270 réponses à ce sujet

[Karolis]

 

 

You do realize that cultures across the world have home countries where the opposite is true? And most of those countries don't welcome people of other cultures at all? Do you know progressive Canada actually is? It's amazing.

Honestly, if you're an outsider to a majority culture, there's a minority effect. There are stereotypes and, sorry to say it, a lot of those stereotypes exist because people play into them... I mean look at rap culture, video after video of black people singing about killing police and dealing drugs... well, it is really a shock that an upper middle class white person who sees that crap daily and it's 90% of what they see about the culture then thinks "okay, maybe they deal drugs and run in gangs?".

I mean how many guys like Dr. Dre get filthy rich off that image? Love his music, love his headphones, serious doubts about how beneficial he's been to black culture in general. And then some well meaning hard working black kid applies for a job in that white person's office against 5 well meaning hard working white guys, whose that upper middle class white person going to hire based on a 10 minute interview? I mean forget America, what kind of message are guys like Dr Dre sending to the entire world?

And honestly, none of the characters in dragon age would be more engaging if they looked a bit more like I do or had different voice actors. They're great characters, and game of thrones has great characters (and I know for a fact my culture will never appear in that either... and it doesn't matter, because it's another culture's story). People should just let a writer share his or her vision, and judge it based on quality.

 

 

1) I realize there's the rest of the world out there, yeah. And yes, of course other cultures exist. BUT, world being what it is, none of those cultures exist in a vacuum. And I don't think there's much dispute that English-speaking probably-mostly-US media and pop culture is widely distributed, consumed, and idolized.

 

Do those cultures turn the tables on white folks? I'm sure some do. But that can happen in spite of, or even because of, the prevalence of "Western" pop culture. As in, you see your kids obsessed with that damn American singer, maybe you cling to your own music and sneer at all Americans.

 

And no, it isn't always true that home-culture equals higher-prestige-culture. That talk about Nigerian kids' lit, earlier, right? Nigeria certainly has (possibly many) cultures of its own, BUT kids read about and then write about white people. Cosmetics shops in India sell skin-bleaching stuff, because whiteness equals beauty. Maybe it's more common in former colonies, I dunno. But it's there.

 

(Confession: In my experience, after a few weeks in brown-people-country, yeah, white people definitely stand out -- in a bumbling fish-out-of-water kind of way. I'll admit to some covert snickering on my part. I never said I was nice!)

 

2) No. The it's-their-own-fault thing? No. Again, culture doesn't crop up in a vacuum. 

[animedreamer]

using humanoid Ermines would solve all problems.

[RoraM]

 

Here's where it starts to get complicated - I am going to dare to call Dorian and Vivienne black characters, and Josephine a Latina character, although I know this is far from an accurate statement. Nevertheless, it is the closest I can describe the difference between a "black" person of color and a "Latino/a" person of color and an "Asian" person of color.

 

What I fail to see in Dragon Age are specifically "Asian" people of color.

 

Just to clarify, Dorian is not black.  His "real world" ethnic analogue is Indian and his father's accent is indicative of this.  According to David Gaider, Ramon Tikaram was initially hired to play him with an Indian accent, but the devs preferred his natural speaking voice.  As for Asians in Dragon Age, besides Dorian, we do have another precedent.  The identifiably Asian NPC is in Origins and is one of the Hooded Couriers found in the Elven Alienage during the "Grease the Wheels" quest:

 

If Peter Jackson can include an Asian woman among the people of Lake-town, as I saw in "The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies", they sure as hell can include more in Thedas.

[snackrat]

Well, hey, until DAI introduced some different face shapes and complex sliders, Dragon Age (esp Origins) didn't even have black characters. Just white people who'd gone ink-dipping.

And even then, the specular maps were all off, so they looked oily and awful, like a low-quality .GIF.

And even then, the default was still the characters who dipped in ink less often (the darkest tones were rare).

Aaaand even now, skin tone is still done by tint-mapping, so the skin is uniformly dark, instead of being paler in key areas (like palms, soles of feet, under the nails, etc).

 

In the same game, they also had skin tints that were warmer, less pink and more yellow. But because every model was default white, no east asian could look east asian.

In DA2, you could create eastern asian faces by starting with the right presets. At least, kinda. But you were still limited in any access to them.

