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chris-tully · 8 years ago

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Fandom ignorance and Hyper-Policing of Asian Celebrities Read the entire post

Let me preface this by saying that I am Asian and am in the entertainment industry. I know how challenging it is for Asian people, especially women, to even be cast in parts. We lack the ability to be cast in projects to begin with while the Shadowhunters fandom is escalating these restrictions with their reductive policing selectively by excluding people for the casting of Aline Penhallow. Obviously, these people do not understand the nature of Hollywood and how it is a big breakthrough for any Asian person to be cast. A complete double standard is being applied to Asian celebrities versus other races when it comes to casting expectations. People are ignorantly throwing out the phrase, “Asians are not interchangeable” when White, Black, and Latino actors don’t suffer from these kind of restrictions while getting to play a range of roles from various countries despite their country of origin. Policing on race is one thing but limiting Asian celebs by nationality by putting us in a strict and specific box is dramatically having a negative impact on people being cast in films to begin with. This has the potential to destroy careers.

This fandom loves to aggressively impose sjw extremist policies and PC restrictions in a reductive manner by applying double standards. There is a lack of knowledge and insight from these people as to how challenging it is for Asian people to be cast. Arden Cho and Harry Shum Jr should NOT be receiving hate or be hyper-policed to this double standard over sjws ignorantly applying restrictions based on nationality. Why do other races get to play a range of characters from different countries but us Asians have to be restricted based on our country of origin? It is even worse for people who are biracial or multi-racial or second or third generation, like Harry if he is going to be banned from roles because sjws are hypocritically limiting us based on EXACT representation when no other racial group has to deal with this. Please realistically examine how hard it is for any POC and especially Asian celebs to be cast in anything when we are competing with the white majority.

I am responding to some really awful posts and excessive policing when it comes to Aline Penhallow and the whole ‘controversy’ with Arden Cho.

It is ignorant for people to restrict Asian actors specifically over nationality when white, black, and latino actors have played characters from outside of their country of origin. Actors like John Boyega, David Oyelowo, Idris Elba, Daniel Kaluuya couldn’t even have a career in Hollywood due to that kind of restriction. All of these Black British Actors have played African American roles. Idris and David Oyelowo have also played African characters outside of their country of origin. For example, David is of Nigerian descent ( born in the UK) but he played a Ugandan in Queen of Katwe and Botswanan in United Kingdom. He would have been banned from playing Martin Luther King Jr in Selma by this sjw restriction over nationality and would have lost so many roles. I could list a million examples. Lupita Nyong’o was actually born in Mexico and raised in Kenya. She has played African American, Ugandan, and etc.

This applies to Latino celebs as well. Gael Garcia Bernal is Mexican but he has played non-Mexican Latino roles. He has played characters/people from Argentina, Chile, Spain, France, and America. I could list a million other examples but you get the point. Oscar Isaac wouldn’t be able to have the career he has in Hollywood if he was only restricted to playing people from Guatemala or Cuba. He has played a range of roles, mostly non-Latino, from many different countries.

Don’t even get me started on white actors. I could list a thousand examples of white celebs from the UK or Australia playing American roles or vice-versa. Alicia Vikander is Swedish but she has played American characters as well as other European roles that were not Swedish. White celebs in Hollywood get to have the widest access of roles, they are NEVER restricted based on nationality. Analyze the millions of examples compared to white versus POC in this industry. The fact is, if POC are restricted based on nationality, we would NEVER get work!

If Asian celebs can only strictly play characters from our nationality, it would be tough for tons of celebs to even get hired. You are placing us in a strict niche and this is racist as well as restrictive. If Arden Cho can only play Korean roles, then it would be hard for her to be cast in anything unless it was a film specifically written with Korean characters which is rare. Having exact representation may seem ‘woke’ in theory but it is actually highly destructive and limiting for the careers of Asian celebrities. Riz Ahmed, for example has played Asian characters that were not Pakistani. Most South Asian roles tend to be Indian and Hollywood would not be banning Pakistani actors for playing Indian roles or Middle Eastern roles. This ideology from the Shadowhunters fandom is restrictive and dehumanizing towards Asian celebs.

By this standard, Dom Sherwood could not have been cast as Jace because he is British. I don’t hear anybody complaining or playing a PC card due to that. He is playing outside of his nationality. Nobody would ever say that he should be banned from playing Jace because he is a Brit. Nobody would ever say that white actors are “ not interchangeable”. Nobody would ever say that a Brit actor playing an American is ‘erasing their identity.”

