I can’t imagine your difficulty assimilating into American culture was somehow made more difficult by Wax on Wax off. Annoying, sure, but huge swaths of the population who before the movie knew nothing about an entire population, now knew something! Granted, it was wrong, but previously there had been no mainstream exposure at all, making the entire group an unknowable Other.

Besides, promoting the idea that works of art should watch themselves in case they somehow make those who enjoyed and connected with their content into jerks is madness. Certainly, running places has become significantly more annoying since the release of Forest Gump. (It’s dropped off, thank God) But that’s not somehow a flaw of the movie, but just the nature of jerks.

So much so that I wrote about it. On this site.

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/02/04/super-bowl-ads-and-their-relation-to-the-unconscious/

On stereotypes: I’m not saying that ethnic stereotypes as characters are always bad. Rather, there’s a spectrum: on one end is the horrific “Mr. Wong” internet cartoon that was briefly popular years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVOsgu9xGGM

The other end of the spectrum is more tasteful, less exaggerated, and critical to the storyline in a realistic way, but it’s tougher to define. Perhaps stereotypes of Italian Americans in “The Godfather?” Perhaps Mr. Miyagi?

My point is that all along the spectrum, you’ll find different levels of offensiveness. Unfortunately, portrayals of Asian Americans on the “Mr. Wong” end of the spectrum are far more common and less outrage-producing that those of other ethnic groups.

See also the Sales Genie panda bear commercial that aired *during the Super Bowl*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsk3fZc2J_I

My Angry Asian Man Rage is far more directed to Mr. Wong and the Sales Genie Pandas than Mr. Miyagi. In the case of what I described above in the post, it’s more directed to a culture that doesn’t know how to process otherness in a constructive way.

Here are some observations for your consideration.

First, I’m not Asian. I’m a mutt of Scandinavian/Spanish/American Indian descent. I’ve studied various martial arts, Eastern and Western, for 40 years. By coincidence, my first teacher (ju jitsu) was an elderly Japanese gentleman. While he spoke Oxfordian English that would be the envy of any Shakespearean actor, he did, at casual times dress in what I learned was traditional Japanese attire. He also had a hot tub (ofuro, if I recall) in his home that salved many a bump and bruise.

I also once had a teacher who was French and, for reasons of his own, was determined NOT to speak English any more than absolutely necessary. Mr. Myagi was class valedictorian by comparison.

Had several teachers who were Korean, and Chinese (and another who was Japanese and spoke NO English at all). While there way have been moments when there was a humorous language crunch, I can tell you that there was nothing “comical” about any of these men.

I don’t think the wax on wax off scene is humorous. I don’t think it was meant to be. And I think your pot-dubbed version would work (with a little technical tweaking) just a well as the original. Would be interesting to do, as an experiment, perhaps.

As far as humor goes, what’s REALLY fun is to see Anglo students lead a class and mimic the broken English, accent and tone of the Korean Instructor — and do it with the most hyper-inflated seriousness. A Mr. Myagi Wannbe…

I’m not a big fan of racial bigoty.
I don’t think Big Chief Nokahoma is a salute to indigenous peoples. I’m aware we don’t have sport teams like the Boston Micks or the New York Kikes or the Chicago Polacks.

But sometimes it’s stereo-type, sometimes it’s arch-type and sometimes it’s character.

Don’t overthink it, too much.
:)

All the best,

sj

“It is not necessary that the eagles should be crows.”- Sitting Bull

K, done.

And sure, adults should have the gumption and emotional capacity/development to handle insults, but not everyone does. Since a lot of things in society run on LCD standards (why should killing be officially illegal, after all? it *should* go without saying), no one, minority or not, should walk around, shouting epithets or saying things they know have the potential to hurt people. That’s being a decent, compassionate human being.

And no, I don’t think anyone on this forum thinks a person *should* hide their accent or aspects of their culture. My generation is being encouraged to embrace its Native heritage out in the open, rather than hide like our parents and grandparents; and I’ve seen lots of encouragement of other minority groups to do the same. I have no problems with accents, and I doubt most people on an individual basis do, either. But again, the rules of those in power reject anything “other,” so accents are made fun of and used as points of ridicule for those with the potential to be “otherized” at all. It IS bullshit, yes.

But I think I’ll raise a new question: POSITIVE stereotyping. The over-done accent Miyagi has is generally a negative stereotype, yeah? But what about how commercials use people with British accents to try to make them sound “smarter” or something? French accents to sound fancy? Etc.? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?