Disney's brand of representation is cultural appropriation
Photo courtesy of Medium
Disney, the kids-movie-making conglomerate, recently released its new animated film “Raya and the Last Dragon.” On paper, the Southeast-Asian inspired film could have been a wonderful addition to Disney’s increasingly diverse repertoire, riding the coattails of success from their other culture-specific films. The 2016 Maori and Polynesian-inspired film “Moana” provided a fresh breath of air amid Disney’s Eurocentric princess films, and it was followed by live-action versions of originals with protagonists of color like “Aladdin” and “Mulan.” But, characteristic of Disney, a lot of the criticism for its most recent venture into ethnically-diverse storytelling comes from the performative angle the company seems to be taking, dropping the ball on actual representation.
“Raya and the Last Dragon” is set in a fantasy location inspired by the entirety of Southeast Asia. That concept already raises many red flags. Despite meaning well, a movie lumping together any large group of people and co-opting their culture and experiences for “representation” is just an easy way for Western creators to check us off their diversity list. Just as how it is racist to conflate the entirety of East Asian culture, the rest of Asia also deserves the same pushback from audiences when it happens to that area’s cultures.
The peppering of various familiar elements from Southeast Asia in the film doesn’t take away from the fact that, unless referred to by its original name, a lot of those “symbols” can be construed as having been added to fit the vibe instead of for authenticity. The film reportedly draws from any and all cultures of Southeast Asia, so how are we to know that Raya’s hat is specifically a Filipino salakot or that the soup from the movie is congee? Those details are nice to infer, but with Hollywood and Western media’s track record, it’s hard to trust anything other than an official statement that these choices were made intentionally and not to just provide a Southeast Asian “feel” to the film. Similar to how Disney casted light-skinned South Asians for roles in their 2019 “Aladdin” live-action, these unsubstantiated additions to the film contain no actual representational value.
The main grievance, however, is the casting. While Disney is working to diversify onscreen talent, this should extend to voice acting roles. Kelly Marie Tran, a Vietnamese American, voiced Raya and is the only person of Southeast Asian descent on the main voice acting cast. Other notable Asian actors such as Awkwafina (Sisu the dragon), Gemma Chan (Namaari), Daniel Dae Kim (Chief Benja) and Sandra Oh (Virana) among others were cast as well, though they are all East Asian. While this is a far cry from when Disney used to cast all or majority white voice actors for non-white roles (like the original “Aladdin”), it still isn’t the kind of representation they say it is. Just like how they are using the guise of generic, pan-Southeast Asian culture to reap the box-office benefits of diversity, casting popular non-Southeast Asian actors for these voice acting roles is racist and thinly veiled cultural appropriation.
The icing on the cake is that the majority of Southeast Asia doesn’t even have access to Disney+ and cannot even watch the movie (which is also currently blocked by a paywall on the platform). Disney used Southeast Asian culture as a cash cow under the approval of a few Southeast Asian writers on the team and ultimately profited off their cultures with no actual representation. We pushed back on Disney when they messed up before, and we need to do it again. Authentic stories need to be told, but, most importantly, they need to be told right.