 

DAI introduced face shapes, and magical positioning grids, so real east asian faces are made possible in the same game you're not playing a white dude in blackface. I have seen several NPCs making use of the new face-types to varying degrees of success.

 

 

As for western/central asian, the Tevinter Imperium is based from India.

[Vanth]

It "ends" when no member of the larger gaming audience -- not just Bioware's -- feels invisible.

 

Sorry, but that is bullshit. You can't be inclusive of everyone because everyone is different from everyone else. You would need to have a cast of 7 billion. To suggest this, you are implying that people are solely defined by the crass generalisations of race, gender and sexuality. I certainly do not feel defined by that, and don't require characters in the game "just like me" to feel validated as a human being. 

[Bayonet Hipshot]

This thread is still going ? Has anyone here actually bothered asking Asians of their opinions ? By this I mean, not just Asian Americans but Asians. 

 

In my opinion, this need to have every race in the real world, in our world being represented in a fictional world with completely different histories and rulesets....Show one thing and that is...People self insert into games way too much...Too much to the point where they attempt to impose themselves in it...which results in threads like this...

 

Why does it matter exactly to have a character with black skin or wiry hair or asian eyes for just the sake of doing so ? Will this pixel representation in one game actually have any tangible real world effect ? Or is it just a way for some people to feel good about themselves ? 

 

In terms of making more diverse human races, I prefer the approach that Elder Scrolls have taken.

 

None of the races are solely one thing. Imperials are a combination of great western empire with an emphasis on Romans. Redguards are a combination of African, Moors, Berber culture. Breton is a combination of medieval English and French. Nords are a combination of actual nordic people that exist. Or let us take the Elves. Dunmer are a combination of East Asian, Jewish, Mesopotamia cultures.

 

I would rather Bioware make unique human races that are not inherently Asian or African or European but rather a mix containing elements of particular cultures and particular physical trait associated with cultures. 

 

If one wants to explore actual elements of racism or history or culture of the real world, there is thing called the real world and real life. There is this thing called anthropology, history and social studies. 

 

Seriously, we Asians are not so weak minded to have our self image and our confidence to be defined by how we are represented in games...

[Aov]

You seem surprised this thread is still going. Are you implying that you might want this thread to end?

The thing is, since I live in the United States, I don't know many people who actually live in Asia.

I created this forum thread because it's the internet, which spreads beyond the United States.

Ironic though it may seem, this thread is the means through which I will hear more voices from Asia.

[Karolis]

Sorry, but that is bullshit. You can't be inclusive of everyone because everyone is different from everyone else. You would need to have a cast of 7 billion. To suggest this, you are implying that people are solely defined by the crass generalisations of race, gender and sexuality. I certainly do not feel defined by that, and don't require characters in the game "just like me" to feel validated as a human being. 

 

No, I am stating outright that people identify themselves using an extremely large set of classifiers, of which race, gender, and sexuality happen to be three. 

 

Within each classifier set, some modes are given a societal advantage over others. In certain cases, this advantage is ubiquitous, pervasive, and has severe real life consequences for the less-preferred. Entertainment culture plays a role that can either strengthen the current status quo, or attempt to change it, and that role is separately determined for each criterion.

 

It's often true that the less-preferred modes are less visible in media, which only makes them seem more "foreign" or "weird" in the eyes of the rest. We can combat this by including more of X group in media.

 

We will "end" when there is no group that genuinely finds itself suffering in [the devs' assumed] society as a result of underexposure and/or misrepresentation in media. 

 

Clear? No? How bout some math:

 

Let the set M_i contain all possible values {m_0, m_1,...,m_k} of discriminatory parameter z. Then M_i is the set of all "races" etc people identify with.

 

For every z, construct the set M_z containing its possible values. These are all the possible discriminatory criteria.

 

Now construct the set X, where element x_n is drawn at random, and according to some reasonable underlying distribution, from set M_n. To clarify, element x_0 is drawn from set M_0, which is the set of all possible values of the parameter 0. Call X a "person".

 

Okay! Check it:

 

This "ends" when, for any parameter value m in any person X, there exists a non-insignificant number of characters across video games and across entertainment media in general who satisfy that parameter m.

 

You think I said: for any parameter set X containing many values m, there exists a non-insignificant number of characters in this particular video game who identify with all of the values of X.

 

How's that?

 

P.S. I'm glad you feel validated as a human being.

