Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 4

The previous Friday I talked about how Michael Lau set the stage for the urban vinyl movement. Specifically his gallery shows from 1999, and 2001 featuring his 12” figures in Hong Kong, and Japan respectively. While he was exposing the world to a new type of art his friends, and contemporaries were following closely behind, and releasing their own 12” figures to collectors. At best groups like Brothersfree understood the art movement. They weren’t poaching the community that Lau was representing, I’m talking about street culture specifically. Instead the Brothersfree group were trying to carve out their own niche, to tell their own story by turning industrial workers into the heroes of their Brothersworker line. Or Wendy, and Kelvin Mak telling the stories of Hong Kong tradespeople with their 2da6 line. I felt that other artists like Eric So, Jason Siu, and Pal Wong were biting a little too hard on what Lau had established previously.

The Pazo Art figures from Mr. Wong for example went through all the same motions as Mr. So, and Mr. Siu. They were highly detailed, quality sculpts, with realistic fashion. They often came with a change of clothes, accessories, stickers, and all of the trim that one would expect from $200-$300 figures. They also went right after the street fashion look. What got under my skin was that Pal was sculpting faces that were eerily similar to what the gardeners looked like. Michael Lau created a gardener called Future, he was essentially a caricature of established graffiti icon Futura 2000. When that character was unveiled it was a breath of fresh air. Knowing that he was a part of the gardener community connected their story to the culture. Then seeing Pal going down the same path with his figures felt redundant, and even slightly disrespectful. The smaller figures that he released showed to me that he didn’t understand what the movement was about.

The P.A.S.A. Rapper by Pal Wong was an obvious attempt at capitalizing on the 6” gardener trend. To the casual observer the scale, proportions, details, and accessories were all spot on. He could have been one of the gardeners except for a few things. The sculpt, and paint was an amalgamation of Maxx, and Brian from the earlier gardener line. He was missing a chain for his wallet, and there was no felt wristband, instead it was sculpted, and painted to his wrist. These were all shortcuts to bring a cheaper figure to market, and pass it off to the masses. To make the character slightly different from the gardeners he had an afro, large eyes, and some really thick lips. These things didn’t really capture the spirit of the gardeners, and felt a little bit heavy-handed, if not outright racist. But I don’t want to sweep what Lau did under the rug either. We need to talk about culture, representation, and appropriation with context to this new art form.

Michael Lau had also released a figure with dark skin, and big lips as well. This character was called B/W. He was an African born in Hong Kong. His friends liked him, but he could be long tongued, aka he could be very chatty. He stuck out for several reasons, the most obvious was his jet-black skin, and large pink lips. B/W was the ninth figure of the original 10 gardeners, and was the only one that had skin that dark, and large cartoonish lips. Brian, Elsa, and Uncle were Black characters in the original 10 lineup that looked more like regular people. There would also be a group of basketball characters added to the lineup that had various shades of Black skin, but none as dark as B/W. I would argue that Michael did not intend to use a racist caricature. All of his gardeners had exaggerated cartoonish, facial features. It was bad form to push the envelope that far with B/W. His representation on the rest of the cast was more or less well done.

Why did Pal Wong, and Michael Lau feel that it was okay to present a Black character like this? For Mr. Wong I feel that he was just trying to cash in on the popularity of Lau. He poached his art style, and created a knock-off figure without understanding the culture that Lau was trying to recreate. For Lau I would say it was his lack of awareness he had regarding Blackface. The importance of representation was something that I had written about previously, especially when it came to fighting games. One of the things that I want to remind you of is that the Civil Rights movement that the US went through in the ‘60s only happened in the USA. Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, John Lewis, James Farmer, and the other Black leaders of that era shaped the culture in the US.

There were no civil rights movements similar to what we had in other countries. While schools overseas might talk about it, culturally the UK, Japan, or China did not have anything like what the America went through. There was a good chance that Lau, and his contemporaries did not realize that the big lips character was offensive. This was partly due to cultural relativism, they got the trope directly from the US. That presentation had been a part of US cultural exports to the rest of the world since the late 1800’s. It was seen in advertising, in toy design, and popular music of the era. By the 1940’s Blackface fell out of favor as a form of entertainment in the states. Culturally the new enemy were the Japanese, and Black Americans were signing up to fight in WWII. It was disrespectful for them to return home and see that ugly face waiting for them. So little by little it started getting taken down in marketing. The change got a lot of pushback in many states, not unlike the removal of Confederate statues did as recently as the 2020’s. 

