where are the Chinese?
So I've been thinking about Babylon 5, and how humans generally can be divided into three groups in that universe: Anglophones (mostly American,) Russians, and... Japanese.
Seriously, go through all the Asian characters on the show. There's the mention of someone with a Korean surname, the mention of someone with an Indian surname, a few Asians with European surnames, and a lot of Japanese names. Now, Japan's a little island. And right next door to that little island is the biggest country in the world: China. And yet both Babylon 5 ans Star Trek, both of which start from the assumption that the human race is united and all working together -- Trek has had a good few African characters who are supposed to actually be from Africa -- are more likely to show Japanese characters than Chinese ones, when they show Asians at all (and the European majority is a sticky issue for American TV where, as near as I can tell, the idea of white men not outnumbering everyone else is too terrifying to contemplate.)
So I want to know: anyone know any good sci-fi books, TV shows, or films where China's represented decently? Or, better still, even one book where the whole world being united in space actually means that the whole world is represented in the cast? Nah, I don't expect you to come up with anything for that. I'm just looking for true diversity and not coming up with much.
Seriously, go through all the Asian characters on the show. There's the mention of someone with a Korean surname, the mention of someone with an Indian surname, a few Asians with European surnames, and a lot of Japanese names. Now, Japan's a little island. And right next door to that little island is the biggest country in the world: China. And yet both Babylon 5 ans Star Trek, both of which start from the assumption that the human race is united and all working together -- Trek has had a good few African characters who are supposed to actually be from Africa -- are more likely to show Japanese characters than Chinese ones, when they show Asians at all (and the European majority is a sticky issue for American TV where, as near as I can tell, the idea of white men not outnumbering everyone else is too terrifying to contemplate.)
So I want to know: anyone know any good sci-fi books, TV shows, or films where China's represented decently? Or, better still, even one book where the whole world being united in space actually means that the whole world is represented in the cast? Nah, I don't expect you to come up with anything for that. I'm just looking for true diversity and not coming up with much.
American TV breakdown, however, tends to only have a few groups that they think they always need to fill; white people, generic asian people, generic black people, and in more recent years generic Latin American people (and these groups are always generic, because the studios think that a random Asian person can represent all Asians, etc.). Most shows think that a bunch of white dudes with one person from each of those generic groups and one woman, possibly also one of those minorities so they can kill two birds with one stone, is a well-rounded cast for anything.
Now that I really think about it, I can't think of a single sci fi thing that I've read or watched recently that really mentions China. I'd like to think it's the writers being lazy and not wanting to have to explain that we merged with those terrible communists, because most people don't realize how communist Star Trek is to begin with. I would venture to say that in its time, TOS was one of the reddest shows on television and is still pretty damn pink by today's standards.
Hm, they did do Russians, though, and later stuff did as well. Could be Chinese and Russians would make it all seem too much like Communism hadn't been comfortably forced into the minority and the Russians, as the white ones, are generally more acceptable. (Slightly tangentially, I'm sometimes creeped out by how TOS is still progressive in a society that's supposedly come so far -- it's about as good on race as modern stuff, representation-wise, and that was with having to fight the studio for it all. Not to mention women.)