Culture Shock : Playing Characters from Different Cultures

[call me rae]

Decided to re-write the intro to be a little clearer since there was some confusion on the nature of the thread's topic. Just to clarify this is an opinion thread based on how roleplayers play people of different culture or ethnicity to themselves. This is not meant to be a guide nor a lecture on how to play a particular type of character. As such I welcome everyone's opinions and insights. Thanks to @Coward for the suggestion to change the title.

Now I'm going to start out by reiterating - this is a discussion thread. Meaning that I am not in anyway advocating one way to create characters nor am I preaching about how to do things "properly" based on my own experiences.


I am simply asking a question about how other people tackle an issue that I have seen brought up in numerous roleplays.


The issue being - How do you play someone from a different ethnicity or culture to yourself.


To give some context like most people I started roleplaying using anime. ( Well and superheroes but that's a different conversation entirely ). In the early years my go to anime were - Fruits Basket, Naruto, Vampire Knight, and Hetalia.


All save Naruto took place in some version of the "real world" and most took place somewhere other than the United States. ( Hetalia being an exception but I'll get into that below )


Now as a fresh faced wet behind the ears newbie I didn't really consider anything about the differences in Japanese Culture and American culture when joining the roleplays. I just played them either using the same characters from canon or ones that I made up to fit the roleplay at the time.


It wasn't until I hit college and had to actually do a research paper on Japan that I started to really think about the nature of my characters. At the time I was doing research on Japanese education I was sort of winding down my anime craze but I was also playing I believe four characters from a different culture in an X-men Roleplay.


One I go into depth on below - she was a canon character from Australia called Lifeguard. Two of the others were Italian cousins that I based heavily on N. Italy from Hetalia and the third one was a Japanese transfer student that I made purely because I was enjoying my Japanese research and wanted to make an Asian character.


But here's the thing - Hetalia for those who don't know is basically a anime/manga based entirely on stereotypes. It features all the countries of the world as anthropomorphized people. Example the US is represented by a broad shoulder blonde haired blue eyed loudmouth who is obssessed with "being the hero, mcdonald's and aliens"


North Italy is a spineless pasta loving idiot who is constantly waving the white flag and harrasing his friend the stoic and hard working Germany.


All the characters are stereotypes. Which is fine because it's done in good fun. But I didn't want to be doing a stereotype for my Asian character ( as I had already gotten called out on my Aussie and I wanted her to be a bit more serious than my Idiot Twins aka my Italians )


Luckily for me that several of my partners at the time were in Asian studies and could give me all kinds of info on Japanese culture, the school system, their sense of honor, etc.


It made for one of the most well-researched and realistic characters I have ever made.


And it got me to thinking... why shouldn't I do a bit more research when making characters from different cultures - rather than relying solely on stereotypes or making all my characters virtually the same with maybe a slightly different skin tone.


Now I'm not saying that culture is the only thing that defines a character but I think it is something that is fun to look into - especially when you want to come up with a way to give your character conflict without going the tried and true - tragic backstory , mental illness , insert other meaningless cliche here - route.


Now I don't always get to do as much research as I would like - just because I'm actually far busier now that I work than I ever was when I went to school. And also because I have moved onto fantasy and superhero roleplays both of which tend to not have culture playing a huge part. Or rather in the case of fantasy I'm making up the culture clash as I go on and thus don't have to research as much.


But that being said I just wanted to know how other people feel. Do you let culture play a huge part in how you make your characters? What about ethnicity, religion, sexuality, etc?

 

[call me rae]

So to start off I’m a southern who frankly loves Southern stereotypes. The more redneck and good ole’ boy you wanna make your character the better. I find it amusing and a hoot to read.


For that matter I’m one of those people who does their best to research any different culture when I play a character. I won’t even tell you how much research I did to host a Japanese roleplay. Suffice it to say google was not the only thing I consulted.


However I do think research isn’t this magical cure from unintended stereotyping either. For instance I was playing an Australian character once and I did my level best to research the accent properly. I cited multiple websites and did my best to mimic it phonetically and I still came across sounding like a bad impression of Crocodile Dundey.


Worse there was a boy who actually was Australian in the roleplay that called me out on it. I mean he was thankfully pretty easy going and seemed more amused than anything but he did say that it was kind of unrealistic.


Thankfully he was willing to give me some helpful tips to make my character better and I think my portrayal of her was boosted exponentially.


