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Firefly takes place in a universe where Chinese and American cultures have fused, as evidenced by Chinese signage, and the frequent use of spoken Chinese in the series. Yet, for a universe that's supposedly half Chinese, there are exceedingly few appearances by people of Asian descent in the show.

I believe that out of universe, this can be attributed to deep-seated cultural and racial issues in the film and television industry.

I'm interested to know, however: is there an explanation in universe as to why a half-Chinese culture is so darned white?

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    We only saw a tiny fraction of the system?
    – kaine
    Aug 16, 2018 at 14:42
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    Point 2 of this answer to 'Why does everyone in Firefly speak Chinese?' has a theoretical answer.
    – Jenayah
    Aug 16, 2018 at 14:44
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    "deep-seated cultural and racial issues in the film and television industry" - Erm, I'm pretty sure this was an American show made for a largely American audience (and hence with a cast that largely reflects the demographic of who'll be watching it). How many Western actors do we see in Scarlet Heart?
    – Valorum
    Aug 16, 2018 at 17:07
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    @Valorum - That's a bit thin, though. Scarlet Heart doesn't have an in story reason to have lots of US actors. When there is one, well...the Somali pirates in Captain Phillips, for instance, don't represent US population demographics, for instance. There's no need to sacrifice realism in order to use whatever actors are most readily available.
    – Adamant
    Aug 16, 2018 at 18:11
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    This is an "uncomfortable truth": xkcd.com/561
    – Buzz
    Aug 17, 2018 at 1:04

4 Answers 4

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Firefly's culture is a mixture of American and Chinese, but there's no indication that it's 50/50.

In fact, there's plenty of evidence that American culture has been dominant.

Even among those who speak both languages fluently, English is the primary language, while Chinese is mostly reserved for cursing.

The flag for the Union of Allied Planets is a combination of the US and Chinese flags, but the American flag is much larger and clearly dominant.

enter image description here

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    You could,equally argue that the Chinese flag is more prominent with the American one forming a background , it's not entirely clear one dominates another.
    – Sarriesfan
    Jun 21, 2019 at 16:38
  • I absolutely agree - the flag can be ambiguous. But I don't think the language is. They speak English all the time, compared to the infrequent Chinese.
    – LevenTrek
    Jun 22, 2019 at 9:41
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    @LevenTrek The language they use does not provide any evidence, since a show's language always depends on the target audience. I don't think that in-universe and out-of-universe can be conflated here, since shows tend to use the language of the country in which they are aired. If anything, the occasional Chinese used in their speech is a hint that there is a lot of Chinese in it. If you can cite someone actually describing the language as being mainly English, then you'll have an argument that works. Otherwise I don't think you do.
    – Misha R
    Jun 22, 2019 at 16:41
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I believe that what you are seeing is the result of colonization undertaken by like groups of people, either grouped by religion or race. I wouldn't expect to find large disparate demographic groups colonizing a planet.

They never visited a planet colonized by Chinese people. All they ever hit are the poor, backwater places. Obviously, the Chinese did better in than the non-Chinese population. So more the bulk of the colonization was carried out by more wealthy and stay were the money is: The core planets.

The successful culture never migrates/emigrates. It's always those less fortunate who board the boats for green shores. The people who leave as a group will almost always be those of a like mind and culture. Successful colonization by disparate groups are exceedingly rare. That scenario has played out countless times throughout human history.

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I believe this is rooted in cultural differences. Today, the Chinese live in a strongly civilized society, and have been for a very long time; as a result their culture is hierarchy-oriented, and the people tend towards 'know your place' norms of behavior. By contrast, America is still quite new (historically speaking), and among its people there is still a lot of 'rugged individualism' even in the more civilized areas. I can see this sort of difference being carried over to the new planetary system. That means those Chinese and Americans who prefer order would gravitate to the already-civilized inner planets, while 'rougher' characters would be more likely to go to the outer, 'frontier' planets - and American descendants would be rather more likely to produce 'rougher' characters. And as @Ring says, the crew members of Serenity prefer to stay away from the inner planets (for various reasons).

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    This seems like headcanon rather than something rooted in the show itself. Can you offer any solid evidence to back it up (other than the absence of Chinese people, obviously)?
    – Valorum
    Jun 21, 2019 at 18:18
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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. Answers should be based on evidence from the show, official related works, or things that the show's creators have said. Please read How to Answer. Without some basis from the show, this seems to be just supposition on your part.
    – DavidW
    Jun 21, 2019 at 18:20
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If we teeter on the edge of in universe/out of universe, then Simon, River, and Kaylee are all Chinese characters, but their actors are not... at least, if the planning phase stuff in the official companion book holds that kind of weight with you.

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    You appear to have some nice information here but it would be improved by editing evidence.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jun 22, 2019 at 23:59

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