Monday, January 25, 2010
Back The Way You Came...
Here's a paragraph from an article about being a non-white nerd which I found interesting:
"I dug Firefly a lot, but was annoyed that Whedon predictably relegated Asian culture to a neo-Yellow peril future where the extent of China emerging as a superpower means that people throw in a couple of badly pronounced Mandarin words into their everyday conversations, and despite the idea of this looming Asian culture, there are no actual Asian characters to be seen."
This paragraph hit me more than anything else in the article (although I recommend reading the whole thing) because I didn't actually notice the abscense of Chinese characters in Firefly (or any Asian characters, for that matter) until I read this. The basis for the Firefly universe always intrigued me - as hokey as it is - but I never really asked what should have been an obvious question. It seems that it's all too obvious in Firefly to have some characters who could pass for being Chinese. Instead, there are characters with Chinese-sounding surnames but wouldn't you know it, they're all white. What do we have instead? Blink-and-you'll-miss-them Asian extras.
Well, occasionally.
"I dug Firefly a lot, but was annoyed that Whedon predictably relegated Asian culture to a neo-Yellow peril future where the extent of China emerging as a superpower means that people throw in a couple of badly pronounced Mandarin words into their everyday conversations, and despite the idea of this looming Asian culture, there are no actual Asian characters to be seen."
This paragraph hit me more than anything else in the article (although I recommend reading the whole thing) because I didn't actually notice the abscense of Chinese characters in Firefly (or any Asian characters, for that matter) until I read this. The basis for the Firefly universe always intrigued me - as hokey as it is - but I never really asked what should have been an obvious question. It seems that it's all too obvious in Firefly to have some characters who could pass for being Chinese. Instead, there are characters with Chinese-sounding surnames but wouldn't you know it, they're all white. What do we have instead? Blink-and-you'll-miss-them Asian extras.
Well, occasionally.
Comments:
See, I always took the lack of on-screen Asian folks in Firefly, when taken in context with Mandarin being a lingua Franca and the Galaxy being run by Big Evil Chinese Corporation (see Aliens & Blade Runner for the Japanese version), to mean that Asian folks were first class citizens, and everyone else slid to the bottom of the social pyramid (as evidenced by the diversity of the people Mal meets (American, African, Muslim, English, and whatever the hell Inara's meant to be). Maybe all the Asian folks are in glass towers on Earth 2.
Also, the addition of a character just to be an onscreen minority falls into the Ethnic Scrappy territory (look it up on TVTropes), something Whedon's already been accused of.
Also, the addition of a character just to be an onscreen minority falls into the Ethnic Scrappy territory (look it up on TVTropes), something Whedon's already been accused of.
That stuff in the last paragraph I agree with, the "Cast-Black-Guy-For-Villain" thing coming to mind - I remember him copping a bit of flack for that. But, y'know, I tried remembering anybody that was Asian and couldn't. I suppose that it's already kinda diverse, but not as realistically diverse as it could be. Most seem to be American/British, mostly white, some black. Not all of the black folks are villains, I noticed :-)
I'm trying to remember who's Muslim in Firefly. I am failing. Umm...buh?
I assume the central planets (Ariel being one that they spent some time on) would have been where the elite were living - 'tis mentioned that those worlds are where it's 'at', so you'd likely see an Asian cast of extras there at the very least. Nope - nada.
Just the occasional swear-word.
I'm trying to remember who's Muslim in Firefly. I am failing. Umm...buh?
I assume the central planets (Ariel being one that they spent some time on) would have been where the elite were living - 'tis mentioned that those worlds are where it's 'at', so you'd likely see an Asian cast of extras there at the very least. Nope - nada.
Just the occasional swear-word.
Perhaps this is over-simplyfying things a heap but:
Isn't it just possible that they never visited any 'Asian' areas of the universe? Like, Campsie is almost entirely Korean, but I never go there so if you made a show about my life, you'd never see Korean people.
