The Asian Factor

POSTED BY: Darwin
UPDATED: Sunday, June 6, 2004 21:45
VIEWED: 10954
PAGE 2 of 3

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE

KURUKAMI

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 12:30 AM

Y'know, given Daniel Day Kim's recurring role on "Angel", it probably would've been only a matter of time before he turned up on "Firefly". *wistful smile*

History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it merely shouts "Weren't you listening the first time?!?" and lets fly with a club.

SHINY

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 12:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kurukami:
Y'know, given Daniel Day Kim's recurring role on "Angel", it probably would've been only a matter of time before he turned up on "Firefly". *wistful smile*

Daniel was the first person I thought of as well, not because of Angel (sorry, don't watch Angel/Buffy), but because of the association I have with him as one of the only asian actors that has been in sci-fi -- Star Trek: Voyager, Crusade (the babylon 5 spin-off), I even saw him when flipping the channels on that 'Charmed' show. Actually, checking out IMDB, it turns out he's been a guest on lots of other shows (like 24, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, ...):

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0196654/

RIVER
Purple elephants are flying.
MAL
Good. Thanks for the update.

FFYING2

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 5:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by phlebotinin:
Speaking of ethnicities, does anyone know what Morena Baccarin's ethnicity is?

I read somewhere that she's "Brazilian" (Portuguese, or just from there?) and Italian. I forget where, but I found this link:

"Brazilian-Italian beauty Morena Baccarin, the 23-year-old New Yorker (by way of Rio de Janeiro)"
http://www.morena-baccarin.com/news/121902.html

Quote:
Could just be me. Also, anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't she say in "Serenity" that she grew up in Sihnon? Joss said in an interview that's on the official Fox site for the series that Sihnon is meant to represent China (and Londinium is meant to represent the U.S.) Is Inara meant to be "Chinese?"

You're right, but I don't think she's supposed to be Chinese. Her surname is Serra, a Spanish name (Fr. Junipero Serra of the California missions).

I'd like to see Inara go back to the Guild House on Sihnon, and we'd see that it and everything else there is run by Chinese people.

Ying
Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

OKKAY

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 10:05 PM

Here's my justification for why there don't seem to that many asians: most people are mixed. It's set way in the future, the nations we know of today are pretty much gone, so maybe people of every race just end up living everywhere. Eventually most people just end up being mixed.

Yeah, it's kind of a stretch, but it's a possibility. Most of the half-white/half-asian people I know look more white than asian.

SERENITYNOW

Sunday, February 15, 2004 3:28 PM

As a white girl in Taipei, let me tell you that no Chinese people in Firefly is totally believable. This show is about the backwater--about the Nobodies. The Chinese would be /Somebodies/--they would be the leading civilization. What we see is the effect of this mainstream and sophisticated culture.

Here in Taipei, everyone sprinkles English in when talking to each other. /I'm/ the oddity here, not English--English and Western culture is everywhere, not Western expats. And the English they use, and the Western culture they emulate is /not/ the stuff we're familiar with--it's a sinicized version. For example, there are tons of bakeries here, but the bread is nothing like what we would get in Europe or the US--the taste is geared entirely a Chinese palate, with a Western veneer.

I think Joss is on the right track. Putting Chinese people in would be showing the full picture. In Firefly, we're only seeing part of it--that's what makes it interesting.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't love to see Su Chi, Michelle Yeoh, or even George Takei do a guest spot in a future Firefly series return--perhaps as a major Alliance figure.

http://dryope.typepad.com/superfly/

SAMSUNG955

Thursday, April 8, 2004 2:44 AM

Heh George Takei, I love that bastard's voice. :)

LIZ

Thursday, April 8, 2004 2:09 PM

on the commentary for Serenity (i think) Joss talks about this a little bit. He was looking at Asian and non-Asian actors for the Tams at least (which fits into the whole nobodies and somebodies bit). If i'm remembering correctly, it's the commentary as Simon is gives the "I am very smart" speech.
i hope that we get to see Sihnon in the movie, i mean it is the other half of this grand alliance.

MAUGWAI

Thursday, April 8, 2004 4:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kurukami:
Y'know, given Daniel Day Kim's recurring role on "Angel", it probably would've been only a matter of time before he turned up on "Firefly". *wistful smile*

Darn it, I was gonna say that! I love Daniel Dae Kim! I'm still sad he turned into a zombie.

"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

HOWDYROCKERBABY1

Saturday, April 24, 2004 5:01 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Darwin:
First off, let me just say that I f'n love firefly and the DVD set has made me appreciate how a groundbreakingly fine show was truly lost. Ain't no justice in a capital unjustified.

by capital I mean, money....cause that somehow...seems....correct.....I don't know.

I love the uniqueness of the mixing cultures and music and languages....but....

Where the heck were the chinese characters??

Sure there were chinese people "in the background"
But there were no speaking roles. No allies, no villains. I thought, wow this is so cool, a show giving props to asian culture, but there were no asian characters. I sure hope Simon and River (as wicked-awesome as they were) weren't suppose to be the "asians" what with the Tams thing.
There were british, africans, russians, europeans, but no chinese people.

Now maybe it was all part of the plan, and that Blue Sun would be a play on the Japanese's Red sun but since nothing became of that it was to say the least disapointing It would've soooo cool to see a special ops group of ninja assasins or old friend of Book's that was a warrior monk.

With all of that spewed, maybe the show would've explored that, but since it never got to go there, I'm a little disapointed.

And that' pretty much the end of my rant.
Thanks for listening.

'til Howard Dean learns how to smile...

I'm still unknown.

what you have to realize is that its been 500 years since earth-that-was, was destroyed, the cultures have ultimately been put in a huge melting pot theirfore dilluting who is asian and who is not. By that time line the Tam's may have been considered a very asian family, but we just don't know.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Here's to Jayne, the box dropping man-ape-gone-wrong-thing"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

HEROPA

Sunday, April 25, 2004 7:44 PM

I notice these things too. I think that one of the problems in getting Asian actors in America is getting ones that come off as good in OUR market. Being a good actor is relative to those casting and they have to factor TPTB above their own aproval. Let's face it, Asians are not marketable to THEM. They dismiss Jett Li and Jackie Chan as flukes. Truth is, if Garrett Wang was more serious about doing the work he'd be a top actor. Asians without accents are accepted and not expected to fight with chops and kicks. The network executives still think we want this, or that it sells better. The truth is, not only are they wrong about us as fans, they're selling the rest of America short too.

You can't tell how fast a rig is when it's parked.
It is better to teach a lesson than to be left as an example.

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE