{"id":13891,"date":"2009-10-13T10:02:47","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T15:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=13891"},"modified":"2017-09-16T19:00:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T00:00:31","slug":"guest-post-can-ming-the-merciless-be-redeemed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/10\/13\/guest-post-can-ming-the-merciless-be-redeemed\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Ming the Merciless Be Redeemed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a fan of both sci fi and pre-WWII pop culture, I naturally have a lot of affection for Alex Raymond\u2019s Flash Gordon<\/em>. There\u2019s much to be enjoyed about the original comic strip (which basically invented the style that led to the creation of super-hero comics), the 1936 serial starring Buster Crabbe, and even the 1980 movie, which I\u2019ve mentioned before<\/a>.\u00a0 The 1970\u2019s softcore porn version, Flesh Gordon<\/em>, is also a lot of fun.\u00a0 Although the various incarnations get pretty complicated, the basic story is of a regular guy from Earth who ends up on a bizarre alien planet, where he inadvertently becomes a hero in the struggle against Emperor Ming, the tyrant who has been keeping the whole planet under his thumb.\u00a0 With the recent rebirth of big budget sci fi and comic book adaptations, the time almost seems perfect for a new Flash Gordon <\/em>movie.\u00a0 It\u2019s never quite been done cinematic justice, and the basic story would hold up well to a modern interpretation.<\/p>\n

\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s one rather big problem: Emperor Ming.\u00a0 As the name implies, Flash\u2019s nemesis is an unreconstructed \u201cyellow peril\u201d Asian stereotype.\u00a0 Despite being an alien, he\u2019s undeniably portrayed as the worst sort of racist view of a Chinese ruler.\u00a0 He\u2019s a vindictive, inscrutable tyrant with an affection for ornate finery and a lecherous eye for (white) Earth women.\u00a0 In the original comic he has bright yellow skin, long fingernails, a high-collared robe, and a Fu Manchu goatee.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the serial was faithful to this version, casting a white actor named Charles Middleton and putting him in the same kind of \u201cyellowface\u201d make-up that was common in those days for portrayals of Asian characters.\u00a0 Of course, the actual skin tone was irrelevant in a monochromatic film.<\/p>\n

Concerns about racism never even entered anyone\u2019s mind until the 1980 film.\u00a0 By that time, it was necessary to be at least a little racially sensitive (but not too much).\u00a0 The answer was to leave Ming basically unchanged, while pretending there was never anything Asian about him.\u00a0 Swedish actor Max von Sydow was given a look that was immediately recognizable as the classic Ming, but with just enough of the Asian elements replaced with a more futuristic, \u201calien\u201d look for plausible deniability.<\/p>\n

The animated versions of Ming, in both the Filmation\u2019s Flash Gordon<\/em> series and the later Defenders of the Earth<\/em>, took this idea a step further.\u00a0 Ming was given green skin, as if to say, \u201cSee, this guy\u2019s clearly an alien!\u00a0 How could you accuse him of representing an Earthly race?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with these attempts at a more extraterrestrial appearance, however, anyone who\u2019s at all familiar with longstanding racist depictions of Asian men can recognize Ming as an embodiment of that unfortunate tradition.\u00a0 Meanwhile, more sympathetic characters who are clearly of the same race as Ming, such as his traitorous daughter Aurra and her lover Prince Barin, were unambiguously white.\u00a0 They did have yellow skin in the original comics, but even then they were less recognizable Asian than Ming.\u00a0 Later portrayals, even the cartoons in which Ming is green, show them as totally caucasian.\u00a0 The message seems to be that the more evil you are, the more alien you are, and alien in this case looks a lot like Chinese.<\/p>\n

Naturally, when the Sci Fi Channel decided to adapt Flash Gordon<\/em> for TV in 2007, they were eager to avoid anything that could be perceived as racism.\u00a0 Their answer to the Ming problem was to completely remake the character, removing every bit of his previous look to create a very white sort of fascist dictator.<\/p>\n

There was a lot wrong with this adaptation (it was unwatchably boring, for one), but one of the complaints against it was that Ming was lackluster and missing everything that had made him a memorable villain.\u00a0 Regardless of his origins, we expect certain things from Ming: a bald head, facial hair, an ornate robe.\u00a0 Exoticism.\u00a0 So what is to be done?\u00a0 There can be no Flash Gordon<\/em> without Ming the Merciless, but it\u2019s possible that Ming is a character too wrapped up in racism to ever escape.<\/p>\n

In my idle moments I\u2019ve given some thought to how Hollywood could pull off a successful Flash Gordon<\/em> revamp, and the only idea I have for Ming is this: don\u2019t run away from his faux-Chinese heritage; push it in the other direction.\u00a0 Cast a Chinese actor as Ming, and make Aurra, Barin, and the rest of their people equally Chinese.\u00a0 Eliminate Earth entirely, setting the story in the future and making Flash\u2019s planet one that was colonized by the United States, while Ming\u2019s planet was colonized by China.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need exposition for this- just imply it with production design.\u00a0 For Ming\u2019s costumes, create a futuristic variation on what Chinese emperors actually wore, rather than just an American\u2019s simplistic idea of the look.\u00a0 Do away with Ming\u2019s predatory behavior toward Flash\u2019s girlfriend.\u00a0 It\u2019s a creepy and dated element regardless of his race.\u00a0 Finally, sweep away the blond=good\/dark=bad undertone of the original by making Flash Gordon black.\u00a0 After all, it would make a great role for Will Smith, a charismatic action hero who\u2019s been hurting for a sci fi property that\u2019s actually worth watching.<\/p>\n

As for the role of Ming himself, there are plenty of aging action stars who could pull it off.\u00a0 Given the inevitable campiness of the project, Jackie Chan might work.\u00a0 I\u2019d suggest Chow Yun Fat, except that it could be hard to distinguish his version of Ming from the character he played in the last Pirates of the Caribbean <\/em>movie.<\/p>\n

But would this be enough to redeem the character and the franchise?\u00a0 Maybe privileged white fans like me need to accept that some characters and stories have too much bigotry in their history to ever be redeemed.\u00a0 After all, nobody is trying to create an acceptable new version of Uncle Remus (although I say this with hesitation, because it seems possible that someone in a locked room at Disney might right now be doing that very thing).\u00a0 If there is to be no more Flash Gordon<\/em>, I\u2019ll accept that, but I do wish someone could find a way to solve the problem of Emperor Ming.<\/p>\n

———————————<\/p>\n

Dustin Collins is pursuing an MA at the Ohio University School of Film.\u00a0 When he has time between classes and screenings, he blogs about film, pop culture, and Betty Boop at\u00a0okaywithme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our\u00a0Guidelines for Guest Bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a fan of both sci fi and pre-WWII pop culture, I naturally have a lot of affection for Alex Raymond\u2019s Flash Gordon. There\u2019s much to be enjoyed about the original comic strip (which basically invented the style that led to the creation of super-hero comics), the 1936 serial starring Buster Crabbe, and even the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[343,285,1759,23705],"class_list":["post-13891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tvmovies","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders","tag-vintage-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13891"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71147,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891\/revisions\/71147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}