Author: Kesiah Mae Zabala
Editor: Jordan Shaevitz
“Blaze Runner 2049”
The beginnings of the cyberpunk genre can be traced back to Western fears of the East. Often, Asian characters frequently serve as portals to the future, introducing sophisticated technology and hyper-technologized environments. But—what is it about Asian-ness — whether it’s Asian countries, Asian personalities, or Asian cultures — that conjures up fantasies of the future? Movies depict Asian culture with red lanterns strung across alleyways, samurai swords, women dressed in a qipao, but without the people who created it. If they shaped this cyberpunk future, then where are they?
- “The way Asia is portrayed in modern cyberpunk fiction, it’s more like a prop, rather than a proper inseparable element of the storytelling,” says Mark Fillon, the creative director for Chinatown Detective Agency…
(WHAT IS TECHNO+ORIENTALISM?)
To elaborate, the use of Asian aesthetics in cyberpunk, futuristic, and dystopian settings is known as techno-orientalism; while critically evaluating the notion of Asians as both technologically advanced and intellectually primitive people in desperate need of Western awareness-raising. Due to western fears of Japan’s economic prosperity, dubbed “Japan Panic,” techno-orientalist entertainment became popular in the 1980s. As Japanese companies bought out Sony and Matsushita, of course, the West was nervous. These events heightened suspicions of Japanese dominance and the yellow peril, which alludes to western anxieties of East Asians taking control of or ruining Western civilization. As a result, a new wave of techno-orientalist writings and films had emerged.
East Asians featured in these movies/games: (no clear representation or overly stereotyped!)
Games such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Neuromancer to movies such as Cloud Atlas and Blaze Runner 2049 have protagonists that are usually white and shown as heroic. The East Asians, on the other hand, are either depicted as an all-knowing, scary, awful force that is hyper-mechanized, or as a force that needs to be saved by the protagonist. In Cloud Atlas, Sonmi 451 was dehumanized and displayed as a mechanical object.
Work Cited
“Canceled: Sci-Fi Is Full of ‘Asian Futures, without Asians’.” KQED. Web. 30 Aug. 2021.
Ong, Alexis. “Fear of a Yellow Planet: Why We Need to Actually Understand Cyberpunk.” Fanbyte. 18 Nov. 2020. Web. 30 Aug. 2021.
Techno-Orientalism: The Hyper-Futuristic Perception of East Asia in Science Fiction Media. YouTube. Diversify Our Narrative Campaign, 06 June 2021. Web. 30 Aug. 2021.
Vouloumanos, Victoria. “Are Asian Characters Convenient Plot Devices in Science-fiction?” Medium. Medium, 15 Feb. 2019. Web.
Yang, George. “Orientalism, ‘cyberpunk 2077,’ and Yellow Peril in Science Fiction.” Wired. Conde Nast, 08 Dec. 2020. Web. 30 Aug. 2021.
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