to his, he is own, your boss has become the 1st african woman to reach a title decider at a grand slam. in the open air shibel bay to germany's tatiana maria in 3 said to make it through the wimbledon final victory has already seen her become the 1st aeroplanes when 20 minutes on the w 2 and the world number 2 will now take on atlanta. right? bang, kina in the final fence back into nivia have been showing there was if she is the minister of happiness in all fields and i have the honor to give her this title as a resident abroad. she cannot imagine the joy when you meet people, and they ask you about that. she newseum woman about owns jabber. i feel very proud of o's name minister of happiness because she made us happy in these equinox conditions. but miss own stoba. she gives a wonderful image often is, yeah, you sends a message to young people that when you trust yourself and you set a goal in your life, you can reach it to

a to z or these, the top stories, this our japan, former prime minister. so a has died and he was shot during a campaign of him to the city of nara. he was 67 japan's current prime minister female because she reacted to this quote. i am very distressed and have no words. i would like to express my heartfelt condolences with fear in the midst of an election which forms the route democracy. it was a barbaric act which took the life of former prime minister obey. i think this is something that can never be forgiven with the strongest terms we condemn that act. he had been incumbent in the roll for the longest time at 8 years and 8 months, filling his responsibilities as prime minister and showing his leadership and ability to put things in action in the face of difficult external situations. leading the country of japan and navigating us through those situations. and what

the rub, mcbride has more from bali on the international reaction to death with heard from south korean lead a unit. so y'all, that this passing on his condolences to the people of japan from u. k. boris johnson, for example, send saying that the people of britain stand with you, the japanese people at this time. emanuel macaroni of france also saying that japan has lost a great prime minister dedicate, who had dedicated his life to his country. here at this g 20 foreign ministers session which has been wrapping up the tribute to be led by us secretary of state and to be blink and saying that it was profoundly disturbing this murder, assassination, saying it's a personal loss for so many. he was an extraordinary partner to the u. s. a. to or for both my senior former officials at plaza and michelle plat teenie had been acquitted of corruption. both were found not guilty by a court in switzerland. the case was ended on

a payment of $2000000.00 from faith at triplets. haney with blatt his approval back in 2011 and britain's government has said it will continue to deliver pre agreed to policy despite the resignation of bars. johnson, as conservative party leader johnson intends to stay on as prime minister until the party legs, a successor, but many a calling for his immediate departure. okay, those are the headlines i'm emily anguish. the news continues here on al jazeera after this stream, stay with us. we know what's happening in our region. we know how to get to places that others can on. i was just thrown fear guy by the police on purpose. and so i'm going on with the way that you tell the story is what can make a difference. ah

richard ah, getting chills. that was japanese to pano. every nakamura singing the role of chosen in the royal opera house, his revival, but she needs madame a butterfly. i am from you. okay to down the stream. yellow face in 2022. or perhaps some serious catching up to do when it comes to orientalism and anti asian racism. somewhat more companies are rethinking how the stage problematic works in a culturally appropriate way. that is, i shall today. you can join us in the comment section of each you. ah, daniel, 9, a phil,

so good to have all 3 of you with us. we're talking about problem mac. take all productions and you are the people to bring it, daniel, hello, please say hello to our audience around the world. tell them who you are. what you do i. my name's daniel yolo, writer, actor filmmaker, musician, associate artist, stretcher chinese austin. i was combined aust company in london and found a member of continue member of beads, british e southeast asians in fish and on screen cultures and advocacy group all to have all data hello 9. know welcome to the stream. these introduce yourself to have you as around the wallet. i am 9, a yoshida nelson. i'm a method soprano. i've sung the key in madame butterfly over 150 times, and i am a co founder of the asian oper alliance. we advocate for asian in the offer industry, and i'm also an artistic advisor at boston. copper, so much expertise. i'm excited. hello, feel welcome to the screen. please introduce yourself to our audience around the

