A Melbourne arts and culture festival has been forced to pull a show titled 'Aisha the Aussie Geisha' after an open letter accused it of "yellowface".
The letter, signed by more than 70 artists and published by online magazine Liminal, which publishes interviews with Asian-Australians, accused the comedy show of presenting "a stereotyped depiction of orientalist fantasy that borders on yellowface".
"Reducing entire segments of humanity to punchlines is antithetical to the values of Melbourne Fringe, and harmful and insulting to Asian and Asian-Australian people," the letter said.
According to a letter, one of the characters in the show is called "Mrs Okaytobashme", seemingly alluding to physical violence.
But in a statement posted to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, the Melbourne Fringe Festival announced it had come to a mutual agreement with the artist to cancel the show.
"Melbourne Fringe strives to be an inclusive place for everyone and acknowledges that our commitment to freedom of artistic expression sometimes comes into conflict with this," the statement read.
"We recognise in this instance the balance wasn't right."
The show synopsis described 'Aisha the Aussie Geisha' as a "cross-cultural love story about a Koo Wee Rup dairy farmer who becomes the world's first foreign geisha" alongside a photograph of the artist, comedian Kate Hanley Corley, in a geisha costume.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Ms Hanley Corley released a statement announcing she had decided to withdraw her show from the 2019 festival.
"The show being referred to as racist and 'Yellowface' has upset me greatly as I have many Japanese friends who supported the first iteration of the show," she wrote.
"I never envisaged this would cause distress to anyone as this is the last thing I would ever want to do."
In an earlier statement, a Melbourne Fringe spokesperson said the festival was open-access and uncurated, which means anyone is able to register an event.
"The views of the artists in the program don’t always represent the views of the organisation, and we certainly don’t condone racism of any kind," it read.
In response to the statement, a number of social media users slammed the festival, comparing the performance to blackface.
"When you allow racism, you are complicit. I'm sure you wouldn't allow an act on Hitler to hit the stage. Or anyone in blackface," one person Tweeted.
"You’re not only condoning racism, Melbourne Fringe; you’re enabling and promoting it," said another.
The one-woman show was scheduled to run between 20 and 27 September.
