So, here's an excerpt from a letter to the editors of Kitchen Sink (a cool perodical published out of Oakland):
"It was extremely validating to read that somebody else was bothered by the ignorant "all Asians look alike" attitude displayed by the casting decisions for Memoirs of a Geisha..."
(Volume 4, Issue 3, page 8)
The letter was in reference to an article (which I didn't read) by Sam Hurwitt, and pertained (I presume) to the casting of Chinese actresses (e.g. Ziyi Zhang and Li Gong) to portray Japanese characters (e.g. Chiyo/Sayuri and Hatsumomo, respectively). Naturally, I felt compelled to rant, and naturally (that is to say, "as those of you who know me would certainly expect"), my response is, "What a crock."
It's IGNORANT to cast Chinese actors to play Japanese characters? Why? What a bunch of politically-correct-21st-century-find-racism-everywhere nonsense. Was it "ignorant" to cast Mel Gibson, who is Australian, to portray Prince Hamlet, who was Danish? For that matter, how about William Wallace, who was from Scotland? What's the inference? All white people look alike? Couldn't they find a Danish or Scottish actor? How about Bruce Willis, born in Germany, as John McClane, a gentleman with an Irish-sounding name in Die Hard. In that movie, McClane fought AGAINST a possible German (Hans Gruber) played by an Englishman (Alan Rickman). Oh, the horror!! Let's not forget one of my favorite westerns, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, featuring New York Jew Eli Wallach as the almost-certainly-not-Jewish "Tuco." Wallach made qiute a career of portraying Mexicans and native Americans, in fact.
In fact, it would be more "ignorant" (not to mention insulting) to refuse to cast talented Chinese actresses as anything other than Chinese characters. Of all of seemingly infinite examples of political correctness gone completely moronic, this one was certainly in my top 10 of the year.
Gotta sign off now; I have to watch Jude Law, the Brit, in Cold Mountain, the movie for which he was nominated as Best Actor for portraying an American. The nerve!! As an American, I'm deeply offended. I guess "they" think all us white guys look alike.
Afterthought: Is it racist to think that Gong Li looks "closer" to Japanese than Nicole Kidman?!
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2 comments:
If you'd read the original article, you would have found that these points were addressed in it. Eli Wallach was one of many precedents cited, in fact. The essay was more an examination of "I wonder why this bugs me when these other things don't" than a strident indictment of anything in particular.
You know what they say, when you presume, you make a pre . . . wait, actually no one says that.
Thanks for that comment. My presumption (and comment) was really intended to only pertain to the letter, and not the article (since I didn't want to make a pre out of myself). It was the letter-writer's "ignorant" characterization that I was (mostly) taking exception to, and also (a couple of years later) the people who got seriously bent out of shape about it at the time (but I wasn't blogging then, so I had to defer my rant).
That was the first issue of Kitchen Sink that I'd seen. Interesting read.
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