The thing was while this trope was fazed out in the USA, it didn't entirely disappear overseas. The big lipped characters in pop culture could still be seen through Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball in 1988 (R.I.P. Akira Toriyama), Chocolove McDonnell from Shaman King in 1998, and as recently as 2012 with the release of Anarchy Reigns, the follow-up to Mad World by PlatinumGames. This is why I want to talk about context of the gardeners, including B/W. Lau intended on creating figures based on the street culture that his friends, and he had grown up in. He didn’t go in trying to specifically hurt any ethnic group specifically. Of course that doesn’t prevent people from being insulted. 

As for all of the artists from Hong Kong, and Japan that came out right on the heels of his work, they also had to be put in context. Were they releasing figures because they were going for a cash grab? Were they doing this as an homage to Mr. Lau? Could it be both, or neither? Again, it depends on the way we look at it. Designers like Colan Ho, and Joel Chung were releasing pieces very much out of left field. Their figures weren't workers, skaters, breakdancers, or anything else like that. They had their own signature style, but could also work with a license if they had to. It was an interesting time for collectors that wanted unique, high quality pieces. The urban vinyl craze spread like wildfire throughout Asia. Some artists were turning sketchbook creations into 3D representations, some were remixing kaiju monsters with cute, and cuddly toys. This approach was evident in some of the early pioneers like IT Rangers, and Bee Wong. 

In 2008 South Korean figure artist CoolRain made his debut. He was heavily influenced by Lau, and managed to secure some high profile clients in a relatively short span of time, including Nike, Adidas, Vans, and the NBA. Although he designed a number of smaller 6” mini gardener-type figures for the NBA, he rarely produced a 12” figure that wasn’t a prop for a commercial, or gallery show. Very few people were able to get their hands on his original 1/6 figures, and these tended to be rappers, and star athletes. CoolRain was kind enough to do an interview with me. He gave all the credit to Lau for inspiring him. He definitely approached figure art as an art form, and not a way to make a quick buck.

Lau had also collaborated with Nike, and Sony, but he was notoriously hard to pin down by any company. When in doubt it seemed that the corporations could go to CoolRain if they wanted to use the aesthetic, rather than wait on Lau. Was this an example of an artist holding onto his integrity, or being selective about clients? Was CoolRain selling out the culture? It all depends on the context. He understood the line was blurring between art, toy, and collectable. He taught classes, and presented workshops to the new generation of creatives in South Korea. He was very mindful of the communities he was asked to recreate, whether they were skaters, basketball players, or even professional futbol / soccer players. He was just one of many voices helping spread the word about “urban vinyl” and the larger art movement.

The respect I had for CoolRain remained consistent over the past 20 years. It made me reconsider what I thought about other artists appearing in the early 2000’s as more than just poaching the work of Michael Lau. I’ll talk more about it in a future blog. For now I’d like to hear your thoughts. Could art be controversial, or accidentally racist? Would context be important in exploring, or explaining the relationships between ethnicity, stereotype, and culture? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

What is going on with the Street Fighter V character designs? Part 2, where did F.A.N.G come from?

I'm not going to backpedal, F.A.N.G. is a character that has no redeeming factors. He is an ugly character, a mockery of Chinese martial arts systems. He doesn't really belong in the Street Fighter series but the powers that be have decided to give him a go anyway. It doesn't really matter what I say or what I think about the character. It doesn't matter how offensive or nonsensical I think his design is. The reality is that Western writers, artists, actors, directors and producers have been doing a greater disservice to Asian characters than any Japanese developer ever could. It is the ugly truth. Audiences from the west fail to acknowledge what we have done culturally to Asians over the past century.

Think about how Asians, especially the Chinese, were parodied, if not outright vilified in Western pop culture. Sometimes it was subtle, the way the Chinese or Japanese pronounced English was often exaggerated in comics and films. Sometimes it was very overt, with characters presented with bright yellow skin and narrow eyes. This trend goes back to 1929 when the British writer Sax Rohmer created a villain named Dr. Fu Manchu. At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th the "Orient" was seen as a place of mysticism, where ancient magics were real and closely guarded. The British colonists and Western Culture by contrast were always the shining example of civility and modern science. Minorities were very often subservient if not outright villains in many pulp stories. Dr. Manchu was bent on global domination using a combination of science and magic. The terms used to describe the character were more demonic than human. It was something to consider that Fu Manchu was almost as old as Mickey Mouse, and almost as well recognized in that era. He had been used to perpetuate some ugly stereotypes or decades, not solely in book form but in film as well. This character would become a template for evil Asians that would be used again and again. Although he was an alien Ming the Merciless, ruler of the Planet Mongo (yep they went there!) was very much an Asian stereotype. The character first appeared in the 1934 Flash Gordon comic strips by Alex Raymond. Ming could be considered the tyrant that Fu Manchu would become if he had conquered the Earth.

