Interest
Lily James Accused of Racism for Writing 'Shinderera'
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Cinderella star Lily James came under fire on Instagram after she posted a picture of herself at the film's premiere in Tokyo with the caption "'Shinderera premiere in Tokyo. The final stop on our tour and it was a beautiful cold night, thank you!" Instagram users questioned whether the actress' choice to write "Shinderera" was a racist joke against Japanese accents.
The British tabloid The Mirror reported that, based on IMDb, "Shinderera" is the Japanese title of the film. This isn't necessarily correct either. Lily James' romanization in her Instagram post could be based on the same misunderstanding of the Japanese language.
The word "Cinderella" is written literally in Japanese as "Shinderera" or "シンデレラ" due to approximations between English Ls being closest in sound to Japanese Rs and the lack of singular consonant sounds. Regardless, "シンデレラ" would always be romanized as "Cinderella" despite how it is spelled out in katakana.
Users have since pointed this out, but still question if James' intent was to mock the Japanese or if it's a misunderstanding.
"Some are pointing out that, yes, it is the phonetic Japanese way to say 'Cinderella'. But racism is about intent. And it's pretty clear that she posted this cuz she thought it was funny how an entire people group pronounces the name. The intent of the post wasn't to edify, but to mock and ridicule. So...racist?? YES!" wrote one commentator.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip
[Via Mirror]
