For the 29384754th time, the characters are Asian

[othellia]

Ugo.com has posted an interview with the A:TLA track team. Amongst a lot of stuff about the awesome music that we know and love is this quote by Benjamin Wynn about starting up at the beginning of the series:

"We went out to lunch and started talking about the show, how the story takes place in an alternate world and the characters. Everyone is

Comments

[dkwrkm]

For some reason, I'm remembering something from Mike and Bryan or one of the cultural consultants about how they didn't want any of the characters to be a specific Asian race (example: to be blatant about Zuko being Japanese) because they didn't want to vilify any specific race.

This way we have Asian heroes and Asian villains and nobody is stereotyped.

[othellia]

Okay, that makes a lot more sense. When I first read it seemed like he was saying the Asian influences in the show were generic influences, like how a lot of other shows will take an Asian character and basically give him/her a pair of chopsticks and a straw hat and call it a day.

But I figured he meant something different because Avatar is obviously above that.

[erikonil]

Yeah, I think it's like how in western fantasy you can have settings that have elements of French, German, English, Norwegian ect all mixed together so it's a generic European setting. You don't have a bunch of people of different nationalities running around, but you make a culmination of people with elements of each. So no evil Germans or sissy French tropes going on, it's just a bunch of white people that pull from all of the above.

It makes sense given that in Avatar the Fire Nation draw heavily from multiple cultural sources. Zhou being a common Chinese name, the soldiers wearing Chinese style armor, but then also having names like Iroh and Zuko that are very Japanese. So in theory in a live action adaption you could cast a Korean American, Japanese American or Chinese American to play a character like Zuko because it's drawing a general Asian character in much the same way.

[harumi]

Actually neither Zuko nor Iroh sound remotely Japanese. Azula if you squint at it sideways. Iroh sounds pretty Chinese to me actually. I can even picture the hanzi that come up. ^^;;; The only name that sounds unambiguously Japanese to me is Suki, which isn't used as a name in Japan anyway, assuming that it's Japanese they're referencing. I only speak three Asian languages OTL

But that said, your point about them being ambiguously Asian is right on the mark. It's a mix of a lot of cultures.

[caterfree10]

I read that and squeed out loud. <3 Oh man how badly I want to love on The Track Team. ^_^

'Course, the naysayers will probably still say it's not worth shit unless Bryke says it. *can't roll eyes hard enough*

[glockgal]

'Course, the naysayers will probably still say it's not worth shit unless Bryke says it.

Which of course Mike and Bryan have (in interviews before the movie, in the artbook) but naysayers interpret it as:
a) "Well Mike and Bryan say everything in the world is Asian...but they just mean the world/architecture/food/writing/clothing/culture! THAT STILL DOESN'T MEAN THE PEOPLE HAVE TO BE."
b) "RATHBONE WAS BORN IN SINGAPORE OR SOMETHING, AND RINGER HAS AN ASIAN-ISH QUALITY".
c) "There's one specific element in one specific episode that Mike and Bryan say is based on something not Asian, thereby rendering the entire cartoon 'ambiguous' (aka white)!"

[caterfree10]

Ah right, how could I have forgotten? *facepalm* I swear, I will never figure out why people like that insist on being so ignorant like that, I really won't. ~_~

[nthdraft]

because it's less work than thinking.

[nthdraft]

hey, if you haven't already, there's a link to the Track Team's Myspace page,

http://www.myspace.com/thetrackteammusicandsound

and on that Myspace page is a petition for an ATLA soundtrack.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/petition-sign.cgi?avatarST

*Signed!!*

[skemono]

So this makes... how many people who actually worked on the series that have come out and said that they're Asian?

[syonanto]

-Cultural Consultant Professor Siu-Leung Lee
-Animatic Director Dao Le
-Giancarlo Volpe
-Sifu Kisu
-Mako, founder of the East West Players
-Dante Basco
-Aaron Ehasz
-Alison Wilgus (Zuko's Story)
-I think Nina Matsumoto did too, but I'm still searching for her post about it for verification :P

Anyway, I saved the staff's individual statements in this post too, if you're interested :)

[jedifreac]

You're missing Jason Issac's interview, where he recognizes Zhao as an Asian character, too.http://tv.ign.com/articles/765/765337p5.html

IGN TV: They just announced that M. Night Shyamalan is doing a movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Isaacs: I saw that! I can't imagine they'll be coming to me, because as far as I'm aware, I'm the only Caucasian actor that does a voice in it. It was very odd, the first time I went to record. I looked around, and it was like I was in the wrong studio. I said, "Do you guys want me to do an Asian voice or something?" They said, "No, no, no. Just be yourself." And then after we started recording, they went, "Okay, just to slightly clarify that. Be yourself, but be your American self." I said, "Okay, fine." But you can't help but be influenced by the fact that all the other actors are Asian.

Okay, so not the MOST culturally competent statement ever, but it is y'know, Zhao.

[syonanto]

Thanks! I'll add him to the list :)

[holyschist]

I would guess that he meant none of the countries map perfectly onto real countries (since you mention Mongolia, there's an episode with musicians, some of whom are playing the morin khuur, a specifically Mongolian instrument--I can't remember if they were in Earth or Fire).

Not the best way to express it, but on the spot in an interview. :/

[skemono]

there's an episode with musicians, some of whom are playing the morin khuur, a specifically Mongolian instrument--I can't remember if they were in Earth or Fire

Fire Nation, The Headband, I think.

[holyschist]

I think I'm thinking of another episode, one with adult musicians (and I really want to say they were wearing green). Wouldn't be surprised if it showed up more than once.

[sharkman_jhones]

You're probably thinking of Chong and his band of nomads from The Cave of Two Lovers.

I once encountered a DA submission that pointed to the Foggy Swamp Tribe and their Southern accents as evidence that the show didn't have all Asians (that it was DIVERSE!!!1!) and also pointed to the musicians since they were hippie types. Never mind that their language and speech patterns are more identified with a social group than a race, or the fact that in the art book Chong is described as "Ancient Tibetan Slash" so they're Asian, too.