[Karolis]

This thread is still going ? Has anyone here actually bothered asking Asians of their opinions ? By this I mean, not just Asian Americans but Asians. 

 

In my opinion, this need to have every race in the real world, in our world being represented in a fictional world with completely different histories and rulesets....Show one thing and that is...People self insert into games way too much...Too much to the point where they attempt to impose themselves in it...which results in threads like this...

 

Why does it matter exactly to have a character with black skin or wiry hair or asian eyes for just the sake of doing so ? Will this pixel representation in one game actually have any tangible real world effect ? Or is it just a way for some people to feel good about themselves ? 

 

In terms of making more diverse human races, I prefer the approach that Elder Scrolls have taken.

 

None of the races are solely one thing. Imperials are a combination of great western empire with an emphasis on Romans. Redguards are a combination of African, Moors, Berber culture. Breton is a combination of medieval English and French. Nords are a combination of actual nordic people that exist. Or let us take the Elves. Dunmer are a combination of East Asian, Jewish, Mesopotamia cultures.

 

I would rather Bioware make unique human races that are not inherently Asian or African or European but rather a mix containing elements of particular cultures and particular physical trait associated with cultures. 

 

If one wants to explore actual elements of racism or history or culture of the real world, there is thing called the real world and real life. There is this thing called anthropology, history and social studies. 

 

Seriously, we Asians are not so weak minded to have our self image and our confidence to be defined by how we are represented in games...

 

1) I don't get it. Are Asians more qualified to speak than Asian-Americans? Can there not be several separate issues at once, requiring many groups' input?

 

2) To the extent that I "self-insert", as you call it, into a game, I do so because it is often idiotically difficult to actually insert myself into a real world society that half the time forgets I exist. Not everybody has that problem, and not everybody gives a ****, and that's fine, I'm not going to come over and require your...****...aaand that didn't come out right, but I'm sure you get it.

 

3) Yes, these things have tangible benefits. 

 

4) I would love to see more fantasy that is not based on the tired old Medieval Europe thing. I'd like to see how out there devs' imaginations can get. That would be cool! Problem is, Bioware has made several fantasy races, of which one is very like real-world humans -- but when they did that, they initially assumed "human" = "white". They've gotten better since Origins, true. That doesn't mean we shouldn't critique them.

 

5) And if one wants to explore racism or history or culture as relates to the interface between the real world and fantasy worlds, there are things called cultural anthropology, media studies, sociology...? I'm not sure where you were going with that.

 

6) Hey, speak for yourself. I'll be weak minded all I want.

[Vanth]

How's that?

 

Sorry, not good enough. Because you are going to need a set N_i to describe all possible sexualities people identify with, then set I_i to describe their income/social status, J_i to describe their religion, K_i.... and so on. Then you are going to have to take the outer product of all these sets to find all the possibilities in order to not "exclude" someone. 

 

Simply put, it cannot be done!

[Karolis]

Sorry, not good enough. Because you are going to need a set N_i to describe all possible sexualities people identify with, then set I_i to describe their income/social status, J_i to describe their religion, K_i.... and so on. Then you are going to have to take the outer product of all these sets to find all the possibilities in order to not "exclude" someone. 

 

Simply put, it cannot be done!

 

No, you do not need the outer product, because the requirement is not that every possible combination exists, but that every element is represented. Which, if you want at least one instance of each value, means the minimum number of characters is equal to the length of the largest set.

 

Large, maybe. Impossible, no.

[Vanth]

I disagree, because only having one of your characteristics embodied in a character does not lead to a feeling of inclusion. A Black lesbian for example, may be happy to see black characters in the game, and happy to see lesbian characters in the game, but to feel represented would really like to have black lesbian characters in the game. Hence the outer product. 

[Karolis]

That much is a matter of opinion, yeah. If we were actually at this point in development of a real game, we'd have to turn to the groups in question. And if the only acceptable solution were to exactly match every single person, then no, I agree, that wouldn't be feasible. 

 

But the problem posed here isn't "Chinese-Puerto Rican bisexual transfemale Russian Literature PhDs in Dragon Age". And I'm not convinced it should be. I mean, as far as I can tell, the inclusion of variously gendered or sexuality-ed or race-d characters has been positively -- not perfectly -- received, even by people who aren't male mercenary warriors with chair-sitting issues. I'm really happy to have Dorian and Solas and Cass around, even though none of them are exactly "me" in all regards. Actually, I don't think I'd want them to be. That would be creepy. Yes, that's my opinion. No, I don't speak for everybody. But there, have a data point.

