D&D Satellite: What Do We Do About East Asians Trapped As Portraying The Other?

An invitation from Vera Chok, actor, writer & performance-maker:

 

Other. A person or group intrinsically different from, or opposite to oneself; not local/British/contemporary/normal; (verb) to alienate.

 

This question isn’t just for actors or makers of East Asian descent. We invite you - theatre makers, organisations, casting directors, directors, writers, dramaturgs, designers etc. - to listen, interrogate, and take action with us to shift the landscape of British theatre past the Othering of East Asians on stage and off.

 

I’m Vera Chok and I’m an actor, writer and performance maker. What has changed since the 2013 D&D on East Asian actors and roles? While East Asians are more visible and have achieved huge successes, I believe that we are still being marginalised despite being the third largest ethnic group in the UK.

 

East Asians. Someone posited its practical meaning is, "Chinese-looking people". What ways are East Asians actors, and thus East Asians, Othered? Can we imagine an East Asian playing the protagonist/parent/romantic lead/a working class person going through a universal human experience in a contemporary British setting? Let’s talk honestly about what character traits we associate with East Asian bodies. What can we do to end this? 

 

I place hope in human connection, dialogue, and social change via community. Let's meet up, expose our assumptions, celebrate our achievements, and move forward with a clear goal – a world where East Asians are not treated as Other.