Blog post: Apu’s Brown Voice

Posted on September 3, 2018 by by | 1 Comment
  1. In Shilpa Dave’s “Apu’s Brown Voice Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents”, the author discusses the presence and performance of South Asian voices and accents in American culture and the meaning of the term “brown voice”. In order to demonstrate, Shilpa refers to the character Apu performed on the television show “The Simpsons”. Apu represents an Indian immigrant presence, and his brown-voice indicates the racial difference between Americans. The article states the importance of animated characters as an ideal case to study vocal accents with a deeper thinking of racial performance and stereotype, and shows how Indian Americans challenge and expand the privileged positions of South Asians.
  2. “Apu’s flawed attempt to impersonate an American with a celebrity accent attaches him to an American cultural history and hence to an American citizenship. But to the audience this is a humorous scene because we know Apu is not culturally American”[315]. This is an example of ethnic assimilation and it represents the stereotype of South Asians’ voice and act. Because American audiences expect him to speak English with Indian accent, although Apu has a great American celebrity accent, which also help us understand racial and ethnic performance in the large realm of animated cartoons. “Many middle-class Indians are educated in English-speaking schools where all subjects are taught in English. However, there are a multitude of accent variations. So although it would be more appropriate to think of Indian English as an inflected version of English that more closely resembles British English or Black English, American culture perceives South Asians talking with the accent of a non-native speaker”[318]. This is another example of brown voice was understood as a cultural difference. It is obvious that Indians were trying to integrate into American society, and Indian accents imply a model minority. However, the main stream of American society just regarded them as successful foreigners. Thus, brown voice became a maker of cultural subjectivity.
  3. A key term that the author introduces in the article is “Brown Voice”. Brown voice exposes the flaws of being cast as a privileged or model minority. For example, Hank Azaria’s vocal performance of brown voice becomes a syllable, so when people saw the accent emerging from Azaria’s mouth in an American serial, people would feel uncomfortable, because the face and the voice did not match. Thus, South Asians are not evolving in roles on American television. Meanwhile, the role of Apu and brown voice created a stereotype and ethnicity beyond the visual.
  4. This article reminds me of the current situation of Hong Kong serials. Hong Kong serials all speak Cantonese, and Hong Kong serials were well received by Chinese audiences almost 20 years ago. However, due to the lack of originality, limited resources such as capital and talent resources, it is not difficult for Hong Kong to produce popular serials rescently. Through the cooperation between the directors of Hong Kong and the mainland film and television companies, more content creation styles in the Mainland are bound to be integrated into the production of Hong Kong serials. Many serials are dubbed into Mandarin, so many audiences find the experience jarring because the physical image do not match the voice.

 

 

 

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