But let’s be real sometimes you're just going to have to muddle through on your own and do the best you can. I personally think it’s like learning to speak a foreign language. As long as you can see that someone is clearly putting forth a lot of effort to learn to pronounce things properly you’ll let a few awkwardly worded sentences go past.

 

[Grey]

Research, empathy, and careful consideration are all key. It's likewise important that GMs account for ethnic diversity both in terms of NPCs and plot, or interactions.


That said, in fantasy settings, it's less of a thing. You can't expect 21st Century racial politics to crop up in a fantasy world with a different history, much like you can't expect racial politics to be identical across all real-world nations.

 

[SayGoodKnight]

I guess, for me, something I consider is why exactly do I want to play a character of a different ethnicity or culture? I try to check myself on factors like Am I considering this ethnic background/culture to inform who my character is as a person or because I like some aspect of the culture or because I want a challenge in perspective and different moral values, etc. I consider myself someone who tries very hard to be politically correct/sensitive to the cultures of others but I find myself tempted to choose a character's ethnicity or background to inform their personality. Which is really problematic in creating genuine characters in my opinion. Of course I acknowledge that many cultures value certain personality traits or behaviors while others don't which would of course influence a character but I would never think it's alright to say "Oh I want a really disciplined character so I'll go with a Japanese background." That's a stereotype. BUT I do think along the lines of "I want a characters struggling with traditional patriarchal structures or culture in a setting outside of what he/she is used to. Maybe they can have an Southeast Asian background and have grown up in a traditional environment." In other words I try not to pick an ethnicity simply for the sake of having my character be whatever ethnicity but instead to help shape that character's way of thinking while not determining who they are. Does that make sense? Haha I'm known to be overly wordy without making my point at times.


Also I do not even attempt to reflect accents in character dialogue for the exact reason of avoidance of botching it and it can be difficult to read. I rely more on choosing appropriate vocabulary and the way they speak like length of sentences, trying to convey tone, etc. Very interesting topic to broach though!

 

[Coal seam Fire]

Are you assuming that the players will all be TV-standard White people? Because "ethnic diversity" sounds more like code for "anything but that" every time you repeat it.

 

[call me rae]

[QUOTE="Coal seam Fire]Are you assuming that the players will all be TV-standard White people? Because "ethnic diversity" sounds more like code for "anything but that" every time you repeat it.

[/QUOTE]
No I mean when your playing someone from a different ethnicity or culture to you. Whether that's playing someone from a different country - as with my example playing my Australian girl - or whether it's someone from a different part of the united states even. As with my joke about Southern Stereotypes.


Basically when your playing someone who isn't like you.

 

[Pretzel Heart]

Asking the hard questions. I'm really happy to see any kind of diversity in RPing because...the more I've looked for it the more I notice it lacking.


Like currently I am in an RP that takes place in New York - probably one of the most diverse cities in the US - and yet 99% of everyone is caucasian. Why? (Ok I know why...but still). I notice people are starting to get more diverse in sexualities not so much in gender, though.


Especially recently I've been challenging myself to broaden my horizons with trying out characters from various countries, ideologies, classes, ect. But that's also a personal goal for me as RP is the way I get to experiment with writing things I've never done before or might not get to otherwise. Also it just makes it more fun when there's an element of challenge.


It's true that I always feel kind of nervous waiting for someone to call me out on something that doesn't quite fit, and I'm sure that some of it might come off as wince-worthy to a native, no matter how hard I struggle. But I, personally, appreciate effort more than failure. It's nice to have at least some diversity than none at all (as long as it's not blatantly racist or mean). I know when I see people write things that I myself am knowledgeable about (like living in certain cities or countries or going to certain types of institutions), I notice some errors or stereotypes here and there, but I realize that not everyone has first-hand experience with everything and people receive their experiences differently, so maybe RPers should be open to that sort of thing.


I'm lucky to have lived abroad and have many international friends so I have some sort of basis to speak on for some things, but you still can really never know what it's like to be someone unless you've grown up in their shoes. That's the same for any RP character that isn't literally a carbon copy of yourself, though, regardless of race. I tend to use Google info / ect. more for backstory and reasonable name and career options than personality or such. Pictures especially help me to get a feel for a place, or remarks from people who live / have visited.


One thing that slightly bothers me is people that throw in random characters from xyz country with no explanation of how they are fluent in English, especially when they are interacting with people who are all from English-speaking countries...presumably in English. Even a BS excuse is cooler than none at all (if you lived one year abroad you're probably not fluent but since this is fiction I think that kind of explanation could probably fly pass the radar).


