Why they speak Chinese... I think...

POSTED BY: Gambit3
UPDATED: Monday, October 21, 2002 10:40
VIEWED: 7955
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GAMBIT3

Friday, October 11, 2002 7:25 PM

While surfing CNN, I ended up at the EW website, and decided to check out their "preview" of Firefly, and about halfway down the article, I ran into this little nugget:

Mal and his steely second-in-command, Zoe (''Cleopatra 2525'''s Gina Torres), were rebels in a civil war between independent-minded planets and the Alliance, composed of Earth's last remaining superpowers, the U.S. and China.

Interesting, huh? I thought so, at least. I don't know the source that EW got the info from, so take it as you will. Well, you can find the whole article here:

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,345660~3~0~welookatfirefly,00.html

THEGN

Saturday, October 12, 2002 1:00 AM

This doesn't really explain anything. Ten years ago the Soviet Union and the United States were the two super-powers. I was alive then and I never learned to speak Russian or ever really saw much it written. Just because the US and China are superpowers doesn't explain the use of the Chinese language.

Although the fact that the two languages seem to exist together certainly does say something about the past social conditions.

The Chinese definitely adds a certain depth to the show. The Eastern and Western cultures of the world are the last major socio-political divide in our world. The combination of the two languages in Firefly would seem to suggest that at some time in the past the social and political conditions on earth were, to some extent, integrated. It says to me, that Whedon is trying to send the message that at least some old prejudices are a thing of the past. Those prejudices associated with race are no longer a factor.

Which is sort of interesting because many other prejudices seem to have survived. Such as religious and class prejudices. Sort of an interesting social statement.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

JUGGERNAUT

Saturday, October 12, 2002 1:41 AM

I read an article in the New York Times Magazine (I can't remember how far back it was) about Whedon, Firefly and Buffy; it mentioned something about the Alliance being essentially the Alliance between the last two superpowers of the U.S. and China.

Sorry I can't quote the article; I could look it up, but I'm at work, and on a tight deadline (Tropical Storm Kyle swept through and dropped a tornado on us).

Anyway, it mentioned something like that.

NEOOLONG

Saturday, October 12, 2002 2:48 AM

My thought is that because the U.S. and China were the only superpowers, space travel, which is really expensive, meant that any colony ships would be paid for by both sides. Therefore maybe an agreement was reached that Chinese and American crews would both be required for each mission. This would probably lead to a mix of cultures over time, at least on the frontier. Then again that's just a thought.

KESIYUAN

Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:55 PM

They are speaking Chinese ( I lived in Taiwan for 3 years and studied mandarin in college). Their accents are really horrendous so sometimes I can't understand what they are saying. Takes a couple viewings with replay TV usually. But this is understandable, it's a hard language to pronounce.

kesiyuan

GATORMARC

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 2:25 PM

Does anyone else think that Engrish or something like it could end up being a dominant world language in the future? I already see a lot of it in Asia where the US Culture has mixed. It's always interesting to see anime where they regularly mix English with Japanese in the dialogue.

Gotta wonder if something similar would happen if the world's oldest culture were to meat head on with the greatest economic power in history.

This future seems very plausable to me.

THEGN

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 5:22 PM

As long as Western Culture continues to be the dominate economic and military force that it is, there is no doubt that English will be at least a primary language.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

REXRAYGUN

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 8:53 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by GatorMarc:
Gotta wonder if something similar would happen if the world's oldest culture were to meat head on with the greatest economic power in history.

Actually, I believe the Jews are an older culture by about a thousand years. I personally think it would be great for the intergalactic language to be Yiddish!

"Oy vey, Cap'n!"

Just my dos pesos,

Rex!

GATORMARC

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 9:01 PM

Rex,
I'm sure you are right... I kinda forgot about the Jewish culture and their influences over the last 7000 years. Sorry about that.

Hopefully, Israel will still be around in 500 years to influence that culture. There are enough people in the mideast who won't be happy until every Jew is dead, so nothing is certain.

TINYTIMM

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 10:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by GatorMarc:
Does anyone else think that Engrish or something like it could end up being a dominant world language in the future? I already see a lot of it in Asia where the US Culture has mixed.

English has become the world trade language. The USofA has been a hot bed of data generation and to keep up the world speaks English. It has the advantage of being an official language in the second most populus country on Earth (India) and dozens of other countries. It also has no "American" attached to it. In the USofA they have no native language, they swiped it from the old British Empire, like most of the other ex-colonies. ;->

Jeff
Who also notes English follows the path of least resistance. It get simpler. Despite my efforts.

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