Miscast: why an Asian actress - Shetland (2013) Discussion

I agree, but maybe she was adopted?

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[–] benth04 8 years ago

Did you ever hear about British Commonwealth (and long time before that: British Empire)?
That means that you will meet 'all colors of the world' in the British Isles. And some of the speak with perfect local dialect because you may have to trace back to their Grand Parents to find the immigrants.

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[–] JaneBingley 8 years ago

She was asian and her parents were blond, blue eyed.

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[–] chicago85 8 years ago

In the US, tens of thousands and I mean thousands of Chinese girl infants have been adopted by Americans. Most unwanted Chinese girls are just aborted, sometimes forcibly.

This is due to the one child per family rule. The girls are given away in hopes of having a boy next time. As a result, working class men have no chance of marriage due to a huge imbalance. They have to buy desperate North Korean women for wives. China now fears unrest of single men locked into poor paying jobs as being capable of labor unrest and rioting. Women act as a punching bag for male aggression.

In the adoption issue they found only one boy allowed to be adopted by American citizens. He had multiple birth defects and no Chinese would touch him with a ten foot pole.

I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

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[–] ScottishKate 7 years ago

Msybe I missed it but I only recall her mother being on the show. Did we see her dad?

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[–] letess (997) 7 years ago

Mother only.

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[–] hbailie 8 years ago

Geez, you may as well have started your post with "I'm not a racist, but..."

Read the reply above mine for all the reasons that you may have a Scottish woman of Asian origin. Also, we only see her mother. Why not assume that her father is Asian and that they met at university or something? Why should it throw you? Also, she's not a Shetlander. She's from the mainland.

I was more confused at having a Shetland detective by the name of Perez.

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[–] beja-4 8 years ago

Geez, you may as well have started your post with "I'm not a racist, but..."

Ha! My thoughts exactly. I haven't seen the Red Bones episodes, but Gemma Chan is born and raised in the UK, but have a father from Hong Kong and a mother from China. Can't figure out why that would be cause any problem where she's origin from.

I was more confused at having a Shetland detective by the name of Perez.

Haha, yes me too. I did think of it to begin with, not that it caused a good night sleep :)

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[–] kingstonmikemr 7 years ago

I was more confused at having a Shetland detective by the name of Perez.

I think this was at least mentioned in the show. Jimmy says that it is an odd last name for a Shetlander, but he just assumes that it's from some Spanish guy who became shipwrecked in the olde days: "They say a ship wrecked from the Armada and a Spanish sailor fell in love with a Fair Isle girl."

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[–] solstice1963 8 years ago

My confusion isn't that she's an Asian actress, in fact I thought maybe she was part Inuit at first. My confusion is this, if I caught it rightly: Perez has just asked Sandy what all the stuff was out in the yard and Sandy tells him it's a dig. Then they go outside and Perez seems to know Hattie quite well despite the fact that she isn't even from the island.

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[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

That's an interesting point. I can relate to this having been a few times to Shetland but saw it most when we lived in Ireland for a year. A walk to the shop to get a paper could take 2 hours because, whether you knew them or not, people would talk to you. It takes you back and throws you into confusion as you ask yourself "Do I know you, because you are talking to me like you know me?". (like the scene in One foot in the grave where Mrs. Warboys talks to a bunch of women in a tea shop who haven't a clue who she is).

Coming from England to these communities takes some getting used to and it's such a shame that this habit of talking / listening to people no longer exists here....

'tler

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[–] letitiadionne 7 years ago

She could be bi-racial or adopted. It's really not that weird.

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[–] ScottishKate 7 years ago

She was from Glasgow and was working in Shetland.

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[–] MoovieGoyl 7 years ago

Exactly! Why do people think she was related to Hattie? She was a student from a university on the mainland, working with that dodgy professor, and sharing the dorm room with the sullen student. She grew close to Hattie b/c she was a sweetheart and she was working in Hattie's back yard, but they weren't family.

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[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Remember Cho from Harry Potter? No one thrown off there.

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[–] joegerardi (376) 6 years ago

Why an Asian actress?

Because it was Gemma Chan and she's friggin' gorgeous!

..Joe

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[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

She looked unreal in Crazy Rich Asians. I thought she was far too gorgeous to play the jilted girlfriend in this.

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[–] Who (5146) 3 years ago

She was far too gorgeous to play the jilted wife in Crazy Rich Asians. Stupidest.Husband.Ever.

What happened to her character in this show? Did she fall in a ditch?

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