 

A few decades later, in 1964 to be precise, Marvel comics introduced the world to the Mandarin. The villain featured in Tales of Suspense would become the greatest rival to Iron Man. The Mandarin had acquired magical rings, which were actually alien artifacts. They allowed him to do various things, from shooting bolts of electricity to controlling minds. His design and purpose was not very far removed from Fu Manchu. This was odd considering that Marvel was a very progressive company, they featured minorities in several comics and presented some main character with different religious beliefs as well. Unfortunately the design of the Mandarin relied on trope, he was so obsessed with domination that it diminished his presence. It was unique however that the hero that used the most advanced robotics would have to do battle with mystical elements. It helped make Iron Man stand out from his contemporaries in the end.

 The USA did a lot of changing following the civil rights era. Minorities began turning up as recurring characters in television shows and were presented in a favorable light in film. Eventually writers and comic artists grew tired of the stereotypes that had been placed on Asian characters. Director John Carpenter created an immortal wizard named Lo Pan in his 1986 cult-hit Big Trouble in Little China. The character was every absurd element from Fu Manchu, Ming and the Mandarin all rolled into one. The film placed the classic martial artists in the modern world. It was a send up some kung-fu tropes, the fantastic details remained with evil fighters who could shoot lightning from their fingertips and even fly. Many Asian actors were used as both the heroes and villains in the movie. This film was such a refreshing change of pace that it went on to influence the creation of Mortal Kombat. Yet the progressive view that John Carpenter had was the exception rather than the rule.



Producers and network executives had little to no faith that a minority actor could carry a role. This went back to the days of black and white film. The producers were afraid that the western audiences would never watch a film or TV show that didn't feature a white actor. Because of this many characters were recast, rewritten or completely ignored. In the ugliest instances a white actor wore blackface, or in the case of Fu Manchu or the detective Charlie Chan they wore "yellow face." Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who played Charlie Chan in several movies. The makeup department would tape down his eyelid to make him look "Asiatic." The features that revolved around the heroic minority would often cast actual Asian actors to play supporting roles. For example Keye Luke, a Chinese born American actor, played "number one son" Henry Oswald Lee Chan in the Charlie Chan films. By casting minorities the producers hoped to lend some sort of credibility to the lead actors as well as the stories they were telling. The downside was that the actual minority was never trusted to carry a leading role. It was a pattern that followed Hispanic and native characters as well. Canadian actor Jay Silverheels played Tonto, opposite Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger. He was a great character, a positive minority and one of the pioneering actors on network television. Yet neither he nor Keye Luke would ever be called to be the star of their own series. I wish I could say that things changed over the years but entering 2016 there was still very little minority representation on television. The shows featuring minority actors were almost all segregated into their own sitcoms. Things had not progressed very far in the century following the invention of film and television.

In fact things have not changed very much on the video game front either. The youngest of the major entertainment mediums has a lot of catching up to do. I could get upset all I want about F.A.N.G., Rufus, Birdie or any of the other Street Fighter characters and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. Why should I take Capcom to task when the western-produced games had very little representation, or diversity? How many games could you name that had a minority lead? How many could you name with a white character? How many franchises have been built around minority characters? How many around white characters? Stop and think about that for a moment. Go back through your mental index of game characters, of franchise characters and see how many you can name. Of those how many are male and how many are female? Of those how many are Asian, Hispanic, Black or Native?

