White Washing

[Tim Iles]

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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