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Q: Why are there no Chinese actors in Game of Thrones?
And, if there was, would they be popular? Or hated?
And how long before they were killed off?
Because Chinese actors can't act.
Female actors in China are chosen for their willingness to sleep with the director and other fatbellies. Male actors are chosen for their ability to do the "brooding" or "stoic" facial expression (they're both the same, by the way - doing two different expressions would be a big ask).
Female actors act like the shallow, bitchy people they are in real life. Male actors do one facial expression over and over to indicate that they have "deep" internal conflicts (but really it just means they can't act).
The defining characteristic of Chinese actors is that they don't have personality, and are therefore boring.
ScotsAlan:
I remember sorrels post about male Chinese actors being stoic. Fantastic post that was :)
Samsara:
This one?
And the WW2 dramas are great, if you want to be educated about how brave and stoic Chinese men are. All those stoic facial expressions. Looking stoically out windows. Standing stoically in the rain. Facing down a gun with intense stoicism. Giving other Chinese men stoic looks because you respect how stoic they are. Just great.
If so, I'm quite happy to be confused with Sorrel (there are worse people to be confused with).
BlightyMatt:
A tad unfair perhaps...
But HK actors seem to be more famous and versatile.
Love Chow Yun Fat & Tony Leung (little tony)
Chungking Express is one of my favourite movies, Red Cliff is pretty good and more good performances than you can shake a stick at. Stephen Chow movies are retarded but make me chuckle.
The old Jet Li movies all seem to have an insane patriotic ending tacked on the end of them.
"Will you stay in Hong Kong?"
"No, I will return to the mainland. The people need me there"
Cut to Jet gazing into the distance with the biggest PRC flag in the world billowing behind him....Ahhhhhhhh.
But Fist of Legend is bloody amazing for a reboot of the untouchable Fist of Fury.
ScotsAlan:
Ha ha. yup. That one. Blightymatt, the post was not unfair at all. The post was in a thread about war dramas. Even the Chinese Government said too many airtime hours are tken up by them.
Because Chinese actors can't act.
Female actors in China are chosen for their willingness to sleep with the director and other fatbellies. Male actors are chosen for their ability to do the "brooding" or "stoic" facial expression (they're both the same, by the way - doing two different expressions would be a big ask).
Female actors act like the shallow, bitchy people they are in real life. Male actors do one facial expression over and over to indicate that they have "deep" internal conflicts (but really it just means they can't act).
The defining characteristic of Chinese actors is that they don't have personality, and are therefore boring.
ScotsAlan:
I remember sorrels post about male Chinese actors being stoic. Fantastic post that was :)
Samsara:
This one?
And the WW2 dramas are great, if you want to be educated about how brave and stoic Chinese men are. All those stoic facial expressions. Looking stoically out windows. Standing stoically in the rain. Facing down a gun with intense stoicism. Giving other Chinese men stoic looks because you respect how stoic they are. Just great.
If so, I'm quite happy to be confused with Sorrel (there are worse people to be confused with).
BlightyMatt:
A tad unfair perhaps...
But HK actors seem to be more famous and versatile.
Love Chow Yun Fat & Tony Leung (little tony)
Chungking Express is one of my favourite movies, Red Cliff is pretty good and more good performances than you can shake a stick at. Stephen Chow movies are retarded but make me chuckle.
The old Jet Li movies all seem to have an insane patriotic ending tacked on the end of them.
"Will you stay in Hong Kong?"
"No, I will return to the mainland. The people need me there"
Cut to Jet gazing into the distance with the biggest PRC flag in the world billowing behind him....Ahhhhhhhh.
But Fist of Legend is bloody amazing for a reboot of the untouchable Fist of Fury.
ScotsAlan:
Ha ha. yup. That one. Blightymatt, the post was not unfair at all. The post was in a thread about war dramas. Even the Chinese Government said too many airtime hours are tken up by them.
Although it is a fictional story it is sort of based in reality. Medieval Europe would be my guess.
Hotwater:
Actually medieval Britain but with some Johnny foreigners to spice up the story!
The geeky answer is probably because the story hasn't involved Yi Ti yet..
http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Yi_Ti
As GRR Martin explains..
"Well, Westeros is the fantasy analogue of the British Isles in its world, so it is a long long way from the Asia analogue. There weren't a lot of Asians in Yorkish England either. That is not to suggest that such places don't exist, however. You will want to get The World of Ice and Fire when it comes out...in the "Other Places" section you will find a lot of material about Yi Ti, the island of Leng, and the plains of the Jogos Nhai, which you may find of interest."
But if we are talking asian actors in big series, my vote goes to Glenn in The Walking Dead, but he's Korean-American. Good character, good actor.
It's much more usual for Asian actors to be in western TV shows than in the past. Witness "Dragon the Bruce Lee Story". 1960's America and the racism was still quite strong.
The real trail blazer was Anna May Wong...Dragon Lady
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_May_Wong
Because the only reason you would hire a Chinese actor would be the need of a credible mandarin speaker. Since GOT uses only made-up languages on top of English, they're hardly likely to ever need such a person, and there's already a generous pool of talented Asian typed actors in the US alone.
Also, most other TV shows still prefer recruiting non-mandarin speakers even for actors who need to drop a line or two of (consequently bad) Chinese.
Talent issue apart, just imagine the hassle to set-up a casting agency in PRC just mostly for extras.
Don't be too harsh on local actors, I'm sure some of them could deliver OK performance should they have decent acting direction. But I just can imagine too well what they're told "Be more cute" Be more expressive (IE obvious and unsubtle) or the audience won't connect" "Bigger eyes, bigger eyes" "Larger movements, more more, that'll be even funnier"
Ubiquitous Stoic = Blue Steel (with Chinese characteristics)
Lord of the Rings also doesn't have a single Asian actor in it, I believe. It adds to the atmosphere of being an isolated medieval feudal society, somewhat inbred. If there were other races walking in the streets of Minas Tirith, it would devalue the journey the Fellowship undertook, as apparrently many regular people can travel great distances.
jetfire9000:
not completely true. In the second an third movies there are the wild men of the east whom were located right next to mordor. They have distinct Asian features.
Shining_brow:
The Easterlings from Rhun are, not surprisingly, Asian.
"Their skin was either sallow (a pale yellow) or olive. Their eyes were dark (dark brown and black), slanted, and their straight hair was black" (lotr.wiki)
coineineagh:
yes, tolkien separated both race and ideology. since it was inspired by his military experiences, it's understandable. didn't Game of Thrones also feature Asians in the east too? and Spaniard-types in south of Westeros. well, compare that fantasy to the StarGate scenario, where all races of people are dotted around the galaxy in a random mix, some homogenouse, but most with all races present. for storytelling purposes, homogenous is better.
Because Westeros is Europe and the part of Essos that we know represents the Middle East.
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130507121142/gameofthrones/images/7...
But most of "The World" remains unexplored, there are probably Asian looking people further East since Essos is said to be much, MUCH bigger than what is shown on this map.
We know that beyond the known world lies the fabled land of Asshai where Melisandre comes from. Asshai is said to be on the edge of the Shadow Lands, a place covered with grass ghost and where the sun never shines, it could be China and the sun never shines because of the smog.
