In a day and age of racism run pretty rampant, I don't understand why people would actually put effort into trying to find examples of it, and state intent where there is none. I'm specifically talking about the implied racism in the Chinese version of the movie poster for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is something YouTubers such as
TheQuartering and
Yellow Flash 2 have tried to push for quite some time now.
While I watch the content of both of these creators pretty much daily, I have to say that I really don't agree with their assessment of this mater. In fact, it seems like they're conveniently looking for racism where there simply isn't any proof to establish that there is any.
Take a look at this side by side comparison of the USA movie poster versus the Chinese version.
The narrative that these two YouTubers seem desperate to sell is that John Boyega was shrunken down to a thumbnail size image and the hue of his skin altered to be more blue because of implied racism on behalf of the Chinese. However, there are so many flaws in this attempt that it's not even funny.
Let's first break down the image of John Boyega. When you look at every inch of the details here, you can clearly see it is nothing more than his image being shrunken down. There is no added layer of blue hue in an attempt to cover up his skin color. This allegation alone is preposterous.
Look at it for yourself. Here is an image of the section from the Chinese poster with the cropped and shrunken version from the USA right next to it. There is no difference in this image with exception of the size.
However, this is not the only detail to consider in debunking this attempted ploy to insight intent of racism.
Look closer at the side by side comparisons of the full movie posters. Specifically around these areas.
Do you notice any omissions between the two? How about Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron, Chewbacca and Maz Kanata? Though small on the USA version, these characters have been completely removed from the Chinese version. Racism against aliens and Guatemalans? I don't think so.
More so, this attributes to the desire on behalf of Disney to incorporate larger spaceships and the droid, BB-8. The shrinkage of John Boyega's Finn can also be attributed to this desire. The strong fact of the matter is that droids and spaceships appeal vastly to the Asian culture. Therefore, it would make sense that Disney would want these to be more predominant in the image. It's a selling point for them to see the movie.
I site Pacific Rim as the best argument to this claim. Pacific Rim flopped in America. However, it was such a massive success in China that it prompted the sequel. Regardless of American's point of view on the subject, robots and spaceships sell in Asian cultures. Therefore, it's important to market this aspect of the film to them.
Need another example? Simply look to your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The Japaneses incorporated a mech into the show because they knew as a stand alone super hero this aspect would not be popular to their culture.
The bottom line, to imply racism simply because a character was shrunken down to enlarge spaceships is idiotic. More so, it's convenient to the narrative of the person implying it. In fact, that's all it is - Convenient.
If there's anyone who has been oppressed in the Chinese poster of The Force Awakens, it's Oscar Isaac, Chewbacca and Maz Kanata for being removed completely. However, this doesn't fall in line with the narrative of racism, so this certainly can't be pointed out by the objectors.
Look, there's enough racism in the world. Can we stop actively looking for it? More importantly, can we not just embrace everyone as a fellow human being, regardless of their color? We have enough problems with hate on this planet. Let's not actively go looking for it where it doesn't even exist.
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