Well, Fuck You Too, Hollywood.

[jhameia]

And M.Night, you really should have fucking known better. I'm gonna cut you some slack and consider the possibility that maybe you didn't have the choice of cast you wanted. Maybe. But holy shit, M.Night, DO YOU NOT SEE HOW ASIANS ARE ALREADY UNDER-REPRESENTED IN HOLLYWOOD? and now, actual roles that could be filled by actual Asians, and Asians are shafted in favour of the likes of the pretty white faces that continue to dominate the world.

Don't give me bullshit about how the Avatar universe ISN'T EARTH and thus ANYBODY can play the characters - the Avatar universe was DEFINITELY inspired by Asian cultures. I don't watch the show, BUT ANY FUCKING IDIOT WITH EYES CAN SEE THAT, OKAY?

And Jackson fucking Rathbone is starting to piss me right off:

Due in theaters in summer 2010, "Airbender" has already begun to face a bit of controversy over the casting of white actors like Rathbone, Ringer and McCartney to play Asian characters — a concern the actor was quick to dismiss. "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan," he said of the transformation he'll go through to look more like Sokka.

Where the HELL do you get off dismissing the major DIMINISHING OF A WHOLE SET OF PEOPLE, Rathbone? How the HELL do you assume that a hairstyle, lack of facial hair and a FUCKING TAN will make you ANY LESS WHITE, ANY MORE ASIAN?

"It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."

A little bit? You mean A LOT! A VERY FUCKING LOT OF DISBELIEF!

Talk about an overinflated sense of entitlement!

(Actually, I was pissed off about this much earlier, but just haven't had the time to articulate myself.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

*fellow Singaporean fan*

Shanghai Knights was part of the orientalist trend, though - white guys like Asian chicks; Asian = gongfu; Asians don't speak English. I did like Kevin Tong's The Maid.

But yeah. It reeeally pisses me off to see other commenters elsewhere saying they read the animated characters as white. Nowai.

1) "Oh, but they look white."
No, they look Asian, in an anime-influenced style. White is not default.

2) "Oh, but they sound white."
No, they sound American - given that they used a US voice cast, everyone who's been in the US for long enough would sound American (heck, a lot of English-speaking Singaporeans sound American, so much so that I could barely understand British/Australian TV shows at first). American is not equivalent to white.

3) "Oh, but it's based on Asian culture, the actors don't have to be any particular race."
Even if the latter point is true, why is white the casting default? And considering how heavily LotR, for example, was "based" on on Anglo-Saxon culture, transplanting it into the Indian subcontinent would never have worked; but making the Avatar world white will work?


I'm soooo sorry for ranting here too (no real need for preaching to the choir! ;)), but I find it so aggravating that a lot of people cut-and-paste their own background onto this show. I mean, I doubt you'd find any Asian viewer who saw the characters as anything but Asian (or Inuit, for the Water Tribe; I'm not sure, being Chinese, but me and my friend who is Indian considered them to definitely be South Asian, though Inuit viewers doubtless think the other way. Not white, in any case).

/rant

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

No problem.

Although I must admit, Shanghai Knights scored points with me for having a kick-ass female character who fights her way out, despite being constantly captured.