The Chinese, The British, and Firefly

POSTED BY: zoid
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 04:47
VIEWED: 4308
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ZOID

Monday, July 12, 2004 6:32 PM

G'day, fellow Browncoats:

I'd like to spark some discussion on the unseen nature of the Sino Anglo Alliance, the dominating force of the Firefly 'verse. First, I'll speculate on the Sino -- or Chinese -- aspect of the Alliance. Then I'll take a stab at the Anglo -- or English, hence British Empire -- aspect of the conglomeration/hegemony(?).

To begin, most of the posts here abouts seem to presume that the Alliance is a merger of Chinese and (U.S.) American spheres of influence. But the moniker, "Sino Anglo Alliance", would indicate Chinese and British governmental dominance. How can this be? How could the current de facto 'Pax Americana' be supplanted thus? I've got some ideas and I'll enumerate them later; but, you should read this essay while thinking of that leading question. Let's see if we'll come to the same conclusions...

As to the 'Sino' part of the equation, I've long been telling friends and associates, "Watch out for the Chinese in about 25 years or so." I've been saying that for about 15 years now. The reason? China's 'one child' policy, in combination with her paternalistic societal obsession. This means that the predominance of children being born in China since 1979 have been males (see: http://tinyurl.com/6wbvg for further elucidation, or search on 'one child policy'). The same is arguably true in India, where they have instituted a similar policy.

It doesn't take a male very long to realize that a dearth of females in the mating pool will lead to dire consequences. Testosterone -- the God of War -- is a horrible burden, and the driving characteristic of the young male beast. 700 million sexually frustrated males -- or any significant fraction thereof that may be argued -- make a formidable force for sociopolitical change, and I'll leave it to your imagination to forecast how that force may manifest itself. Suffice to say, the 'Sino' portion of the Alliance is feasible, to my way of reckoning.

As to the 'Anglo' part of the equation, would anyone care to venture a guess which foreign country is most heavily invested in the United States? The Japanese? Not even close. It's Great Britain by a large margin. In fact, the UK dominates the world banking structure as a whole. Consider the data from http://tinyurl.com/3zxcv (while it seems respectable enough, I nevertheless make no claims to the validity of the author's subjective conclusions):

Quote:
Despite the notoriety of Japanese investors, the British have the largest U.S. direct investment holding — with the Dutch not far behind — as has been the case since colonial times. In 1990 the United Kingdom held about 27 percent of foreign direct investment in the United States, significantly greater than Japan's 21 percent. The European Economic Community (EC) collectively holds about 57 percent. Moreover, according to research by Eric Rosengren, between 1978 and 1987, Japanese investors acquired only 94 U.S. companies, putting them fifth behind the British (640), Canadians (435), Germans (150), and French (113).

This not only illuminates our current state of geopolitical affairs, but also provides insight into the 'Anglo' share of future power in the Firefly 'verse.

So where are the Americans, one might ask? Have they fallen to some 'barbarian at the gate', either internal or external? Have they destroyed themselves through biological/environmental/nuclear (or 'nukular' as some leaders may say it) disaster?

I think the answer is simple, and that it is present in the evidence given in the abortive series run of Firefly. I have also argued that F*x executives knew where JW was going with this whole issue and scuttled the project because of the implications. Have you guessed yet?

The U.S. (along with the Japanese) becomes BlueSun, the mass-media, corner-the-market-on-everything consumer goods monopolistic arm of the Alliance/BlueSun hegemony. They also run River's 'Academy' and the Blue Hands clandestine operations, not a long stretch from current U.S. 'black bag' expenditures. BlueSun'

PURPLEBELLY

Monday, July 12, 2004 7:08 PM

I think you've been checking Rupert Murdoch's backstory
The only surprise is that Whedon thought he could get away with it;
good joke while it lasted, tho

CAOILTE

Monday, July 12, 2004 7:14 PM

hahahahahaha. no.

Speaking as a Brit - NOT A CHANCE.
We ain't that rich or smart.

More likely "Anglo" is as good as any description of a white boy if you're Chinese. It could even include the Europeans as far as they're concerned.

