Last time I gave you a background on Avatar: The Last Airbender and its movie adaptation. So today I'm going to talk about one of my biggest issues with the movie, and the reason why I refused to see it in theaters. (I'm not telling *how* I saw it, but let's just say that I refuse to pay Paramount for this travesty.)
Oh yes. The Racebending.
What is Racebending? It's a play on the term for the "magic" aspect of A:TLA - the "bending" being manipulation of a particular element. "Racebending" is a term adopted to mean
situations where A) A movie studio/publisher, etc. has changed the ethnicity of a character B) with a resultant discriminatory impact on an underrepresented cultural community and actors from that community (reinforcement of glass ceilings, loss of opportunity, etc.) (term and definition from Racebending.com's FAQ page)
And let me just say, that pretty much sums up the "racelift" that happened in The Last Airbender.
In order to understand the way that the movie staff mishandled the culture, let me continue to monologue on the influences of the show.
First off, the Asian and Inuit influences are as obvious as the nose on my face - and I have Spanish blood in me, so my nose is pretty huge. Everything in the Avatar world, from the architecture to the clothes to the food and the chopsticks, is Asian-inspired. All the writing is in authentic traditional Chinese calligraphy; all the bending of the show is based off of real-world martial arts; the concept of the Avatar is based both in Hindu mythology - that a god would descend to the Earth in the form of a human in order to restore balance - and in the mysticism surrounding the Tibetian Buddhist belief of the great Lamas (for instance, the Dalai Lama - for whom both Monk Gyatso and Tenzin, son of Katara and Aang, are named).
Now, to go into even more detail.
Let's start off with the Fire Nation, which is home and origin of maybe 90% of the antagonists of the show. Fire Lord Ozai, Prince Zuko, Princess Azula, General Iroh, and Admiral Zhao hail from this militaristic volcanic archipelago. (Gee, does that sound like something from the real world...?) The Fire Nation is strongly based off of two different real-world nations: Imperial China and Imperial Japan. It's almost painfully obvious. For starters, the architecture of Yellow Crane Tower inspired the curled-up roof corners of Fire Nation buildings. The dragon and phoenix motifs that appear throughout the Fire Nation's cultural exhibits, the Fire Lord's throne room, and the palace are reminiscent of Chinese mythology. Early designs of Prince Zuko show that he was decked out in armor based off of that of Japanese samurai, complete with the flared helmet. Their firebending is based off of Northern Shaolin. And for crying out loud, even though the show's art style is based off of Japanese and Korean animation, the Fire Nation characters look the most Asian out of the entire cast.
Next are the Air Nomads. It is painfully obvious yet again that Bryan and Mike were inspired by actual people when it came to the airbenders. The real-world basis of these elements of design are Tibetan monks, Buddhist monks, and Shaolin monks, and it is evident down to the shaved heads, wooden prayer beads, and yellow-and-orange robes. The outfit that Aang wears in the third season is heavily reminiscent of Shaolin monks' outfits. Their bending is based off of Ba Gua.
The Earth Kingdom is a mix of several Asian cultures, the most prominent being once again Japan and China. However, the designers did throw in a few more as well - Korea, for example. Don't believe me? Take a look at Song and her mother, from "The Cave of Two Lovers" (look on the right)
The design of their clothes is pretty much stitch-for-stitch based off of the traditional Korean hanbok. Other than that little tidbit, there's the island of Kiyoshi - a fishing port with female warriors who keep the peace while fighting with giant metal fans and wearing Kibuki makeup (*ahem* JAPAN.) Ba Sing Se is pretty much a city that was scooped out of ancient Chinese history. I kid you not, the outer wall of Ba Sing Se was inspired by the Great Wall of China. The Earth King's palace was based off of the Forbidden City, and Earth King Kuei looks like what I figure the Last Emperor would have looked like if I'd seen him grown up. That, and there are random Earth Kingdom towns throughout the first two seasons that show multiple characters who look like they were yoinked from Disney's Mulan. Earthbending is based off of Hung Gar, with the exception of Toph's unique style, which is inspired by Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.
Finally, the Water Tribe. This one is a tricky one to argue, mostly because the Water Tribe is pretty much based on the Inuit people, with bits and pieces of their culture yoinked from aboriginal American cultures (i.e. the weapons and canvas huts). Technically, they're not Asian. At least, not ~Far East Oriental~ Pacific Rim Asian (you guys can't see it right now, but I totally just did a whoo-whoo thing with my hands there.) But that doesn't mean what we can cast a bunch of white kids to play the Water Tribe siblings. You see, I have a theory that has a lot to do with anthropology and stuff, so I'll try and simplify it as best as I can.
