Christian publisher angers Asian-Americans with gibberish cover and fake accents

“Kung Fu” to sell Christian books was Zondervan’s brilliant publishing and marketing strategy.

Gulp.

The Michigan publisher’s 2007 book Deadly Viper Character Assassin: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership was supposed to help Christians develop character and integrity but instead it’s recently ignited a firestorm about appropriation of Chinese and Japanese (“what’s the big diff?”) cultures by two white authors, one of whom is a pastor and the other who runs a place called www.xxxchurch.com

Can’t say for sure if this idea got passed around the way publishing ideas are supposed to, but I suspect not. Missing—the guy or gal who looks you in the eye and says, “You wanna do WHAT?”

So now Soon-Chan Rah, an evangelical Christian, author, and professor has called the authors and Zondervan on the racist overtones of the book and charged them with appropriating Asian cultural symbols for their own profit. You can read a series of blog posts on the subject here (where you can see some icky promotional pictures) and here. Please note that the Facebook videos appear to be locked down and if you aren’t a member, you won’t be able to access them.

To see how one of the authors reacted initially, go here. Both authors are now in apology mode but so far, Zondervan isn’t.

Highlights:

• The book uses gibberish Chinese characters and kanji (Chinese characters used in modern Japanese). That’s right; apparently, that red stuff on the cover is just a bunch of nonsense squiggles.
• The book “orientalizes” threats to integrity of character starting with the creepy cover image and then embracing other caricatures.
• Its marketing videos and images are offensive and stereotypical.
• It confuses and conflates the distinct cultures of Japan and China.
• The two white dudes don’t have anything to do with Japan or China.

I should add that some people think this is OK.

Filed under: critical thinking, life , Asian cultures, China, Christian leadership, Deadly Viper Character Assassin: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership, evangelical, Japan, Soon-Chan Rah, stereotypes, Zondervan