A small negative critique of Firefly...

POSTED BY: Seba
UPDATED: Monday, February 27, 2006 04:29
VIEWED: 7444
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AURAPTOR

Sunday, February 26, 2006 3:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Seba:
...where are all the gorram Chinese? If the culture of the Firefly 'verse is truly the result of a fusing of China & the US, why is it that 99% of the peoples we see in Firefly are decidedly not Chinese. Am I just missing something? It seems to me that there should at least be a reasonable percentage of Chinese, especially given that they far outnumber the population of the US, presently. I know they have appeared in the series, but nowhere near what would seem believable to me.

Yeah, I've had that nagging little question my own self. I'd like to think that, were it given a few seasons, Joss would have worked more Chinese actors into the story. I'd blame FOX, but then we didn't see too many in SERENITY either, so I'm a bit stumpified. Part of me is glad they weren't just tossed in there for the sake of window dressing, as in...." See? We've got Chinese people here! ".

Or maybe there WERE more Chinese folks in there, and we just didn't notice ?

It's SciFi. It's not perfect. But still, I love it, tiny warts and all.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

CYBERSNARK

Sunday, February 26, 2006 5:28 PM

Didn't Joss address this somewhere and blame it on Central Casting?

I.e., they just couldn't find any Asian actors who were as interested and/or as good as our cast.

Probably a miscommunication somewhere, probably involving agents preventing their clients from getting jobs. I've read numerous interviews with Asian actors complaining about how hard it is to find jobs that aren't "token martial arts guy." Jobs are probably out there, but their agents aren't putting their names in.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

GRIMJACK21502

Sunday, February 26, 2006 5:55 PM

I asked the same question.

In the collection of essays, "Finding Serenity," the lack of Chinese characters is discussed.

One of the theories that I liked the best was that China's decendents (from the Earth That Was)were actually the dominant race (economically) and were located almost exclusively on the 'core' planets. It helps explain the emphasis on Chinese culture being more sophisticated and cosmopolitan, and the lack of Chinese characters because Serenity didn't travel the core planets (except for Ariel). In addition it explains the use of Chinese when Joss needed to convey an emotional reaction (it wasn't all swearing people ) because when you speak Chinese in the 'Verse you aren't f'n around.

This happened more in the series than in the BDM (the uninitiated would have been distracted with an unexplained use of Chinese with no reference point).

My two cents...actually the books two cents, my two,er, um...you know what I mean.

We will hold...we hold till Mal gets back.

"And once you're gone, you can never come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black"
-Neil Young

J6NGO1977

Sunday, February 26, 2006 8:32 PM

I absolutely can see your point on this. It is not something I considered until you mentioned it. The only person that looks vaguely Chinese is Kaylee. I can't even see any chinese extras. If you watch Blade Runner it is littered with chinese people and culture however Firefly doesn't display any chinese people at all. So in Blade Runner the chinese mish mash gutter talk just fits but in Firefly it seems out of place because it's hard to see the connection of its use.

KIZYR

Sunday, February 26, 2006 10:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SigmaNunki:
Ok, let's work from the current state of the China. Or at least what I know of, could be wrong.

There isn't many that are strongly wealthy in China. But, in the states, there are a lot of people of this type. At least far more than in China.

Also, the American companies contract to Chinese companies to make there stuff. Ever wonder why all that stuff at Walmart is so damn cheap?

So, if this propigated through time, the rich white people will be on top, whereas the Chinese would be at the bottom.

Sorry but I'm gonna call BS on that.

The entire extreme division of labor like that doesn't work. It's the same principle from which Marxism originated (proletariat get downtrodden until the class division gets to an extreme point).

It doesn't work in your example because, as time goes on, companies which are worked by Chinese end up being owned by Chinese. Outsourcing labor begins with foreign-worked factories. Then local managers start taking over, so you have foreign-managed and foreign-worked factories. Lastly, you end up with foreign-owned, foreign-managed, and foreign-worked factories, as the managers realize that it's more efficient to have production and everything controlled from the same place.

