A rant about Firefly and Chinese
Feb. 22nd, 2011 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laleiaIf I hear one person go, "Oh, but it's okay if they speak Mandarin with poor English accents in Firefly, because it's way in the future, so probably Chinese has evolved so it sounds that way," I will scream. There are a lot of justifications I will accept for the poor Mandarin (for example: "They probably pronounced everything right the first take, but having to repeat something you don't really understand take after take tends to degrade the pronunciation" is one of them), but THAT does not happen to be one of them.
Because really.
If we're going to take that justification and run with it, then WHY does the English sound the same?
Other justifications I despise: "Well, they use made-up English words, too." No. Saying "gorram" and developing new slang is really not the same as butchering the Mandarin. "It's like combining Chinese and English, it's kind of cool." You know what combining Chinese and English is like? It's what I do every day. Combining Chinese and English does not just involved speaking Mandarin in English sentences. Properly combining the two would also have English added to Chinese, English in Chinese sentence structures, would alter English as well.
You know, when I first watched the Firefly series, I didn't actually see the racism that gets brought up most often (the fact that there are Chinese trappings everywhere, but no Asian or Asian American characters anywhere). Of course, then I watched this one amazing fanvid that showed all the different trappings, and then pointed out that the only Asian character in the entire series that has a speaking line is a prostitute, and everything became clear.
But my point is, the Firefly 'verse didn't really bother me until I started reading fanfic. And oh god, the fanfic.
When I started out reading Sailor Moon fanfic way back when I first started fandom, and then expanded to fanfic in other anime fandoms, I remember thinking that the Japanese sprinkled throughout was kind of cute (the type that is referred to as fangirl/fanboy Japanese).
I see my error now, as I wade through the exact same in Chinese. I mean, some of the "Chinese" I see makes me want to cry. On the other hand, sometimes it's done really, really, really well.
(Also, side note: I honestly don't find Joss Whedon's wit scintillating. I mean, granted, I never watched his seminal work Buffy/Angel because I cannot do the horror genre and Buffy was too scary for me, but I found the dialogue on Firefly... incredibly stilted. Artificial. Forced. The dialogue is something I would have loved reading in written form, but sounded awkward when spoken. Possibly the delivery was off? I don't know.)
Because really.
If we're going to take that justification and run with it, then WHY does the English sound the same?
Other justifications I despise: "Well, they use made-up English words, too." No. Saying "gorram" and developing new slang is really not the same as butchering the Mandarin. "It's like combining Chinese and English, it's kind of cool." You know what combining Chinese and English is like? It's what I do every day. Combining Chinese and English does not just involved speaking Mandarin in English sentences. Properly combining the two would also have English added to Chinese, English in Chinese sentence structures, would alter English as well.
You know, when I first watched the Firefly series, I didn't actually see the racism that gets brought up most often (the fact that there are Chinese trappings everywhere, but no Asian or Asian American characters anywhere). Of course, then I watched this one amazing fanvid that showed all the different trappings, and then pointed out that the only Asian character in the entire series that has a speaking line is a prostitute, and everything became clear.
But my point is, the Firefly 'verse didn't really bother me until I started reading fanfic. And oh god, the fanfic.
When I started out reading Sailor Moon fanfic way back when I first started fandom, and then expanded to fanfic in other anime fandoms, I remember thinking that the Japanese sprinkled throughout was kind of cute (the type that is referred to as fangirl/fanboy Japanese).
I see my error now, as I wade through the exact same in Chinese. I mean, some of the "Chinese" I see makes me want to cry. On the other hand, sometimes it's done really, really, really well.
(Also, side note: I honestly don't find Joss Whedon's wit scintillating. I mean, granted, I never watched his seminal work Buffy/Angel because I cannot do the horror genre and Buffy was too scary for me, but I found the dialogue on Firefly... incredibly stilted. Artificial. Forced. The dialogue is something I would have loved reading in written form, but sounded awkward when spoken. Possibly the delivery was off? I don't know.)
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Date: 2011-02-21 05:04 pm (UTC)(Also, side note: Joss definitely has a style, but a style that I admittedly adore - I've only watched a season of Angel and even less of Buffy, but never got hung up on the dialogue, possibly because I felt the characterization was so strong that I could believe in the words coming out of their mouths. I do think Firefly is a step up from Buffy/Angel dialogue-wise because it is much more an ensemble show and lends itself to that sort of banter, and while his wit may not thrive consistently through an entire episode the little explosions of cleverness throughout more than make it up for me. I think Dollhouse really stepped up his dialogue game, though it still wasn't perfect.)