It find it important to elucidate the misconceptions, misunderstandings and downright ignorance of jamesmoule's racist review made on the 26th Feb 2016 (down the bottom). Yes racist. Covert racism but racism nonetheless.
Let me elaborate:
1) jamesmoule erroneously states that "cast an Australian-born Chinese and you just get an Australian with an Asian face, thus lessening the effect of culture." The remarkable cultural insensitivity here, is covert racism. "An Australian with an Asian face!?" First, mr jamesmoule, Benjamin Law (yes, the real Benjamin Law) was born in Nambour! So, the character portrayed by Trystan Go is not an Australian with an Asian face. He is an Australian with an Australian face, which happens to be of Asian decent. Your racism here is just embarrassing, mr jamesmoule.
2) The other side of your "double edged {racist} sword" is premised on the assumption that a person acting in a second or third language would be unable to "express nuances of words." At the risk of postulation, this seems like something a monolingual person who is also an idiot would be inclined to argue. Moreover, to even suggest a "Chinese-born actor" could be a candidate for the role completely disregards the fact the Benjamin Law is is an Australian born man of Chinese decent. In fact, the entire show is situated around the tribulations of an Australian-Chinese family.To say that casting Trystan Go will "lessen the affects of culture" is to equivocate between Chinese culture and Australian-Chinese culture. Yes, it may lessen the affects of Chinese culture, but so what? The show is about an Australian-Chinese family, and to demarcate the two by arguing that an "Australian will lessen the culture" portrayed by the show suggests that you are living centuries too late buddy.
3) The "two women who are old friends" are from DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. Jenny is from Hong Kong and her friend is from Malaysia. The fact that you think that English is NOT the appropriate language for them to communicate in, betrays your racism and orientalism. Not all Asian people speak the same language and many must speak in their common tongue, English! Neither had difficulty with the language, they spoke with quite typical accents from Hong Kong and Malaysia. Your racism is made salient, here, by your suggestion that subtitles could have been used for their conversations. How could subtitles be used when Malaysian and Cantonese are different languages! Here your covert racism is manifested in orientalism- the homogenizing of diverse Asian cultures into one culture. Assuming that two Asian friends from different countries should communicate in the same Asian language is simply ignorant and racist. Do you think that all European people can communicate with each other in a European super-language? And if old friends from different European countries spoke in English with typical accents, would you assume that they were having difficulty and should thus speak in 'European?' If the answer is yes, you are outright racist, if it is no, you are an orientalist (which is still racist, just a very specific kind).
Peace out and educate yourself more. I'd be happy to recommend a few books if you struggle to accept your racist dispositions :-)
