Warrior: John Chinaman
May 2, 2019 11:21 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Accused of assault and perhaps worse, Ah Sahm gets a cold shoulder from the Hop Wei, with his fate in the hands of an unexpected ally. Buckley talks to Mai Ling about straining the relationship between the Long Zii and Hop Wei, while Leary pressures gentleman industrialist Byron Mercer, Penny's father, to hire his men for the cable-car track job.
posted by filthy light thief (6 comments total)
 
I don't have access to Bruce Lee's original writing, and have no idea of the fidelity of the writing for this, but I totally see Lee observing the continuous flow of racism/ injustice, especially in the realm of law and law enforcement.

Sources differ, but San Fran in 1880 was roughly 90% "White," 9% Chinese, and 1% African-American. I was surprised.

(in 1970, it was 59, 8, and 13 (and 12 Hispanic))
posted by porpoise at 7:32 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


wow, thanks to fanfar that I found this show!

Im going to be honest, I find it difficult to keep track of the connections between everyone. Even though i binged all three episodes, I feel like i should have been taking notes.
posted by rebent at 7:43 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


I have to admit - the Chinese names are causing me trouble, even as someone with a given Chinese name at birth.

I'm just so used to Anglic-style names. Ah Sahm being Asam, Mai Ling bieing Mailing, Long Zii being Longzee, and Hop Wei being Hopway might be easier for me?

Our Singaporean CFO goes by a nickname ("Zee" - from Zhe, from... I don't know what her name is in Chinese, and we have a CSO who pronounces her name as if from the mainland Mandarin pronunciation).

It's just weird how, when speaking in (unaccented) English (as sub for Cantonese), they use the Angliziced version of names rather than the actual pronunciation of names.

My Anglicized surname doesn't work under English pronunciation rules. In my teens I made my friends mispronounce my surname the same way a similarly Anglicized Irish name and because it's also a Millenial given name, I ended up with that bastardization as a nickname - and I totally accepted it.

Leadership at my current company asked me how I wanted my last name to be pronounced (because we got someone with the same first name brought inboard) and they rejected my nickname and wanted to pronounce my "true" name - and they either get it entirely wrong all the time, or pronounce it Mandarin style. It's frustrating.

I'm actually super ok with my nickname - Shea/ Shae/ Shay!
posted by porpoise at 7:46 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


oh gosh, yes that is so complicated. And, at my company, they are inconsistent with how they CAPITALIZE or (family, given) vs (given family) vs (family given) they record the names in Outlook.
posted by rebent at 7:58 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


Using the "boy from Georgia" as the sympathetic (but not to be trusted by Chinese) character is interesting, especially when Lee starts suspecting that 3 is bullshitting him - possibly leading Lee to be less sympathetic - but perfectly in character for 3. Especially in light of the Mayor stirring up racism.

When Big John talk to 3 after 3's trial, I think there's going to be a lot more to this story.

Not that it's historical or anything. Just bleeding cool from the fiction.

I'm liking this show - especially how the "protagonist" is learning all kinds of shit that aren't obvious and we with him.

Loyalties are fluid. As a show, it benefit from being complicated (Skinemax paid for this?!) - but introducing so much nuance so early is probably detrimental - especially when subterfuge plays such a huge role - a classic theme for HK "undercover cop" movies."

--

Capitalization - how does your company deal with employees from the Netherlands?


3 definitely knows what he's involved in, and has to have an exit stratagey.
posted by porpoise at 8:27 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


Bill the Cop is an interesting character at this point. He seems to be someone who has been brought up in a time of prejudice and who has ended up in a system in which said prejudice is endemic. BUT... he notices the injustices and doesn't feel right about them. He's trying to balance the urge to be a good man with the urge to not get buried under a shit system.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:30 AM on May 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


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