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?

(Updated )

To REPOST:

If You look a little closer at that spy, whom I mentioned in my last message to the forum, Youll notice this spy has rather large hips and tight clothing for a man. Thats because it is a woman! An asian woman most probably Chinese judging from the facial features and make-up.
Jing Cha
hkpdjingcha@yahoo.com    Wednesday, June 05, 2002 at 07:05:58 (PDT)
The one exception to this Sci fi trend is the original Star Trek. On the bridge, you had one black woman, one russian man, one asian man, one vulcan man. For its time it was considered very progressive to paint a multicultural view of the future. And they weren't just token characters, they actually figured into the plot pretty often.
star trek rocks
   Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 12:01:24 (PDT)
AS far as SCI-Fi movies go, I find it so hard to understand why Asians, Africans and Indians have such a small place in the future CONSIDERING THE FACT that they make up over 2/3's Earth's Pouplation when Whites make up a VERY small percentage.
Could it be that the design of the future is catering to only those that can afford $billion dollar movie budgets?


Anyway...Why get on George Lucas for being a Closet Racist? Why not Michael Straczynski (BABYLON 5). He routinely places Asian Females in B5 as love interests of White (not Asian or Black) men who are hopelessly infatuatd with them.


I saw this board BEFORE seeing Episode 2. The Spy in the begginning was Asian for a reason. Whites still stereotype Asian women as mysterious "Geisha girls" who can be deadly assassins by Night but sex slaves by day.
As for the Female Jedi, She tosses something and I didnt see her again.
By all rights, the colors of the Future should be just like the color of Earth 90% Colored.
Jing Cha
hkpdjingcha@yahoo.com    Tuesday, June 04, 2002 at 08:44:59 (PDT)

I just saw this movie last night, after I read the introduction to this forum. So I was looking for an Asian woman Jedi - which there was one, and no Asian men. However brief, I'm quite certain I saw an Asian man in there, in the scene where they were chasing the shape-shifter into the bar. Sure, you can say that was a one-second shot, but the Asian Jedi didn't get to say a word, either.

Repost
   Monday, June 03, 2002 at 21:28:46 (PDT)
To: power in the hands,

Asians don't go around the world and tell people how wonderful Asians are and how everyone has to obey their every command because of it. Remember out of all the racist notions that come from whites about other races plotting to take over the world, only whites have literally ever tried to take over the world. When one rapes the world, literally, they go to the top of the list of criminals against humanity. Just because Japan's war crimes are talked about, it doesn't mean the ones that aren't talked about never happened. The West's raped of the world wasn't a walk in the park.

To: you're a hater too,

I'm glad I struck a nerve in you. Like whites don't make blanket generalizations about Asian men and others? I just gave the No. 1 hypocrites in the world a taste of their own medicine. Remember this, white men make up over 90% of the world's serial murderers. Serial murderers kill mostly women because they hate women! I read a letter written by a U.S. soldier from the Vietnam War. He was writing to a friend about how he had just gotten a "Dear John Letter" from his girlfriend back in the U.S. He was so upset by it that gutted himself a Vietnamese woman. Now that's misogyny. And the book I read that letter from didn't put it in the context of a crime but for sympathy for Vietnam Veterans.

Practice what you preach.
Slayer of the Gods
   Monday, June 03, 2002 at 17:03:03 (PDT)
with all this talk of tokens. i dunno, it seems if there are enough tokens then that would sum up to lots of money in the final count.
villageidiot
   Monday, June 03, 2002 at 16:30:33 (PDT)
"I don't find anyone of any ethnicity doing this to be "entertainment" in my book. I find it kind of pathetic."

you'd be ahead of the pack then. but most movie-goers don't know or care if they're being pandered to instead of true ethnic portrayals.

"Rick Yune has shown the strongest bent towards that"

are you freakin' kidding me? i remember that he's in ONLY TWO movies, and both times minor characters at that. and don't forget all the gripes about him in 'fast and furious' with the gang stuff.
villageidiot
   Monday, June 03, 2002 at 16:29:52 (PDT)

NEWEST COMMENTS | EARLIER COMMENTS