BELLOVESUS

Monday, July 12, 2004 7:18 PM

But, and I may be wrong on this one, doesn't Joss actually state in an interview or a commentary on the discs themselves that the Alliance was made up primarily of remaining Chinese and American governments. If he doesn't say it himself, I know one of the directors (or was it a costume designer) said it in the featurette on Disc 4.

"The only fluid I see here is the puddle of piss refusin' to pay us our wage."

PURPLEBELLY

Monday, July 12, 2004 7:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by caoilte:
We ain't that rich or smart

That's you and me, bro.
But I think the point made is that investment which is nominally British is world-wide right now, although it has as much connection to thee and me as the responsibility for the Opium Wars.

Mr Murdoch is an American citizen, married to a Chinese lady. I am not qualified to say whether he has achieved hegemony. I do know that British politicians court his favour.

CAOILTE

Monday, July 12, 2004 7:38 PM

Quote:
I am not qualified to say whether he has achieved hegemony.

Oh he's not far off. Luckily he's old and his son's an idiot (the bane of many a prospective empire).

This weeks Economist prattles on about how BSkyB, DirecTV and StarTV linked up would basically cover the world.

ZOID

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 12:52 AM

PurpleBelly wrote:

Quote:
I think you've been checking Rupert Murdoch's backstory... The only surprise is that Whedon thought he could get away with it;
good joke while it lasted, tho

And for those who didn't know, Rupert Murdoch owns F*x, and turned Sam Fox into a household name in the UK. You have to be neither rich nor smart to appreciate that...

For a blow-by-blow on the undisputed king of 'bread and circuses' journalism, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch . It's a hoot.

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

Only 283 days, 4 hours, 15 minutes, and 31 seconds left until The BDM!

FFYING2

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 1:01 AM

Quote:
zoid wrote:
To begin, most of the posts here abouts seem to presume that the Alliance is a merger of Chinese and (U.S.) American spheres of influence. But the moniker, "Sino Anglo Alliance", would indicate Chinese and British governmental dominance.

Interesting speculation as always, but I think the Anglo-Sino Alliance is just English-SPEAKING and Chinese-SPEAKING. Or perhaps Joss thought "Americo-Sino" was too cumbersome--though "Sino-American" would do the trick.

Quote:
Joss Whedon, interview on Fox site, 11/13/02
I went with Chinese so that we could sort of meld the two cultures. I could have Western culture, the American culture, and the Chinese as kind of having grown together. Since they are the two great superpowers of this Earth, I thought instead of killing each other, as everybody seems to be predicting, we will-- what if they in fact came up together and kind of melded? And the Anglo-Sino Alliance is in fact sort of America and China as two major planets in the Core. The Central Planets are Sihnon, which is basically China, and Londinium*, which is basically America.

*Londinum in the "Serenity" script

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

ZOID

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 1:43 AM

ffying2 quoted JW, thus (in part):

Quote:
And the Anglo-Sino Alliance is in fact sort of America and China as two major planets in the Core. The Central Planets are Sihnon, which is basically China, and Londinium, which is basically America.

Fascinating. Of course, the orginal name of London, England, UK (the World, the Universe) was Londinium when it was the chief settlement of Roman Brittania. Must be a coincidence or else a mistake on Joss' part. I can see that happening...

Respectfully,

zoid

KERNELM

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

ffying2 quoted JW, thus (in part):
Quote:
And the Anglo-Sino Alliance is in fact sort of America and China as two major planets in the Core. The Central Planets are Sihnon, which is basically China, and Londinium, which is basically America.

Fascinating. Of course, the orginal name of London, England, UK (the World, the Universe) was Londinium when it was the chief settlement of Roman Brittania. Must be a coincidence or else a mistake on Joss' part. I can see that happening...

I don't think it's either. It's not at all difficult to see that Londinium/London are related names. And Anglo is of course associated with Britain as well. I think in the FF 'verse the US will have long since absorbed the UK (before the Alliance) and for whatever reason decided to use the UK's outer trappings.

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