A Joke about Dongles at a Conference Led to Two People Losing Their Jobs
Oh well, at least it had a happy ending.
So where's the insensitivity and cultural inaccuracy?
It didn't have a Chinese man teaching Karate or anything, and even it did that wouldn't particularly be "insensitive". And Jaden did pretty well in that movie, especially for his age.
Wow.
I might recommend getting a bit of an afternoon reading up n the history between China and Japan, and then coming back to me.
If I walked down the street and insisted on calling every black person the N word and then suggested its fine because they are probably from Nigera that would be about the same.
If they called it the Kung-Fu kid I could probably handwave the bastardisation of a classic film as well.
Or you could just explain the cultural insensitivity you see in a Chinese man teaching a black kid Chinese martial arts, and how that in any way, shape, or form lines up to calling random people a racial slur.
And it's pretty hard to "bastardize" the most blandly generic of bland generic plots (Underdog earns self confidence and yada yada).
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You dont see the problem with a Chinese man teaching a kid Kung-Fu and then saying it's the KARATE kid?
Seriously...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
I think the Chinese would have been quite touchy about it.
Ip-Man must be rolling in his grave.
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A Joke about Dongles at a Conference Led to Two People Losing Their JobsOh well, at least it had a happy ending.
???
A prolific blogger and development evangelist going silent?
Coders being canned for making jokes? (Even inappropriate ones)
Thats a "happy" ending?
You dont see the problem with a Chinese man teaching a kid Kung-Fu and then saying it's the KARATE kid?
It's a title. It could've been called the S@$$-Slinging Kid for all it matters.
It was a remake of the movie and wanted to get that across in the most succinct way possible.
Also, this is implying that nobody in China learns Karate anyway. I highly doubt this is the case.
I bet they teach Tae Kwon Do in Japan too.
Seriously...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_MassacreI think the Chinese would have been quite touchy about it.
I think neither party gave a flying squirrel f!*! either way because it's simple entertainment and has nothing to do with any of that.
This is the problem with people getting offended on behalf of other cultures when they've got no horse in that race and frankly neither does either of the "involved" sides.
This is like saying I should be offended every time a Western comes out that doesn't depict Native Americans 100% correctly just because my grandparents were full-blooded Cherokee. It doesn't have any bearing on my life. It doesn't matter.
And yet there's always people who are ready to be offended "for me" which is one of the sillier constructions of this day and age.
If the cultures in question are not offended and have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO BE, you are not obligated to be offended in their place about something that doesn't matter a whit.
A Joke about Dongles at a Conference Led to Two People Losing Their JobsOh well, at least it had a happy ending.???
A prolific blogger and development evangelist going silent?
Coders being canned for making jokes? (Even inappropriate ones)
Thats a "happy" ending?
Perhaps it was a joke. You know, think massage. ;D
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A Joke about Dongles at a Conference Led to Two People Losing Their JobsOh well, at least it had a happy ending.???
A prolific blogger and development evangelist going silent?
Coders being canned for making jokes? (Even inappropriate ones)
Thats a "happy" ending?
Really happy I don't live back at home, country is going insane.
@Rynjin: The ironic part is the Basics of most Eastern Martial Arts are similar. And even Jackie Chan referenced in an interview that both Karate and Martial Kung-Fu are both separated out into multiple Schools and are mostly Western Terms used for regional Martial Arts.
If you go to China you might here someone refer to Meditation as Kung-Fu/Kungfu (or Gung-Fu/Gungfu). All the term means is a skill learned through training and discipline.
Heck, I watch a old Buddhist Monk from China step into an argument that started with a similar comment to Shifty's.
Korean martial arts have a lot of similarities to Japanese martial arts, the low wide stances, the simple strong attacks from the waist or hips. Chinese martial arts are incredibly diverse but are typically quite different to the moves and stances of Japanese Karate.
Just as you shouldn't confuse a Thai kickboxer with the high pillar bobbing pose to a karate practitioner in a heavy wide stance, kung-fu and karate are not one and the same.
If the cultures in question are not offended and have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO BE, you are not obligated to be offended in their place about something that doesn't matter a whit.
I can, on the other hand, reserve my right to be offended by such deep seated ignorance.
