Well, first of all, what is wrong with whitewashing?
What is wrong with casting a 'white' actor as a character who should be Asian?
Because in the modern 'west', especially in America, non-'whites' are disadvantaged.
Well, then whether someone is counted as Asian should depend on whether American society would class them as Asian!
That's why casting Henry Golding as the male lead in 'Crazy Rich Asians' is not whitewashing!
Because as a half-Asian man, America in the early 21st Century would class him as Asian!
If you want to counter America's race problems, you have to follow what America classes as Asian!
And America would class a half-Asian man as Asian, even if they were descended from Charlemagne himself!
Now, whether the movie was a positive depiction of Asian society is a different story.
I did not see it as a depiction of Asian society at all, but of part of rich modern society that happens to be Asian.
For me in my uneducated eyes, Eleanor does not seem that much more Asian culturally than Rachel. They both live in Asian cultures shaped by 200 years of 'western' dominance, Eleanor nearly as much as Rachel. I mean, Eleanor's house looks so European, it even has a grand staircase! And that is simply the reality of the world today in the early 21st Century! So the idea that the movie is hard on Eleanor's traditional Asian culture and favors Rachel's American culture- well, that is simply not what I see. They are simply two Asian groups from different times and places who are both holding on to some of their Asian culture while adopting so much of the dominant western culture around them.
But after all, it's just a little fun movie, and it did open up doors for things like Everything Everywhere All at Once! It is just one movie, and cannot do and be everything, and it did its job by opening the doors for things like Everything Everywhere All at Once!
But this page is not about that.
It is about why I think it does not make sense to call the casting of a half-white, half-Asian actor in an Asian role whitewashing.
Anyway, God loves you! Enjoy your movies!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson