D&D General (Anecdotal) conversations with Asian gamers on some problems they currently face in the D&D world of RPG gaming

[Catolias]

you don't need someone from that culture to tell you that invasion and genocide are bad.

No, I don’t but others might. But leave that aside, how would you translate a culture that you can’t know because you do not live in it? A past culture is in the past. It is not fully knowable. The past is a foreign country.

 

[Catolias]

The whole US culture was welded together that way and that was once called "melting pot" and seen as a beacon for the free world to take as a paragon example,

Today's USA would most likely not exist if "that's cultural appropriation" would have been a thing back then. Without appropriating the misreprensted #### out of each each other the USA would have long since collapsed into a bunch of different nations because it would have lacked the common amalgan of a culture to bind all of this together

Not just US culture, but every culture.

Language gives an amazing insight into this. Words like pyjama or bungalow are not English but Indian in origin. Beef is not English in origin, it’s French.

Food is another. Spaghetti’s origins are in the noodles of China. Fancy an Indian curry? Well “curry” is not Indian. It’s a generic English word applied to a type of food. And if you want “Indian” food, where from? Kerala? North India? Think bolognese sauce was always available in the Italian peninsula? Think again: the tomato came from the americas and was considered poisonous well into the 16th century. So, that food didn’t exist as we know it prior to then.

The idea that today’s nation states represent a monolithic culture is ridiculous. It is also ignorant of history to suggest that the cultures that exist today did not meld other older cultures. That melding might have been by force or by agreement.

 

[Panda-s1]

Because if they were threatened with violence, and that is why they chose to close, there is a serious moral issue with the closure. Do you think people should have threatened their lives over this?

okay so there's a serious moral issue with the closure but not any with the creation and theme of their restaurant? also 1) no one's actually found out if they brought up death threats. 2) the existence of death threats doesn't mean other issues magically go away. sometimes people do the right thing and get death threats for it, it doesn't mean what they did was wrong or should stop. I'm not saying death threats are okay, but I am saying you can't use them to obfuscate the underlying issue.

No, I don’t but others might.

if others do need it then that's an issue beyond culture.

But leave that aside, how would you translate a culture that you can’t know because you do not live in it? A past culture is in the past. It is not fully knowable. The past is a foreign country.

this is how the vast majority of human history is. things like genocide and invasion aside there are cultures archaeologists and historians discovered that we know nothing about apart from a few remaining artifacts or mentions in historical records from other civilizations.

it's unfortunate that we might not have first hand accounts of these cultures aside from historical records from invaders, but I'd at least try and reassess why you need to "translate" these cultures.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:

Folks, is this a site about Rest-Stops and Restaurants? No? Then please bring the thread around to something gaming-relevant. Thank you.

 

[Catolias]

it's unfortunate that we might not have first hand accounts of these cultures aside from historical records from invaders, but I'd at least try and reassess why you need to "translate" these cultures.

I’m not a computer. The information I read is translated by a whole range of different ideas and thoughts that have made me into the person I am. The introduction of this new information changes me further too.

In the context of fantasy rpg, I have to translate cultures as I don’t play a historically accurate representation. The last time I looked elves, dwarves, orc, areanea, owlbears and displaced beasts existed in Safavid Persia.

 

[Panda-s1]

okay let's go back to an anecdotal conversation with an Asian about OA.

anyone wanna defend this description of rice? anyone? if you want some insight there are large parts of "Shou Lung"/"T'u Lung" where rice is only secondary to wheat as far as staple grains go.

 

[Catolias]

okay let's go back to an anecdotal conversation with an Asian about OA.
View attachment 123570
anyone wanna defend this description of rice? anyone? if you want some insight there are large parts of "Shou Lung"/"T'u Lung" where rice is only secondary to wheat as far as staple grains go.

No. But that goes to my earlier comment that WotC should be held responsible by being made to update and reissue OA. Placing a disclaimer on it or removing it from circulation lets Wotc off the hook. It does nothing to address what is an evidentially ridiculous statement.

 

[Panda-s1]

No. But that goes to my earlier comment that WotC should be held responsible by being made to update and reissue OA. Placing a disclaimer on it or removing it from circulation lets Wotc off the hook. It does nothing to address what is an evidentially ridiculous statement.

updating and reissuing doesn't solve anything. if you mean make an entirely new edition, well the original book still exists and they're still selling it. you can just not sell the book.

 

[Haldrik]

okay let's go back to an anecdotal conversation with an Asian about OA.
View attachment 123570
anyone wanna defend this description of rice? anyone? if you want some insight there are large parts of "Shou Lung"/"T'u Lung" where rice is only secondary to wheat as far as staple grains go.

Heh, it is kinda shocking that OA somehow managed to make "rice" somewhat offensive.

That is amazing.

 

[Panda-s1]

Heh, it is kinda shocking that OA somehow managed to make "rice" somewhat offensive.

That is amazing.

isn't it? and I'm sure a lot of the people who defend it will read that and be like "well duh all Asians eat rice!" like they can't see past their own presumptions about Asian culture to think of why someone might find this offensive.