(no subject)

[demeter918]

I guess I'm happy that I'm not actually in Nagasaki for the remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Last week, we had a moment of silence for Hiroshima. I missed the moment for Nagasaki because I was attending some things with the Board of Education, but the funny thing - or not so funny - was the fact that when I asked what was going on, the teacher told me and then got an embarassed look as she remembered that yes, I'm American in spite of my Asianesque features. We laughed about it later, but it was a good thing to remember that sixty years ago, the world's first atomic bomb was exploded in two cities in the same country. And since then, there hasn't been another case. Nuclear weapons need to go dooooowwwwwnnnnnn.

And that's my little self-righteous message of the day.

In other news: I knew Harry Potter fans were crazy (I'm one of them after all, and it takes one to know one...) and this takes it to a whole new level.

Dontcha know? Asians are meek and subservient. They'll take all the crap thrown at them and then ask for more.

*kicks things*

Comments

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I don't even know how to get into the Asian name thing. Right now, there's a smaller kerfluffle in the Asian community regarding Rowling's somewhat liberal usage of Asian names. While 'Ch' is very common in many Chinese names, it's most often used in surnames. The word most closely associated with "Cho" is 'ugly' or 'smelly' - it's been brought up that Cho is actually a Korean name and Chang is a Chinese name. Someone mentioned that Cho also means butterfly in Japanese, but no parent would ever name their kid 'butterfly' because of the short-life connotations.

;_; there's no winning.

I've been poring over some forums and the racist overtones are starting to kill.

[raendrop.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to bet good money that Rowling just chose an Asian-sounding name without knowing much about naming practices. I'm sure most non-Asians are woefully ignorant in those matters. So I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

That was exactly what made people so mad. She was doing what most non-Asians do. She chose an 'Asian' (or in this case, an East Asian) sounding name and went with it as her addition to make the cast of HP characters more colorful. It doesn't bother me too much because for one thing, Rowling is a white woman living in the UK and above a certain age. She didn't have the intention but she made the mistake all the same. I figure, at least Rowling's trying. =)