Sunday, April 1, 2018

Pirates of the Caribbean and Orientalism

While the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is one of my favorites, and my sister and I love watching Jack Sparrow fumble around during dramatic battle scenes, upon learning about orientalism I recognized some problematic scenes and characters in the series. These problems come to mind, specifically, with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and its character, Sao Fen, as well as its fight scene which takes place in Singapore.
The scene in Singapore opens with two white characters cautiously entering the dangerous Sao Fen's bathhouse and finding their white friend being basically tortured by Sao Fen's entirely Asian crew. This sets off a giant fight scene which rages throughout the bathhouse and out into the streets, where people fight with guns, swords, and even fireworks. Opening right away picturing the heroes as white and the bad guys as Asian immediately gives the audience opposing feelings toward Asia (because most of the audience probably didn't really care that it was specifically set in Singapore). Then, portraying them as violent, but in a comical way (using "typical" fireworks to fight rather than guns [which the Chinese invented by the way]) gives white people a sense of superiority, because they are "bad guys", but bad at it.
Additionally, Sao Fen is portrayed with a long mustache and scars all over his face and tattoos. This fulfills the stereotypical mystery aspect required for "the Orient". Then, later in the movie, he is shown trying to rape the white heroine, not only playing into racial stereotypes, but gender stereotypes as well, pitting the aggressive, non-white man against the fragile, white woman.

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