{"id":130486,"date":"2016-04-24T21:26:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T03:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/24\/when-bad-stereotypes-and-modern-geopolitics-and-money-collide.html"},"modified":"2016-05-04T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T19:59:00","slug":"when-bad-stereotypes-and-modern-geopolitics-and-money-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/24\/when-bad-stereotypes-and-modern-geopolitics-and-money-collide.html","title":{"rendered":"When Bad Stereotypes and Modern Geopolitics (and Money) Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Marvel has gotten a lot of heat in some circles about "whitewashing" the character of the Ancient One in the upcoming Dr. Strange<\/i> movie, genderbending the timeless Oriental master of the mystic arts into a bald Tilda Swinton. Not that there's anything wrong with a bald Tilda Swinton, but given some rather tone-deaf and pointless casting of Caucasian as Asian characters in the past decade or so, it's attracted some commentary.<\/p>\n

This article, describing an interview with a Doctor Strange<\/i> co-writer Robert Cargill sheds some new light into this casting decision — basically placing it in the lap of Chinese sensitivities, since<\/p>\n

(a) the ancient Oriental guru is not exactly the most modern or PC of tropes.<\/p>\n

(b) having an ancient Chinese master in a hidden temple deep in Tibet gets all sorts of panties in wads, as would having an ancient Tibetan master in a hidden temple deep in Tibet — whether we're talking about the politically active (in America) Free Tibet folk, or, more importantly, the movie-audience-economically-powerful Chinese government.<\/p>\n

Clearly there's some level of Asian stuff going on in the Doctor Strange<\/i> trailer, but Marvel was faced (as with Iron Man's Mandarin super-villain) with a key part of origin mythos being something that, on the face of it, played a lot better in the early 60s[1] than it would today. And, with money involved on top of that, it's not surprising they veered in a different direction, even if that let to its own backlash.<\/p>\n

But it does give us more Tilda Swinton, so that's a silver lining.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

[1] See also from that same era Jonny Quest,<\/i> which I dearly love, but which incorporates some horrifyingly bad racial \/ ethnic stereotypes in its B-movie adventure plots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nDoctor Strange Writer Says Ancient One Was Changed To Avoid Upsetting China<\/a><\/span>
\nDoctor Strange co-writer Robert Cargill described the writing and casting of the Ancient one as a no-win scenario akin to Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Marvel has gotten a lot of heat in some circles about "whitewashing" the character of the Ancient One in the upcoming Dr. Strange movie, genderbending the timeless Oriental master of the mystic arts into a bald Tilda Swinton. Not that there's anything wrong with a bald Tilda Swinton, but given some rather tone-deaf and … Continue reading “When Bad Stereotypes and Modern Geopolitics (and Money) Collide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,10,525,740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-race-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131936,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/05\/movie-review-doctor-strange-2016.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":0},"title":"Movie Review: "Doctor Strange" (2016)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Nov-16 4:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll try to avoid any spoilers in the post (but no guarantees over comments) ...TL;DR: This will not be considered by many to be the greatest Marvel film of all time, but it was visually stunning, a good adaptation of the character, and a lot of fun.Further notes at random:-\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Doctor-Strange-Poster5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4468,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/08\/26\/hellblazer.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":1},"title":"Hellblazer","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Aug-03 2:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Warren Ellis weighs in on Keanu Reeves being cast as John Constatine in the upcoming US film on the subject. Anyway. And then I ended up drinking with Tilda Swinton....","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48658,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/04\/by-the-hoary-hosts-of-cumberstrange.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":2},"title":"By the Hoary Hosts of Cumberstrange!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Dec-14 4:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange? I think it's actually great casting. He can do arrogant. He can certainly incant spells. And, as we'll soon see in a million-zillion posts on Tumblr, he probably looks pretty good in a goatee and\/or mustache. Originally shared by +The Mary Sue: Welp. Benedict Cumberbatch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46087,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/27\/cumberstrange-frenzy-begins.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":3},"title":"CUMBERSTRANGE FRENZY BEGINS!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Oct-14 1:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone seems to be going bonkers over the news that Marvel has chosen Benedict Cumberbatch for the role of Stephen Strange in the upcoming Doctor Strange film. Though if you drill past any of the headlines, it's only insider news that negotiations are beginning, nothing actually inked to paper.That said,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6639,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/10\/strange_tales.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":4},"title":"Strange Tales","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Aug-04 3:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Nice interview with Joe Straczynski on his plans for Doctor Strange. I've always been a big fan of Dr. Strange, but I never thought he really got his due. A...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40798,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/14\/johnny-depp-as-doctor-srange.html","url_meta":{"origin":130486,"position":5},"title":"Johnny Depp as Doctor Srange?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Jan-14 5:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmmm.On the one hand, Depp feels way over-exposed to me -- if only because he plays a similar character everywhere he goes, and he does seem to go everywhere.On the other hand, depending on the type of Doctor Strange story you're telling, this could work and work well, leavening the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130588,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130486\/revisions\/130588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}