Wow, as someone who works on social issues. Claiming that putting chinese sublegends in a base kit is far from inappropriate cultural appropriation. Stop 'woke-posting' please. If a designer wants to but chinese sublegends in a kit based around a show that has deep rooted influence with Chinese culture, it's a far cry from using chinese characters as a tattoo. You do understand cultural appropriation is a neutral action right? It's context that gives it a position for positive or inappropriate usage.
This claim is a bigger stretch then how thin Ren is stretched over these sets he's running.
Won't reply after this but wanted to address your comments.
1. My previous message was entirely my opinion, feel free to disagree
2. I don't feel that strongly about the Zhuyin kit as base, I'm just saying it makes me uncomfortable as someone who knows the ATLA lore and the current situation of chinese culture but not gonna force my opinion down people's throat. Yes my wording could have been better but at least try to understand where I'm coming from if you're gonna have a go at me and ultimately we all want this set to be as good as possible
3. My opinion of chinese culture in the west is political and off topic so I understand why you're annoyed. But it's also an unpopular opinion guaranteed to generate more hate than understanding since, let's face it, nobody gives a **** about chinese culture. So my intentions wasn't to "woke post", but to inform people so that they consider this perspective when they make a decision since they're borrowing ideas from that culture, they can decide to ignore it if they want. My opinion is I'm still uncomfortable with forcing zhuyin in the base for a set originally inspired by japanese culture
4. I'm a supporter of freedom of expression and testing out new designs, which is why I'm interested in how the red on red for these keys will turn out. I also know it is entirely up to the designers to explore their ideas and our role as consumers and lurkers is to support their decision if we like it
5. However, I'm more passionate about ATLA than keycaps so your post has me pissed @Hugs94
6. ATLA travels across a world so of course they're gonna draw influence from multiple sources, but the fire nation is Japan and this kit is based on the fire nation. People have said this before in this thread, and the biggest giveaway is the sun warriors, Japan (日本) literally have the sun character in its name and its national flag is a sun! The earth kingdom is China, just look at their outfits and Long Feng with his shaved head. It's more broadly acceptable to mix these cultures in the west since they're both asian (so not as triggering as chinese character tattoos), but ye... You can make your own opinion
7. I reasoned why the design made me uncomfortable while giving the full context of why it made me feel this way in my previous post. The main problem I have with the current set up is consistency, feels like some of the novelties and original inspiration is separate to the rest of the design. Zuko and the fire nation are based on Japan, the blue spirit mask (which is in the novelties) is based on a traditional Japanese mask! Meanwhile the dragon, red and gold colours, and Zhuyin kit is very chinese. The merging of these 2 concepts, as well as including this set in the
ATLA representative element series is what triggers me
8. Hugs94, you use the authority of "someone who works on social issues" but you don't read the context I wrote in my previous post even tho it explains why it can be interpreted as inappropriate. Where is the
proper break down of my ideas and the additional insights from someone in your field instead of the dismissive attitude. Also as someone who relates to others on a regular basis, why the antagonising attitude instead of understanding the perspective of other people and why passionate ATLA fans feel the same way as myself, I'm not the first person to make these comments and I doubt I'll be the last. (Sorry I don't mean to attack you personally, but covid has made me sensitive towards info from authority...)
Ren, this isn't an attack on you or your work and I'm still interested in how this set turns out. Mizu and Terra are absolutely amazing imo and raised a high bar, which is why I'm sad about red dragon since the consistency of the underlying idea isn't quite there. I'm nitpicking at details, but it's accurate details that make nerds like myself appreciative of the efforts put in. Hope your sets go well.
