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anonymous
Q: Anyone see the controvery over the How I Met Your Mother episode?
Two nights ago a How I Met Your Mother Episode aired and the premise of the story is Marshall learning how to Slap better from 'Three Masters' who were the other actors in the show dressed as Chinese people. It caused a massive outrage in the US among Asian Americans and other minorities. Was it that bad? (I didn't see the episode)
Just saw it. No big whoop.
3 of the actors are dressed up as Kung Fu masters.
Meh... I guess Asian Americans never saw Kill Bill with Pai Mei, or David Carradine playing in the Kung-Fu serie, or lots of 80's action movies, because it's worse and goes on much longer ^^ They got it all wong !
China has been carefully nurturing its image as "particularly vulnerable to offense".
It's a political initiative to subvert America's "soft power" by making Western media productions pro-Chinese, and it's working. Anything that mentions China can be perceived as a slight (see the original post), requiring apologies, reparations, and future tributes to China. Anything that doesn't mention China can also be perceived as a slight - thus Hollywood's random tributes to China in blockbuster movies (Iron Man, Cloud Atlas, Gravity, etc.).
Considering Chinese people's ethnic sensitivity --- Female student: "We're going to go over to Japan and stamp on their heads until they're all dead" --- is it reasonable for Chinese people to get upset about someone dressing as a kung fu master? I mean, how is that even an insult? It seems like a tribute to me.
IrvineWelsh:
I thought the random Chinese references in Hollywood movies were a blatant attempt to get the thumbs up for a China release of a movie.
Either way it is really beginning to bother me
Mateusz:
It allows China to get the movies and TV shows it wants, without actually having to make them. Just demand people in Hollywood bow to your demands, and if they don't, rail about "discrimination".
It is actually pretty ridiculous. I've heard Chinese (always Han Chinese) talking about the lack of "Asian" representation in American movies, but not even thinking about how much Western representation exists in Chinese movies. Hollywood having a majority of white characters is a social injustice to be fought against. China having pretty much exclusively yellow characters is just as it should be. The Chinese usually aren't even able to see the hypocracy.
Every single time I've seen this type of controversy happening - starting with Firefly a while back - there was the official sponsored story on one side, and then the comments, from actual people, stating how silly and fake those were.
Maybe they should pay tribute by making a Chinese version.
'How I met your Chinese mother'
I'm sure theres about 3 seasons worth of painfully funny stories on this website alone!
Scandinavian:
Oooohhhh. A Chinese version of Barney, how would he be. What does the Brocode say in Chinse?
philbravery:
count me in for writing a season , we could market it as either a Comedy or a Documentry 
masonk:
Get Bobby Lee to play Barney, thus making him that sleezy Korean guy of the show..
Perceived victimhood status grants certain privileges. It gives the moral high ground (and it feels better to be the wronged party, than the party doing the wronging). It also absolves you from wrong doing, since if you're the victim, then you aren't the perpetrator. Consider the "Foreigners are treated too well, much better than our Chinese" canard. This way, when a landlord denies a Westerner an apartment, he doesn't have to feel guilty, since it's just "knocking them down a peg".
The government seems to train its people to see themselves as victims. I've met people who know more about anti-Chinese discrimination in 1800s America than the know of anti-Western discrimination in China today.
The Party has the added benefit of fabricating the image of protector for its people (well, its people who are of the only ethnic group it cares about). When China demands the US apologize for whatever offense the PRC insists Chinese people raise their hackles at, the PRC can pretend to be saving its people from outside offenses and hurt feelings.
It's like nation-wide Munchausen syndrome.
See also http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WoundedGazelleGambit
xinyuren:
Interesting perception. But i think it runs deeper into the Chinese psyche: Chinese people are victims. They are victims of their own society and government. So they are raised up with this attitude. It is no wonder that the government reacts this way, since they themselves are products (thus victims) of society. Remember, every government is a mirror image of it's society. They have no other way to view things. The sheep are guiding the sheep. It will continue this way until the cycle is broken.
Mateusz:
Thanks. Hmm, good points. It could be some displaced resentment. They can't express anger at their government, but anger at the "other" is allowed.
Governments mirror their populations to a point, but it varies. In China, it's not like the leaders were elected, and the people installed people into power who they feel most reflect their views. Still, the government comes from the people (though those people are picked by the government), and China isn't ruled from the outside.
White devils are not worthy enough to pose as Chinese people.
Mateusz:
Does that also count for Chinese who are white, regardless of their deviltry?
Ricky Gervais wrote something clever recently.
"Just because you are offended doesn't mean you are right"
Scandinavian:
yup, would be useful with a correct Chinese translation
