Yellow Face in Hollywood

[ElectricFetus]

I was a moderate fan of the animated series avatar the last airbender, I felt the show was too PG but was a massive improvement in American "made" animation (I say made in quotes because nearly all animation, be it Japanese anime to the Simpsons is now made in korea, yeah crazy world we live in). M. Night Shymalon (the "what a twists!" last 3-2 movies were box office failures director) is making a live action movie trilogy of this animated series. The series consisted of a fantasy world based around East Asian culture, with everything from architecture, customs, styling, even the fucking writing was traditional Chinese. Now here is the kickers, they had it the live action staring an all Caucasian cast, imagine for a moment the Lord of the Rings had stared an all East Asian cast (I'm sure japanese people could have fit the hobbit role, oooh yeah I went there!) well after hearing complaints of racism they added insult to injury by having all the side-line characters and villains of a different race, they replaced the central villains with Indian people (who could be mistaken for arabs and assumed to be muslims because all american crackers know Muslims and arabs are evil)

Apparently Hollywood has a long and active to this day history of putting white people in "yellow face" even going so far has to have their eye squinted with tape, in movies made just a few years ago!

Check it out:
http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html
http://racebending.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowface

 

[draqon]

yeah I get annoyed watching white guys play as asians and them thinking that their acting is on par to the level of asian culture...they cannot be any more wrong than that

 

[draqon]

Jan Claude Van Daume has gotten all asian...recently...

 

[lucifers angel]

yeah I get annoyed watching white guys play as asians and them thinking that their acting is on par to the level of asian culture...they cannot be any more wrong than that

why do you get so annoyed with it?

and thats just your opinion that they're acting isnt has good has some white peoples

 

[ElectricFetus]

why do you get so annoyed with it?

and thats just your opinion that they're acting isnt has good has some white peoples

So let me get this straight you have nothing against white people playing asians? and your reasoning behind this is?

 

[lucifers angel]

So let me get this straight you have nothing against white people playing asians? and your reasoning behind this is?

would we be having the same conversation if an asian or a coloured guy played a white person?

 

[ElectricFetus]

would we be having the same conversation if an asian or a coloured guy played a white person?

When and where do we ever have an Asian person playing a white person? And as I have said if we had such a situation like say lord of the rings played by Asians, people would be pissed but even in this year we have movies were white people play Asians and no one bats an eyelash!

 

[cosmictraveler]

In many instances there are few Chinese actors that could fit the situation at times so they need to have someone play the role. Today there are more Chinese/ Thai / Asian actors that can do the parts but alas it seems Hollywood doesn't find them or turns a blind eye toward them for many reasons.

 

[ElectricFetus]

In many instances there are few Chinese actors that could fit the situation at times so they need to have someone play the role. Today there are more Chinese/ Thai / Asian actors that can do the parts but alas it seems Hollywood doesn't find them or turns a blind eye toward them for many reasons.

so your a racist bigot too, didn't figure. I guess you support blackface as well?

 

[lucifers angel]

so your a racist bigot too, didn't figure. I guess you support blackface as well?

if your remark is calling me a rascist bigot, then you are far from the mark,

i just know if the roles were reveresed then we wouldnt be able to have this conversation

 

[ElectricFetus]

if your remark is calling me a rascist bigot, then you are far from the mark,

i just know if the roles were reveresed then we wouldnt be able to have this conversation

I think we would, if lord of the rings had and all Asian cast, we would all be complaining. And no that comment was not made for you, and yes I believe your are racists, your comments so far reveal this fact.

 

[lucifers angel]

I think we would, if lord of the rings had and all Asian cast, we would all be complaining. And no that comment was not made for you, and yes I believe your are racists, your comments so far reveal this fact.

i am nat racist i just hate everyone!

i dont think we would in fact, because society says that we have to accept it

 

[cosmictraveler]

so your a racist bigot too, didn't figure. I guess you support blackface as well?

Now why would you say that? I only stated what is going on in Hollywood, not what my way of thinking is. If I were a director I'd want Asian actors to play Asian roles IF they were available.

 

[Cowboy]

When and where do we ever have an Asian person playing a white person? And as I have said if we had such a situation like say lord of the rings played by Asians, people would be pissed but even in this year we have movies were white people play Asians and no one bats an eyelash!

