Petition Urges Boycott of Another Whitewashed Netflix Show

New Petition Urges Boycott of Yet Another Whitewashed Netflix Show “Journey to the West”
***https://www.thepetitionsite.com/262/198/317/***
The petition is one of many Care2 efforts to push back on whitewashing in entertainment
A Care2 petition is urging signers to boycott an upcoming Netflix miniseries, “Journey to the West,” which is based off of a renowned Chinese fable, yet features an all-white cast. The petition accusing the show of whitewashing has gathered over 6,400 signatures.
VIEW THE CARE2 PETITION HERE: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/262/198/317/
The show, produced by studios in New Zealand and Australia, is a retelling of “Journey to the West,” a renowned Chinese fable about a 7th-century monk and three fallen gods with mystical powers. The story is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
Care2 petition author Lucy Linaj, a 23-year-old Asian-American, is calling for a boycott of the show.
"You can't embrace an identity that you always see represented as the perpetual Other,” Linaj told Care2. “Media producers who replace Asian characters with White actors reinforce the idea that Whiteness is the standard and European features are the epitome of beauty, thereby convincing non-White children to loathe their own appearances and develop self-hate.
“Distributors like Netflix need to hold producers accountable so we can end the practice of whitewashing."
The new show, titled “The Legend of Monkey,” will be a 10-part half-hour series that follows the life of a teenage girl, played by Luciane Buchanan, who is accompanied by three powerful fallen gods: Monkey, played by Chai Hansen, Pigsy, played by Josh Thomson, and Sandy, played by Emilie Cocquerel.
A slew of other Care2 petitions have pushed back on Hollywood whitewashing in recent years, some amassing over 100,000 signatures:
• A Care2 petition signed by more than 105,000 people demanded DreamWorks Studios reconsider the casting of Scarlett Johansson, a non-Asian actress, as the lead Major Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character, in Ghost in the Shell, which was released in March.
• In January, a Care2 petition called for a boycott of Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, a made-for-TV film that would have starred English actor Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson. After the petition gathered over 21,000 signatures, the network dropped the show.
• Last summer, over 18,000 people signed a Care2 petition asking Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer David Franzoni and producer Stephen Joel Brown not to whitewash their planned biopic of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi by casting Leonardo DiCaprio as the famed philosopher and to cast a Middle Eastern actor instead.
• A Care2 petition blasted 2015’s Stonewall for whitewashing.
• More than 96,000 people signed a Care2 petition lambasting on Warner Bros. for casting white actress Rooney Mara as Tiger Lilly, a Native American character, in 2015’s Pan.
• Twenty-five thousand people signed a Care2 petition blasting director Ridley Scott for failing to cast Egyptian actors in his 2014 Biblical film Exodus: Gods and Kings.

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