 

In any case! Even in your example, I totally disagree that an "impossible" end goal means we shouldn't attempt progress at all. Okay, we're never going to have worldwide utopia. So what? It's still worth trying to make things better than they are. Incremental steps, societal inertia, etc.

 

Edit: You know, on second thought, I take back the "not convinced it should be". I can believe that there are trait combinations that have different effects than each would singly. To use your example (without any knowledge of the actual real world issue), I'd believe that a black lesbian experiences qualitatively different crap than either a non-lesbian black person or a non-black lesbian person. Not for every possible trait combo, but you do have a point there.

 

How you tell which ones are which, **** if I know.

[GalacticDonuts]

What about Dorian and his dad? They Definitely had the Indian look going on.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

What about Dorian and his dad? They Definitely had the Indian look going on.

 

They have a Tevinter look going on. So far from what I have seen of Tevinter, it is a combination of Latin, Greek and Indian culture, people and look. 

 

I mean, Dorian is a Greek name. The Tevinter language has Latin influence. Dorian's voice actor is Indian. Dorian's speech pattern is English. Dorian's skin color is swarthy but we have seen other Tevinters with other types of skin color. 

 

Its not just one specific culture. 

[Bayonet Hipshot]

You seem surprised this thread is still going. Are you implying that you might want this thread to end?

The thing is, since I live in the United States, I don't know many people who actually live in Asia.

I created this forum thread because it's the internet, which spreads beyond the United States.

Ironic though it may seem, this thread is the means through which I will hear more voices from Asia.

 

Nah, I do not wish to see this thread end or locked but the reality is that Asians as a people are extremely diverse. We come with almost all types of physical features, a myriad of languages, a ton of culture and so on. 

 

I am a Southeast Asian Historian and let me tell you that even in a tiny region like Southeast Asia, there are a lot of different people that look very different, have very different ancestral roots, have varying cultures...& yet they are all Asians and specifically in this case, Southeast Asians.

 

This is just due to the geographic reality of Asia. For one it is the largest continent. Two, it has islands, mainlands, archipelagos,etc which then contribute to the diversity. Three, they are not unified in the same way Europeans are. In fact, many Asians would consider themselves Indian first or Chinese first or Malay first or Japanese first or Aboriginal first and then Asian second. The funny thing is Thedas is a singular continent, which is very much like Europe and as such, to expect this level of diversity from one single pangea-style continent is just weird. 

 

That is one of the reasons why coalitions such as ASEAN is relatively modern. However, we as a people do mingle and mix around just fine, we just do not need the state or the authority to do it or to tell us to do it. 

 

Someone in a previous reply mentioned the Khmer Empire. I studied them and they are remarkable. The ancient Khmer people, now modern day Cambodia, were a race / collective of great builders and expansionists. At their height, during the Angkor period, they were extremely sophisticated, on par if not surpassing civilizations like Aztec and Mayan. The culture is a Indianized culture meaning it is a composite culture of Indian elements and local Khmer elements. They were an agrarian civilization, mainly due to the Tonle Sap and the barays they built. Their ruling system was known as Devaraja or absolute monarch. The fiction equivalent of this is the common Dwarven trope of King under the Mountain, except in this case its King of the Cosmos. Because of this, the empire's success hinged on the king since he has total control. He screws up, its all comes crashing down and if he is brilliant, the empire flourishes. & that is what happened (bad god-kings) which allowed the Sukhotai, now the modern day Thai people to defeat them. 

 

That's just one Asian culture, or rather one Asian culture that is now dead. 
 

If there is to be commonality between Asian people regardless of culture and physical features, it is that throughout most of history, they have always been ruled by single powerful rulers with lots of control and authority, regardless of sex. The second commonality is the massive inter-trade that happens between Asians. The sea route from India to Southeast Asia to China and then to Ryuku was once an extremely lucrative trading hub of practically everything. One thing to note is that trading during is period, often referred to as the Golden Age (3rd-15th century) was a laissez faire trade, not monopoly and not mercantilism. Funnily enough, despite the singular authority, Asians tend to manage their daily lives on their own and mix with other just fine without any need from the state to force them to do so and they mingle with each other just fine. 