world. hi everybody. my name is phil chair and i'm a, an author, a choreographer, and a writer, and co founder a final bout for yellow face and the president of the gold standard or nation. a lot of my work started out around the conversation started about 6 years ago with the artistic director of new york city ballet about how to represent asian characters on stage better, which has snowballed into a much larger global conversation. but pretty much every major american valley is now part of this conversation to improve how we represent asians on stages. so thank you so much for having me. i think it's how do you think daniel? 9, i feel one question for one is a question for all i know you will come to it from different perspectives that start on my laptop. this is why the with doing the show, i caught a headline that surprise me made me stop. have a look here on my laptop. royal opera state is madame a butterfly with changes to respect japanese culture that june the an that was fascinating. let's start though 9 out with madame

a butterfly. how many times being performed? are you still counting? yeah, definitely. over a $150.00 times, right it's, it's my signature roll. all right, very good. you are a great person to tell us the story. what's the story? ab? absolutely. so it's a story of the love story and a tragedy. i won't. i won't tell you the end and i'll let you see it. and you can note yourself, once you see the opera, but it is a story about a young girl who falls in love, a japanese girl who all's in love with a naval officer who comes to japan. and it's, it's their love story about how she said, and she waits for him after he goes back out to sea and waits and waits and, and hopes that one day he'll come back. let him butterfly is proper to my sake now because of the way certain characters are portrayed. phil, can you hang on a couple of the areas that makes it quite difficult to see this production in 2022

. sure. so i think a lot of the opera repertory we have to remember this comes from europe, and europe has not always had the most enlightened views of people outside of its boundaries. so exotic people oriental us. and it's, it's, in many cases, this fantasy asia, that european creators were using to tell stories outside of their own social norms . and so that was the way worked back then. it was really innovative. it was a way to, to create new stories and, and explore new themes type of themes and things like race that were not easy to explore in a native city. however, these works as they continue to be beloved by generation after generation. we also have to recognize that times change our societies are a lot more mixed and we're not just programming for europeans anymore. we're programming for a multiracial audience. and so in order for these are forms like opera to survive

at come from europe, there were sort of at this crossroads where we're, we're like, okay, so what do we do with this repertory? but it's beautiful as artistic merit, but also has sensitive issues or problematic, outdated caricature versions of different races. so that's what we're grappling, especially as asian americans who are in the, our form who love it so much. i'm in her really coming. ready from a place where we, we don't want to see this work canceled. this is part of our, our legacy in our history as well. but the question is, how do we do it better. ready so that we're being more inclusive and not just seeing the whole world through a white man's land from 200 years ago where, which doesn't necessarily bring true with who we are today and who our friends and neighbors are and family members. so that's what we're asking with. his question is, how do we keep these work alive, which is a, you know, if you think about it, the opposite of canceled culture. right? and i think a very,

it's important to also know that when puccini wrote this, he had never been to japan. he knew nothing about the japanese other culture. and that the way he studied the japanese culture was by going to some kabuki shows in milan. and then he also talked to the japanese ambassador's wife in japan and asked about some, some folk songs. and so that is how he says, i that whole world, the butterfly. yeah. a fancy piece of wet tank. i had you going to say something? no, no, i was going to say it definitely you know what we're saying is absolutely true. and i think a lot of european drama is kind of bill on the. i mean, the 1st gray hair of theaters beef in stage was tumbling by christmas hollow, which was set in central asia. and it, you know, for audiences of those days, it was incredibly exciting. i kind of think of it like james bond films and i was a kid. you'd see all these places you were never going to go to if you're working

class get in britain, you would never, you know, i mean, middle class audiences in those days couldn't read it. you know, go to japan. i was like, go to the moon, frankly. and so we do have this kind of very dated or 9. it was entering sort of cursory, researched, you know, maybe research to the best of his, his, his abilities and resources at the time. but that, that was naturally, you know, it's a very, very superficial and kind of exhaust is always view of, of a different culture. what is that for a slight don coming from a heritage that goes back to east asia. but seeing y'all coaching your heritage as a stereotype, what does that feel like? what is that i well, i think the problem, the problem with it is, especially i think this is probably true in america as well in britain where, where, you know, if you're, if you're 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th generation, a lot of times you grow, you're outside of that culture as well. so what you see is kind of really weird portrayal of, of something you, you,

