Forgive me... | Report this post to moderator
By: MageWarfareKB (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 08:50:05 on Feb 25, 2008

Forgive my relative ignorance of Trek canon (notice the one "n"... :-) ) and lore, but was Sulu specifically Japanese? Yes, I know Takei is, but was Sulu? Was his ethnicity specified in the series or movies - thereby making it canon - or perhaps elsewhere?

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• RE: Forgive me... | Report this post to moderator
  By: Terry212 (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 09:40:02 on Feb 25, 2008

  Quote:
  Forgive my relative ignorance of Trek canon (notice the one "n"... :-) ) and lore, but was Sulu specifically Japanese? Yes, I know Takei is, but was Sulu? Was his ethnicity specified in the series or movies - thereby making it canon - or perhaps elsewhere?
  
  Memory Alpha puts it this way:
  
  Sulu was played by George Takei. After his appearance in Star Trek VI, there was a fan-based campaign to start a TV series based the adventures of his crew during his stint as captain of Excelsior, but it never drew enough support for Paramount to start production. [1] [2]
  
  Sulu's given name, Hikaru, was officially established in Star Trek VI, though it had been used in fan circles since it was introduced in Vonda N. McIntyre's 1981 novel The Entropy Effect.
  
  Sulu's first name was given as "Itaka" in the Star Trek newspaper comic strip. Its use was based on information from the unauthorized USS Enterprise Officer's Manual by Geoffrey Mandel and Doug Drexler and published by Interstellar Associates in 1980.
  
  "Hikaru" is a Japanese name that can mean "light" or several other words, and is quite commonly used for men and women. 'Sulu' is taken from a province in the Philippines. In the Japanese version of Star Trek, his family name was changed to 'Kato', a common surname. Also notable is that his name cannot be truly Japanese, as the Japanese language, while syllabic, does not contain the "L" phoneme in any form.
  
  It is not out of the question that Sulu was born of a Japanese-Filipino couple, taking on a Japanese given name with a Filipino surname. Nor is the fact that most American names are mixed-and-matched, and will likely continue to be diversified for the next four hundred years.
  
  
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  • RE: Forgive me... | Report this post to moderator
    By: MageWarfareKB (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 20:07:46 on Feb 25, 2008

    Thanks!
    
    So there's no reason why Sulu couldn't be played by any Asian.
    
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it's IS a little weird, though.... | Report this post to moderator
By: Terry212 (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 06:59:12 on Feb 25, 2008

I have respect and affection for John Cho as an actor and I'm glad Takei has been publicly supportive. I do have to admit, though, that I'm a bit weirded out that they didn't cast a Japanese/Japanese-American actor in the role. It's like they said, "Korean? Meh, close enough." Kind of odd. I mean, it's hardly unprecedented and it's not something that just happens to Asians. And at least the actor's ASIAN as opposed to years past when white guys played Asians. Still, it's a touch weird.

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• RE: it's IS a little weird, though.... | Report this post to moderator
  By: ValleyOfTheGwangi (Odo's file, contact) @ 09:13:48 on Feb 25, 2008

  I seem to remember reading somewhere (possibly on Trekweb) that Hikaru Sulu was never meant to be specifically Japanese, but instead was meant (rather patronisingly if you ask me) to represent a pan-Asian character. "Sulu" is not a Japanese name although Hikaru certainly sounds like it is.
  
  Besides, Korea and Japan are ethnically closer than say China and Japan - antipathy not withstanding
  
  Of course I could be entirely wrong here...
  
  G
  
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