184591/why-weve-been-seeing-more-yellowface-in-recent-months