Racebending.com has received two statements from two staff members who worked on the original animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Here's the first of the two. Earlier this month, Professor S.L. Lee spoke out against racebending on San Francisco's 94.1 KPFA radio. Lee's statement today confirms fan speculation that Chinese calligraphy has ( Read more... )

Earlier, dkwrkm linked to this blog post by novelist Justine Larbalestier. Larbalestier, an Austrailia writer, is currently fighting the "racebending" of her own work! Her newest book, Liar has a young black girl with short hair as the protagonist, but the cover depicts her as pale skinned with long tresses.

Larbalestier links to an old interview with ( Read more... )

Hi:

Got this from imdb and courtesy of WhatUpDoc95 and y dajanerz

www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/board/flat/142289933
*Avatar's Asian Quick-Reference Archives*
by WhatsUpDoc95 (Wed Jul 8 2009 12:36:26)
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UPDATED Mon Jul 13 2009 16:27:40

Okay, I think I speak for a lot of Anti-casters when I say that this whole thing ( Read more... )

Someone on the facebook group brought up this interview with the Avatar creators from Animation Insider Magazine from back in 2005 ( Read more... )

I picked Avatar for the subject of my final essay for film/video theory, so I thought I would post it here in case anyone was interested. I tried to examine the debacle from an academic standpoint using viewer identification, the concept of Asian American hyphenation and Richard Dyer's theory on Whiteness. ( 'Well, I think you all look perfect.' - Toph Bei Fong )

Hi All 8D

All of on_earth’s investigating got in the mood to dig up some info on my own. Mostly in quote form.

Even this late in the game, I’m still seeing the “Yeah, but how do we KNOW it’s Asian influenced?” argument, so I just wanted to throw together some quotes that not everyone has seen yet (found in the "Not Just Cartoons! Nicktoons! Book ( Read more... )

I've been thinking we've been focusing a lot on the Asian aspect of Avatar, and rightly so. But what about the influence of Inuit culture? I think the show makes it clear that the Water Tribe and its inhabitants are inspired by Inuits/ Northern Aboriginals (even if their bending techniques come from Chinese martial arts). However, I think we should ( Read more... )

Part of the intent of this community is to share interesting facts and references about the animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hopefully, people who visit this community can learn something new about the world history, religion, myth, and culture that influenced the show! First article begins here...a primer on the four elements of ( Read more... )