It’s Orientalism, My Dear Watson: Sherlock Holmes’ Trouble With Race

September 29th, 2011 by Arturo

It straightened itself into a little black man – the smallest I have ever seen – with a great, misshapen head and a shock of tangled, dishevelled hair. Holmes had already drawn his revolver, and I whipped out mine at the sight of this savage, distorted creature. He was wrapped in some sort of dark ulster or blanket, which left only his face exposed, but that face was enough to give a man a sleepless night. Never have I seen features so deeply marked with all bestiality and cruelty. His small eyes glowed and burned with a sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed back from his teeth, Which grinned and chattered at us with half animal fury.

Moreover, colonialism informs how Holmes and Watson approach the case, which involves a set of gems from India that goes back and forth between the characters of Captain Morstan and Major Sholto. Sholto is criticized not only for killing Morstan to get them, but for stealing them from an Englishman. Morstan’s theft, however, is glossed over.

Despite this, Sign has been adapted no less than 12 times for the screen (although it’s possible an Indian adaptation, Neekkam (The Move), is more sympathetic to Tonga and Sholto), for its’ bigger contributions to the Holmes canon: it’s the first mention of his drug habit, and the debut of Doctor Watson’s future wife, Mary.

But both of these plot points were already in play when we met Downey’s Sherlock in the last Holmes movie, which makes this costume choice for Downey seem all the more arbitrary by himself, Ritchie and Shadows writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney. As IGN reports, the film is “influenced by” a Doyle story, The Final Problem, but isn’t “strictly based” on it. Of all the disguises they had to choose from, is this really the best they could come up with?

Which isn’t to say that Holmes’ reputation as a master of disguise shouldn’t be played on in any new interpretations of Doyle’s work. But put it this way: when Downey’s character in Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus, went to absurd lengths to “credibly” play a black man, the absurdity of the choice was made plain. It’s possible the same will happen to Downey’s Holmes in this new scenario, but given what’s gone on before, it hardly seems worth it for the sake of a played-out sight gag.

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Posted in asian, books, celebrities, exoticisation, movies, race & representations, xenophobia | 19 comments

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  • Anonymous

    I generally loved the BBC update of Sherlock, but I LOATHED The Blind Banker. The scene with the ominous music during scenes of Chinatown was especially infuriating. They tried to make lucky cats seem sinister, which would’ve been hilarious — lucky cats, sinister? really? — except for the way it was appalling.

  • Anonymous

    I generally loved the BBC update of Sherlock, but I LOATHED The Blind Banker. The scene with the ominous music during scenes of Chinatown was especially infuriating. They tried to make lucky cats seem sinister, which would’ve been hilarious — lucky cats, sinister? really? — except for the way it was appalling.

  • Anonymous

    I generally loved the BBC update of Sherlock, but I LOATHED The Blind Banker. The scene with the ominous music during scenes of Chinatown was especially infuriating. They tried to make lucky cats seem sinister, which would’ve been hilarious — lucky cats, sinister? really? — except for the way it was appalling.

  • Digital Coyote

    I’m not at all surprised at how SE Asians were characterized on the new Holmes show given how PoC, human, alien, or otherwise, are often treated in Dr. Who.

    Really tired of people excusing RDJ’s–and all associated writing or directing parties, for that matter–colorface problem.  It’s not “multicultural.”  It’s not “okay” because he’s really playing someone trying hard to be authentic.  Melanin is not a damn punchline, but I think it makes white people feel comfortable when it’s made in to one.   As the other post today said: people of color don’t exist unless whites say they do – and, even then, they exist only as they are seen by whites.  Being outnumbered by billions is less scary if you can make them in to something other than real live human beings.

  • Digital Coyote

    I’m not at all surprised at how SE Asians were characterized on the new Holmes show given how PoC, human, alien, or otherwise, are often treated in Dr. Who.

    Really tired of people excusing RDJ’s–and all associated writing or directing parties, for that matter–colorface problem.  It’s not “multicultural.”  It’s not “okay” because he’s really playing someone trying hard to be authentic.  Melanin is not a damn punchline, but I think it makes white people feel comfortable when it’s made in to one.   As the other post today said: people of color don’t exist unless whites say they do – and, even then, they exist only as they are seen by whites.  Being outnumbered by billions is less scary if you can make them in to something other than real live human beings.

