Race + Burlesque: Dita Von Teese Dons Yellowface

By Associate Editor Andrea Plaid, The Shanghai Pearl, Chicava HoneyChild, Essence Revealed, and ExHOTic Other

Burlesquer The Shanghai Pearl tipped off the R to one of the latest offensive acts, this one done by renowned burly-q entertainer Dita Von Teese at her ::sigh:: “Opium Den Show.” (Video NSFW)

Latoya asked me to cover the controversy with my burlesque mentor and one of the R’s favorite burlesque experts , Chicava HoneyChild. Chicava reached back to Shanghai Pearl as well as asked Brown Girl Burlesque performers ExHOTic Other and Essence Revealed to join the conversation. Here’s what we all had to say about it.

(Note on name use: in burlesque, one addresses another performer by their stage name, not by their non-stage name unless otherwise given the permission to do so. For this post, I use my non-stage name for clarity’s sake.)

Andrea Plaid: Who would like to run down what Dita Von Teese did? (Don’t everyone jump in at once…;-D)

Chicava HoneyChild:  I first noticed the piece a few summers ago when Dita was promoting Cointreau. There’s a tease of it on YouTube. When I saw it I thought, “No one’s going to say a word about this, huh?” She’s above the burlesque community, if you will. It hasn’t been run very much in America, I don’t think. When I saw I considered the difference between being an artist vs. an entertainer or, more accurately, [in your approach] are you an image-maker or a meaning-maker. A meaning-maker does research to gather information and develop an understanding of the subject. The resulting imaging is the fruit of that investigation. Creating from an image maker’s approach places greater importance on the sensational than origin and implications.

Shanghai Pearl: I first noticed it then, also. I saw some photos and video and, yes, I had some unsettling feelings about it then as well, especially since there are so many ongoing conversations about cultural appropriation in the burlesque community. But I made the decision to stay pretty quiet about it publicly because I had not had a chance to see it in person. And then I got to see it…

Then there was a lot of press about it debuting in London for a reported six figures and I thought “Does anyone else think it’s weird that this white woman is being paid a large sum of money to perform this Opium Den act in the very country that perpetrated the vicious Opium Wars?”

Dita Von Teese created an act called Opium Den that is the finale to her show Strip Strip Hooray, the act uses negative two dimensional stereotypes of Asian Women to invoke sex. The act has a mash up of many Asian cultures in the set, music, costume, and movement. Every ‘Sexy Asian Lady’ stereotype (China Doll, Geisha Girl, Dragon Lady) makes an appearance. The music incorporates gongs, koto, and a loop of the stereotypical ‘something or someone Chinese (or more generally Asian) is happening’ riff.

AP: I didn’t want to go there about the “Opium Den” title, but yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw the title. And I couldn’t help but think, “I smell a shitshow.” The photos just proved what I thought…and now, with your synopsis of the show, Shanghai…SMDH.

CHC: The mashup of [distinct] cultures is problematic for me [sic] in art and pop culture throughout America and the world, [that] cherry-picking the bits you are interested in the image of and placing it together. A great example is the American Tribal Bellydance, pulling on Afghan, African, Indian, Arabic cultures, and even hip-hop. I appreciate the dance but, at a given point, it’s just a beautiful dance and no longer bellydance.  Bellydance is a culturally specific form.

AP: The assumption is people are too ignorant to know better…or at least bust out a book, get their hands on some recordings, or otherwise get some information that offers some nuance. It all becomes this lump of what the late Edward Said called “Orientalism.” And that’s what Von Teese, to me, is perpetuating, too, with this “Opium Den” fooliganery.

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