Draft 1: Outline
My topic is
how western screen writer use Chinese element in BBC TV show Sherlock episode
2, season 1. So I would like to describe the content of that episode.
There is a
Chinese criminal gang called Black Lotus Tong. They are engaged in smuggle
activities. They secretly transport Chinese antique to England and sell them as
very high price. However, a jade hairpin worth 9 million pounds disappeared
during one trade. The master, Shan who lives in China, is anxious to find out
who steal the hairpin. So Black Lotus goes to England and pretends to be a
Chinese acrobatic. Shan wants to find hairpin during performance. The link men
of that trade are Van Coon and Lukis. One of them must steal the hairpin. So
Shan draw the secret code on where they can see to warn them they should return
the treasure. But no one returns the hairpin then both of them were killed. Sherlock
is in charge of this case. He finds the secret code is a kind of ancient
Chinese numeral called Hangzhou numeral. Finally, Sherlock decode the Hangzhou
numeral and catch the Black Lotus Tong.
There is misunderstanding
of Chinese culture in many other television shows. For example: The Simpsons.
2. Discussion of the relevance/importance of your focus to
(identify the “problem” or gap in
Knowledge that your research will provide more information about)
Suzhou
numeral: Asmus Fretag find out that Suzhou numeral was named
as Hangzhou numeral by accident and explain the Unicode Standard in his another
research. But he didn't analyze why Suzhou numeral will be named incorrectly in
Unicode Standard. I will explain the reason of that mistake.
Painting: Caroline and Susan are
talking about Chinese painting and Ryukyu Satio is talking
about Japanese painting in books. But they did not show the differences and
similarities of Chinese and Japanese Painting. I will compare Chinese and
Japanese painting by myself and point out the reason why there are
similarities.
Jade hairpin: Joan M. Hartman covers
character of good jade; however, he overlooks the character of bad jade. I will
focus on comparison of good jade and bad jade.
3. Clear statement of a research question to focus your
analysis=what the analysis will show
I
will focus on how producer misuse the Chinese elements in BBC television show
Sherlock and what could be the reason.
4. Clear identification & explanation of methods to conduct your
research
I
watched The Blind Banker (episode 2, season 1 of Sherlock) many times to find
out what elements they use are not correct. I list all of them and chose the
appropriate elements to do some research.
Then I did
research on internet. I find academic resource on Google Scholar, EBL, Springer
or other online library. I got the information about Suzhou numeral, Unicode Standard,
Chinese painting, Japanese painting, Japanese and Chinese culture
and Jade.
5. Presentation and analysis of data
or information (see requirements for short analysis essay)
Unicode: When Sherlock mentioned Suzhou numeral which is a kind of rod numeral system that
was used in ancient China, He said: “Hangzhou numeral”. In fact there is no such thing like
Hangzhou numeral.
They made a mistake because there is a
misnomer in the system is of Unicode. In Unicode Standard, Suzhou numeral was
record as Hangzhou numeral.
Screenwriters did not notice this
mistake because they do not understand and pay much attention to Chinese
culture. Their audiences are almost Westerners. They only need to know that is
a kind of numeral of ancient China no matter where it came from.
Painting: When Sherlock was searching the
Chinese antiques that auctioned, we could see a painting on the computer screen
which was explained as a Chinese painting. However, if we see it carefully, we
will find it is not a Chinese painting but a Japanese painting.
Chinese painting is famous of brush
drawing. We can distinct them by style and color choosing.
Chinese and Japanese paintings are
similar in some way because China and Japan are both Asian countries. In Tang
Dynasty, there were a large number of Japanese scholars came to China to learn
advanced knowledge. The large number of traditional Japanese culture preserved
Chinese elements including painting style. So westerners are difficult to
distinct Chinese and Japanese.
Jade: The treasure Black Lotus lost is a
jade hairpin that used by an empress lived before 1000 years ago
and it worth nine million pounds. In that sense, this jade hairpin should be
extremely delicate and beautiful. Jade with high quality should be very bright.
However the quality of hairpin appeared on the show seems very poor. That
hairpin was din and shoddy.
In fact, they care more about what
Chinese elements could convey to audiences but not Chinese element itself
because their audiences are almost western people.
6. Discussion of findings
I
find there three main kinds of misuse of Chinese elements in BBC Television
show Sherlock.
Error
of translation: Suzhou numeral was called Hangzhou numeral.
Error
of garble: A Japanese painting was used as Chinese painting.
Error
of value: Cheap hairpin was regarded as ancient jade hairpin.
7. Conclusions that connect findings
to the research question
Producer of
Sherlock misuse the Chinese elements in TV show because they are not familiar
with Chinese culture. And they just want to use Chinese elements to attract
attention. Though China is a big country but we are not open to the world.
Westerns do not know clearly about Chinese culture. What we should do is
promoting Chinese culture then there will be less misunderstand of Chinese.
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