In the end I wish people felt like they could loosen up a bit. I've seen people say things like "well I'm not xyz race/gender/religion/ect." so I don't feel comfortable RPing as them. I understand that's just some people's writing style, but still, it would be cool to have more people opening up and trying out these "new and scary" things. ( )


Something I've been thinking about lately so sorry if it got ranty. (' )

 

[J0ker]

Y'know, I've written quite a few non-white characters (Native American, black, Brazilian, ect.) but it doesn't really seem to make much a difference. I mean, there's a few unique cultural things that leak out once in a while, but generally when I write a non-white character they're hardly any different than my white characters. Whether or not that's a "good" or "bad" thing, I dunno, but that's just my experience. A bit of flavor, but not extremely important.

 

[Archie]

Adding onto the point about research, I think another thing that's equally huge is making characters diverse within diversity.


When I was living in foreign countries one of the main problems people said they had with Hollywood is even if they tried to research foreign cultures really well (see: Last Samurai, Braveheart, or like any movie that takes place in a foreign country) and portrayed most people in that country positively, they turned them all into the same thing, like their ninja warrior samurai japanese identity was the number one thing in their lives.


People are people, and their sexual orientation, race, or any other group they belong to isn't usually the #1 thing in their life: it's usually important but they're people just like anyone else. The #1 thing I've learned making these characters to avoid criticism is to avoid painting their lives as ideals of what someone of that race/orientation would live like, but rather trying to make them interesting people off of which their background is just one part of who they are. Even when I've made wicked villains out of characters of other races, as long as I've made them realistic, dynamic, and complex, I haven't gotten any flak or seen someone get flak for the same.

 

[QuixoticKitten]

I hang around in the realistic/modern section a lot, and I have to say us realistic roleplayers are probably the most guilty of not just whitewashing our roleplays but also getting in the mindset of always playing one gender, one sexuality, one body type, etc. Not going to lie, there are a lot of thirteen year old girls (or at least people who write like them) in the realistic section and I've noticed that they are often the ones most guilty of this. "Oh, my character is just the most perfect Anglo-Saxon/popular/pretty/skinny/hetero girl who everyone loves and has no flaws." As others mentioned, race does not equate to morality. Physical characteristics do not define a character.


For example, if you were to survey all members of this site, the percentage of people who have played a character over a size 7 would be significantly low. I've seen roleplays where every single character has been a skinny hetero white girl, and it makes me angry. Not everyone in our world is a skinny hetero white girl, and our roleplays need to reflect this. I, for example, am an average sized lesbian white girl, and many of my characters reflect that. However, I don't like to let those specific things define me, or my characters for that matter. It's not even a problem with inaccurate portrayal - you can portray an Asian character the same way you would portray a white character, on some levels at least. It's not the characters themselves that are the problem but the people behind the characters.

 

[Idea]

Well, the thing that is most important to remember here, as far as I know, is that your character will notice the differences backwards. The parts that are different to you are natural to them and some things that ar natural to you will be odd to them. In rp, you could do this by only hitting at the they do this or that that is proper to their culture, while having the notice other character`s doing things they would not be used to.

 

[call me rae]

Well, the thing that is most important to remember here, as far as I know, is that your character will notice the differences backwards. The parts that are different to you are natural to them and some things that ar natural to you will be odd to them. In rp, you could do this by only hitting at the they do this or that that is proper to their culture, while having the notice other character`s doing things they would not be used to.

Very true and something a lot of people forget when doing this kind of thing. I read this awesome book once -- it was all about the different forms of Etiquette from around the world. I found it interesting what different things like Handshakes or hugs meant at different places.

 

[call me rae]

I don't know why it should be something to be angry about, "skinny popular white girls" or not. Even if someone doesn't portray a certain culture or language 100% accurately - they tried, they're having a good time, and that's what matters.
After all, roleplaying isn't some competition to show off your intelligence, accuracy and political correctness (at least not for me) x)

True enough. I think to a certain extent the stereotypes can be fun as long as you do them properly. As long as your not attacking someone else with them then as long as your having fun go for it.

 

[call me rae]

I've seen roleplays where every single character has been a skinny hetero white girl, and it makes me angry. Not everyone in our world is a skinny hetero white girl, and our roleplays need to reflect this. I, for example, am an average sized lesbian white girl, and many of my characters reflect that. .

