A small negative critique of Firefly...
POSTED BY: Seba
UPDATED: Monday, February 27, 2006 04:29
VIEWED: 7444
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I love how many people are saying things like "Inara looks the most chinese" or "kaylee sorta looks chinese".
I find this personally hilarious.
Niether of them even look like mixes. Being a mix (spanish korean) and living around mixes most of my life, i know what the look of a part asian is. (military bases are full of them.)
the thing in firefly is that networks under-hire asian actors. I don't think that it is something Joss wanted or even thought too much about. It did big me a bit, but i don't think something malevolent is going on. I am a big suprised that there are no asians in the cast of 9.
Two blacks, 5 whites, and a latina (portuguese... latin language) It almost seems like all but asians were seen. That is one thing that always bugged me about all sci fi shows. chinese and indians alone cover two thirds of the world population, yet they are woefully under represented in television, movies, and books.
I think it will take time, but that will change. Things are getting better all the time.
Wash: Yeah, but psychic? That sounds like science fiction.
Zoë: You live on a spaceship, dear.
Wash: So?
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Quote:
Originally posted by FreelancePilot:
I love how many people are saying things like "Inara looks the most chinese" or "kaylee sorta looks chinese".
I find this personally hilarious.
Niether of them even look like mixes. Being a mix (spanish korean) and living around mixes most of my life, i know what the look of a part asian is. (military bases are full of them.)
the thing in firefly is that networks under-hire asian actors. I don't think that it is something Joss wanted or even thought too much about. It did big me a bit, but i don't think something malevolent is going on. I am a big suprised that there are no asians in the cast of 9.
Two blacks, 5 whites, and a latina (portuguese... latin language) It almost seems like all but asians were seen. That is one thing that always bugged me about all sci fi shows. chinese and indians alone cover two thirds of the world population, yet they are woefully under represented in television, movies, and books.
I think it will take time, but that will change. Things are getting better all the time.
Wash: Yeah, but psychic? That sounds like science fiction.
Zoë: You live on a spaceship, dear.
Wash: So?
If Star Trek could do it in the '60s, I don't understand the problem now. Sulu wasn't portrayed as a martial arts master. Hell, they even had the first inter-racial kiss ever on TV. Truly ground breaking, IMHO. I wonder why so little has changed in that respect.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shavenyak:
If Star Trek could do it in the '60s, I don't understand the problem now. Sulu wasn't portrayed as a martial arts master. Hell, they even had the first inter-racial kiss ever on TV. Truly ground breaking, IMHO. I wonder why so little has changed in that respect.
Are you so sure about Sulu? Maybe not a master but an active student... in both martial arts and fencing.
[img]
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http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/character/1112493.htm
l
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Ok time to dispel some rumors. 1. in the Serenity pilot episode there was an asian gang in the streets of Persephony. There were asain dancers in the Train job, also in the Train job there was a woman in dressed as though she were from the middle east. The list of asain people goes on. 2. granted that there would be scocial changes in the world the population, especially on planets like Persephony would likly be divided into anglo and asian sections. 3. It's possible that less people of asian decent were inclined or required to migrate from central planets as such they would not be featured as heavily. 4. Part of TV and movies is suspending disbelif, their was enough asian influence there to convince people of this dual scociety. The show was amazingly cast, I can only assume that the asian actors that tried out just wern't good enough for the role. 5. More upper class people would have made it off of earth that was the lower class people. 6. I can't spell Persephony, sorry.
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Quote:
Originally posted by browncoatsriseagain:Quote:
Originally posted by Shavenyak:
If Star Trek could do it in the '60s, I don't understand the problem now. Sulu wasn't portrayed as a martial arts master. Hell, they even had the first inter-racial kiss ever on TV. Truly ground breaking, IMHO. I wonder why so little has changed in that respect.
Are you so sure about Sulu? Maybe not a master but an active student... in both martial arts and fencing.
[img]
[/img]
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/character/1112493.htm
l
Hahahaha, that's awesome! Is that the one with the evil alternate universe?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shavenyak:Quote:
Originally posted by browncoatsriseagain:
Are you so sure about Sulu? Maybe not a master but an active student... in both martial arts and fencing.
[img]
[/img]
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/character/1112493.htm
l
Hahahaha, that's awesome! Is that the one with the evil alternate universe?
I believe it's from 'The Naked Time', which was the one where they all get 'drunk' off of RandomSpacePhenomenon(tm), and reenact their childhood dreams, or something. (Never a major fan of the orignal series, so I'm not positive.)
Obligatory on-topic comment: I guess I agree with some of the rationalizations here, in that I always presumed that the Chinese descendants and the American descendants kept their distance a little bit, and perhaps settled on different worlds. Cultures can mix without the people mixing...
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shavenyak:
Hahahaha, that's awesome! Is that the one with the evil alternate universe?
No it's an early one from the first season where the crew gets a virus that removes their inhibitions. It's "The Naked Time"
Andrew
www.browncoatsriseagain.com
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Yep. Naked Time it is.
I can tell you that Sulu at least holds his foil properly. Maybe he studied fencing in life... I don't know.
George Takeii IS actually an alien. He just plays Sulu on TV. Have you ever seen his "SECRETS" interview on Conan. Could not stop laughing!
________
Anyway, back to the point. Sort of.
Sorry to bring in the mundane world, but I think that the reason the chinese influence is largely in the mise-en-scene and not abundantly available in characters is simply a matter of effective production.
I mean we only got 11 aired epidodes. If Joss had insisted on equalizing the Chinese/American screen-time, the network execs never would have even let us see those 11 shows. To get GOOD chinese actors for an American scifi show blend would be very very hard. And Joss took alot of care in picking his actors.
So, there's alot of background chinese atmosphere, but not so many foregrounded characters. Why? Simply because Joss had to bring a product to market, and he made it the best way that he could.
This actually surpasses my level of geekiness, but you might want to check out some of the detailed text in the PnP "Firefly" RPG books. I believe that the chinese influence is much more prominent.
I'm not trying to disagree with the speculations "in sci-fi context". I think they're very good points. It's just that something external to the camera can affect what the spectator is allowed to see. In this case network politics is the culprit. And economics.
Enough with the rant.
-aztechrome
"What is the difference between work and love? Show me..." (JLG) [Passion]
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If it makes ya feel any better, the US airports in Memphis and New Orleans are currently signposted in Chinese. The Commie Chinese Army currently owns and operates the Memphis Port in Tennessee and the Panama Canal (with 20,000 Commie soldiers), and the largest port in the British Bahamas. The Anglo-Sino Alliance is GO.
"You can't stop the signal!"
-Mr Universe
FIREFLY SERENITY PILOT MUSIC VIDEO:
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/8310.php
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Maybe the reason asians aren’t represented in Firefly is because they generally suck as actors and actress. Besides, I think Firefly is fine without those untrustworthy, two-faced, backstabbing, robotronic acting, totally oversized children. Most Asian women are trying to be white girls anyway, so who would want to have to put up with that?
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