the great wall, which premiered in early February this year, of course, is set in China’s most famous monument. But don’t be surprised if you notice that the word most associated with the film is a term in English, not Mandarin.
The epic has been criticized for promoting the «whitewashing“: the casting of whites in roles that should belong to actors of other ethnicities or the decision to always cast a white character as the hero – even in stories that take place in another culture or country. In the case, William Garin (Matt Damon), and an elite troop are positioned on the wall to prevent the advance of taotie monsters, from Chinese mythology.
The film was not the only one to make the mistake – see other cases:
THE LAST AIRBENDER
The live action version of the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender cast an American, Noah Ringer, as the lead. It was a failure for several reasons – among them, the boycott campaign #AangAintWhite (“Aang Is Not White”).
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TOMORROW’S WATCHERS
The manga/anime version Ghost in the Shell it premiered in March with a controversial cast: only the secondary roles were kept with oriental actors. The main ones went to the Americans Scarlett Johansson and Michael Pitt. Johansson claimed that her character, being an artificial intelligence, transcended any ethnicity – but fans of the anime noted that the script included a subplot in which she searches for her true origin. Many interpreted it as an attempt to justify the casting of the actress.
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DOCTOR STRANGE
The Elder, traditionally portrayed as a Tibetan in comics, was lived by the Englishwoman Tilda Swinton. The debate caught fire – and forced the actress to even reveal private emails she exchanged with comedian Margaret Cho, of Asian descent, about the problem.
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PETER PAN
Another misfit. As icing on the cake, North American Rooney Mara played Tiger Lilly, an indigenous character. After the film flopped at the box office, Mara apologized: «I never want to be on the wrong side of this debate again.»
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UNDER THE SAME SKY
Does Emma Stone look like the daughter of Hawaiians and Chinese to you? For director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe, who created the character of Allison Ng, yes. “I learned how the problem of ‘whitewashing’ it’s prevalent,” the actress apologized later.
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