Tibetan Representation in Avatar: The Last Airbender

The news of Bryke leaving the Avatar: the Last Airbender Netflix project in August received mixed responses across social media. Many fans of the original Avatar show voiced their frustrations with Netflix for refusing to adhere to the original showrunners’ creative decisions, and others hoped an Asian American crew would take over the project. The latter response raises the pressing topic of Asian Americans exercising creative control over representation of their own cultures, and slightly acknowledges the long-running concerns of white showrunners creating an Asian fantasyland.

I briefly addressed the issue of Orientalism in Avatar in my previous blog post about Asian representation in animation and its depiction of a colonial nation through a Western lens. In particular, I voiced my concerns with the bastardization of Asian cultures to serve a white audience and its reductionist stance on colonialism, portraying it as extremism on “both sides.” This especially does a disservice to real people whose cultures the show is based on, as it presents a narrative that places them at fault for their ongoing oppression. Moreover, some of the events in the show mirror real horrors marginalized groups have faced, such as the Air Nomad genocide reflecting the Tibetan genocide at the hands of China.

As a Han Chinese American (by way of Taiwan and Vietnam), I’m in a position where I have faced racism and colonization while simultaneously benefitting from my own people’s imperialism on countries and ethnic groups across Asia. Although I knew of the issues regarding the Avatar allegories to the Tibetan genocide in my previous article, I did not feel I was in a position to speak on behalf of Tibetan people. Rather, I stand by my opinion that it is the job of privileged groups to boost the voices and platforms of marginalized groups.

As such, I conducted an interview with Lhamo, a Tibetan American activist, regarding her thoughts on Tibetan representation in Avatar: The Last Airbender TV show and ways we can educate ourselves about Tibet and how to support its independence. 

Photo provided by Lhamo

What’s your background?

I am Tibetan American. I am from a refugee family and my parents moved from India to the United States to find better opportunities. I was born in New York City. 

Where did you grow up?

When I was very young, we moved from New York to the rural South for my mother’s job. I spent most of my childhood in a majority white community. 

How has your upbringing affected your relationship with your identity and culture?

Like many other second generation kids, growing up as an isolated person of color caused me to have a complicated and confusing relationship with my identity. I spent many years full of self-loathing because I was different, but whenever I was in an environment with other Tibetans I was insecure about how I acted and how my Tibetan was not that good. I didn’t feel “American” enough but I also didn’t feel “Tibetan” enough.

How was Tibetan history taught to you? Was it gradually or all at once?

It was very gradual. The Tibetan Government In Exile funds many programs dedicated to keeping Tibetan language and culture alive in the youth generations, from summer camps to Sunday school-like programs. I would participate in these programs when I got the chance and learn more as time went on. In college, I was able to move and be a part of a much more racially diverse community, as well as take academic courses in Tibetan and Chinese history, language, and politics. I ended up majoring in International Relations with a concentration in post-colonialism and Asian Studies because of this. This experience definitely helped me broaden my own perspectives about diaspora, race, and my cultural identity. 

What are the main issues Tibetans face today?  What are some myths about Tibetan culture that you’d like to dispel? (e.g. Orientalist stereotypes or propaganda from CCP)

Tibet is a country in the Himalayas that was invaded and violently occupied by the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Tibetans and other colonized groups of China, such as the Uyghur and the Inner Mongolians, are treated like second class citizens in their own home, and are unable to practice their traditional ways of life (one example is pastoral nomadism). The PRC is currently destroying Tibetan land for natural resources as well as actively marginalizing the people by displacing them from ancestral land, forcing cultural assimilation and crushing any attempt at resistance.

Tibet is a country not only torn apart by war and imperialism, but also by outsiders’ dominating perceptions of us. It is common for the Chinese government to paint Tibetans as a more barbaric or primitive people in order to justify their invasion, occupation, and colonization. This is a common tactic of the colonists: to dehumanize the “native” and strip them of agency in order to make the occupation seem more palatable, or even necessary, to “liberate” and “civilize” them.

Meanwhile, it is common for Westerners to over-romanticize Tibet as one of the most peaceful and happy civilizations in the world. The image of tranquil monks and His Holiness the Dalai Lama immediately come to the minds of many when they think of Tibet. These stereotypes contributed to the popularity boom of the Free Tibet movement in the early 2000s among Western, liberal young people. While these stereotypes seem positive on the surface, they dehumanize Tibetans and cause people to project desires and expectations of us that are unachievable and rooted in complete fantasy. Ultimately, this hurts our movement more than it helps. 

