Get Your Race Right Hollywood!

Christopher Kim Chatsworth Charter High School
10th Grade

A live action remake of Disney’s “Mulan” is set to release in 2018. For now, Disney hunts for actors and actresses with the potential to play the heroic roles of the movie. It was rumored that Disney set its eyes on famed actress Jennifer Lawrence for the role of Mulan. Lawrence is known for many heroic roles, including Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy. It is also rumored that actor Zac Efron will be playing the role of Li Shang from the original animated film. Despite both celebrities having great success in such movie roles, they are terrible candidates to take roles in the film, all due to racial background.

In the original story, Mulan is portrayed as a young Chinese woman taking her father’s place in serving in war by disguising herself as a man and secretly leaving her family. In recent days, heroic lead roles in Asian settings have been given to American actors. The upcoming 2017 American-Chinese fantasy epic, “The Great Wall”, stars Matt Damon (The Bourne Saga) as the lead role. The main question to stress is if the film industry is discriminating and disregarding people of color and the culture they represent.

Since there are several films where whitewashing has occurred, the main and only intent of the film industry is money. What Hollywood does not realize is that its actions are hurting the business. Whitewashing seems to enrage a majority of the audience. Enraged audience will only isolate the film industry from what it desires in the first place: profit. The film industry depends on people for profit. People depend on the film industry for entertainment and enlightenment. The act of whitewashing cuts the rope that holds this relationship intact. Much of the audience gets offended while films receive poor ratings and less profit. Thus, the film industry does not achieve what it wants. As the saying goes, “money is the root of all evil”. Perhaps for the film industry, money is rooted not only in its own defeat, but also in its loss of something far more important: respect.

3 Comments

1. JP

   November 15, 2016 at 7:29 AM

   Everything you said is accurate and true. However, isn’t Mulan a cartoon? So does it really matter who does the voice-over since no “live” person is seen?

   I agree though that a studio paying huge amounts to have A-List actors perform the voice for the character of a cartoon is a waste of money. Do moviegoers really care who did the voice? Probably not. I can’t recall one time hearing anyone say … oh its exciting to have “___” doing the voice.

   Reply
2. Ken Wood

   November 16, 2016 at 9:24 PM

   2016 has seen its fair share of non-Asian actors cast in Asian character roles. “Change of Address” celebrates Asian and Asian American filmmakers, actors, cast and crew. Please help support our kickstarter campaign.

   http://kck.st/2fUQhLm

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