“The Mikado” Is Asian Blackface
Sharon Pian Chan has published a provocative column in The Seattle Times about casting Gilbert & Sullivan‘s most popular operetta with white folks, asserting: ‘“The Mikado is the same shtick, different race. A black wig and white face powder stand in for shoeshine. Bowing and shuffling replaces tap dancing. Fans flutter where banjos would be strummed…This is the wrong show – wrong for Seattle, wrong for this country and wrong for this century. And I don’t mean wong.’ Chan’s column is strong stuff — not for the Nanki Poos among us.