Given the whole China/US thing is never actually mentioned in-show (Not that I can remember anyway, I can only remember it saying that Earth couldn't support our numbers anymore) why does it even need to be an issue?
(Assuming it isn't mentioned in show) Suspension of disbelief - that guy is doing it wrong.
It seems to stem from this guy appearing to be one of those 'Hey, there's no black/gay/asian/non-white people in this comic/show/movie/whatever so whoever made it must be totally racist/sexist/whatever!' type people.
If he's not one of those guys usually, he should stop being a dick.
You look in the west, and paintings of Jesus are white, you look in Africa and the same Jesus paintings are black, it's just the cultural norm and given most of the superhero stuff started in the US 50 or so years ago, is it REALLY that surprising that most of these characters are white guys with white girlfriends?
This is what I mean:
'but many of the other characters like Batman and, er, Iron Fist, were privileged wealthy white dudes who learned martial arts from Asians and whom, of course, thereby became greater at martial arts than the Asians themselves'
Right. So it's not because (Say in the case of Batman) he had something to prove because his whole thing was basically revenge and so he practiced almost constantly to be the best? No of course not, he learned from Asian dudes, then got better at it than them because he's white, that's TOTALLY it.
Also here:
'And you’d think that fellow nerds, regardless of race and gender, would understand given that our status as freaks and geeks and outcasts would give us some humility and common ground to stand on.'
He's obviously never heard of Star Trek. Y'know, that show that almost never happened because there was a woman on the bridge? Not only a woman, but a BLACK woman too!
She also made out with Shatner, even worse!
/rant.
Isn't it just possible that they never visited any 'Asian' areas of the universe? Like, Campsie is almost entirely Korean, but I never go there so if you made a show about my life, you'd never see Korean people.
Given the whole China/US thing is never actually mentioned in-show (Not that I can remember anyway, I can only remember it saying that Earth couldn't support our numbers anymore) why does it even need to be an issue?
(Assuming it isn't mentioned in show) Suspension of disbelief - that guy is doing it wrong.
It seems to stem from this guy appearing to be one of those 'Hey, there's no black/gay/asian/non-white people in this comic/show/movie/whatever so whoever made it must be totally racist/sexist/whatever!' type people.
If he's not one of those guys usually, he should stop being a dick.
You look in the west, and paintings of Jesus are white, you look in Africa and the same Jesus paintings are black, it's just the cultural norm and given most of the superhero stuff started in the US 50 or so years ago, is it REALLY that surprising that most of these characters are white guys with white girlfriends?
This is what I mean:
'but many of the other characters like Batman and, er, Iron Fist, were privileged wealthy white dudes who learned martial arts from Asians and whom, of course, thereby became greater at martial arts than the Asians themselves'
Right. So it's not because (Say in the case of Batman) he had something to prove because his whole thing was basically revenge and so he practiced almost constantly to be the best? No of course not, he learned from Asian dudes, then got better at it than them because he's white, that's TOTALLY it.
Also here:
'And you’d think that fellow nerds, regardless of race and gender, would understand given that our status as freaks and geeks and outcasts would give us some humility and common ground to stand on.'
He's obviously never heard of Star Trek. Y'know, that show that almost never happened because there was a woman on the bridge? Not only a woman, but a BLACK woman too!
She also made out with Shatner, even worse!
/rant.
I hate to say this, but some of what Craig said made sense. I recall my mother kvetching after watching Independence Day that "They never show what happened to Canadians" in the film.
Also, I was browsing TVTropes and saw this on the main Firefly page:
# Internet Backdraft: Gosh, it sure is weird that there aren't any obvious Asians in the lead cast or featured ro-OH SWEET MERCY THE FLAMES!
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Also, I was browsing TVTropes and saw this on the main Firefly page:
# Internet Backdraft: Gosh, it sure is weird that there aren't any obvious Asians in the lead cast or featured ro-OH SWEET MERCY THE FLAMES!
