superstring01
Moderator
I chose "no" but what I really wanted was an "I don't really care" button.
~String
~String
Yellow Face in Hollywood
- Thread starter ElectricFetus
- Start date
apathy is still racism.
They have blue eyes and Socca loved a girl with platinum blonde hair. I don't stereotype, so neener neener you're the racist.
They have blue eyes and Sokka loved a girl with platinum blonde hair. I don't stereotype, so neener neener you're the racist.
Her hair was white, because she was combined with the moon goddess, that not races that just fucked up.
The eye colors were specific to each nation, for example the fire nation people had yellow and orange eye, no human on earth has that.
Your inability to not see a mystical fantasy Asian world not populated by Asians is racist.
superstring01
Moderator
I agree with this whole racial mixing thing. In many movies where a white character is switched out for an actor of a different race is because the race of the character didn't matter. Hancock's being black was never mentioned because it wasn't about his race. However if race is important to the movie then I'm afraid I'm all for discrimination. If Denzel Washington's Academy Award winning performance in Glory had been a white or Asian guy the movie probably wouldn't of had the same effect. Sometimes race is important when telling a story, sometimes it isn't. While the racial background of the characters in Avatar isn't as important as is was in Glory, it does have a lot of East Asian culture in it (Indian, Chinese...etc). So while not very crucial to the story it just seems in poor taste as far as art goes.
I have conflicting feelings.
On the one hand, I live in China and I see unbelievably racist/stereotyped characterizations of white folk every day. Even the Beijing Weekly Review - one of the most widespread English language magazines - features a weekly caricature of white folk, usually fat, with huge noses and bulging ears and pimples. Most of the time the white folk look uneducated and out of place, whereas the Chinese people look dignified, quiet, calm and respectful. In their TV shows you'll occasionally get a Chinese person playing a foreigner of non-descript origin, and it's always way over the top. Hell, even my students will stand up and make racist role plays of various foreign groups. One student even made a small skit about how funny the holocaust was. And you know what? I don't give a shit. I really don't. I don't care if they misrepresent us, I don't care if they make us into caricatures, I don't care if they refer to foreigners as "the fat ones" (and they do). It just isn't that fuckin' important. There are about a million more important problems in the world and this one is down near the bottom of the list. I'll probably spend a very large chunk of my life in China, and I'm really quite capable of handling the racism without getting up in a huff. Every few weeks I have a bad day (we call them 'China-days') and I'll vent to a foreign friend about how the ignorance and arrogance pisses me off, but after that I feel fine and it doesn't really affect my life.
On the other hand, a big part of what makes integration possible is the ability of immigrants to see themselves in the nation's dreams, fantasies and cultural peaks. A move staring Asians - especially one that isn't kung-fu based! - would be fantastic for kids to grow up with, and in that sense Paramount has a responsibility as a social being to promote positive social growth.
So I agree, they should be going with Asians, no doubt. But I hope Asian-Americans keep in mind that their nations (at least China and Japan, I'm not so sure about the rest) are about as racist as you'll ever get, and the white folk over here don't really give a shit. (Or, I should say, the ones who do go home!)
On the one hand, I live in China and I see unbelievably racist/stereotyped characterizations of white folk every day. Even the Beijing Weekly Review - one of the most widespread English language magazines - features a weekly caricature of white folk, usually fat, with huge noses and bulging ears and pimples. Most of the time the white folk look uneducated and out of place, whereas the Chinese people look dignified, quiet, calm and respectful. In their TV shows you'll occasionally get a Chinese person playing a foreigner of non-descript origin, and it's always way over the top. Hell, even my students will stand up and make racist role plays of various foreign groups. One student even made a small skit about how funny the holocaust was. And you know what? I don't give a shit. I really don't. I don't care if they misrepresent us, I don't care if they make us into caricatures, I don't care if they refer to foreigners as "the fat ones" (and they do). It just isn't that fuckin' important. There are about a million more important problems in the world and this one is down near the bottom of the list. I'll probably spend a very large chunk of my life in China, and I'm really quite capable of handling the racism without getting up in a huff. Every few weeks I have a bad day (we call them 'China-days') and I'll vent to a foreign friend about how the ignorance and arrogance pisses me off, but after that I feel fine and it doesn't really affect my life.
On the other hand, a big part of what makes integration possible is the ability of immigrants to see themselves in the nation's dreams, fantasies and cultural peaks. A move staring Asians - especially one that isn't kung-fu based! - would be fantastic for kids to grow up with, and in that sense Paramount has a responsibility as a social being to promote positive social growth.
