<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>The character was already named. When the actor was cast one of the producers suggested changing the name of the character to reflect the actor's heritage. The actor stepped in and said "Not required." His thinking was (as I recall) that his appearance coupled with a clearly European surname would indicate that we're all pretty much the same.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Ah, okay. That's what I wanted to know. I didn't think they would've made up that name after he was cast, but it was cool of him to keep the character name.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Matheson is not Asian, he is Asian-American.
Are you really that surprised that an Asian-American has a western name?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
First name? No. Western LAST names, though, aren't exactly common. Asian, Asian-American, it doesn't matter. The man's of asian descent. And being an American has zero bearing on that, as you tend to have a last name indicative of your descent. Just because my family came over to the US doesn't mean that they automatically changed their last name to a more anglo sounding name like Smith or Johnson. Now, I can understand how it would've happened. At some point an ancestor of his married a guy with the last name of Matheson and from then on his family's been named Matheson ever since. Just that someone of asian descent with a European last name
isn't a common thing. That's the point. And I was curious why he was named that way. Now I know.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Well, I have to say that it is very nice to see all this respect regarding "asians" in the movie industry, on these boards! It is nice and comforting to know! As everyone is aware of, there are not alot of asians on tv...and, for those who seperate Asian Nationals (Jackie Chan,Jet Li,Chow Yun Fat) opposed to Asian-Americans, HATS OFF TO YOU! That is the key! There are many Asians that are born in America that have never stepped on the ground of their ancestry...and speak only one language---ENGLISH...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
And had Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or Chow Yun Fat been born in the US, their last names would still be the same. Their parents may very well have given them more western sounding first names, but their last names would've still been asian, whether they could speak the language of their parents homeland or not.
As for "Asian Vs. Asian-American", that's a pointless comment. He's not Asian? I beg to differ. Being American, too, doesn't make a difference. He's as much an asian as he is an asian-american, and arguing semantics is dumb. Just like I qualify as a hispanic as well as a hispanic-american even though I was born in the US. So what, then. I'm not hispanic because I'm American? All they hyphen does is make the classification more specific. Asian-American is a more specific term, but he's still asian to begin with.
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