Forum - View topic

NEWS: Live-Action Monster Hunter Producers Apologize for Controversial Dialogue Line

Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was.

Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was.

Somer-_- wrote:

Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was.

It's really not as offensive as I was expecting.

MERCENARY GUY:

Art! It's your chi! Chi-knees!

That's what it was. He points at his knees while saying it in a truck.

Somer-_- wrote:

Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was.

It's really not as offensive as I was expecting.

MERCENARY GUY:

Art! It's your chi! Chi-knees!

That's what it was. He points at his knees while saying it in a truck.

#901749 wrote:

Somer-_- wrote: Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was. It's really not as offensive as I was expecting. MERCENARY GUY: Art! It's your chi! Chi-knees! That's what it was. He points at his knees while saying it in a truck.

Yeah I don't get it.

For more context, you can reference the sources on the Wikipedia page for this, but as per the Wikipedia page, the referenced line calls back to a "racist playground chant in English-speaking countries, used to mock children of Asian origin":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese,_Japanese,_dirty_knees

I hadn't heard of this one before either, but I'm sure there are many out there who have heard this before depending on where they grew up, and certainly didn't appreciate what it might imply.

This interpretation was subtly propelled forward by the Chinese subtitles. To localize the joke, translators made the dialogue a reference to a Chinese colloquialism about how men must have dignity and not kneel down easily. “Men have gold under their knees, and only kneel to the heavens and their mother,” the saying goes in rough translation, implying that any time a man kneels, it should be an occasion precious as gold.

The inference of a connection to the racist rhyme from the words “knees” and “Chinese” combined with the subtitles’ phrasing about kneeling down appears to have made many patriotic young viewers believe that the moment in English must be an obvious insult. Worse, many feel that the translation — which swaps in references to “gold” and makes no mention of “Chinese” — was a deliberate cover up of the offense.

Oddly, ANN is missing a pretty big chunk of this story.

A lot of this had to do with the original subtitle translation of that scene too.

Quote:

This interpretation was subtly propelled forward by the Chinese subtitles. To localize the joke, translators made the dialogue a reference to a Chinese colloquialism about how men must have dignity and not kneel down easily. “Men have gold under their knees, and only kneel to the heavens and their mother,” the saying goes in rough translation, implying that any time a man kneels, it should be an occasion precious as gold. The inference of a connection to the racist rhyme from the words “knees” and “Chinese” combined with the subtitles’ phrasing about kneeling down appears to have made many patriotic young viewers believe that the moment in English must be an obvious insult. Worse, many feel that the translation — which swaps in references to “gold” and makes no mention of “Chinese” — was a deliberate cover up of the offense.

It was only made worse when they started invoking George Floyd-esque memes of I can't breathe and police officer knees. All in all the situation got blown way out of proportion and it didn't help that the propaganda machine in China only fueled the fire even more.

Pretty sad.

Somer-_- wrote:

Can't really have an opinion on this without knowing what the line was.

It's really not as offensive as I was expecting.

MERCENARY GUY:

Art! It's your chi! Chi-knees!

That's what it was. He points at his knees while saying it in a truck.

And honestly, what Chinese person isn't intimately familiar with American schoolyard antics and insults that would be incomprehensible in Mandarin and kind of sort of sound like the line used in the movie but not really and with a completely different context? Of course they'd be offended. This isn't just another invented outrage used to remind folks of who calls the shots.