Racebending and Ethnicity Issues in Hollywood

If you haven't read my earlier essay that discussed Avatar: The Last Airbender, allow me to fill you in on some of the show's core concepts - by quoting the monologue that begins every episode:

"Water.. Earth.. Fire.. Air.. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world..."

So that's that. It's a pretty straightforward epic fantasy story, albeit extremely well-done for a kids' show. Now, the animation style is strongly influenced by Japanese anime rather than "typical" American animation. However, in addition to that, almost every element within the series' universe is borrowed from various Asian cultures. The written language of all four nations is Chinese calligraphy - a point which the producers felt was so important to get right that they hired an expert. Each nation has its own form of martial art/elemental control, each of which is essentially a real-world Asian martial art with magic added: Airbending is Bagua, Waterbending is Tai Chi, Firebending is Shaolin, and Earthbending is Hung Ga. They got an expert for that one, too. In terms of visual culture - architecture, clothing, hairstyles, and even skin tones - the Fire Nation resembles primarily Tang Dynasty China, the Earth Kingdom draws from both Qing Dynasty China and Korea, and the Air Nomads are mostly Tibetan-inspired. The Water Tribe, which is mostly informed by Inuit culture, is kind of the odd one out. Even so, can we agree that the show has very little caucasian influence, aside from the language spoken? Good.

....But now they're making a movie of it, and things are going awry.