Eh, it doesn't exactly blunt the argument from ALL sides. Casting someone of a different race, in this case, even though the actor is not white, is kind of acting like all flavours of not-white are interchangeable, isn't it?
I'm personally torn. Frankly, in his original incarnation, wasn't Mandarin, kinda, well, racist as all fuck? In his early appearances, he's totally a yellow peril caricature of a Chinese person. Casting a non-Chinese person DOES remove the risk of evoking that unfortunate portrayal...
That being said, I gather the character in the comics has evolved and grown beyond those troubling roots (I'm honestly not that familiar with him). They ARE stripping out what was an integral part of the character's identity and backstory. I mean, Mandarin, there is NOTHING East Indian about the name or the concept of a Mandarin. A mandarin was an official in the court of Imperial China (or Chinese influenced Vietnam). The official language of the country is Mandarin Chinese. It's... kinda hard to just swap that out. If the character isn't Chinese (or Vietnamese), why the hell did he take the name Mandarin?
Honestly, I personally would have just gone with a different villain and dodged the minefield, but if I had to use Mandarin, I would have cast a Chinese actor and then been CAREFUL AS HELL to flesh out and develop the character so he didn't wind up a stereotype. Plus I would have worked in one of the more positive Asian characters from the Marvelverse somehow, as a counterbalance.
And there is no such damn thing as race-blind casting. One way or another. Anyone who claims otherwise is delusional or lying.
The film makers got money from a lot of Chinese film companies, and they felt that having the Bad Big be a Fu Manchu-ish supervillain might offend people in one of their bigger potential markets.
They also said that Mandarin has over definitions beyond being an ethnic group in China, but make of that what you will.
I'm personally torn. Frankly, in his original incarnation, wasn't Mandarin, kinda, well, racist as all fuck? In his early appearances, he's totally a yellow peril caricature of a Chinese person. Casting a non-Chinese person DOES remove the risk of evoking that unfortunate portrayal...
That being said, I gather the character in the comics has evolved and grown beyond those troubling roots (I'm honestly not that familiar with him). They ARE stripping out what was an integral part of the character's identity and backstory. I mean, Mandarin, there is NOTHING East Indian about the name or the concept of a Mandarin. A mandarin was an official in the court of Imperial China (or Chinese influenced Vietnam). The official language of the country is Mandarin Chinese. It's... kinda hard to just swap that out. If the character isn't Chinese (or Vietnamese), why the hell did he take the name Mandarin?
Honestly, I personally would have just gone with a different villain and dodged the minefield, but if I had to use Mandarin, I would have cast a Chinese actor and then been CAREFUL AS HELL to flesh out and develop the character so he didn't wind up a stereotype. Plus I would have worked in one of the more positive Asian characters from the Marvelverse somehow, as a counterbalance.
And there is no such damn thing as race-blind casting. One way or another. Anyone who claims otherwise is delusional or lying.
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They also said that Mandarin has over definitions beyond being an ethnic group in China, but make of that what you will.
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