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We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10455121 and marked it off-topic.


Uh...have you read Marx or my comment? You're really off base with the ad homs. Also, (Han) Chinese descendants control the majority of the Indonesian and Malaysian economies. This can't be a serious comment.

You're blind to what that tweet means: want ME leads? watch middle eastern movies, at this specialized movie exhibition. don't go to the movie theaters though!

I very clearly meant Hollywood, our arbiter of American taste.


Hollywood doesn't determine that, though. They're less of an arbiter than a mirror. They're a business, they follow the money, and they'll cast whoever will make them the most.

It sounds nice to say "let's have more asians" but when the box office results suffer from it, why should they? It's unreasonable to expect them to take financial losses, or to forego profit.


There's a feedback loop.

Hollywood for sure caters to mass opinion through things like focus groups, but they also wield a tremendous power in shaping this mass opinion in the first place.

That's a large part of why there are so many AA men and women with self esteem issues. (similar parallels exist for other minorities, they just might manifest differently). You end up with minorities who prefer to see white actors because that fits their ideas of beauty, and then the machine truly becomes unstoppable. This line of thought isn't new. It's just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bluest_Eye all over again.

Back to being asian, I don't expect hollywood to take any risks to represent me, so I've begun looking elsewhere for decent representation in movies. Luckily the media industries of HK, korea, and japan are pretty good.


it's a self-fulfilling prophecy - when society is conditioned to only accept clooney/damon/etc-types in leading roles, then of course the focus groups will 'prefer' a white vs minority lead actor. the first step to changing that is understanding the past - so it's kind of moot whether hollywood reflects or decides.

we can, of course, make a converse economic argument. if we "have more asians" then that changes what people think of movies / culture. the industry might make less in the short-term, but in the long-term, having more diverse casts on screen opens up more diverse markets, foreign and domestic.


You're welcome to make that argument in the producer's room. I'm sure many are. You're dead in the water though, if you lead with, "you're going to make less money, but you might make more in the future."

And remember where Damon came from. It was a self-written, self-starring but extremely clever screenplay. Nothing can stop an ambitious asian from doing the same thing and working his or her way up.


Ad homs? Relax your sphincter.

>Chinese descendants control the majority of the Indonesian and Malaysian economies.

Alright Göbbels, I'll tell my in-laws that it's ok they are discriminated and attacked by both civilians and politicians in Indonesia and Malaysia as THE CHINESE CONTROL EVERYTHING.

There are some fucked up issues if one think it's awful to be Chinese in America and fine in Malaysia and Indonesia.

I take it they don't offer safe spaces and coddling rooms in Wharton?




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