I can't understand what Jackie Chan was thinking, unless the Chinese were in fact taking a stab at the Japanese.
"Oh hai, we called the movie Karate Kid, but then completely threw out the Karate for the much more superior Kung-Fu. Kekekeke. Umad?"
On a side note, are you suggesting its ok for people to ignore racism unless it actually personally impacts them?
As a footnote, they do teach Tae Kwon Do in Japan these days, however the Japanese banned Tae Kwon Do in Korea for quite some time.
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You seem like a fun guy and can handle a joke quite well shifty. It's great to see someone that has a thick skin and doesn't get worked up over the little things in life.
By the way, in the GI Joe film the Japanese character is played by a Korean. What I like is that no one seems to give a damn.
I would guess in both cases Japanese people have better things to do than give a thought about movie roles.
Yeah I can handle a joke, and have a hide like a rhino :)
It's mostly about intent in my eyes; if the point of the joke is to get us to stop and think then I'm fine with it - a bit like how we have a lot of stand up comedians from Asia who get up and make racist jokes about Asians, they are lampooning the stereotype, however the point of the comedy is for us to spot how we have been generalising and change our attitudes.
I always liked Steady Eddy, the comedian with Cerebal Palsy...
his views on Political Correctness were funny as :).
So where's the insensitivity and cultural inaccuracy?
It didn't have a Chinese man teaching Karate or anything, and even it did that wouldn't particularly be "insensitive". And Jaden did pretty well in that movie, especially for his age.
Wow.
I might recommend getting a bit of an afternoon reading up n the history between China and Japan, and then coming back to me.
If I walked down the street and insisted on calling every black person the N word and then suggested its fine because they are probably from Nigera that would be about the same.
If they called it the Kung-Fu kid I could probably handwave the bastardisation of a classic film as well.
I am getting the all Asians are the same vibe from the posters above....
My Japanese friends are perplexed by calling the remake Karate Kid... Its got nothing to do with Japan or Japanese culture.
The same with casting a Chinese woman as the lead in Memoirs of a Geisha.
There are massive cultural differences within China itself... I think this is the problem with the US they just lump stuff into stereotypes and fail to understand the differences and then wonder why people get the s&%!s with them.
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Back on topic...
I fully expect those wanting to see 'girls in the gaming industry' and 'development of female characters' will be putting their money where their mouth is...
Here.
Ok thats my good deed for the day done.
Yeah it struck a chord with me :)
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I can, on the other hand, reserve my right to be offended by such deep seated ignorance.
I can't understand what Jackie Chan was thinking, unless the Chinese were in fact taking a stab at the Japanese.
"Oh hai, we called the movie Karate Kid, but then completely threw out the Karate for the much more superior Kung-Fu. Kekekeke. Umad?"
I imagine it was more like "We want to keep the original brand so more people will see it and therefore we can make more money. Especially because the plot is nearly identical except for the fact that it's Kung Fu in China with a black kid and Jackie Chan".
On a side note, are you suggesting its ok for people to ignore racism unless it actually personally impacts them?
I'm suggesting people should more clearly define what racism is, and stop blowing their Race Whistle™ at every little thing.
Saying all black people are filthy, lazy, thieves is racism.
Saying they all lie fried chicken, watermelon, and Kool-Aid is mild racism.
Using a white actor in black face to play a black character is not racism, unless it is used solely to portray negative stereotypes. Some people think it is.
Not changing the title of a movie just because the setting changed is also not racism.
Ironic given one of the posters named himself after a character of Japanese fairy tales - Ryn Jin the Dragon King of the Sea...ormaybe it was just an afternoon with Googletranslate?
There's actually a funny story behind that. I actually completely made it up out of thin air when I was like 12 or 13 to name a character I wanted to sound vaguely Asian.
Only realized it was an actual word after many years. I use this username for like everything, it's never taken. Except once, when I tried to get a Gmail account and it turned out a Chinese (not a typo, his name was very Chinese and he had his location listed as China) man had signed up for it under this name. So I looked it up.
And that's how I got my sig picture for another website.
Funnily enough if you Google Rynjin at this point all you'll find for the first page and a half is my accounts on various sites, and some Competitive (low tier Highlander) TF2 Spy videos I put up on Youtube.