Quoran Answer Transplant: What do you think of Asians playing different Asians?

 What do you think of Disney casting a Korean woman to play Mulan in the upcoming Live-Action Mulan movie?

Question details: To be honest, I'm a little annoyed that they did that. I have nothing against Korean people; I just wanted a Chinese woman to play Mulan. Maybe I'm just making a big deal out of it because I'm Chinese myself…

Quoran Answer Transplant: ScarJo's Personal Responsibility?

Is Scarlett Johansson equally responsible as the production company for whitewashing Ghost in the Shell by accepting the role?

Question details: Considering she doesn't need the role, she has the money, the fame, and the respect. She's not a struggling actor desperate for her breakout role who can't afford to lose this opportunity. She can pick whatever role she wants. Shouldn't the blackfaced actor be held as responsible as the showrunner? 

The answer is an unequivocal NO, she is certainly not EQUALLY responsible as the production company, that's ridiculous. People are inclined to put actors and actresses up on pedestals but remember, they are employees NOT bosses. All those things you mention in the question details: doesn't need more money, more fame, more respect, etc. is technically true, but so what? Who says she must rest on her laurels or even be discerning about what scripts she accepts? Those decisions are hers alone.

On the other hand, is she absolved of any and all wrongdoing? Unequivocally NO yet again. As an A-list actress she has some influence at the very least insofar as she can draw attention to any issue simply by pointing a finger. If she cared to she could have turned down the role and publicly spoken about the subject of whitewashed casting in Hollywood. I'd believe that she's never heard of the Ghost in the Shell franchise but that's irrelevant. When she saw the name of the character she'd be playing, Motoko Kusanagi, it should have raised an eyebrow. But apparently it didn't, at least not high enough to prompt a reply of "I, um, I think I'd be miscast for this role".

Quoran Answer Transplant: Japanese Fan Reaction to Johansson as Kusanagi

How do fans in Japan react to Scarlett Johansson playing Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell?

While this is a fair question to ask and I don't wish to marginalize the reactions of the very people from whose nation the Ghost in the Shell franchise came from, I'm afraid their answers are being taken the wrong way and used to prop up some of the wrong-minded reasons some people support Scarlet Johansson's casting.

Quoran Answer Transplant: Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi?

How do Ghost in the Shell fans feel about Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi?

I'm angry and disappointed.

Again and again and again we see roles that could/should go to Asian actors/actresses get passed on to beautiful whites. If there was ever a AAA Hollywood movie where the monstrous gamble of casting an Asian American woman to play the lead might have good odds, it's a fucking adaptation of a popular anime franchise. There is a fan base already built in!

One of the arguments I see supporting Johansson's casting is, "Motoko Kusanagi doesn't HAVE to be played by a Japanese or even an Asian looking person because the character has an artificial body that also doesn't even look Asian". 

This is irrelevant and the reasoning is specious.

This isn't about Johansson's acting ability (she has it, that isn't under contention). This isn't about "looking like the character from the manga or the anime". 

"Anime characters never really look Asian any way, ya know?" 

Sure, but they don't really look like white people, or even real humans either. This is a drawn medium, the characters you see are representations of human beings, and usually not photo-realistic ones, either.

Tell me this looks like an actual white person you've ever met.

 If you actually want to argue that Lisa Simpson's ethnicity isn't white, you can stop reading now and go fuck yourself. In the Simpsons universe, this art style of human represents a white person.

This represents an Asian person.

 If you really don't think Asian-ness has anything at all to do with the character of Motoko Kusanagi then what was that whole CGI facial alteration thing about? It amazes me, the lengths to which Hollywood will go to avoid having to ACTUALLY use an Asian. They were seriously about to give Johansson the Sergeant Lincoln Osiris treatment. Do the guys in Hollywood even realize that the movie Tropic Thunder [2008] was a satirical piece aimed at them?

"They had one good part in here for a black man and they gave it to Crocodile Dundee."

Quoran Answer Transplant: Hotness - Good or Bad?

I'm still alive, everyone.

I'm sorry I haven't been very loyal to Blogger as a platform. All of my recent writing has been spent on answering questions on Quora instead. If it makes you feel better, I'm not all that prolific there either so you haven't missed out on too much. Nevertheless, in the interest of synchronization, from now on I'll endeavour to post any answers I write there to my personal blog here as well. To catch up this will begin a series of transplanted posts from Quora to Blogger.