Film

Christianity in the New Asia

| arun

That’s the subtitle of the recently premièred film 1040, a documentary from director Evan Jackson Leong and producers Anson Ho and Carl Choi. The teaser trailer’s worth watching—here’s the promotional brief:

1040 is an explosive documentary that focuses on the rapid changes in Asia and the significant shift of spiritual landscape in the area known as the “10/40 Window”- the regions between 10 degrees and 40 degrees North Latitude on the eastern hemisphere. In the film, artist and minister Jaeson Ma takes us on an exciting journey through the Asian countries in the window, showing us the dramatic changes happening on the ground. We visit China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia. Through incisive observations, intimate interviews with prominent leaders and celebrities, and powerful, never-before-heard stories, 1040dynamically explores a part of our globe that is experiencing vast socioeconomic expansion and profound shift in identity- it is an area that is now nothing less than the frontier of world Christianity.

Christian evangelism is a sore spot for many Buddhists, both in Asia and abroad. Buddhism is a long-established religion in Asia, a status that comes with great benefits as well as pernicious institutionalized drawbacks. That’s another post for another time, but I suppose this film lends me to dwell more on the sable clouds than on the silver lining. Thanks to the Angry Asian Man for this link. (Update: It wasn’t clear, but I’m happy for Asia’s Christian community—it’s just that this feeds into mixed feelings overall…)

Ebert: Last Airbender is “Wrong”

| arun

A friend forwarded me an opinion by critic Roger Ebert, which brought me some good comfort this morning. He responds to a question about the “whitewashing” of the upcoming film The Last Airbender.

Q. Regarding the upcoming M. Night Shyamalan vehicle “The Last Airbender,” what do you think about the whitewashing of the production so that all of the original Asian cultural landmarks, architecture, philosophy, and costume design are being retained while they cast white kids to play the main characters?
Arlene C. Harris
A. Wrong. The original series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was highly regarded and popular for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Its fans take it for granted that its heroes are Asian. Why would Paramount and Shyamalan go out of their way to offend these fans? There are many young Asian actors capable of playing the parts.

I posted about this controversy several months ago, and I particularly appreciate Gene Yang’s perspective.

But intentionally or not, they are adding another chapter to Hollywood’s long, sordid history of Yellowface. By giving white actors roles that are so obviously Asian – and by stating from the get-go their preference for Caucasians – they tell Asian-Americans that who we are and how we look make us inherently inadequate for American audiences, even in a movie that celebrates our culture.

Check out this video too. Ugh.

Racebending Avatar

| arun

Intrigued on by posts on Dharma Folk and on Breathe, I went to learn more about the show Avatar rooted in Asian and Buddhist/Taoist/Confucian themes. I ended up finding a whole ’nother blog spat over the whitewashing of the movie version.

Avatar has been hugely popular among kids of all races. There was no backlash against an all-Asian show. Much as those who watch anime don’t freak out at the paucity of white characters. Yet, somehow the Hollywood producers think the live action version has to be white washed. Except for the villians, of course, it’s okay for them to be brown.

Gene Yang talks about the implications for Asian Americans in a way that’s also applicable to perceptions generated by mainstream American Buddhist media.

But intentionally or not, they are adding another chapter to Hollywood’s long, sordid history of Yellowface. By giving white actors roles that are so obviously Asian – and by stating from the get-go their preference for Caucasians – they tell Asian-Americans that who we are and how we look make us inherently inadequate for American audiences, even in a movie that celebrates our culture.

As Richard L. Daley writes:

The truth is, we are not a post-race society, and it isn’t just the ethnicities of African descent that are affected by this fact. The values that have been a part of the past, influence the images that we see today, which in turn influences the values that will be in the future. The effects of racism have been compared to a moving walkway, if we do nothing, it keeps rolling along, and takes us with it.

For more on race and Avatar, you can check out Aang Ain’t White and racebending.com.