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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Asian Men Deliberately Excluded from Star Wars?
ow that the fifth installment of the Star Wars saga has hit theatres, it's official: Asian men have no place in George Lucas's vision of the future. An Asian female Jedi was glimpsed in the most recent installment, but not one single Asian male has been spotted in any of the five movies.
The absence is all the more remarkable given that Star Wars borrows its themes and fight scenes so obviously from samurai and kung-fu flicks. On a purely demographic level, it's difficult to imagine a distant future in which Asians will not be the preponderance of humanity. Even on a mundane economic level, Asians account for at least a third of today's global box office and video revenues.
The utter absence of Asian men in the latest installment is even more glaring in light of the promises Lucas made in response to Asian protests over the omission of Asian actors coupled with suspicious attachment of Asian cultural traits to unsavory alien grotesqueries in The Phantom Menace. Lucas had even hinted that images of Bruce Lee would be used in the installment now known as The Clone Wars.
In The Phantom Menace Lucas used Asian martial artists both to choreograph and perform the kendo-inspired light-saber sequences. But as if wishing to take back the decision, in The Clone Wars Lucas's PR machine made a point of showing that the fight sequences were choreographed by a white man and performed by the actors themselves. That explains why they were so leaden and lackluster, but raises the question why?
Could it be that George Lucas wants to avoid calling attention to his large debt to Asian action films?
Is Lucas afraid that including an Asian man will invite critical focus on the new movie's sub-par swordfight sequences?
Is Lucus slyly inviting viewers to see wizened little Master Yoda as a winking representation of Asian men?
Despite his avowed interest in Chinese and Japanese martial arts, culture, literature and films, is Lucas a closet racist after all?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:38:56 AM)
...Why is anyone bemoaning the lack of representation in any of these Star Wars prequels?
If you want to be mad about something, be pissed off that some 20 yrs in the past, Lucas didn't have the sight to realize that his Prequels would be for shit!!
For one, you can always be sure that the man calling the shots will be more than likely to cast characters that are somewhat reflective of his own race --unless the pic is culture specific. It's only natural to write what you know about. Lucas, obviously, is Caucasian. Hence the abundance of white folk.
My nosy @ss just wants to know if the writers did a time warp thing on Annikan in order to hook him up w/queen. Last time I checked, he was like 8 and she was like 16...
likes the swash-buckling Star Wars of Old
Saturday, May 25, 2002 at 12:38:45 (PDT)
why is George Lucas a closet racist? maybe he is not. don't assume that just because he doesn't put Asian actors in Star wars. His concept designer for Star wars episode 1 was Asian called Doug Chiang. There you go. an Asian assigned for a big project! by the way, many Asians can be more open racist than Whites. be fair to judge our conscience. Thats how we as Asians can improve ourselves. Develop a righteous character and decent personality. thats how we can win respect.
lets be fair fellow Asians!
Friday, May 24, 2002 at 18:02:59 (PDT)
From what I understand, Lucas used to be friends with Akira Kurosawa, correct? In fact, much of his Star Wars techniques, like the horizontal wipes, were basically inspired by films like The Seven Samurai and Ran. I think that Lucas probably has a great deal of respect for Asians; and when you consider how Watto is a parody of Italians and Jews, and Jar Jar Binks is a parody of Jamaicans, I think Asian people got off relatively easy.
...'kay, I don't make films. But if I did they'd have a samurai.
Friday, May 24, 2002 at 14:07:10 (PDT)
me,
Well actually I was hoping the bootleg asian DVD would also make onto peer-to-peer file servers like kazaa.
Then he will feel a dent.
AC Dropout
Friday, May 24, 2002 at 13:35:15 (PDT)
"The Empire - Imperial Britain"
NOT!
evil empire = lucasarts/films franchise
emperor palapatine = lord lucas
villageidiot
Friday, May 24, 2002 at 12:25:54 (PDT)
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