First off, we have the Behring Strait. Popular scientific belief holds it that back in the days of the hunting and gathering nomads, there used to be a natural land bridge between the north-easternmost tip of the Eurasian continent and the north-westernmost tip of the North American continent. A bunch of ancient Mongolian/Chinese nomads crossed that land strip into the Americas and over time migrated southwards, which is why aboriginal American people are classified as "Mongloid" in anthropological terms (people of European descent are classified as "Caucasoids" and people of African and Oceania origins are classified as "Negroid". Oddly enough, middle Easterners and Indian people are classified as Caucasoid mostly due to their physical builds and facial features.) Therefore, despite the Inuit culture not being a Pacific Rim culture, they are still Asiatic in origin. Make sense?
To compound my argument, let me rattle of a list of things that are quite obviously Inuit/aboriginal American. Ahem. The Southern Water Tribe village; Sokka's small armory of weapons; the Water Tribe boats; their names; their clothing; their fish-filled diet; their marriage customs; their social structure with a chief at the top; Sokka's "warrior wolf's tail" hairstyle, and Katara's hair loopies. I kid you not, but unfortunately after half an hour of searching I have yet to come up with the actual name for them. However, I bring you... WORD OF GOD (this is for you, my Troper friends!)
Bryan: Actually, Katara’s, like, hair loops
Mike: The hair loopies
Bryan: They used to hang down, just loosely, and Young Ki thought that would be too hard to animate, and thought they’d be moving around too much, so, he had the idea to tie them back, which actually ended up being an authentic Inuit hair style.
(source: AvatarSpirit.net's transcription of the pilot commentary)
Finally, the waterbending is based off of T'ai Chi, the last of the Chinese wushu (martial arts) used in the show.
So there you have it. The world of Avatar is pretty consistently Asian/Asiatic or pan-Asian at the least. And Bryan, Mike, and the folks who worked on this show went above and beyond the call of duty - they hired at least three consultants (Sifu Kisu - martial arts; Dr. Siu-Leung Lee - calligraphy; Edwin Zane - culture) to keep things from getting hammy and unauthentic.
Now, onto the movie. (And I promise that I'm nearly done)
For the most part, the three heroes are cast as Caucasian. Actually, according to my book on anthropology, Dev Patel (an Indian actor known for starring in Slumdog Millionaire, who played Zuko) is technically Caucasoid-featured, despite the fact that he is of Indian (and somewhat by default, Asian) origin.
There are several problems with the casting of this movie - one being the merit and ability of the actors themselves, and one being the underlying implications of race in the casting. The merit of the actors is an issue I will address next week. However, let me state the cultural impact that this casting could cause.
First off, I'm not Asian. I'm Hispanic. But even I was enchanted and encouraged by the portrayal of Asian and Inuit characters as real protagonists, and not just the "Kung-fu master", the "Chinese food delivery boy", and the "broken-English speaking old dude". These were real characters that just happened to be Asian and Inuit. Sure, their cultural roots were an important aspect of their lives, but they were able to transcend that cultural barrier and touch the lives of countless kids of all races. It was heartening for me to see that.
And then the casting came out.
To say the least, I crapped kittens.
More and more news came out as I started obsessively checking out Racebending.com and looking over their gathered information. When I discovered that the casting requested "Caucasian or any other ethnicity" on their search for actors to play the leads, I was infuriated.
And then M. Night Shyamalan claimed that the style of the show, being anime, was so ambiguous, Aang and the others could have been anything... that this movie would be even more diverse than the show... and that he picked the best actors for the roles.
OBJECTION.
First off, anime as a syle is not ambiguous. The default race in anime is Asian, being Asian in origin. If an animator working on a Japanese anime wanted to portray a character as being something other than Japanese, he or she would make it very clear that the character in question was not Japanese. Take for example Shampoo in Ranma 1/2. She usually appeared dressed in Chinese-style clothes and speaking in broken Japanese (or English in the dub). Another good example is Mobile Suit Gundam 00, which features characters from around the world. While Japanese animators often employ stylistic ways of telling the races apart (overemphasizing big noses, lips, and other slightly stereotypical ways of distinguishing someone of Caucasoid or Negroid descent) the designers involved in 00 made it clear through names, mannerisms, and small features such as skin color and hair type to differentiate the characters from each other.