 

One poster here mentioned that most developers stick with the medieval Europe theme. That is true but here's the thing :- We Asians know our medieval history quite well. Its mainly laissez faire, absolute monarchism, assimilative or composite culture, the usual war between ruling classes in a region, big empires that come once a while. So when we see something like medieval Europe, we are intrigued and would rather want that in the same way Westerners look at this part of the world and go:- "Gee that is so different from ours, I like it."

[Apollexander]

As a Chinese, I don't care about this, because most of the Chinese characters I saw in the movies/games are stupid, ugly and negative, e.g., the guys in GTAV/Transformers. I just want to say "Hey! We are not like what you think!" The people in Sleeping Dogs are much better, although still ugly.

Absence is better than uglification.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

As a Chinese, I don't care about this, because most of the Chinese characters I saw in the movies/games are stupid, ugly and negative, e.g., the guys in GTAV/Transformers. I just want to say "Hey! We are not like what you think!" The people in Sleeping Dogs are much better, although still ugly.

Absence is better than uglification.

 

 

I am a Tamil Indian...There is the uglyness and then there is the retarded Indian accent crap...FYI Western world, only Indians from India who do that crap....

 

Like you said absence > uglification.

[AWTEW]

As a Chinese, I don't care about this, because most of the Chinese characters I saw in the movies/games are stupid, ugly and negative, e.g., the guys in GTAV/Transformers. I just want to say "Hey! We are not like what you think!" The people in Sleeping Dogs are much better, although still ugly.

Absence is better than uglification.

 

Chinese guys are hot tbh.

[Sarielle]

I was talking to the Sutherland kid in the tavern at Skyhold -- the one who unlocks some war table missions -- and he seems to have some typically Asian features. I admit I've only been skimming the thread but I did a search for his name and got nothing.

 

Just tossing that out there.

 

As far as being perfectly represented for a self-insert ... that'll never happen for anyone probably, let alone minority groups. However, I think there are some biggies that help people connect with characters. For me (straight white female) race isn't one of them. However, as much as I enjoy some aspects of The Witcher games, I do struggle to connect with a male protagonist. I have played through Bioware's bisexual female romances as a female, because while I can step into the shoes of someone who's into girls, I struggle to step into the shoes of a guy.

 

Maybe I'm generalizing here, but imo race and gender/sex tick some big checkboxes for most people. And while he doesn't comment often, when my husband does comment on Asian characters in media, he's not like "but they're not Filipino, so I feel no connection/representation." Just one person, one data point, but.

[(Disgusted noise.)]

What about Dorian and his dad? They Definitely had the Indian look going on.

Yes, he and Dorian are both ethnically Indian, however this thread is mostly concerning East Asian characters rather than South Asian.

[Fireheart]

I was thinking about this a few days ago actually. Wondering why Bioware doesn't make the elves more Asian looking, with slanted eyes, etc, to distinguish them more from humans. Idk, it was just a random thought...

Cuz as we all know there isn't much to distinguish elves from humans, and when Bioware tried in da2, it was a fail.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say on the topic, just wanted to let you know I agree that there should be more Asian representation in dragon age. Like Vivienne for instance. It didn't make sense for her to be black. People are dark skinned because of the place they grow up in (hot climate produce dark skin), but Vivienne says she comes from the Free Marches, which looks fairly "normal" climate. While Zevran, Isabella, and Josephine who have dark skin come from Antiva/Rivain, which has been described as being more "tropical" in climate, so it makes sense for them. I liked seeing Vivienne because I am also a black woman, but I also felt like they just put her there to try to pander to black people, although her dark skin, given her origins, doesn't make sense. Dorian, well I'm not sure. We don't know much what Tevinter looks like, and the people we've seen from there, like Fenris or Erimond, have had differing skin colors.

Basically I'm all for more diversity, as long as it gets explained and justified. Not just shoehorned in.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

I was thinking about this a few days ago actually. Wondering why Bioware doesn't make the elves more Asian looking, with slanted eyes, etc, to distinguish them more from humans. Idk, it was just a random thought...