I would argue that the fighting game has the most diversity of all the genres. Minority characters do have a leading role in many fighting games, and are usually presented in classical martial arts uniforms. Granted most leads are Japanese but those games are often produced in Japan. Just as most white leads in games are from western-produced titles. The diversity of characters and fighting styles is one of the things that keeps audiences coming back to the genre. Street Fighter has, or at the very least had, some of the most positive and influential minority casts ever created. These characters weren't perfect in their first incarnation but they did get better with revisions. If I have one complaint about the most recent additions to the Street Fighter lineup it would be how little they seem to be revised before they are added to the lineup. Many of the new characters in the game are forgettable, I would go so far as to say they are throw away designs. They are added to give the lineup a feeling of diversity but end up being nothing more than a gimmick character from a particular country. F.A.N.G. is no exception, he is just one more character that will have his 15 minutes and then fade away while Ryu, Chun-Li and the rest of the original World Warriors remain. So what is it that F.A.N.G. lacks when compared to the earlier designs?



The new characters lack roots. In fact most of the new characters added in SF IV and SF V lack an understanding of the fighting arts that they represent, and in many instances, the actual martial artists that shaped history. The first Street Fighter was based very much on the life and times of Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno. The rivals in the game were inspired in part by actual martial artists and martial arts movie characters. Even the gigantic Sagat was based on actual muay thai fighters, Sagat Petchyindee and Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn. The fighting arts Sagat and Ryu used were exaggerated versions of real forms. These amazing abilities looked great in comics and cartoons and turned out to be perfect for a video game. The second generation of Street Fighter characters expanded on the same principal. A burly sailor would become Zangief, his previous name of Vodka Gobalsky was deemed inappropriate. A new name was pulled from an actual wrestler that the Capcom designers would watch on television. The most racially insensitive characters, Dhalsim and Blanka, were greatly toned down and ended up including details from actual history as well as cinema. What F.A.N.G. is missing, and for the most part many of his contemporaries is that connection to the martial arts and actual fighters.

 

F.A.N.G. is the latest kung-fu master inserted into the canon of Street Fighter. He comes on the heels of some of the greatest Chinese characters in the genre. People like Gen and Chun-Li were pulled form legend. They were given moves and back stories that were worthy of cinema. Yet F.A.N.G. is in a completely different category. He doesn't have a pin that you can attach the design to. Just as you cannot point to the reference used for Rufus or Hakan, two of the saddest character designs ever featured in a Street Fighter game. F.A.N.G. gets to replace Sagat in the story. You would think he would be an intimidating character as one of the new Shadowlaw / Shadaloo Generals. Except that he isn't. You would think that his moves would be based on some ancient brutal Chinese system, but they aren't. F.A.N.G. exists for the same reason that Rufus exists. This is a character that the Producer finds value in. Like George Lucas saying that Jar Jar Binks was his favorite character, I'm sure Yoshinori Ono thinks F.A.N.G. fits right in as well despite what the audience reaction has been. But there is a catch to his design, a different way of looking at him just like any design. Some retouching, some refinement can save any character. Look at the roots of the franchise designs and see what you can learn.

 

The way F.A.N.G. behaves before or after matches means little, and does not necessarily make or break the character. It is absolutely okay to have a flamboyant, or even effeminate character in a fighting game. While the look of F.A.N.G. may be closer to the harpist assassins from the film Kung-Fu Hustle, the character should have had the presence of Fairy, the tailor. In the film veteran actor Chiu Chi Ling played the character. Mr. Ling was an actual master of Hung Gar, one of the hardest striking forms of kung-fu. Yet Fairy was presented in a very soft and almost dainty manner, which made his role all the more interesting. The character he played was living a normal life in a small town. People did not know that the unassuming tailor was actually a powerful martial artist. This was masterful storytelling. The character was really brought to life in the action scenes. Fairy would become a one-man wrecking crew and any semblance to his effeminate personality disappeared as he destroyed mobsters with his bare hands. Yet Mr. Ling was not the first Chinese martial artist who played a dual role well.

 

The unassuming Chinese character was portrayed well by Bruce Lee in the Chinese Connection aka Fists of Fury. To infiltrate the bad guy's hideout he played a mousey telephone repairman. It was his fighting ability and not his appearance that did all of the talking. Some of the most unassuming fighters have been villains. The character actors that play them do such a good job that you can't wait for the good guy to beat them up. This could be seen in the character Boss Wah, played by another martial arts veteran Yuen Wah, in the film Dragons Forever. Boss Wah looked and acted like an absolute weasel, choosing to strike Jackie Chan and his friends when their backs were turned. He was a cigar smoking crime lord, skinny and unassuming. He surrounded himself with some dangerous bodyguards, including former kickboxing world champ Benny "the Jet" Urquidez. At first glance you would think the character in the suit was a wimp. However despite his appearance and mannerisms he was an amazing fighter and capable of holding his own against the rest of the cast. Yuen had actually appeared in several Bruce Lee films and even served as Lee's double on some of the stunts. F.A.N.G. by comparison did not quite sell himself as a fighter. Or rather the designers at Capcom did not really sell the character as a fighter. He was lanky and overconfident in himself, saying that he would beat his opponent in two minutes and then striking an absurd victory pose if he did win. The character was flamboyant but not endearing like Fairy, he was a weasel without the vicious attacks of Boss Wah. F.A.N.G. threw poison balls from his sleeves and flew by flapping his arms. These weren't really moves or abilities that could be attached to any real system or any fighter living or dead. Capcom simply did not convince me that this character was right for the game and the series.

