ACTUAL CHINESE FIREFLY
So over on tumblr, 
gondoleia/idelweiss linked to this fashion editorial on fakingfashion that gave us a lot of feels. A LOT. My favorite page probably has to be this one:
(click to enlarge)
[photo: Liu Wen, Chinese model, dressed in a sleek leather dress and wearing a black cowboy hat. She has her hand out, and a falcon? hawk? rests on her gloved wrist with its wings spread. Purple mountains and golden brush paint a background reminiscent of old Western films.]
gondoleia then brought up Firefly and the train wreck of whitewashing that it was, which reminded me of this quote:
”[…] In some other western states, particularly Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, Chinese population was once quite high. The Idaho Territorial Census of 1870 reported them as 28.5 percent of the population; in that year they were 9.5 percent of the population of neighboring Montana. A decade later Chinese made up 8.7 percent of the population of Nevada. Each of those figures declined rapidly as Chinese were eliminated from the mining industry and the mining industry itself declined. These Chinese pioneers have largely been written out of the histories of the western states. When Chinese do appear in them it is as exotic curiosities or as victims. Their pioneering role as developers of the economy of the West has simply been ignored.”
- Harry H. L. Kitano & Roger Daniels (2001), Asian Americans: Emerging Minorities (3rd edition)
missturdle also brought up the fact that cowboys as a concept/historical thing isn't even white to begin with. I then made a post with some notes and imagery on what I imagined a more Chinese Western would look like.
As we all know, I've been having a lot of feels about Sino-American identity, history, diaspora feelings, etc. etc. etc.; it's part of my grad school research and part of my personal interests. My other project, Sinochesters (which I'm thinking of writing for for spn_j2_bigbang!!), also explores Americana from a Chinese-American/Sino-American perspective.
Much as I dearly love Firefly, the hurt of it being whitewashed will never fully recede. And my solution to that hurt lately has been racebending (also obvious in Sinochesters); I've done a little bit of racebent!Firefly via podfic of “春雨 (Spring Rain)” by
mercredigirl.
I'm thinking of either doing more racebent Firefly or writing a separate, original speculative fiction version of a space Western with actual Chinese people in it. I'm not and have never really been interested in historical fiction, and so I probably wouldn't write an actual Western, especially since I'm not into Westerns as a genre anyway. Things I would explore would probably include:
HOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO COMBINE THESE EVEN. I'm going to see if I can look for Westerns with Mexican and Native American presence as well (recs appreciated!!). THEN I'LL SET IT ALL IN SPACE. Or maybe steampunk it. OR SOMETHING. Something to make it more speculative, 'cause I'm really not interested in historical Westerns much... AHH. So many ideas; I'm hoping to make some kind of actual sustainable project with a result, even if it's just a short short story. @_@
This entry is crossposted at http://orchidfire.dreamwidth.org/77467.html.
gondoleia/idelweiss linked to this fashion editorial on fakingfashion that gave us a lot of feels. A LOT. My favorite page probably has to be this one:
(click to enlarge)
[photo: Liu Wen, Chinese model, dressed in a sleek leather dress and wearing a black cowboy hat. She has her hand out, and a falcon? hawk? rests on her gloved wrist with its wings spread. Purple mountains and golden brush paint a background reminiscent of old Western films.]
gondoleia then brought up Firefly and the train wreck of whitewashing that it was, which reminded me of this quote:
”[…] In some other western states, particularly Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, Chinese population was once quite high. The Idaho Territorial Census of 1870 reported them as 28.5 percent of the population; in that year they were 9.5 percent of the population of neighboring Montana. A decade later Chinese made up 8.7 percent of the population of Nevada. Each of those figures declined rapidly as Chinese were eliminated from the mining industry and the mining industry itself declined. These Chinese pioneers have largely been written out of the histories of the western states. When Chinese do appear in them it is as exotic curiosities or as victims. Their pioneering role as developers of the economy of the West has simply been ignored.”
- Harry H. L. Kitano & Roger Daniels (2001), Asian Americans: Emerging Minorities (3rd edition)
missturdle also brought up the fact that cowboys as a concept/historical thing isn't even white to begin with. I then made a post with some notes and imagery on what I imagined a more Chinese Western would look like.
As we all know, I've been having a lot of feels about Sino-American identity, history, diaspora feelings, etc. etc. etc.; it's part of my grad school research and part of my personal interests. My other project, Sinochesters (which I'm thinking of writing for for spn_j2_bigbang!!), also explores Americana from a Chinese-American/Sino-American perspective.
Much as I dearly love Firefly, the hurt of it being whitewashed will never fully recede. And my solution to that hurt lately has been racebending (also obvious in Sinochesters); I've done a little bit of racebent!Firefly via podfic of “春雨 (Spring Rain)” by
mercredigirl.
I'm thinking of either doing more racebent Firefly or writing a separate, original speculative fiction version of a space Western with actual Chinese people in it. I'm not and have never really been interested in historical fiction, and so I probably wouldn't write an actual Western, especially since I'm not into Westerns as a genre anyway. Things I would explore would probably include:
- Americana of color; that is, the US and Americana from the perspectives of people of color and from bi/multicultural individuals;
- diaspora'd spaces; Chinese America; displacement and creation of new homes and cultural centers;
- inter-PoC relations; cooperation between different PoC groups;
- language and language contact in a Western setting that isn't just white;
- and probably more stuff that I'll think about later.
Click to viewHOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO COMBINE THESE EVEN. I'm going to see if I can look for Westerns with Mexican and Native American presence as well (recs appreciated!!). THEN I'LL SET IT ALL IN SPACE. Or maybe steampunk it. OR SOMETHING. Something to make it more speculative, 'cause I'm really not interested in historical Westerns much... AHH. So many ideas; I'm hoping to make some kind of actual sustainable project with a result, even if it's just a short short story. @_@
This entry is crossposted at http://orchidfire.dreamwidth.org/77467.html.