Forum - View topicNEWS: Variety: Live-Action Monster Hunter Film Pulled from Chinese Theaters
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Hal14
 Posts: 691 Location: Heart of africa |
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There's a racist playground rhyme that was used to mock children of asian descent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese,_Japanese,_dirty_knees I doubt that was the intention of the joke but Chinese audiences were probably reminded of the rhyme, hence the backlash. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2029 |
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A lame joke, but racist...? It's a pun. Like "Are you an American or an American't?" Unless there's some other context here, it sounds utterly begnign. |
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DavetheUsher
 Posts: 505 |
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I wonder if Chinese natives would really be so aware of an old obscure English-speaking schoolyard chant directed towards Asian-Americans?
I was thinking of the "Are you a Mexican or Mexican't?" line from Once Upon a Time in Mexico myself.  But China tends to be pretty critical of any mention of them, even in a joking fashion like a Chinese character saying his knees are Chi-knees
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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Keep it tasteful people. Some of you are treading on thin ice with comments that border on trollish. The drunken mad prophet soapboxing can stop as well. That post is now gone as are responses to it. Just report those sorts of posts please.
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capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
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I have NEVER once heard of that racist "knee" pun. It's ironic too when the area I live has many Asians and Latinos. Many Asians and Latinos share their racist experiences with each other yet never heard this. I've also experienced a LOT of racism and stupid racist jokes too.
Not Asian so I can't judge if its racist or not. All I can say that the joke seems tame and tasteless imo.
I think the pun is used in a few films. George Lopez has used it in more than one TV/movie. A lot of non-Mexicans use that pun too. Many Mexicans and Mexican Americans (such as myself) find this pun funny too. Surprisingly, a lot of stuff that people think is racist (mainly non-Latinos or white people) often call out what is racist which ends up not being it. But hearing that the actual group of people its calling out with what they find racist is acceptable. No wonder they are mad. It's a stupid joke. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5539 |
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By putting "racist" in quotes you're implying that it wasn't racist joke, when it factually was one. Defending racism makes you a racist, just to clarify. Don't do that. |
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Kougeru
Posts: 5539 |
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This is a common statement I see a lot of white people make when minorities point out racist stuff. "I've never heard anyone use the N word" "I've never seen anyone refuse to serve Asian people" "I've never seen Mexican people get treated as if they were illegal". Stuff like that. You never hearing it is irrelevant to anything. As an Asian, I've heard this joke a million times at least. It's terrible. Do I think the GOVERNMENT should've removed the movie? No. But I do think any theater with any morals should not air it by choice. And I think that should apply even if they fix the movie. They already showed racists are behind the movie, it doesn't deserve any success or support. |
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NiPah
 SubscriberPosts: 205 |
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The joke was not racist, it may or may not have referenced a racist children’s rhyme (which I honestly find doubtful as a believer of Hanlon’s razer) but the joke itself was a pun. |
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El Hermano
 Posts: 450 Location: Texas |
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Where I grew up there were pretty much no Asian students so I can't say I've shared this experience myself.
People act surprised when I tell them I've been discriminated more by black people than white people growing up. I think a lot of those people forget black and latino gang rivalries are a thing and not all non-whites are in some sort of unanimous allegiance with one another. Anyway, one thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is that it was a Chinese actor/character who said the line, not that it seemed to have made much of a difference. I guess unlike here, someone making a joke about their own race isn't seen as acceptable. |
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capt_bunny
Posts: 364 |
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You're right. I am not Asian and have never experienced it so how would I know? Thank you for telling me so I can know better. Reading that you were told this joke a lot makes me sad. I'm sorry that you were told that.
I never said it was right to remove the movie. Just understand that no one would like the joke. But you are right again about fixing the movie. Even changing the lines would have been a whole lot better. Sadly, there is many racists all around the world. Again, thank you for telling me. I know better now. |
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2250 |
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The fact that Anderson thought it was okay to put in a racist joke at the expense of Asian people in a movie based on a Japanese property is the height of white guy arrogance. He'll be lucky if his career survives because make no mistake, this WILL impact the movie's box office and he only has himself to blame.
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faboo95
 Posts: 93 |
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It's not. As people have already mentioned, some are just trying to connect the pun with an old playground rhyme. Don't get me wrong it's a terrible pun, but saying it's racist is quite a stretch and requires some mental gymnastics. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2779 Location: Toronto |
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 I've seen the clip. It's from banter between military guys, not an insult or some kind of taunt. It's not hard to think someone could get to that pun without knowing it was also once used for an offensive rhyme.
This movie is being released internationally by Sony, a Japanese company. It's co-produced by Tencent, a Chinese company. The offending sequence was delivered by an American of Chinese descent. The movie originally made it through China's approval process without issue. It flopping should be a bigger hit to Anderson's career than something that was seen as fine by that many people. Even then, this movie's budget isn't huge and this year has been a wash for Hollywood films due to COVID. |
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Varkias
Posts: 31 |
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Possibly it's an older thing. It was pretty common in the early to mid '80s. And locally, we didn't have any Asians, but we sure had the rhyme. For anyone wondering, the racist part doesn't even have anything to do with knees (unless it's to a reference that was past it's time even when I was growing up)... it had to do with pulling back the skin at the edges of your eyes while saying "Chinese" and "Japanese". One had an upward tilt, and the other a downward tilt, but I don't remember which was which (this was 35 years ago, after all)... I more remember the finisher of "Look at these" while pulling out your shirt to mimic breasts.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6070 |
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Well no one who considers themselves a hardcore MH fan to everyone else I don't think they're going to care about how strongly or weakly it adapts the games. If that were the case the Resident Evil Live Action Films would've never got so many sequels despite how much they distanced themselves from the original games. |
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