 

The entertainment industry has been whitewashing history for some time. The real world is much more diverse and interesting than any video game, movie or book could ever be. Think back about the ugly caricature that was Fu. Manchu, or how Charlie Chan stereotyped a population. How was F.A.N.G. any different from these representations? Think back about what a great hero the Lone Ranger was, according to history modeled after Texas Ranger Captain John R. Hughes. What a fantastic role model he turned out to be to several generations of mostly white children. Now imagine that if minority children had been exposed to something different, something that was closer to reality. What if they learned that the author Earl Derr Biggers based Charlie Chan on an Chinese-Hawaiian Detective named Chang Apana. He would have been a great minority and mixed-ethnicity role model. Or consider that the Lone Ranger may have been based on an escaped-slave-turned Deputy US Marshall Bass Reeves. Bass actually wore disguises and had Native American friends that helped him capture criminals in the old west. How amazing the films and television shows would have been to the minorities growing up here as well. They deserved to have heroes and villains modeled on reality rather than fantasy. This is what Capcom sometimes forgets. Mas Oyama may have been the basis for Ryu but let us not forget that he was Korean and not Japanese. He was such an amazing karate fighter that he influenced a nation that was and continues to be very biased against Koreans.

This is why I will always push back on Capcom when I think they are doing a disservice to the series. They have a chance to review and revise each and every character before introducing them. Trying to make changes after the fact is impossible. Capcom needs to think about how they are representing minority characters. Just because Street Fighter V is introducing a new Chinese, adding a Brazilian female (Laura) or Arab male (Rashid) into the lineup doesn't mean the studio is being more inclusive. If the woman is there primarily because she is sexy, or if the Arab is there just to fill a Middle-Eastern quota then why should we care? A lot of people in Mexico were happy that a masked wrestler was included in SF IV. They overlooked his silly moves and mannerisms because there was finally some representation in the game. It didn't matter if the representation was positive or negative as long as it existed. These fans, just like fans from around the world, are desperate to be represented in the series. They will accept stereotype, trope or sexism as long as they get a character in the game. Capcom needs to look internally and see what they can do to make better characters and a better game in the process. If they worked a little bit harder and tried to present positive representation they might create something profound. What do you think about F.A.N.G. and the other new characters? I would like to read about it. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 5...

 

When players think about the greatest cast in fighting game history they often point to the original World Warriors. The figures in Street Fighter II hit all of the right notes and were universally accepted. They set a standard back in 1991 yet to be topped (even by Capcom). There is something that most people do not know and even die-hard fans of Street Fighter sometimes forget. The original lineup was much different. It was dominated by white characters and was culturally insensitive. Let us look at what Capcom had to change in order to give audiences a memorable experience.

 

Audiences might be able to pick out a few characters from the lineup that made it to the final version. There was a karate guy, possibly Ryu. Next to him was a Chinese girl, possibly Chun-Li and near the bottom was a dark skinned person in a turban. This Indian character must have become Dhalsim. Who were the other characters? Where was Ken and E. Honda? Where was Zangief and Blanka? Well there were actually two wrestlers in the original lineup. A masked wrestler and a more traditional pro wrestler. There was a boxer, an assassin and a beast man rounding out the group. We could guess that these characters were placeholders. A rough outline for something that had would be changed. The studio had their work cut out for them. The planner on the original Street Fighter had left for SNK. The game found moderate success and arcade owners were asking for a sequel. The team at Capcom tried to create one called Street Fighter '89. It went in a radical new direction, one that was prompted by the runaway success of Taito's Double Dragon. The next Street Fighter would be a brawling game, a beat-em-up using up to three players instead of two. Guy was supposed to replace Ryu, Cody was supposed to replace Ken and a wrestler was thrown in for good measure. Arcade owners did not want Capcom to change the one-on-one concept so the game was relabeled Final Fight. Work on Street Fighter II started all over again.