While we're on the subject of stylistic elements from anime, another argument for Aang's true race is that his eyes are too big for him to be Asian. What, were we expecting for him to look something like this?
Well, that is American-style animation. In Japanese or generally Asian-style animation, big, wide eyes are used to express a childish innocence.
Besides, it should have been obvious from the use of kung fu, the presence of Buddhist-like beliefs, the architecture, the chopsticks the... aw, you get it. Aang ain't white.
And neither are Katara and Sokka. Besides the Guru Pathik, they along with the other Water Tribe members are the darkest-skinned characters in the cast. And they cast a guy who plays a VAMPIRE to play Sokka.
Another argument pro-casters have been using is that the characters have eye colors of blue, gray, green, and orange, and thus can't possibly be anything but Caucasian. Um, lighter eye colors aren't exclusive to Caucasian people. In fact, light eye colors are caused by recessive genes. So someone with dark eyes may carry a light eye color gene, but it isn't shown be cause the dominant gene is that of a darker eye color. When a child with two recessive genes in that pair is born, he or she will have light eyes. It's basic genetics. Besides, Bryke used the differently colored eyes to differentiate the elemental alignment of the characters (i.e. blue = water, green = earth, gray = air, and orange = fire). So that argument is null.
Another pro-caster arguement: But the Water Tribes live at the poles of this world! How can they have dark skin??
OH GEE I DON'T KNOW. It turns out that the Inuit and First Nation people probably started out as dark-skinned. Due to the fact that they consumed a lot of fish in their diet, they got enough vitamin D from their food so that they didn't need to evolve to be lighter skinned in order to absorb more sunlight.
Another one: But Shyamalan cast Dev Patel to play Zuko! That's not racist.
Oh yeah. Casting the darker-skinned people to play the bad guys isn't racist at all.
Another one: Well, the background characters are people of different races.
Right. And the lead good guys are white, which is another classic case of "righteous white kids leading a non-Caucasian nation out of oppression while fighting swarthy bad guys". Reeeeaaaaally original.
It makes no sense whatsoever to cast white kids to play the leads. Shyamalan reasoned that the Norther Water Tribe was probably Russian, which accounted for Katara and Sokka's paleness.
The Water Tribes are descended from the SAME PEOPLE. And for the love of all things good and pure, look at the animation! The Northern Water Tribe people look exactly the same as the Southern Water Tribe characters, except fancier and with different-colored outfits! Besides, Katara and Sokka are only 1/4 descended from the Northern Water Tribe. The rest of them are Southern Water tribe. So that argument is moot. Katara and Sokka should be played by people of color.
Another argument: But what about the Air Nomads then? They're traveling people - it makes sense that Aang is white, because the Air Nomads are multiracial.
NO. The Air Nomads are all Airbenders, which means that the gene pool is not diverse. All Air Nomads look like Buddhist and Shaolin monks, and none of them are black, Hispanic, Latino, Indian, or Caucasian. In a world that's specifically based on Asian culture, those races don't exist (...with the exception of Guru Pathik, who is obviously based off of Hindu gurus.)
What with the Fire Nation being based off of China and Japan, it makes no sense to have them be Indian or Middle Eastern in the movie. Plus, it reinforces the negative stereotype that good guys = white and bad guys = dark. Plus-plus, it also brings to mind another real-world conflict that is happening RIGHT NOW.
And casting a bunch of ethnic extras is even stupider, reinforcing the glass ceiling that Hollywood has upheld since the beginning of cinema. It does not excuse the lack of diversity coming from the main heroes, and it does not make up for screwing up the world of the canon - which is a sin in adaptation terms. You do not mess with the canon.
But unfortunately, they weren't afraid to take "artistic license" with the rest of the movie.
So basically in conclusion, in a show that is pretty much WORD OF GOD based off of Asian and Inuit culture and mythology, it makes no sense for M. Night Shyamalan (WHO DID DO THE CASTING FOR THE LEADS, BTW) to cast a bunch of white kids to play the leads. By the way, guess who was originally supposed to play Prince Zuko? Jesse McCartney.
Yeah. I know.
What makes it even more stupid is the fact that Shyamalan reportedly discovered Avatar due to the fact that his daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween. Imagine being his daughter, a girl of color, who probably has never seen a female protagonist that looked like her in mainstream media. Imagine how excited she must have felt when she realized that Katara was a strong female lead who looked just like her.
How in Hell's name could Shyamalan do this?
Image credits go to Racebending.com, AvatarSpirit.net, Atanajuat, and this place
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