I love him but....

[witchwillow]

Hiro Nakamura is not Japanese.

I know it seems like he is. He speaks Japanese, looks Japanese, has a Japanese corporate mogul father and a Japanese sister and most of all he has a Japanese salary-man as his best friend. But on tv, he's not Japanese.

Comments

[mimisoliel]

Thanks for the essay. I like the show. But as a person of mixed heritage, I totally understand what you're talking about when I observe pop culture and its myths.

Hiro

[paradise_city]

Admittedly I stopped watching Heroes halfway through the season, so I don't know how his character has progressed since then. However, I would never look at Hiro and see white in any manifestation. I honestly don't understand your stance here, so let me ask this: how would things need to be different in order for Hiro to read as more Japanese and less white for you?

Re: Hiro

[witchwillow]

I think a few people are missing a tiny part of my first paragraph. The part where I say 'but on tv'.

This has nothing to do with how I view the character personally and everything to do with how I think he's coded and what that coding might do to shift perceptions of him in an audience that's not filled with minorities.

As stated in:
Which makes me believe that Hiro, despite the cultural nods to his past and his childhood and his country of origin isn't seen as a person of color by the writers, advertisers or a goodly population of the viewers.

Re: Hiro

[paradise_city]

No, I read the "on TV" bit, and I can see how that ties into the coding. I think I'm just missing the thesis statement of the post: are you saying that you think POC see Hiro as a POC but that white fans don't?

[wychwood]

Well, for what it's worth, as a non-American white person, I definitely don't see Hiro as white. I can't speak for the writers, but as a viewer, I'm aware of his Japanese status.

(PS While you may be right on the asexual thing, we'll have to see, I don't really think it's possible to say the same of Ando, who may be unsuccessful with women but who is definitely sexually interested in them, to an extent that has influenced the plot more than once already

[spiralsheep]

Well, for what it's worth, as a non-American white person, I definitely don't see Hiro as white. I can't speak for the writers, but as a viewer, I'm aware of his Japanese status.

But among white people in Britain we don't have a fannish culture centred on imported Japanese pop culture to the same degree as in the U.S. so I think it might be more likely for a higher percentage of white Americans, potentially both the writers of this show and/or the viewers, to identify with Hiro as a white fanboy fantasy without experiencing him through an Otherness filter.

I haven't watched the programme but I think I understand witchwillow's philosophical point even if I can't know whether it applies in this particular case. :-)

[wychwood]

That's a good point! I hadn't really thought of it that way, despite what witchwillow said.

All black people like fried chicken...

[evilgrins]

...which isn't true but it was a rather powerful stereotype once upon a time. May still be for all I know. This post also kind of reminded me of the film Exit Wounds where DMX has to deal with a black car salesperson who was clearly more brought up to act caucasian than anything else

here from metafandom

[cosmicdancer]

I won't deny that Heroes as a show does have a lot of gender/race portrayals I don't agree with (mostly that all the female characters are flat, conventionally attractive (whereas we're allowed a white male character, Matt, who is heavyset and still has sex and gets to do other attractive 'manly' things like shooting people), and not allowed an 'in' on the important information), but I noticed something that hasn't really been brought up yet: is the use of Hiro as fantasy fulfillment for young white male geeks possibly a way to close the cultural gap?

I see a major issue with making him more Japanese just to be Japanese (and exotic? different?). As the show stands, Hiro is a character with whom viewers can relate despite their own cultural background. So rather than saying 'Hey look at these different, strange Japanese people', Heroes is saying 'Hey, even though this guy speaks Japanese and comes from Japan, he's a normal guy like you.'