Everyone's culture is a sensitive topic to someone. To avoid anyone getting offended, especially by those who don't exist as there's no one to vouch for them, any discussion of culture should be marked as SENSITIVE CONTENT.
Think about the film Turning Red, where the writer Domee Shi sold out her people by pandering to the Asian mysticism westerners like and named her character Mei even though nearly all Chinese Canadians use an English name. Why would any self respecting Asian do this besides being a sell out to make things more Asian for Western sensibilities, which demand Asians be sparkle exotic sparkle?
Domee Shi is a sellout twinkie banana who has no appreciation for her own culture. Clearly, the naming convention of Turning Red is the most problematic aspect of the film's Asian identity. I myself have never seen an Asian person with an Asian first name, so this must be true.
Sauce
https://preview.redd.it/spn0opm3om9g1.png?width=1426&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c056172c5faecda2b60677fe3ee1b005fe90938
pls tell me this is a white person. this feels like a white person's racial preaching
Unsure, but seeing as the person says "her people" rather than a more specific "our/my people", we can definitely tell this is not a Chinese person
It would've been less bad if they would've just sent you that one Nick Mullen clip, holy hell
“I wish I could be ninja too” ahh post
/uj I’m curious what subreddit this was in.
I am Chinese-American and originally assumed this had something to do with whether the family name should come first or last. In the US, family name comes last but in East Asia, family name comes first. Naming convention could be a little difficult for this reason.
Interestingly I had this dilemma with a TTRPG set in Avatar with my Fire Nation character. Unsure whether to name her Lai Qian or Qian Lai. Since Qian was her family name.
/rj Obviously when faced with a dilemma like this. You choose the correct naming convention. Both of them!
I have to wonder if it’s about r/writingadvice, especially after the head mod posted this: https://www.reddit.com/r/writingadvice/s/lqFyPFVuQY
Someone please post this to subredditdrama. I don't want to do it
I do wonder if they count discussion of white people as discussion of "ethnicity" or if ethnicity=anything not white
Given the big screed, I would say anything that isn't straight, cis, white and male counts as 'political' to these people.
There are only two races, after all: White and Political.
My God...
/uj as much as I wanna directly say, technically the rules in the subreddit prevent me from doing so. You can prob just look in my comment history to figure it out tho.
as an Indian-Chinese American, I just wanted to know how to write sentences if one of my characters was named He, but I abandoned that after renaming and re-gendering my character
/rj Of course of course! Domee Shi Shi Domee, or should I say Domee Shi shì Shi Domee?
/uj the way I read it was more of a comment on how when Chinese people (from experience, but I'm sure this was a belief among a lot of minority groups) used to immigrate to the west, they would give their kids "white" first names so that they would "fit in" better (Supposedly it was easier to get hired as a Steven than as a Ju Cheng). So the idea that an immigrant mother would give their kid a traditional Chinese name serves to make the kid sound more "exotic".... I guess?
Really dumb way to approach a nuanced topic like that, but at this point I'm not surprised
Yeah, most Asian immigrants to English speaking countries tend towards a western pseudonym to help with fitting in, but as it turns out people are human and sometimes people want to celebrate their origins and not hide them. Because humans have the capacity to be varied within their culture. Who knew!
As an example, my dad is named Nerendra (half Indian, half english) but regularly goes by Ned. Both Indian and Western names are relevant to his experience as the son of an immigrant.
is that from one of the mods who said they'd be taken up in the rapture?
They what now??
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Yeah, I'm not even gonna' open that can of worms.
I'm not touching that with a ten-foot downvote
This actually explains why they are policing non western-christian names in vaguely woke sounding word salad
I... have a lot of words for the type of Christian who confidently believes they'll be raptured, so I think I'd best not.
i have very few words for them and they are "the rapture has no biblical basis"
Oh shit I said that only straight white cis males may be considered 'uncontroversial' to them, but it seems I should have added 'Christian' to that list of demographics, lol
How is anything but the whitest of white bread American christian not gonna be deemed controversial by such a mod team?
"Think about the flim Turning Red," holy zased! There's the problem.
/uj this doesn't make any fuckin sense because, by their own logic, people of any non-anglish/anglo heritage and ancestry naming their kids conventionally anglicized names should also count as selling out in order to "fit in" to the culture of their new host country, shouldn't it?
/uj it also doesn't make sense for the movie since the director's name isn't Anglicized either so with just a little critical thought most people would be able to glean that the movie is supposed to relate somewhat autobiographically
/uj Well, there's no consistent logic behind it. Some people are just Like That. I don't know wtf is their thought process, but that's something they actually believe. I've got similar (albeit far less funny) comments because my Jewish characters have, like, normal Jewish names, so, as batshit as it sounds, this belief is probably more widespread than we think.
My best guess is, some people are just uncomfortable with names they perceive as exotic but they don't want to sound like bigots, so they come up with this weird rationale, accusing the author of exotification and whatnot.
uj/ Dang. Kind of at a loss for words.
rj/ Based and mega-pilled Mod. You should uncensor the name so we can go and lavish praise upon this worthy soul.
Is... Is this a troll comment? No way this is serious, right?
/uj modmail so it's unfortunately genuine
/rj I'm sorry, are you questioning the glorious mod's wisdom?! begone with thee!
Cultures other than mine are exotic and problematic. Researching and exploring concepts from said cultures is racist and wrong, you should write only about what is socially approved (by glorious mods). Milquetoast Disney consumerism is the only form of art void of exploitation and cultural appropriation. Glory to the socially conscious mods!
uj/ Why are people like this. Do they not realise they sound racist? Thinking that those poor poor Asians need a White Man Saviour to defend their culture from being explored in art and creatively imagined is supposed to be seen as chivalrous and not simply racist? And all of that to defend them from... I don't even know from what. This is just stupid.
Ain't no way
Nervous whitey speaking for Asians despite nobody asking them detected.
/uj this shit is so gross and weird i'm sorry you had to deal with it 😭
These kinds of rants are so funny when it comes from normal commenters, but coming from a mod is... Something else
I mean given they're apparently an all-Christian modding team waiting for the rapture, seems r/writingadvice is completely compromised by crazies.
They're not very smart, but they're trying their hardest...
Man that paragraph was so ridiculous I figured the sauce would be something else, lmao
jfc
/uj I'm actually pissed on your behalf. You post to r/aznidentity or anything? Hell, I want to do it myself (I'd wipe your name, obviously).
/uj nah not worth it, plus i dont wanna go against the sub’s rules about complaining about mods and subreddit drama.
Personally, redirecting energy towards something positive and recognizing that you don’t need to be as online as the people that annoy you is what helps
/rj I have already casted a curse on their family name for the next quintuple generations, so I think that covers it
That moment when you ask "what's wrong with Cho Chang?"
Or giving your biracial Korean male protagonist a Korean surname as his given name.
/uj (?) Is this a Rainbow Rowell reference lmfao
Yes.
"And I- Wait, Chris real name is Cho Chang?" 😧
Native Chinese here. Kindly reminding you guys: we stops giving a f**k, those will nEveR be ReAl chInEsE anyway.
ngl thought this was a r/10thdentist post for a second and I was checking the comments to see the roasts but alas, this is a jerk sub
Darn, need to jerk harder
as the child of an Asian immigrant, I have no clue where my name comes from.
All my family have the whitest English names possible bro,in the west I have never met Chinese people who go by their Chinese/given names.
"May" is an English name, she just couldn't spell.
Just name your Asian character Cho Chang.
I went to school with a Chinese-Canadian girl named Ling.