It has happened, though not with Asians (that I'm aware of).

In Walking Tall (which is supposed to be a true story), they had The Rock playing the role of a guy who was white in real life.

The most recent movie version of Man On Fire had Denzel Washington playing the role of John Creasy, who was white in the original version.

The Daredevil movie had a black guy playing the role of Kingpin, who is supposed to be white.

I Am Legend, a remake of both The Omega Man and The Last Man On Earth, changed the main character from white guys (Charlton Heston and Vincent Price, respectively) to Will Smith.

They had Ford Prefect played by a black dude in the Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie.

I've been told that Morgan Freeman's character in The Shawshank Redemption was supposed to be a white guy in the book, though I haven't actually read the book to verify that.

Vin Diesel, who is half black, has played Italian characters on more than one occasion.

I haven't seen riots in the streets over any of these examples. I voted "yes" in the poll. I don't think these changes should be made in movies, whether it's whites playing Asian roles, blacks playing white roles, Hispanics playing Arab roles, etc.

 

[ElectricFetus]

i am nat racist i just hate everyone!

i don't think we would in fact, because society says that we have to accept it

American society would accept a European medieval based fantasy world run by Asians, yeah right!

Acid Cowboy,

None of those are Asians playing white guys, black people and mutts get far higher levels of racial prejudicial recognition then Asians, If Will Smith was dropped to play the remake of omega man because of his race everyone would be bitching, when a white casts is made for an Asian fantasy adventure movie, no one cares and ignores the complaints of Asian rights groups.

 

[Cowboy]

American society would accept a European medieval based fantasy world run by Asians, yeah right!

Acid Cowboy,

None of those are Asians playing white guys, black people and mutts get far higher levels of racial prejudicial recognition then Asians, If Will Smith was dropped to play the remake of omega man because of his race everyone would be bitching, when a white casts is made for an Asian fantasy adventure movie, no one cares and ignores the complaints of Asian rights groups.

You say that people are ignoring the complaints of Asian groups, which may well be true. But what do you think would happen if white people organized and complained about the various examples I listed? They'd probably be worse than ignored: they'd be demonized as racists.

I'm not saying that what is happening in your example is okay. I'm just saying this is hardly the first time the race of characters in a movie has been changed and, obviously, a big deal wasn't made of it by the general public on those other occasions, either.

 

[Orleander]

The avatar is an asian kid??? damn, I didn't think any of them were. So which kid is white and which kid is black? Or are they all asian?

 

[Gustav]

kreuk of dutch/chinese descent is white in smallville, indian in partition and chinese in streetfighter

 

[Gustav]

The avatar is an asian kid??? damn, I didn't think any of them were. So which kid is white and which kid is black? Or are they all asian?

so you are a racist bigot as well

orly, la and cosmic
for shame!

 

[ElectricFetus]

You say that people are ignoring the complaints of Asian groups, which may well be true. But what do you think would happen if white people organized and complained about the various examples I listed? They'd probably be worse than ignored: they'd be demonized as racists.

I'm not saying that what is happening in your example is okay. I'm just saying this is hardly the first time the race of characters in a movie has been changed and, obviously, a big deal wasn't made of it by the general public on those other occasions, either.

The nature of this situation is far more harsh then simply a switch of race of one or two characters in an otherwise non-race specific story, the whole of the avatar story line runs around eastern asian culture, and then they put an all white cast, eventually "corrected" with token side-line minority characters and West Asian/Middle Eastern people representing the evil genocidal villains (fire nation), this is racists beyond reason!

The avatar is an asian kid??? damn, I didn't think any of them were. So which kid is white and which kid is black? Or are they all asian?

None of them are white, if Korean animation style confuses you on race then please note that none of the characters, even extras had hair colors beyond slightly reddish brown, let alone blonde. There was only one characters in the whole show that was distinctly not mongoloid and that was "the guru", who was very dark skinned and accompanied with Indian music and a thick Indian accent. The whole show consisted of east Asian styles in everything portrayed. I bet you were not sure if Mulan was Chinese too?

Gustav,

Good for her, mutts should get more respect and roles in this world.