Ryu was not a lock for the main character. Well, Capcom obviously wanted to make a Japanese character the star and make sure that karate was represented. The designers thought that if the first game was about a Mas Oyama-like karate fighter becoming the world's best then the sequel should be about a different fighter that accomplished something very similar. In this case it would be inspired by an understudy of Oyama named Yoshiji Soeno. His in-game counterpart was named Sakurada Gashou. Soeno had beaten the masters of several forms of fighting and had even gone to Thailand to fight their best as well. The Black Cobra was a person that he was supposed to face that inspired the legend of Sagat.

Something was missing with Sakurada. He looked as stern as Soeno, one of the toughest masters of karate but at the same time Sakurada lacked any real personality. The design was a bit bland actually. There was nothing memorable about the character as he was. His black belt and uniform were very much off the shelf. He could have been interchangeable with any generic karateka. The designers working on characters for Street Fighter II was expanded by Capcom. New concepts for the main fighter were explored. The first attempt at bringing back Ryu was highly dubious. He no longer looked like the karate fighter from the first game, instead he looked like he popped out of the pages of a post apocalyptic comic book. When I tell people that Tetsuo Hara had a profound influence on the designers at Capcom I meant it. Ryu was a dead-ringer for Kenshiro, same leather jacket, same shoulder pad and all. The headband was the only thing that made him different.

Poaching a popular character wouldn't work with audiences. As the artists were scrambling to redesign the star of the game the attention was focused on the rest of the cast. The studio knew that they wanted a female character in the game. Given that kung-fu was the root of the Asian fighting arts then it had to be represented in the sequel. The original Street Fighter had traditional kung-fu archetypes Lee and Gen representing the art. The next time it would be a Chinese girl nicknamed the China Daughter. Could Chun-Li have been meant to be a daughter or granddaughter to Lee or Gen? We may never know. What we do know was that the original designs for the female character were bland as well. The original Chun-Li was a very generic design. Her face was very youthful, her eyes large and animated, the look could have been used in any manga or anime series at the time. Her uniform was very traditional and like Ryu's it was something that could have been pulled off of the shelf.

 

Chun-Li and Ryu needed some major work. They were not the only ones that needed to seriously be rethought. The most offensive figure in the original lineup was the wild man, Anabebe. This figure was very grotesque, very crude and based on a very dark era in world history. Anabebe had all the characteristics of a black brute. Big lips, dark skin, tight curly hair, he was for all intents and purposes a caricature of black slaves. As if there were any doubts the character was even presented with a collar and a chain. The stereotype of the black man being a savage, an unintelligent, unfeeling brute that only responded to violence was as old as slavery itself. Anabebe was designed as the largest character in the game, standing about 7' 5". He would have been larger than Sagat or Zangief. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Capcom had followed through with this character. Would his owners have to lock him down in between matches? Would they have been animated using whips against the wild man? Looking at the character I shudder to think that the developers working at Capcom, some of whom I consider to be personal heroes, thought this was a concept worth pursuing.

Centuries of racist campaigning against black people was sadly very effective. For generations slave owners often used religious texts as well as fraudulent scientific and sociological studies to prove that slaves were inferior creatures. They would dehumanize them, speak about them in animalistic terms as if they were mules. They would say terrible things such as blacks were highly tolerant to pain, didn't need to eat or sleep much like other beasts of burden. They could be controlled with violence, terrorism and whippings because that was the only language they understood. As slaves and abolitionists began to fight for equality and freedom then different interpretations of the black emerged. They suddenly became lazy and shiftless when just a few years prior they were workhorses. They became impossible to teach, to raise and become incorporated into society. There were many ugly caricatures of blacks made through most of the 19th and 20th centuries. These parodies reached every corner of the world, including Japan. Please watch the documentary Ethnic Notions to get a history lesson on the origins of Anabebe's design.