  • Digital Coyote

    I’m not at all surprised at how SE Asians were characterized on the new Holmes show given how PoC, human, alien, or otherwise, are often treated in Dr. Who.

    Really tired of people excusing RDJ’s–and all associated writing or directing parties, for that matter–colorface problem.  It’s not “multicultural.”  It’s not “okay” because he’s really playing someone trying hard to be authentic.  Melanin is not a damn punchline, but I think it makes white people feel comfortable when it’s made in to one.   As the other post today said: people of color don’t exist unless whites say they do – and, even then, they exist only as they are seen by whites.  Being outnumbered by billions is less scary if you can make them in to something other than real live human beings.

  • http://commentarybyval.blogspot.com/ Val

    Well said. I was really shocked at so many people making so many excuses for Robert Downey, Jr’s Blackface character in Tropic Thunder. And it looks like getting away with that has made him even bolder. I wonder what he’ll do next?

  • http://twitter.com/danthrasher Daniel Thrasher

    I loved all three episodes of the BBC show.  There’s something about the smugglers using the racism and fetishized interest of the ‘mysterious circus’ that the upper class Londoners had against them.  The show pointed out that the characters weren’t really the meek pan-Asian stereotypes they originally presented them as.
     
    There’s still the issue of the music and every Chinese character being tied to crime, but it’s a mystery show.  All of the music was dark and every guest character for these types of shows is categorically a victim or a criminal. 
     
    To me, the movie’s yellow face is much different because it’s being played for laughs.  Maybe it could work if RDJ doesn’t open his mouth and just goes by without interacting with anyone, but we just know it will come with a complete over-the-top performance. 

  • Julia

    Totally agree. And also, aren’t lucky cats Japanese, not Chinese? I was shaking my head at that, too.

  • Kat

    Redface of course. The Holy Trinity.

  • Kat

    Redface of course. The Holy Trinity.

  • Soph

    Racist codswallop indeed! How could they think that was okay? This seems so obviously offensive I think I’d rather see what others make of the film before I give my money to the box office. I enjoyed the first one and probably would have gone to see the sequel but I don’t want to pay to see RDJ play another racist stereotype for kicks.

  • Soph

    Racist codswallop indeed! How could they think that was okay? This seems so obviously offensive I think I’d rather see what others make of the film before I give my money to the box office. I enjoyed the first one and probably would have gone to see the sequel but I don’t want to pay to see RDJ play another racist stereotype for kicks.

  • Jenny Islander

    Maybe if the point of the Chinese beggar getup is to get past people to whom he would be invisible?  Or (this being RDJ) people who would be disarmed by someone performing the stereotype of a groveling beggar with a bad accent?

    But, yes, ominous music paired with a shot of Chinatown . . . omens are not good.

  • Jenny Islander

    Maybe if the point of the Chinese beggar getup is to get past people to whom he would be invisible?  Or (this being RDJ) people who would be disarmed by someone performing the stereotype of a groveling beggar with a bad accent?

    But, yes, ominous music paired with a shot of Chinatown . . . omens are not good.

  • Kate

    That scene with the ominous music from BBC’s Sherlock was so bizarre. It was like, my god, look at these weird foreigners, so removed from our culture, with the way that they…talk on cell phones, and hang out with friends, and stuff.

  • Kate

    That scene with the ominous music from BBC’s Sherlock was so bizarre. It was like, my god, look at these weird foreigners, so removed from our culture, with the way that they…talk on cell phones, and hang out with friends, and stuff.

  • Anonymous

    Eh, I was actually on the fence with the Tropic Thunder role. To me, it read as a *critique* of blackface, which I’m fine with — but I’m sure it got a lot of uncritical laughs, and if a good portion of the audience isn’t perceiving the critical element, then it might as well be plain old blackface.

  • Anonymous

    The way I took the Kirk Lazarus character was as a skewering of the industry–that they would go to such great lengths to avoid casting a black man in a main role that they would take a white actor in blackface first. It also appeared to satirize actors who pride themselves on delivering “authentic” performances when everything about them is manufactured. If that’s not what people took away from it, though, it doesn’t really matter.