I kinda did this video more meanly than I’d intended when presenting it to my class . I meant to have the Chinese subtitles on, but for some reason they wouldn’t work in the program. Sorry guys. But for the most part, the students could follow along okay- maybe not the particulars, but they certainly got a few of the jokes. Strangely, my weakest class was the only one who laughed at the “hammer is my penis” joke.
For the most part, Dr. Horrible is quick, difficult to understand due to all the important bits happening through the singing, but the humor and idea of a man being in love are easy enough to get. The physical comedy- not even people hitting each other with pies, but something like Dr. Horrible pretending to serve soup, really super-fast costume changes, and the atmosphere of both music and lighting, the gist of the singalong blog was understood. We also worked through what was going on, and I explained that this was a blog (not understood at first), that e-mails were being read (what is he talking about).
And of course, like Mr. Whedon does in most of his directions (as far as I have seen, anyway), the show started fun and silly, and as I broke between each section to talk about what happened in the previous (partially to emulate how it was released) they seemed to be enjoying it. And after the final act… they seemed a bit bummed. Mr. Whedon always likes to kill off characters you enjoy, to the point where it’s not really surprising anymore. I fear getting attached to any of his characters because I assume automatically they’re scheduled for an unrealistic, melodramatic death.
On the upside, none of my Chinese students had seen his work, so they were not as jaded as I about viewing it. We talked about how Dr. Horrible doesn’t seem like a bad guy, Captain Hammer is a jerk, and how Penny is a nice girl. We also talked about Bad Horse today, and I asked the class what they thought he looked like before he appeared.
The first response? A girl jokingly said, “A horse!” The class laughed at the response. I smiled and asked for other ideas.
“Ugly!”
“Mean!”
“Black!”
“Black?” I asked.
“Yes, a black man.”
…I added “black” to our list of words. At this point, I’m aware that this is a stereotype in China, and there aren’t many black people around to point out how wrong this is. And what am I fighting? Am I fighting a Chinese stereotype? Or am I fighting how black people are often portrayed in movies and TV? Especially American ones? And if it’s the latter, how do I, in a class like this, say “That’s not the case”? When in most of the movies and TV shows from the US, there’s always a token black guy who is, if not the boss, the boss’s right hand man?
In “Blink”, the Doctor Who episode, there was a black man as a police officer, who flirted with Sally Sparrow, our main heroine. And that went over well.
In Northern Exposure, there are just no black people, but we talked about the Inuits who live in the town, and we talked about the racism against Jewish people presented in the film.
Luckily, I guess, Dr. Horrible also presents us with an absence of a black bad guy. There’s a black woman Captain Hammer flirts with. But even more upsetting than an absence of a black villain, we have a lack of black characters.
Also a lack of a strong female lead (she’s essentially Dr. Horrible’s ideal of a woman, and we’re never allowed to see anything about her other than how she fits his role as an ideal woman. She’s given no faults, no problems, and is actually a one-dimensional good guy. I tried to find a fault with the character, and I could find none. None at all. It’s really creepy when you think about it, and I think the strongest, best characters have faults).
But the main issue- how do I try and let my students know that black people are not scary, evil thugs, and actually really awesome people? Do I attempt a direct approach, with my tiny evidence versus what they’ve seen, what they know and have experienced? Or do I subtly show them shows where black people are really the same as Chinese people, white people, holding the same jobs and involved in the same relationships? Or do I show them that sometimes, though black and white people have different cultures, just like Americans and Chinese people, we’re all people, and these differences do not make us less equal as humans?
Really, it’s a question of whether or not I bring attention to the stereotype. And the girl seemed embarrassed when I called her on it; perhaps it was the look of disbelief on my face. The rest of the class giggled at our interaction, so I’m not sure what they supported.
I know it’s not up to me to change their mind. They already have option about black people, the same as they do gay people (I’m staying in the closet here for the first few months, at least, so they see me and get to know me before they judge me).
Not all students follow this stereotype, of course, and I can only encourage them to not do so. I think the day we, as humans, realize that other humans can have differences, that they don’t have to be completely like us, will be a very good day indeed. Until then, I guess I’ll have to keep showing examples, not force-feeding them, so they learn it by themselves.
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