Amen I actually had someone refuse to let me join a roleplay once because my character wasn't "pretty" enough. Like it was a high school roleplay and I wanted to make my character kind of have an awkward and nerdy look. So I went out of my way to find someone with hair all over the place, big glasses, possibly blochy skin I can't remember. Needless to say this took forever because god forbid their be pictures of normal people as models.


And after all that she just says nope your not pretty so you can't join. It's just shallow. I mean I understand if the quality of the picture is bad but to deny someone entry because they aren't blonde haired white beauty queens is ugh.

 

[Grin]

The two main types of characters I play are what I like to call "That Goofball Over There" and "The Exploration Of Other". The latter applies here.


If I want an excuse to learn more about people who aren't like me, or figure out why certain types of characters are under-represented in my favorite mediums, then I create a character with those traits I want to learn about. This way, I'm gifted with a practical reason to learn and experiment.


Granted, it's not perfect. However, until they invent a way for me to actually BE an autistic Muslim girl from Nova Scotia, this is what's available to me.

 

[OhGodOfWriting]

I like to go off of an edge of reality. For example, I have an Australian friend. What I noticed about him is that he doesn't like smiling in pictures, and the American practice of "tipping" for services is weird to him. The smiling thing is probably just a personality trait, but the tipping issue was eye-opening into the way he viewed my culture. He barely had an accent, and he was a very "normal" guy in my eyes.


I work in the things I find consistent with certain personality types that I have actually been friends with, and go from there with research and personality differences. I find that without mooring a character (even a character who is my culture and lifestyle, frankly) in some type of real person, it's going to Mary Su. That's why all my characters are some aspect of me.


For me the key is to always find the connection, however tenuous, to what I KNOW from experience.

 

[Coward]

As an Australian I feel compelled to chime in here: We do smile in pictures and we tip. The difference is that here tipping is in no way obligatory, because restaurant staff are paid the same minimum wage as everyone else. If you guys wanted to write Australian characters you probably could, because in a lot of ways North America is quite similar to Australia. Just tone down your impulse to write boomerangs and kangaroos into everything.


Also @readingraebow I would have loved to read your Dundee accent.

 

[Edric Yuma]

I have not tried being other races besides mine and caucasian yet, simply because I have not even come close to mastering different personalities. All my characters usually end up sounding the same, and for me, I cannot move on in experimentation until I feel comfortable with one aspect that I focus on. However, I do find that talking to different ethnicities greatly broadens my ideas of their culture, even if the person I'm talking to is as whitewashed as I am.

 

[Sleipnir]

I am not going to lie. I have been roleplaying for probably seven years now and I have made only one non-white character. He was created in the past year, and the only reason he isn't white is because I stumbled upon a photo I liked for his appearance. He is, racially, Japanese, but it has no bearing on his personality or playing experience except his last name and early history.


And I'm a little embarrassed to say the only reason I haven't made any other non-white characters is simply because I never thought about it. I live in the heart of the American Midwest. In my high school, there isn't quite ten non-white kids in my entire school. And aside from that, maybe it comes off as some sort of racist depending on who you are (I tend to be pretty laid back about this sort of thing), I never found race important. I kind of just see a physical quality and in all honesty it's just not a physical quality I often change about characters, like hair color. About 85% of my characters are black or brown haired.


And culturally I have never touched differences in real life culture because that is terrifying to me. I don't want to make some grave mistake and offend someone deeply.


Now, other types of "otherness," that I've done. I have a character right now who was born in 1898 and had no opportunity for social adjustment between then and the present day, so he still follows cultural and verbal norms of his time and birthplace(So North He's Almost Canadian). It's becoming something of a hobby to look up turn of the century culture and slang, I won't lie. My favorite phrase is "Gets my goat."


In the realm of physical appearances and sexual orientation, I've been playing in that pool a bit too. I have this really tall, skinny guy who's hair is messy, he's not conventionally attractive by any stretch and also my only blonde character right now. His hair is a curly mess. I have more than one asexual character, including a Heteroromantic, and therefore wants an emotional connection but has no interest in any sexual advances at all(and may even be repulsed, we aren't that far yet.) It's a little easier because I am asexual.


As for stereotypical characters for my region — pffffft, do explain what a stereotypical Ohio denizen is like??? I don't think I know of any stereotypes except "Farmer" and "Very Conservative."


...But as a mixed-up but moderately conservative(I don't even know what I qualify as anymore) rabbit-breeder, I can't say that's inaccurate.

