Chinese audiences prefer lighter-skinned actors. Hollywood complied.

An academic study has found that since 2012, when China began allowing more foreign films into the country, Hollywood movies have cast more light-skinned actors in starring roles. https://www.axios.com/hollywood-casting-china-colorism-light-skinned-df469d97-66c2-4b33-b41e-1feb29bf1f75.html

The researchers concluded U.S. film studios were casting to fulfill the aesthetic preferences of Chinese movie-goers, in a culture that places a premium on light skin — a phenomenon known as colorism.

The study examined more than 3,000 films from between 2009 and 2015 and found that films made after 2012 demonstrated an 8% increase in the number of "very light-skinned" actors in starring roles.

The co-authors called this a "light-skin shift."

The 8% shift meant that "for 1 of every 3 films in this category, the film went from having 2 out of 3 as very light-skinned actors, to having 3 out of 3 very light-skinned actors," Manuel Hermosilla, a co-author of the study and a profession at Johns Hopkins, told me.

While it's tempting to place the light-skin shift within the context of racism in Hollywood, Hermosilla warned against that.

"Colorism does not equate to racism," he and his co-authors wrote. "Colorism may manifest within individuals of the same race."

But this study suggests that Chinese cultural preferences are making it more difficult for darker-skinned actors to get starring roles in Hollywood blockbusters.

As Hermosilla notes, this trend has occurred in an industry that is already very, very white.

The study came with ready-made control groups--voice actors for animated films; & genres that generally aren't allowed into China, such as horror & comedy, meaning they aren't made with a Chinese audience in mind.

Such films did NOT experience a "light-skin shift" after 2012.