Message-Id: <200101060450.WAA20518@nuinfo.northwestern.edu> Subject: Re: Chinese maiden To: ranma@ML.usagi.org Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 22:50:24 CST In-Reply-To: <200101060015.JAA30051@top.win.ne.jp>; from "ami@ML.usagi.org" at Jan 6, 2001 9:15 am From: Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (Albert Lunde) Reply-To: Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (Albert Lunde) X-ML-archive: http://www.win.ne.jp/~doi/ML/ Precedence: bulk > In reply to the comment about stereotypical Chinese characters. . . > > I wonder why they use the clothing/hairstyle like that. Most people > in China wear European style clothes, and most girls actually have short hair, [...] > Is it just so they can ID the character as Chinese? Well, my off-hand guess is they are playing first to what their audience would know from (1) "Chinese" restaurants and (2) martial arts movies. On one hand, Japan isn't so self-conscious about ethnic stereotyping in the way the US tends to be today. On the other hand, Takahashi plays with and makes fun of stereotypes of practically everything Japanese, too. This isn't fine art: the TV and manga are mass-market items for youth, and a lot of it is "cartoons" in the sense of characature, even if one may admire the craft that has gone into them. -- Albert Lunde Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (new address) Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (old address)