Alberto Rosende is not Jewish and he is playing Simon ( they kept the Jewish identity intact) on the show. The Lightwoods were not Hispanic in the books but they hired half Lebanese-Mexican Canadian-born Emeraude, Italian American Matthew Daddario, white actor to play Max, Guyanese Nicola, and Portugese Paulino to play Robert. Luke was not Black in the books. The casting of Shadowhunters was diverse and groundbreaking, so please do not selectively play PC police when it comes to Asian people only.

A lot of fans were rooting for Arden to get the quality role of Aline Penhallow because she is well suited for the part and we know she would have great chemistry for the cast. It was similar with Harry Shum Jr. A lot of book fans wanted Harry to play the role of Magnus Bane and he got the part.

Magnus Bane is half Indonesian/Dutch. Harry Shum Jr was born in Costa Rica, is of Chinese descent, and was raised in the United States. According to the fandom hyper-policing from sjws, he would not have been hired to play Magnus. Harry is multi-racial. If he was restricted due to this standard, he would barely be able to be cast in anything because it would be hard to find roles that are strictly Costa-Rican born with Chinese Descent. Also, most of these Asian celebrities were born in America…and that would be another sjw offense. Harry has played non-Chinese roles before. He played Japanese and is now playing an Indonesian/Dutch character.

People are playing the card that casting Arden Cho is a big no-no because she is not Chinese but Korean…wouldn’t that apply to our beloved Harry Shum Jr as well? It is not fair that this fandom is using the sjw restrictive spin on Asian celebrities only. NOBODY would ever play the Black, Latino, or White people are not interchangeable cards but they are using this card to police and even harass Asian celebs by reducing the range of roles we can play while other POC and white celebs can play roles from different countries?

Do you know hard hard it is for Korean celebs to be cast? You are arguing about perfect representation but are ignoring the fact that Koreans, Malaysians, Vietnamese, and etc get to barely be cast in Asian roles due to this hypocritical policing when it comes to Asian actors. Harry Shum Jr got to have his big breakthrough by being cast as Magnus Bane, why is Arden Cho being banned from having her big breakthrough by being banned in consideration for Aline Penhallow?

Also, the Shadowhunter fandom needs to learn the difference between race, ethnicity, and nationality. Chinese is NOT a race. Chinese is a nationality and ethnicity. Therefore, it would not be racist to cast a Korean to play half-Chinese Aline Penhallow. It is racist and hypocritical to ban Asian celebs based on nationality while White, Black, and Latino celebs get to play characters from different countries.

Why can Nicole Kidman play non-Australians but Arden Cho can’t play non-Korean Asian roles? Why can Gael Garcia Bernal play non-Mexican Latino roles but Arden Cho can’t play Asian characters that are not Korean? Why can James McAvoy play roles from a dozen different countries but Arden can’t? Why can David Oyelowo play non-British Nigerian roles but Arden Cho is being restricted to only playing Koreans? You do realize all of this applies to Harry Shum Jr as well. Harry has an advantage because he is an attractive male and there are a wide range of Chinese roles in Hollywood. A Korean actress like Arden Cho has a much harder time being cast because it is hard to find roles in Hollywood films or shows where the character is specifically written as being Korean. Also, by the strict sjw standard, Harry could only play half Costa Rican-Chinese American roles…and he would be barely be able to be cast by this standard!

Be fair and be reasonable. Asian people in the industry like Arden, Harry, or I are not your tokens for policing based on double standards and extreme restrictions. You are not being progressive by placing these kind of restrictions. We have the right to play Asian roles of diverse range just like White, Black, and Latino actors do. Show Arden the same respect that you showed Harry, Alberto, Emeraude, Dom, Isaiah, and etc. Stop harassing the writers and producers about trying to ban Arden Cho from being possibly cast as Aline Penhallow.

If Arden Cho gets cast or a non-half Chinese Asian actress gets cast as Aline Penhallow, do NOT harass her or provoke backlash against her.

Aline Penhallow is half-Chinese. Are you going to attack the actress if she is full Chinese or born outside of the US? Be fair and be realistic when it comes to casting. Stop hyper-policing Asian celebrities with double standards that you would not apply to other races. All you are doing is imposing a system where white celebs get to play a range of roles from many different countries and then Asian celebrities are restricted to nationality only. As long as Aline is Asian, then the casting would be acceptable. You accepted Harry, please accept the Asian actress that is hired to play Aline.

Don’t get me wrong, if the producers chose a half-Chinese actress to play Aline Penhallow, that would be amazing. It would be exact representation, politically correct, and it would avoid any backlashes. However, this fandom has set an ugly and bad precedent when it comes to the casting of characters. It is not fair to Harry or any other Asian celeb for this card to be abused when it comes to policing based on nationality. I still believe Arden would have made a great Aline and her chemistry with the cast would have been epic. Arden is being denied an opportunity that Harry, Dom, Nick, Emeraude, Isaiah, Alberto, and etc were given.

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