Like any other civilization in the world, Tibet was and still is a society with complexity, flaws, and humanity. That is just how people are, but flaws do not justify the removal of any human being’s autonomy. I kindly ask that if you wish to support the fight for Tibetan independence, please do so as an ally of people, not as a fetishist of what you perceive to be Tibetan culture and spirituality. 

When did you first watch Avatar: The Last Airbender? What were your initial impressions of how Tibetans were represented?

Tibetans don’t appear much in Western media, but when they do they are almost always the one-dimensional, stereotypical caricature of Buddhist monks: wise, peaceful, dehumanized, and very boring. So as a child it was very exciting for me to see a cool and interesting character who is very obviously inspired by Tibetan culture. Even if Aang was a peace-loving monk like every other Tibetan in fiction, there was still a complexity to him that made me root for him and kept me hooked on the show. 

Illustration by Megan Cheung

How do your initial opinions contrast your opinions now?

As I began to grow older and look back on my experience with Avatar: The Last Airbender, I realized that good show writing doesn’t necessarily mean good representation for minorities.  

The core event that spurs the story of Avatar is the genocide of the peaceful Air Nomads by the imperialist, technologically advanced Fire Nation. This event is a blatantly obvious fictional retelling of The People’s Republic of China’s 1949 occupation of Tibet and the subsequent years of violence, manipulation and death that followed.

It is immensely disrespectful to the victims of this real event for the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender to actively profit from appropriating our narratives while simultaneously participating in racial caricature. The Air nomads are blatant stereotypes of Tibetan monks and lamas, and the “Avatar” as a concept itself is inspired from Buddhist Bodhisattvas. This is made clear when the Dalai Lama selection process was mimicked for the “Avatar” selection process. Many Air nomad characters in the show and its subsequent season have common Tibetan names, such as Gyatso, Yangchen, Tenzin and Pema; Tenzin Gyatso being the full name of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It is glaringly obvious that we were a major inspiration for the show, and yet there was no effort by the Avatar staff to educate their large viewership about the real-world events they based their narratives on. This type of behavior, the passing off of real history as an original idea for fiction, only further encourages the exotification of Asian cultures for Western entertainment, rather than the promotion of education, mutual respect, and understanding.

The same can be said for representations of other Asian cultures and time periods in the show. There was a time in history when China was a victim to brutal Japanese imperialism. The Fire Nation also reflects this era through its relationship with the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation is the fictional manifestation of multiple Asian Imperialist regimes and proceeds to combine these dark and traumatic histories in a thoughtless and insensitive manner. 

The show also inconsiderately uses Asian terms for aesthetics without elaborating on their historical baggage, the most prominent for me being the name Lake Laogai. Laogai (勞改) are Chinese prison camps with the sole purpose of punishing political prisoners and dissidents. The camps were meant to “reform” people through unethical prison labor, and many subjected to this treatment suffered and died without right to fair trial and humane living conditions. The treatment of the prisoners in Laogai is an obvious abuse of human rights, but Avatar references this atrocity without making any attempt to educate their audiences. Real people have died in these camps just for attempting to resist injustice. It is immensely disrespectful to use terms like these for aesthetic purposes without any acknowledgement of its real, tragic context.

This blatant disregard for Asia’s reality in favor of its exotification is a product of the phenomenon, Orientalism: where the West takes control of the way the East is perceived and depicted in order to project their own desires onto the East, misrepresenting and alienating them in the process. Avatar: The Last Airbender is just one product of this larger phenomenon. The fantastical and romantic depictions of Tibet in Western media is identified in Tibetan Studies as a prominent form of new-age orientalism born from a complex history of racial imbalance, cultural appropriation, and deep misunderstanding.

When it comes to orientalism in Avatar, I believe the creators didn’t care to understand the complexity of Asia and our nations’ various relationships and traumatic histories with each other; they viewed us as a monolith that they can cherry-pick “exotic” themes and elements from to advance their own Western narrative. The writers had a very shallow and surface-level understanding of our cultures and this ignorant display of orientalism contributed to creating the captivating and mystical atmosphere of the show. This lack of understanding is what leads to insensitive and inaccurate depictions of us and our history.

Any specific examples of how A:tLA misrepresents Tibetan people or colonialism in general?

There are too many to count. I have seen many people of color discuss this topic and point out the various ways Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra misrepresented imperialism and colonization, as well as the experiences of those who lived it. 

It’s clear that the writers of the show, being white Americans, don’t completely understand the implications of their narrative and just how traumatizing imperialism truly is. The act of forcibly removing a people’s autonomy from them is truly heinous. It leaves scars that stay forever and civilizations subjugated to imperial oppression never completely recover even after freedom, both economically and sociologically. I wish it was as simple as “The Imperial dictator is defeated, we can forgive genocide and be at peace again,” but this type of narrative in formative children’s television can give young people (especially white children) the false impression that conflict has simple solutions. This is just one step in a never-ending process. Reconciliation, repatriations, healing from immense trauma and the dismantling of oppressive systems of power are all essential processes that often fail to be addressed in war fiction.