I have to remind myself that Japan has a history of being culturally isolated. The nation remained closed off until 1853 when the US Commodore Matthew Perry took four warships to Japan to "insist" that they begin opening trade routes with the rest of the world. Many citizens and not solely the Japanese can be insensitive to foreign cultures, customs and traditions. Check the history books to find out about the animosity between China, Japan and Korea. There were and continue to be issues with the ways each nation perceives their neighbors. We do not have to go far to see these things, Just look at North America and see how people in the USA, Canada and Mexico all perceived each other as well. What the artists at Capcom had done was take the images that they knew of the savage, one from newspapers and propaganda films and put those ideas on paper. They did not question what they knew, what they heard, they just drew it out.

What was most dangerous was that the Japanese designers were not looking to offend their audience. Notions about black people had become a part of the collective subconscious. People in Asian countries, as well as in the Americas had seen and heard so many negative stereotypes about blacks while growing up that they did not even think twice about them. They simply assumed that there must have been some truth to them. The most heartbreaking proof of how stereotypes had become a problem could be seen in the infamous Doll Test, conducted again and again in this country and around the world. Kids had been conditioned to think that light skinned people were inherently good and dark skinned people were inherently bad. They did not necessarily have to be taught these things by hateful parents. Television, movies, cartoons and even school friends repeated these ideas over and over.

I want you to think about why it is important that the designers at Capcom understand why these caricatures were not acceptable. They have a game that is played all around the world. Not by a few dozen or a few hundred people but instead by millions and millions. With each release they change the course of pop culture. They add a new chapter about what it means to be a Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Indian, Brazilian, African, British, Russian, US or Mexican. The producer working on Street Fighter has the power to help society adapt and evolve their cultural perceptions. Even if the change is only slightly positive then it is better than repeating old stereotypes. If the team squanders that chance and instead tries to get a laugh because a person is fat or black or anything that makes them not white or Japanese then that progress is lost. These things do not even have to be major changes for the character. The way they behave, the way they act and respond can have an influence on the way players perceive that character. Make minor changes and audiences will either begin to accept or reject that stereotype. Birdie for example was not only made fat but he acted grossly and brutish in many new animations for Street Fighter V. The message he sent to players was that the character had no self respect. Subconsciously it could be accepted that all fat people or all punks had no self respect as well. Street Fighter was simply confirming something that everyone suspected. By the same token Rufus was fat and dumb, very full of himself and a jab at how people from the US make themselves out to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth. Of course not everyone in the US thought or acted like Rufus. It was a very crude stereotype that did nothing to make the game better.

Making a caricature out of a nationality can be a dangerous act. It can be used by political cartoonists to make ugly parodies of foreigners. Think about how Muslims are depicted in editorial cartoons. Cartooning the prophet Muhammad has now led to the death of dozens of cartoonists and newspaper employees in Europe. Because of that now all Muslims are synonymous with terrorism in the eyes of many. If you stop and think about it the most popular fighting game characters are nothing more than caricatures of people and fighting arts. Japanese people do not really walk around in a karate gi, Chinese people do not walk around in a wushu uniform and Turks do not walk around with barrels of oil. These are not slight caricatures either but extremely exaggerated and dis-proportioned figures. In video games strong men have huge muscles, fat people are incredibly obese and women have large breasts. How sensitive the developers are to a particular style of fighting or culture (even something like punk culture!) can make or break a design. Just a little bit of insight can turn a mediocre character into somebody great. This was something that Capcom used to be able to turn around and something that I do not think the current team is capable of. Sakurada, Anabebe and the China Daughter were very plain caricatures. There was nothing redeeming about these early designs and that's why the team had to go back to the drawing board. But they were not the only characters that needed saving.

 

The designers at Capcom wanted to add an Indian mystic to the lineup. Their original plan was for a character in a turban called the Great Tiger. This character may have even been presented in a Ganesha mask with multiple arms. This character was as insensitive to Indians as Anabebe was to blacks. Street Fighter II was off to a terrible start. It looked like nothing was going to save Capcom from themselves. The studio reached out to other teams and the people working on character designs was tripled. At one point there was 20 or 25 people working on the cast alone. It was a number that was never matched by any other studio. What these people did was amazing. The insight that they landed to the project made the World Warriors something special. It was also a reason why I don't think that the current character designers at Capcom can match the greatness of the Street Fighter II team. Without all the extra eyes, extra input and extra insight from a large design team then the current crop of figures and remakes are not as great as they potentially could be. Coming up with a great character was not impossible but the designers would have to work twice as hard and revise twice as much just to match the legacy created by their forefathers. We will take a look at how the Street Fighter II team was able to turn things around in the next blog. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!