If your example held, we wouldn't have issues like CNOOC's bid for UnoCal a while back. Though that was halted for some BS political reasons, when it comes to politics versus economics, economics wins out in the long-run; political views can change, but folks will always want more money. So we'll likely see more and more instances of Chinese companies making inroads into the US market, just like we already saw the same with Japanese companies making inroads to the US auto and agricultural markets.

Now, back to the original deal... There are folks in the 'verse who look ethnically Chinese, ethnically Indian, ethnically black, white, Latino, whereever. I figure we don't see as many of them because we know the 'verse primarily through the crew of the Serenity--and they just don't run into a lot of Chinese on a regular basis. Now, maybe if they did more business on the Core worlds it'd be different, but they don't. KF

~KF

Lord, I'm walking your way. Let me in, for my feet are sore, my clothes are ragged.
Look in my eyes, Lord, and my sins will play out on them as on a screen. Read them all.
Forgive what you can and send me on my path. I will walk on until you bid me rest.
~Haven Prayer

DATALESS

Sunday, February 26, 2006 10:48 PM

Inara is more asain looking. Simon and River have the last name Tam and if you look around a lot of the worlds of Firefly there are asians all around and we never when to Shinon. If you ever read the RPG book by MWP it says most of the people of Chinese decent live or first settelled on this world. Where most of the Anglo decent settelled on Londinium (on that we've seen this world either.) I think that they just keep more to them selves in the 'verse. I also think that the cultures have mixed over the generations of travel to the new Solar System that is home to them.

SHAVENYAK

Sunday, February 26, 2006 11:25 PM

--------------------------------------------------
Hey, everyone in my family are mutts as well -- Okinawan / Latvian myself, my fiancee being Nigerian/Filipino -- I'm just saying that I'd just like to see more people who are more obviously Chinese on the show to hammer home the whole concept Joss put forth with the dialogue. Even if it's 500 years in the future, historically, the majority of people haven't been too keen on mixing things up, and I doubt it would have been that widespread by this point either.
--------------------------------------------------

This may be true, but do realize that in the begining of "Serenity" you see large ships leaving "earth that was" en-route to their new homes. Even after a couple of generations on a ship, one would see quite a bit of crossbreeding, I would think.

Beyond all that, who has to leave "earth that was?" Hard for me to believe that the rich would leave, and who are the rich? It's not established, so there are a lot of variables we know nothing about.

What if China saw the likes of a Stalin, or another Mao, or a plague. No way to know.

--Roman

SIGMANUNKI

Sunday, February 26, 2006 11:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kizyr:

Sorry but I'm gonna call BS on that.

Ok, let me quote myself:

"""
Ok, let's work from the current state of the China. Or at least what I know of, could be wrong.
"""

So, next time, instead of just calling what someone else has said is BS (read as: you're being a prick), maybe, just maybe, you should actually read what they have written?

Dong ma?

----
"We're in a giant car heading into a brick wall at 100 miles/hr and everybody's arguing about where they want to sit."
-David Suzuki

DAISYCUTTER

Monday, February 27, 2006 12:06 AM

My input would be that of weapons. I can understand the odd weapons that would act as antiques and family heir-looms passed down. But when you see MP5's, L85's (Both in the hands of the Alliance soldiers in the episode 'Train Job')

and the AG36, which were used by the browncoats in the war

________________________________________________
"When you can't run, you shoot. When you can't shoot, you run a bit more. When, you get shot in the leg, you crawl. When you crawl, you try to bite the shooters kneecaps off. When you are knocked unconcious, well you know the rest."

BLINKER

Monday, February 27, 2006 12:06 AM

Time to haul out the deleted pilot scene I quote from every time this topic comes up:

Quote:
BOOK
I'm not a grandpa.

The guy just looks at him like he's crazy, lets him move on past the next barker, MAN #2. The guy is fancy, with people gathered around -- his ship is clearly high class.

MAN #2
-- three berths left, junior suites,
we are not interested in Asian or
Catholic passengers, thank you, we
will be bidding for the last three
berths --

There is, apparently, some kind of prejudice against Asians - and Catholics - in parts of the 'verse. The line was omitted from the pilot, but Joss may or may not have resurrected the idea had the series continued to explain the lack of Asian actors.

_________
Sliders: Gate Haven - http://slidersweb.net/blinker

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