It’s difficult for me to understand why a white creative would believe they have the knowledge to create children’s media about such a complex topic in the first place. But I can see that for them, imperialism isn’t a painful lived experience, but rather a fun and interesting topic to explore in fiction full of drama and political intrigue.

What would you have done differently?

Fantasy is a difficult subject to approach critically, because sometimes it is difficult to tell where to draw the lines. I think if you create media clearly inspired by or about a civilization and culture that isn’t yours, unless you truly take the time and effort to research and give a platform to uplift voices of those from that culture, you will always be (even subconsciously) engaging in some form of orientalism, as you will never truly understand the inherent philosophies and values of the people of that culture. The ideologies of the culture that you were raised and educated with will always seep into your narrative, and projecting that onto others will most definitely clash with their reality. In fantasy fiction I can often find this forgivable as long as it isn’t outright harmful or problematic. But the problem I have with Avatar: The Last Airbender was just how closely their plot mimicked Tibet’s real and tragic history while simultaneously romanticizing, desensitizing, and misrepresenting it for wider audiences. 

If I was planning to depict a culture I am not a part of in a creative work, I would reach out to people native to that culture to hire as supervisors or collaborators. I would take the time to research the history and culture thoroughly and make sure that nothing is inappropriate. It is your responsibility as a creative to take accountability for the art you produce for the rest of the world to consume, and the messages it contains. If you make the choice to represent someone else, it is only polite to make sure they consent to it and the contents of your work.

The simpler solution would be to make sure your fictional civilization and its history is unique enough that it is not outright recognizable as one specific culture, or an insensitive combination of two. It can then still have a history or struggle that is relatable to many, but is not a direct appropriation and misrepresentation of a nation’s reality. 

I hope education and dialogues like this one can help future creators have more nuance and sympathy when attempting to depict our countries in fiction.

Photo provided by Lhamo

What message would you like to send fans of the show, especially those who may not have been aware of its problems until now?

I understand why so many people are fans of the show, as I used to be one as well. I hope you can listen to people of color’s criticisms, and think critically about the media you consume while enjoying it. 

Also, please don’t draw arrows on photographs of The Dalai Lama for memes; I have seen this happen before and it is disrespectful. Also, when a Tibetan tells you their name is Tenzin, please don’t flex your nerd knowledge about Avatar and say something weird (There’s a pretty funny TikTok going around in the Tibetan community about that!).

What message would you like to send to Bryke or anyone involved with the creative decisions in the show?

You and your team are full of excellent storytellers. However, the way you appropriated the genocide of the Tibetan people in Avatar: The Last Airbender for your own profit was very disrespectful and selfish. You created the ultimate Orientalist fantasy, but in the process you further alienated people you very obviously drew inspiration from, and failed to explain their painful realities to your unknowing viewers. I’ve talked to many other Asians who also admired your show, but felt similarly about how you represented them. If you are going to borrow ideas from real cultures and real traumatic events in our histories, please put in the time and effort to do so respectfully and tactfully, or not at all.

These problems probably would have been avoided if the diversity of your staff actually matched the diversity of the characters in your show. I hope leaders in this industry consider hiring more Tibetans and other people of color for the writing room. There are some truly amazing up-and-coming creatives in our community who need jobs!

How can non-Tibetans educate ourselves about Tibet, and how can we help?

I’m very glad I can use this opportunity to promote our cause. Students For a Free Tibet is a great nonprofit organization dedicated to the cause of Tibetan independence through education and grassroots organizing. They have a diverse variety of campaigns connected to the promotion of human rights and autonomy in Tibet, from calls for the liberation of activists and political prisoners to environmental justice advocacy. Please check them out and see if they have a chapter or events in your area!

What about Tibetan literature/news sources/ etc?

Dragon in the Land of Snows by Tsering Shakya is a great resource for contemporary Tibetan history. 

For the phenomenon of Orientalism of the East in Western media: 

Prisoners of Shangri-La by Donald S Lopez is an essential work in contemporary Tibetan Studies breaking down how orientalism damages Tibetan political goals and the fight for autonomy.

Virtual Orientalism by Jane Iwamura explains the modern phenomenon of the exotification of Eastern spirituality by Westerners in film and literature. She coined the term “Oriental Monk”, which is very useful when analyzing works of fiction like Avatar: The Last Airbender .

I would also recommend Edward Said’s original formative text Orientalism.