you don't really know yourself and you get this kind of awful thing where you feel like i, i don't, i mean, i know i know isn't as an actor. sometimes in britain, you sometimes feel that you're being asked to imitate an imitation that white people do of asian people, which is really strange. i owe you a that, that none either that are here. i 2nd. okay. i always say that i never really identified as age and tell people started identify the as asian and putting the into these the ball and all of a sudden i was like, oh okay, what does that mean to be japanese? and i had to start figuring out what being japanese actually meant because it was so far away from, from how i grew up. yes. health. i think this is also something that many other racial groups feel who are non white and who are in a space where they're in the minority. i think that, but a lot of these questions about race also it's, it's

a uniquely asian situation because european opera really loved orientalism as a genre. and so, you know, black singers, latino singers, other folks who are from non asian groups were not necessarily represented on the european stages. and even the top ted opera, other continually performed, but, but regularly there are so many asian characters that the continued to be performed every season toronto. and what we have to think about too is not just the impact on being projected i think by that just touched on that very well is that when we have these ideas in the broader culture about what certain people are supposed to be. so you know, the asian women are hyper submissive, but hyper sexual or their either the geisha or the tornado. right. you know, the sort of dragon lady, it fits sorta pigeonhole people into these. ready ideas and so we, you know, we tend to project these things on to asian people. whether that's, you know, kind of a weird fetishizing sexuality or,

or just certain racial ideas are just coded. and you see this across theater opera danced that, you know, it's all, you know, and then james, bond movies, it's all connected in a, as a part of this broader culture. and so what a lot of asian americans like ourselves, are trying to tease those things apart, connect the dots, and say, okay, but within this framework, how do we keep this beautiful work alive? and so what i'm looking at is, is the royal opera house production is still set in this very traditionally oriental us place, which i think is what people are sort of uncomfortable about. and i guess my solution that i was like a lot of this work, i think that the focus on solutions that we look at. ready shakespeare, which is bell, you know, 400 plus years old. i think the reason why his genius survived is because we have the freedom to adapt it and play with it. i mean, how many people can think of a shakespearian play that is not set exactly the way shakespeare wrote it to be. and every time it's set somewhere different, it gives you a nuance or new flavor,

or it gives us a different way of a mirror to our current moment. and that's what makes it powerful. and for some reason, we're very comfortable staging the magic flute in different settings or lab where you know these other operas that are beloved. but the oriental hist repertory. ready tornado. madame a butterfly, we seemed to was asked of us about what i, what i think, what i think what we should do is try to find ways to keep that music. but like shakespeare ladies over production just just tweeting a little bit. so it doesn't have to be at that just kimonos and geishas who are 15 year old girls. i mean, so oh, i see near old girl, i hate name it is bringing another voice here. this is jane manami and she's a met, so soprano and she told us this a little bit earlier, have listened to jane just talking about the effort that the wo opera house went to, to be culturally appropriate. in this current production of madame a butterfly, they spent a year consulting,

lots of people. this is james reaction to i think this kind of cultural research is great. and in stephanie we step in the right direction. but unfortunately, the upper house are still using yellow face in the show. they're still using someone else's ethnicity as a costume. and that rings pretty tone deaf for me, considering that i look like what i look like and i can't take it off when i leave the theater. and the reality for people who look like me is that hate crimes against us have risen by over 300 percent since the start of the pandemic. when i look at a production like this, what it feels like to me is that i've walked into a halloween party where every one has gotten dressed up in a bad racist costume. and there is absolutely no excuses for doing a production that looks like this in 2020 to 9 out. what is it like being on stage with somebody who is made up to look like they're form east asia better than not?

