White Washing

Wed Aug 26 16:57:19 EDT 2009

Nah. If the producers want to play by the rules they established in the series milieu (which is really the "authenticity" the fans are arguing for) then it'd be nice, at least, for the characters to be portrayed by Asian actors. So I don't buy the argument that in general "anime" characters are intended to look international, so then it's okay to cast non-Asian actors in the film (I don't even buy that premise). 

I think the fans of the show are unwittingly arguing for fair play for Asian actors in Hollywood more than fighting against any notions of cultural appropriation (the post Aaron linked to accused the show's fans of cultural voyeurism). For me, this is what the argument is about - the business of Hollywood. 

The show itself is a funny mishmash of myths and icons curiously passed off as both authentically "Asian" and created out of whole cloth, which begs a question (and perhaps is what Tim is getting at?); if something is initially inauthentic can one expect authenticity derived from it? 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Iles" <timiles2003 at yahoo.com> 
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 3:43:14 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central 
Subject: Re: White Washing 

This is an interesting issue and thread, but I have to ask whether this is really a "problem" as such (I'm hoping to sidestep the invisibility of Asians in non-Asian popular media in general, something which does frustrate me)--in some ways it is a different issue from casting Zhang Ziyi and Li Gong in _Memoirs of a Geisha_. 

One can argue that the _faces_ of Japanese anime characters are themselves intended to be 'international' rather than particularly Japanese, or even Asian for that matter. If that's so, then there's almost a tacit license for using non-Asian actors in a live-action adaptation. 

Given that the creators of the animated series are not Japanese and the program uses a "mish-mash" of Asian references and influences (I haven't seen it so I can't comment on whether it all works), perhaps it's forgivable for the live-action film to make use of non-Asian characters. 

I have much greater trepidation at the thought of another Hollywood remake of a Japanese film, such as _Ringu_ or _Kairio_, neatly excising all traces of Asia... That to me is a much less forgivable issue, especially considering how poor the remakes are. Greater distribution of Japanese films just doesn't seem likely when Hollywood is content to plunder Japanese sources for remakes, reaping the benefits of direct profits etc. 

Best, 

Tim Iles 
University of Victoria 

--- On Tue, 8/25/09, Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: 

From: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> 
Subject: Re: White Washing 
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
Received: Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 5:26 AM 

Interesting, Jun-Dai, 
Your mention of Miyazaki and your suspicion that the promoters are going for two hits for the price of one by provoking controversy, chimes with a piece in London's Guardian newspaper last week, 'Ponyo: can a Japanese fantasy finally animate US audiences ? Miyazaki's latest animé release follows string of acclaimed cartoons that had muted success in America.' 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/14/ponyo-miyazaki-anime-us-release?commentpage=1 
I originally picked this up in a badly-mangled print piece the next day (in 'International'[news]) that looked like nothing more than a studio puff-piece but, even so, the story presumably originated from the studio *, and the use of 'original' to describe a US version with Hollywood star high-recognition looks like an attempt to lengthen the news cycle by courting 'controversy'. 

But the connection to this thread is that, whilst dubbing may often have some comparison to white-washing, when the publicity is all about identifying home-market stars to the roles, then it has become, I contend, a process wholly comparable to white-washing. 

* - for a comparable, non-Japanese case of a studio concocting a 'controversy' about subtitles last week, there was - 
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/used-subtitles-to-watch-the-wire-the-writer-says-thats-just-criminal-1773087.html 

Roger 

---- Original Message ----- 

From: Jun-Dai Bates-Kobashigawa 
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 11:25 PM 
Subject: Re: White Washing 

This reminds me a lot of the controversy around casting a white actor to play Ged in the TV Earthsea adaptation (Goro Miyazaki's Ged is also very caucasion-looking), though in that case Ged's dark skin was a matter of great importance to LeGuin, whereas I'm not sure how much of a similar 'point' is being made by DiMartin and Konietzko. 

Given that Hollywood's idea of the widest possible audience and the lowest common denominator is a white male hero, the move makes sense. TV can be niche-targeted, but big-budget films can't be, and unless your hero is Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or one of a handful of established-in-the-US martial arts actors, then casting an Asian or Asian American as your hero qualifies as niche targeting, since white people will have a bit of a barrier identifying with the character (a barrier that Asian Americans, African Americans, women, etc., are less likely to have regarding white protagonists). I am kind of surprised that they chose to make all three heroes white. That and choosing an Indian for the bad guy makes it seem like they *want* protest websites and letter-writing campaigns. 

It's unfortunate, but the trend seems to be getting worse rather than better, despite the slightly increased awareness of Asian films in the mainstream (Miyazaki, anime in general, Crouching Tiger, etc., and, if it counts, Slumdog). 

How many Japanese American movie actors can you name? (that's probably why John Cho gets to be Sulu) 

Yours, 
Jun-Dai 

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Nornes, Mark < amnornes at umich.edu > wrote: 

There has been some discussion over the years of Asian characters being played by Caucasians in American remakes. Here’s another one for the mill, from an article in the new Flow: 

"Fan Protests, Cultural Authenticity, and the Adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender" by Patricia Nelson ( http://flowtv.org/?p=4215 ) A consideration of the fan backlash surrounding Paramount?s choice to cast white actors as Asian characters. 

Markus 

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