 

[Jay Fox]

I'm white, and I admittedly probably write a majority of white characters, though by no means all of them. There's two reasons for that, really: one is that I usually do fandom roleplay, and unfortunately there's not all that much diversity in visual medium (of course, in books etc, it's a lot easier to interpret characters as PoC). The second is definitely a concern that I'm going to mess it up, no matter how much research I do, because my lived experience is informed by a whole load of white privilege. And I don't want to fetishise race/ethnicity and make it the Sole Factor of a character's personality, but then again, I know first hand as a queer, disabled, trans person that it's incredibly frustrating when areas that I am socially oppressed for are just glossed over, because they are a big part of my identity, and they definitely affect my place in society (although as mentioned above, that could well be different in alternate societies!).


So, I don't want to write racial stereotypes but I also don't want to write an assimilate-y white washed PoC, or a person from another culture who is basically written as I would write somebody from my own town. Culture and race can be important aspects in identity for people, and I want to do that justice. I think the most important things are research, respect, and listening when called out for something.

 

[call me rae]

[QUOTE="Jay Fox]I think the most important things are research, respect, and listening when called out for something.

[/QUOTE]
Very true, I think the last part is especially important. We all make mistakes and sooner or later everyone ends up making a character that is a little bit offensive to someone else.


Whether that's from a cultural, ethical, philosophical, etc standpoint or just the plain fact that your playing a personality someone else finds offensive. I mean granted sometimes that's also kind of the point. ( i've played my share of racist d-bags and it's hardly like i have to agree with the characters in universe views to portray them )


But if someone gives me a legitimate reason for why something makes them comfortable I'm more than happy to change it. Whether that is because I inadvertantly triggered some personal trauma or they just find a turn of phrase insulting. That's fine.


Hey I've even had that happen in the OOC before. As I said from the south - got a fairly thick accent when I get going - and when I was younger I tended to call everyone - hon. I didn't mean anything by it - I wasn't trying to be demeaning or sexist or whatever it was just how I talked.


Well I had someone actually call me out on it in the OOC - saying they didn't appreciate being called Hon as to them it sounded like I was being condescending . Well it took some effort but I did try not to slip up around them and made a point of calling them a variation of their username when speaking to them.

 

[kkbird123]

For me, I have had first hand contact with tons of cultures. For example: Im american, my moms Trinidadian/Caribbean, my dads Nicaraguan, i lived in a Chinese - Indian dominated country, etc. TBH, i dont mind others trying to be a different culture, even if its stereotypical. I respect the fact that they have acknowledge that there is other people in the world besides being white or European.

 

[Lorsh]

I rarely play non-white characters, and it's not an issue to me. Sometimes they're Southern-sounding or Irish, but that's as "diverse" as it usually gets. Rarely, I'll have black or Asian characters, but I tend to roleplay them the exact same way as I roleplay my caucasian characters.


I do not feel some sort of obligation to force myself to play characters with cultural backgrounds that I would probably fail to properly emulate anyway. If the setting of the roleplay called for it, I'd be more than willing to give it a try.

 

[Morris]

I have no qualms about roleplaying (or writing) characters of different ethinicities - but generally, I stay away from real life based settings (unless alternative history is involved). Because as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter how much research I'm doing, or how well-intentional I am in portayal, I cannot hope to faithfully portray someone from a culture radically different from mine without coming off with a hint of stereotyping, unintended misinterpretation or involving involuntary subconscious preconceptions.


Contrast that with a fantasy or sci-fi setting, where you have every right to shape any character of any ethnicity however you see fit, so long as they meets two basic rules:


1 - he/she fits the standards of the setting (ie. in an Asian-focused setting, eskimos would be strange)


2 - he/she displays behaviour that is justified by both backstory (personal experiences) and upbringing (religion, culture, education, etc.)


Naturally, though, some people are nitpicking even then. But when someone is trying to enforce parallels between real life history and a fictional world which happens to be inspired by historical basis but cannot possibly be equated, well... that mentality does not bode well for RP'ing.


Just my personal opinion.

 

[jamesshaford]

We wouldn't expect a black guy to play a white guy to be ethnically diverse, so why should it be the other way around for us? If you wanna go ahead. If you wanna research it go ahead, if you don't, then don't. So long as you aren't pretending to be a black dude yelling out the N word or pronouncing stuff like PREASE B0SS GIBBE DE PUSSI as an Asian you're fine.