well, it's really interesting because i think, i think traditions have changed a lot in even in the last few years, i think back to when i was 1st doing my 1st bad about applies and how the makeup artists used to actually make me try and look more agent, and now i think the trend is started to be using people's own a lot more asian when he'll asian. well, i think i remember someone said they tried to like flatten out my face. you're somehow with highlighters. you know, i don't know. it's been many years, but there are ways to do it, you know, and make your eyes look, look more asian. and so i think traditions are changing. and i think one of the most interesting things, and also one of those frustrating things is the fact that there is no actual definition of what is offensive as yellow. for me, what i find offensive maybe might be completely different from what the next person down the road by that for me it might just be, or maybe putting

a geisha weight on. but for some guy is making a lace of that guy, a down face in the meet our lives and say stand, make that face one more time size coming to us life. ok. that's why when you making that face, some of those photographs are shocking. i mean, yeah, i mean 9 is right that those, those gradations of what people consider yellow face. i mean, i, i think if you will pretend to be an asian, whether you in the make up or not, you'll, you'll kind of doing a form, a yellow face, i think. but, but there is obviously the more of a things which is, which is the makeup, which is the whigs. it's interesting what 9 it was talking about being a mixed race asian as well. i have the experience on a film some years ago. they want to be look more asian. and it was, it was a beautiful mon when the, when the makeup artist came into the, into the room. and so when she was a black woman and she looked at one look at me and she said,

i'm not doing not insulting, clear the asian, which is, which is a nice it, did you tear up when she said that the air that i did i oh, yeah, all right, this is on youtube and so this is a good question, phil, if i, if i do, does that go good? oh i, i did want to clarify the difference between yellow face and orientalism because i think that's where folks can get kind of confused. yellow faces a specific, you know, like, like, is a when you're trying to play a race that you're not as often in a caricature sort of way. i orientalism, which is this larger structure is setting stories that are set in places like china, india, the middle east, where all the characters have to be from that rapes i, or that's part of the allure. and so i think that a work like madame a butterfly, you know, there's several different ways to, to talk about the specific casting. but i think let's just be clear, that yellow face is more of a caricature pretending to be

a specific asian person. and then and then project so larger, you also oriental of them as a larger. yeah. like a story. yeah. okay. i, we understand that. all right, so a couple of thoughts coming from at youtube community watching right now. nathi says, i don't think it is important to respectfully portray people. what i want to see is an accurate portrayal of history. whether it is good or bad, instant response stand, fail, and then 9, just have a quick one, tomatti that a m, i cripple 12 history. i mean, i mean i, i do think when people, to what historical accuracy we do get into a, into a kind of ra there where i mean, people sometimes go see shakespeare and they'll see people of color. and they'll say that that's not historically accurate. but if you were going to be historically, or who was shakespeare ever, what have terrible teeth, the new releases the about hold on, let me. oh yeah, oh wait. say i like to see that

i would just say so i would say that there's videos. i mean, that's the, that's the privilege we have now is that you can go back and you can watch, maria, call us, do butterfly. you can watch any star of the past, due butterfly, in any good production you aren't. so i think that is part of the history, but the difference here is we're in the performing arts, we're not in the visual arts or static arts, right? so, paintings, film, sculpture, photography, those are our form to capture those. like i said, a moment in the performing arts, we have to make art that reflects the now always, whether it's theater, opera, dance, whatever. and so part of the fund and the challenge and the, the messiness of it is having to change. so if you want just tradition, just that the historical time capsule approach video, i'm sorry because it otherwise it doesn't exist. had me been recreate last nights show exactly the way it was last night. so, you know, i mean, we are going to panic. we have to remember also that this is not

a historical story. this is just a love story. it can be set in any time. it doesn't have to be set in the early 19 hundreds, right? so, so there's no reason that we have to keep the story in the past. all right, so i was reading to tell you that putting himself revised as 5 times to fight versions. so maybe if he was around now, maybe he would, he would rockell knows at this this, i'm going to put this one straight team. this is from the bow kitchen watching on you chief thanking the bell. can't you for doing as, why don't you just hire asian pressing as well. i find a yeah. researching of this was not a lot of times that is what happened and a lot of times we are hired for these roles. the unfortunate thing is that these become the only roles that we are ever hired for. so this becomes a sense of pigeon holing. you know everyone just sees me as