Cuz as we all know there isn't much to distinguish elves from humans, and when Bioware tried in da2, it was a fail.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say on the topic, just wanted to let you know I agree that there should be more Asian representation in dragon age. Like Vivienne for instance. It didn't make sense for her to be black. People are dark skinned because of the place they grow up in (hot climate produce dark skin), but Vivienne says she comes from the Free Marches, which looks fairly "normal" climate. While Zevran, Isabella, and Josephine who have dark skin come from Antiva/Rivain, which has been described as being more "tropical" in climate, so it makes sense for them. I liked seeing Vivienne because I am also a black woman, but I also felt like they just put her there to try to pander to black people, although her dark skin, given her origins, doesn't make sense. Dorian, well I'm not sure. We don't know much what Tevinter looks like, and the people we've seen from there, like Fenris or Erimond, have had differing skin colors.

Basically I'm all for more diversity, as long as it gets explained and justified. Not just shoehorned in.

 

Tevinter is up north and is warm, which means people can be tanned. Its like Cyrodiil where you have the Imperials with their swarthy skin. 

[Andraste_Reborn]

People are dark skinned because of the place they grow up in (hot climate produce dark skin), but Vivienne says she comes from the Free Marches, which looks fairly "normal" climate.

 

People have different skin tones because of the climate their ancestors lived in. It's not like my pale Anglo-Celtic forebears suddenly started producing darker-skinned children just because they up and moved to Australia from Yorshire/Scotland/Ireland a few generations ago. (I only wish they had. My complexion is entirely unsuitable for the environment, and my brother and father are even paler and more prone to skin cancer.)

 

While Vivienne was born in the Free Marches, her ancestors were from Rivain.

[Aov]

Yes, I do agree that as a person from the United States, I view East Asian and South Asian cultures with much curiosity. Granted, I am a very specific kind of person from the United States, so I can't speak for other United States people. But let me try to show where I am from, myself -

As an student who went to a rich public school in the suburbs, I got the rich and white American textbook version of history. I didn't realize it then, but I can see quite plainly now the bias my schooling had. United States history was required. Western European history was required. Anything else beyond that was something you could choose as an extra class. If you wanted.

So obviously, with high schoolers tending to only study the bare minimum (me included), we all got lectured quite a bit on U.S. history, as well as Western European history "across the pond" - a phrase that refers to the Atlantic but never the Pacific, perhaps due to the smaller size of the Atlantic. But really, I think the phrase reflects the biased intimacy the United States has with Western Europe. Whereas other parts of the world, like Africa and Asia for example, are somehow situated oceans and leagues and great distances away, not ponds. It's as if people have forgotten the world is round. You keep going West, and West, and West, until suddenly you find yourself in the East. Well, alright, how'd that happen? East just really means "more West than West," right?

Also, there's the horrible fact that North America and Canada and Mexico and South America are in our backyards, geographically speaking - and yet still a lot of people from the United States (me included) have the audacity to call themselves "Americans," as if they own both continents.

Also, for some racist reason, indigenous people do not count as "Americans" either, even though it was they who lived here before colonists ever came from Europe. But it's okay - we've got indigenous people locked up in their own Elven Alienage of sorts, and we dare to call that "giving Native people their own land and sovereignty." It's disgusting.

Luckily, I happened to end up with a very good U.S. History teacher in high school. I mean, our rich suburban school district could afford to employ a good teacher, but he also happened to be one of those very very privileged but truly understanding and empathetic people.

I remember he told us to take a look at our classroom and tell him that history does not matter. "Why is it that there are only 2 African American students and 2 Asian American students in our class right now?" he wondered.

It is a question he asked me in high school, and it is a question my African-American studies teacher and Jewish-American studies teacher and Chicano studies teacher answered for me in college. (Note that I still haven't taken an Asian American studies class. I did take a Japanese language and linguistics class so I could understand anime better. I am a very geeky person.)

So yes, I do want to see more East Asian faces in a Western pangea-style game like Dragon Age. If it's possible.

And I do believe it is possible.

Granted, I'm still ignorant and I know nothing of Asia. But I'm learning more from this forum thread, and I am very grateful for that. Thank you for having the patience to teach me all that you have studied as a Southeast Asian historian and scholar.

If it were up to me, I would nominate you as a research expert and history consultant if and when the Dragon Age developers want to write a backstory for an East Asian-inspired inner circle companion. So that it wouldn't be ugly representation. So that it would be honest and good and kind.

Who knows if EA games would actually give me that kind of decision-making power - they wouldn't, but it would be totally cool if they did.