So I agree, they should be going with Asians, no doubt. But I hope Asian-Americans keep in mind that their nations (at least China and Japan, I'm not so sure about the rest) are about as racist as you'll ever get, and the white folk over here don't really give a shit. (Or, I should say, the ones who do go home!)
I know exactly what you mean with the racism ( I didn't know it was that bad ), I do not live in Asia ( I live in Canada ), but I am fascinated by East Asia, I know Japanese, a bit of Mandarin and I am very proficient in Kanji ( 漢字, I refer to it using the Japanese term for it, because I first started learning it to learn Japanese ).
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
one of the fire nation people is played by an Iranian
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
Yeah, that was asinine. More than asinine: it was genuinely offensive and racist. I mean, FFS. I'm considering not going.
This movie was the perfect vehicle to get more Asian actors into the mainstream other than jackie chan and jet li(spelling?) though asians do need to portrayed as something other hyper intelligent aloof nerd or the martial arts master.
pjdude1219,
Certainly you must have something to say about the Arabs/Indians/Persians being the evil villains in this movie?
Certainly you must have something to say about the Arabs/Indians/Persians being the evil villains in this movie?
Well first off its bull shit that these people always are used to play villains. though sadly its a long history of using the countries enemies or those you look like are enemies as the villains in films. It also shows they very actually paid any attention to the source material( something that's a big deal for me) It reminds of they days when the hero was always good looking and the villain ugly. they need to be reminded that which is seen on the outside doesn't reflect that which is on the inside.
It was at 6% on rotten tomatoes, now its at 7% ohhh booo hoooo.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/
Heck I would be happy if it got 30%!
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/
Heck I would be happy if it got 30%!
This reminds of when Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downy, Jr.) played a black man in Tropic Thunder.
What do you mean, "you people"?
What do you mean, "you people"?
The long heritage of Hollywood
I would only point out that the tradition of shorting Asians in Hollywood goes back nearly to the beginning. D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms included one Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan, the mysterious, opium-smoking Chinese Buddhist in London who gives sanctuary to a battered and frightened Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish). Barthelmess was an American-born white actor and something of a hearthrob; he would later play alongside Rita Hayworth in Only Angels Have Wings.
The thing is that, in order to make Barthelmess look Chinese, Griffith had him wear wooden plates under his eyelids.
Richard Barthelmess, left, and Lillian Gish in Way Down East (1920).
Lillian Gish, left, with Richard Barthelmess in Broken Blossoms (1919).
The thing about Griffith is that he was something of a known racist. He did not just choose Barthelmess for talent and star power. Rather, he would not pay a Chinese man to be a star.
For whatever sad reasons, not much has changed in the last ninety years. What kills me is that none of the stars in The Last Airbender are particularly well-known. What did Shyamalan have to lose by casting a few more Asian actors in this film?
Probably box office receipts. And therein lies part of the answer.
I would only point out that the tradition of shorting Asians in Hollywood goes back nearly to the beginning. D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms included one Richard Barthelmess as Cheng Huan, the mysterious, opium-smoking Chinese Buddhist in London who gives sanctuary to a battered and frightened Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish). Barthelmess was an American-born white actor and something of a hearthrob; he would later play alongside Rita Hayworth in Only Angels Have Wings.
The thing is that, in order to make Barthelmess look Chinese, Griffith had him wear wooden plates under his eyelids.
Richard Barthelmess, left, and Lillian Gish in Way Down East (1920).
Lillian Gish, left, with Richard Barthelmess in Broken Blossoms (1919).
The thing about Griffith is that he was something of a known racist. He did not just choose Barthelmess for talent and star power. Rather, he would not pay a Chinese man to be a star.
For whatever sad reasons, not much has changed in the last ninety years. What kills me is that none of the stars in The Last Airbender are particularly well-known. What did Shyamalan have to lose by casting a few more Asian actors in this film?
Probably box office receipts. And therein lies part of the answer.
I disagree, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was a block buster and it was in subtitles for crying out loud. I think Americans could easily pay out big for an all Asian cast in a martial arts movie!
If it's an issue of cultural heritage, I give you: Thor.
I'm guessing there won't be a lot of outrage from mainstream America about a black dude being cast as a Norse god (Idris Elba in the role of Heimdall). And for the people who do complain, the typical response will probably be something like, "Get over it, racist. It's just a movie."
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