[Criticism Corner] Avatar & Cultural Appropriation (Patreon)

So after tweeting about a moment in one of the Avatar comics, a great discussion took place in my mentions.  I wanted to explore it more and make a more cohesive argument for my thoughts than a couple of tweets.  This is some tricky subject matter and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I’m a massive fan of the Avatar series, but I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to actually go through and read the comics because so far, they’ve been really good!

Today, I’d like to talk about the first of these books, The Promise, by diving into its major theme.  Now this isn’t going to be an overview of the book itself.  Don’t worry, that video is going to come out later, but I think that the messaging of The Promise and how it handles the discussion of the coexistence of foreign cultures is something worth talking about.

Inspired by imperial Japan pulling its colonies out of foreign nations at the end of World War II, the main conflict of The Promise is that during the one hundred year war, the Fire Nation established several colonies within the Earth Kingdom.  These cities were taken by force and with Zuko becoming the fire lord after the war, the idea was to dissolve them, send all of the Fire Nation citizens back to their home country, and return the cities to the Earth Kingdom.

However, this proved to be a challenge as due to the age of some of these colonies, generations were born and raised here, leading to a full on blend of cultures.  For example, the oldest of the colonies, Yu Dao, has become one of the richest cities on the planet because of their superior metal crafting, something that was only achieved through the combination of Earth and Fire Nation techniques.

Now of course, it’s shown that the Earth Kingdom residents in Yu Dao are often treated as second class citizens, but a majority of them are actually okay with this dynamic and want to keep the current status quo?  Okay look, a subjugated people being okay with their own oppression is definitely problematic in its own right and this is by no means the right video to open up that can of worms.

ANYWAY, while Aang, Zuko, and the Earth King come to the conclusion that dissolving the colonies and deporting the Fire Nation citizens is the right move, Zuko goes back on the plan once he gets a look into the lives of the citizens in Yu Dao.  This puts him at odds with Aang who firmly believes in the separation of the world’s people into four distinct nations thinking that having them exist separately would bring balance to the world, but after seeing life in Yu Dao for himself, Aang starts to come around to the idea of unity.

This can further be seen when he and Katara visit Ba Sing Se and encounter the Official Avatar Aang Fanclub, a group of squealing fangirls that are completely obsessed with him.  Oh and by the way, this is what the bulk of the video is going to be focusing on.  The fan club is super into Air Nomad culture, going so far as to try and make their clubhouse resemble the Western Air Temple by incorporating plenty of upside down decorations.  I mean they didn’t do it well, but it’s the thought that counts and Aang doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.  One member even got her hands on a traditional airbender flute which Aang was delighted to see and play.  Although it was just a silly fan club, Aang almost felt like he was among his people again and that experience meant the world to him.

Later in the book, Aang meets the Yu Dao chapter of the fan club and they are WAY different than the previous one he encountered.  These folks care a lot more about Air Nomad culture and did their best to research all they could about Aang’s people, even recreating their clothes.

Aang is initially super excited about this, but when the fan club’s president mentions that the markings on their heads were actual traditional airbender tattoos, his enthusiasm turned to disgust.  See in his culture, airbender tattoos are sacred and are earned through years of airbending training.  Sure, the fan club only gave themselves the tattoos after mastering hundreds of airbender-like forms, but according to Aang, this was taking things WAY too far.  

Now I’m not going to pretend like Aang has always been the most level headed when it comes to reacting to things that upset him, but in general, he’s a pretty understanding dude. (The Desert)  I mean he was nice to these folks at first, but why would something as seemingly innocent as tattoos be such a big deal when he was fine with the previous chapter celebrating different aspects of the Air Nomads?

Well, partaking in the more casual aspects like decorations and clothes are one thing, but these fan club members were essentially turning a big part of Aang’s religion into a costume and that’s where the line of appreciation and appropriation was crossed for him.

Okay, so let’s talk cultural appropriation.  The dictionary definition of it is “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”  In practice though, what is or isn’t appropriation is a bit of a case by case basis as it varies depending on which cultures are being quote unquote “taken” from and also the philosophies of individual people.  For example, a teenage girl in 2018 set the internet on fire when she wore a Chinese qipao (chi-pow) dress to the prom and opinions were mixed.  Some Chinese people saw this as a disrespectful co-option of traditional attire and others saw it as a victory for Chinese culture.

Debates like these are nothing new and they’re not going away anytime soon, but the case of the Official Avatar Aang Fanclub is an interesting starting point for this discussion.

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room.  Avatar is a fictional series and while the cultures depicted in it are based on ones from the real world, they’re not real themselves.  Additionally, even IN the context of this universe, the Air Nomads are specifically hard to talk about since they were hunted to extinction by Fire Lord Sozin at the beginning of the war. (The Southern Air Temple) Aang is the only survivor which puts him in a very unique and stressful position.