a japanese american. best of the kind of so of course night is going to thing suzuki and butterfly. but if there's a whole bigger picture, like our stages in every offer, we do need to look like the society we live in. right? and the 2nd we start just hiring asian thing or the thing and butterfly, we get a lot of trouble. also, if you look, we go back in history, the history between japan and china and, you know, and korea, is that any better if you're hiring a chinese to print out the thing? the lead role as, as a japanese artist, i don't know. and again, it just comes to like even even asian people can be creating caricatures of asians on stage. so i don't know if it's any better or different to hire asians are you stuck in? madame butterfly 9. if you're going to be truly earnest, i am placed for the rest of your singing life. oh, fully not. and that's one of the reasons i started the asian oper alliance a friend of mine, and asked me, you know, 9 in a, in

a traditional season. how many non asian roles do you thing? and i went back and i started counting, and of course, you know, a $150.00 plus the suki is. and in 10 years i had some of the read non asian roles . and so i, i'm to start advocating, you know, i wasn't even aware of the fact that this is what was happening. i wasn't aware of the book dear, neither you never know. never often on the book on the plus side, i never have to learn the book. i know it backwards. i know everybody like, yeah. so how can sacto, timbo ne, spoke to us a little bit earlier. we're talking about what he thinks this issue. what are the problems, hey, with orientalism in opera. this is what she told us. i appreciate the initiatives that some oper companies are taking to bring in authenticity to manama butterfly. but there's still a misunderstanding of what authentic japanese really means. i am

a licensed chemo dresser and have years of experience in japanese tea ceremony and traditional das. yet i once was criticized for not being authentic enough, as suzuki. so i've been wondering what this critics expectations were. so i do hope that more companies will continue to close this gap. another possible solution, of course, is to have more asian artists or artists of japanese descent in these roles in butterfly to help bring more authenticity. so if we go back to the current production of madame butterfly at the royal opera house, we did invite to be part of the program, but they were not able to join us. there are 2 cas members of east asian heritage in an entire company of a production that is said in japan to i want to show you this. this is from oliver mir's. he's the royal operas director of ro, opera houses, director of opera. this is what he told the guardian newspaper casting is more

complicated, not least because opera as a more limited talent pool than for example, that available to film or theater. but performing madame a butterfly with an old japanese or, or asian cast and chorus. even a majority cast and chorus is a holy, unrealistic aim, and would even be desirable. dan. yeah, i'm, i'm really struggling with, i can't understand the point he's making me. yes, i understand. i did learn about this before when i wrote an article when they did a tele erode oper house with the, with, with, with the wire to playing or telo sh, a white singer. and i understand that there's a certain level of technical achievement. you have to have, you know, to, to be in, but out of i could, you can see that, but i mean that, that you showed at the beginning of the program of the, of the japanese singer. i mean that, that, that was, i'm, you spine chilling. i know live back now and back on my back as an incredible i

cannot. i know 9 has done a $150.00 times and probably is maybe a little bit sick of it. but it sounds like it was a roll. opera house on my, on my go see, i can't remember garcia talking about minus performance me against him. and on 9 is singing the flowering jew at the flower to let you know for me. i me, can you tell us empty center says what is happening on the clip that we're gonna end on because we want to hear your beautiful place as well as seen talking on the screen. let's just set it up a little bit and where play out with it's a joyous occasion of 2 friends talking about being in love. it's another oriental show and also sometimes very problematic, but it's one of the most beloved i do at in opera cannon. all right, and i do want to give a shout out to this is from boston, lyric offers butterfly process film. i was then called b stunning film. if you want to check out the whole video, fail and 9,

and thank you very much, daniel. what a pleasure. we again end on the beautiful voice of 9. a thing in the flower you add from the production lack me. and so watching everyone see you next time, i think you're going to recognize this music. have a lesson enjoy. ah frank assessments. it sounds like you don't expect anything to change the problem in lebanon, it's actually structural lebanon needs, and you also contract in order for it to solve this problem. informed opinions, international communities on the go to my security community. the government does

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