It’s clear that Aang wants to rebuild and restore his people as evidenced by how he said that for balance to exist, there must be four separate nations.  Kind of difficult to do when one was literally killed off.  Clearly Aang was okay with the fan club celebrating his people and he only really got mad when he heard the Yu Dao members mention that their head markings were literal tattoos.

It’s tricky though because these tattoos are clearly something that’s more about having an Air Nomad ancestry rather than just being an Airbending master as we can see that of all of the previous Avatars, the only ones that have the tattoos are Nomads.  If it was strictly about mastering Airbending then you would expect all of them to also have these markings. (Endgame)

This is why the fan club adorning themselves is tricky because the club is just that, a group that thinks Aang is really cool.  They’re well meaning and have clearly done some research, but they’re adorning themselves in traditional Air Nomad tattoos with little regard for the meaning behind them.  This would be like if I, the whitest of dudes, got some traditional African scarification done or if I decided to perform a baptism despite not being a priest.

These markings and actions are sacred to their people and outsiders choosing to do them because they seem cool is massively disrespectful.  Even if I were to heavily do my research, it wouldn’t matter how much I knew about these groups, I think we can all agree that scaring myself or acting like a priest wouldn’t be very appropriate.

But here’s the thing, for something like a religion (which admittedly there is nuance to depending on the particular one) converting is possible and I could theoretically work my way into it, but for something that’s more specific to a particular people well… chances are that I’m just going to need to accept that I will always be an outsider and honestly, that’s fine.

As an American, the idea of a melting pot is great!  A variety of cultures have come together and influenced one another which led to the great metropolitan society we have today, but in practice, it’s more like a salad bowl.  Lots of pieces combine together to create one dish, but each piece is still its own complete entity.

I think this is more of what Aang was wanting as when he was talking to Katara about his feelings about the fan club.  He expressed that he liked what made his heritage different and unique from everyone else, but while he would like to preserve it, he understands that he can’t just live as a hermit, protecting ancient relics.  Hell, if that was the case then his entire relationship with Katara could be an issue!  After all, she’s from the Water Tribe and even if he didn’t stay with her, any children that he fathers would inherently be of mixed heritage.

It also doesn’t help that a central part of Aang’s character is that he has survivor’s guilt because he ran from his duties as The Avatar and wasn’t there to help his people against the genocide carried out by the Fire Nation. (The Storm) Seeing something so important to his people be bastardized and co-opted as a result of his inaction has definitely got to hurt.

Outside of that though, Aang is in a position not that uncommon from many minorities, especially ones that have relocated to other countries.  They have a deep desire to connect with their heritage and it can really hurt to see other people who just don’t understand the significance behind the culture try to emulate it because it’s cool, cute, or fun.  It can be an internal struggle of wanting people to love and respect your unique background while also respecting it enough to not devalue and/or steal it.

As someone whose upbringing is extremely important to him, this internal conflict for Aang is something extremely challenging and even a little debilitating considering he has to deal with it in the middle of trying to keep the Earth and Fire Nations from going to war over the colonies.

Ultimately, Aang comes to the realization that the only way that his nearly extinct culture is going to survive is if he shares it and it’s this newfound desire to adapt and embrace a united future that helps Aang to come to terms with his place in the colonial conflict.  He decides to stand with Zuko against the Earth King in not letting the colonies get dissolved.  Yes, it was wrong for the Fire Nation to establish these colonies in the first place, but after all this time, the integrated nature of them made it to where they culturally don’t belong to either nation.  They’re both and as a result, they’re going to need to hash out a better resolution than simply keeping them as the dominion of either nation, but that’ll need to be saved for a different book.

With Zuko out cold from the fight and unable to get the peace talks started until he woke up, Aang takes this time to apologize to his fan club.  He admits that although he’s nervous about it, he can’t keep living in the past.  He also takes it upon himself to teach the club about his people’s ways, but in a much more respectful way.  From then on, the fan club became the Air Acolytes.

I think a big reason why Aang came to this conclusion is that when he encountered the Yu Dao chapter again, they covered up their tattoos, respecting Aang’s offense when it was brought to their attention.  They only really had some scattered texts and obviously some stuff got lost in translation, but as soon as they learned where they messed up, they rectified their mistake.  They clearly want to engage in the culture in an appropriate way, but just needed proper guidance.  Aang stepping in and teaching them is clearly the appropriate middle ground.

Looking into the future, we know from The Legend of Korra that the Air Acolytes grew in number, taking residence in the ancient air temples.  However, we can see that none of them received tattoos, implying that when Aang was teaching and establishing the rules for his new organization, he specifically made sure that only airbenders could receive them.  People are still able to engage with and celebrate Air Nomad culture, but it’s in a healthy way that doesn’t violate the sacred aspect of the Nomad’s ancestry.

Again, cultural appropriation is a tricky subject to talk about because it really does vary on a case by case basis with no real consensus of what is taking appreciation too far, but hopefully this look into a fictional instance was at least interesting enough to get you thinking.  Maybe I am way off base.  That’s probably really fair, but those are just my thoughts and I’m glad that you watched this far to let me share them with you.