The Cultural Inspirations in Raya and the Last Dragon

hello my beautiful neopets [Music] so the first time i heard about ryan the last dragon it was months ago maybe even honestly i don't know when they started production but it was before they had even started production and i was really excited about a new southeast asian disney princess but you know i wasn't expecting like a groundbreaking representation because we are talking about disney here but more because i just thought about how exciting it probably is for young southeast asian girls to finally get a princess that they connected with listen all we had when i was growing up was mulan and she's from a totally different culture aside from some shared physical characteristics like the only things i related to culturally was the superstitious grandma and porridge for breakfast but not repair like that and i'm pretty sure there's no bacon in ancient china either but speaking of food the food was actually my favorite part of ryan the last dragon just because it is so difficult to find any positive representation or even like neutral representation of southeast asian food in american media oh it's not bad it kind of smells like a melon oh it smells like farts now oh oh my goodness it smells like wet garbage trash old eggs cantaloupe passion fruit old refrigerator it's a durian karen it's not that serious also you don't have to eat it i mean don't eat it it costs like 25 at the chinese supermarket i'll eat it the story of raya is that she is the princess of heart for context there are five regions heart talon tail spine and fang all named after parts of a dragon and long ago these lands were united under one name kumandra rai's dad who adheres to the beloved trope of wise leader slash father has this pipe dream of reunification but then everything changed when the fang nation attacked only the dragons masters of rain and water could stop them but when the world needed the most they vanished six years passed and ryan took to discover an old dragon sisu and although she doesn't know how to do anything raya believes sisu can save the world or something like that let's address the elephant in the room very quickly um a lot of southeast asians criticized this movie because they felt like it was a poor representation of southeast asian cultures in the sense that it created this monolith rather than focusing on one culture or one country it tried to focus on them all and created this melting pot of asianism along the lines of avatar in the last airbender and in reality even though southeast asian cultures share a lot of similarities they are also all unique and beautiful people felt like raya was about creating the optics of a brown-skinned asian princess rather than creating an accurate and respectful portrayal of southeast asian culture now my take is i don't really have any expectations going into the movie given disney's track record once again on cultural representation and so i feel like i wasn't as disappointed or bothered as some other people because my bar was already on the floor the one thing i will not excuse though is that the majority of the cast was actually east asian and that's a huge problem for me because southeast asians are just constantly overshadowed by east asians in virtually every dimension and not to mention southeast asia is very different from east asia culturally so it just didn't make any sense and i felt like it was a lost opportunity to introduce more southeast asian voice actors into the industry anyways i'm only one southeast asian so please don't take my word as gospel and don't use it to delegitimize or invalidate anyone else's personal feelings about the movie for this movie i'm going to be talking about the clothing in the film because that's my area of interest of the three main characters raya namari and sisu because there's a lot of characters in this film and i'm just one person now i have to put up this disclaimer for you all because i don't want anyone yelling at me there are a lot of similar garments across southeast asia due to trade and i definitely do not know the names of all of them if i discuss a garment being from one place but you know it from another place i encourage you to let me know in the comments i truly do not claim to know everything i would also like to give special shout outs to magali and berton and ling aing moreau for answering some of my questions and graciously letting me know what references they spotted and of course my friends and family who helped me with the pronunciations that i probably still butchered after the prologue when we first see raya and yes i usually do video clips but i'm scared disney will put me in copyright jail because raya is still on the disney premium plus disney plus premium anyways we first see ryan she's in her training gear she's studying to become the protector of the dragon gem or as raya calls it the spirit of sisu it's basically this magical orb that provides balance to the world magali pointed out that the outfit looks inspired by the uniform of a female bokotov fighter bogota is a cambodian martial arts dating back to the 9th century and when simply translated to english means pounding a lion which sounds super badass i was initially unsure about this character design because it was giving major legend of korra vibes and at first it felt like disney was just trying to replicate the success of avatar but after watching this movie i understand the choice for blue because water is a huge theme in the movie i mean ryan's dad even calls her a dewdrop which is super cute the dragons in raya are also based on nagas which are like the dragons of southeast asian folklore this is confirmed by disney by the way nagas are actually more like sea serpents and they don't breathe fire their powers revolve around water like creating rain and causing winds and even shape-shifting all things that sisu does in the movie bad character design aside they did get the front horns correct um and the snake like body correct the only thing is like the feet uh nagas don't usually have legs so i think they took the leg details from vietnamese dragons according to nasa bove the movie's costume designer raya's costume is a nod to her upbringing in heart the land that most reveres the auspicious dragons and if you look closely at raya's pants you can see this kind of geometric diamond pattern with raindrops in the center the pattern as a whole also looks influenced by lao thai textiles the lao tai are an ethnic community in southeast asia their textiles have a lot of range as you can see but these kinds of patterns in particular seem to be the inspo for raya laotai textiles also have a lot of spiritual significance and traditionally shamans would even work with them because they have a lot of healing properties the patterns are crucial to the textiles power and they tend to be representations of animals and plants or abstract motifs nagas are also important motifs in an interview with lao tai weavers one of them explained if naga notices that we aren't wearing any textiles with her image then she might think we don't respect her and then maybe she'll kill us i don't know if it's necessarily the same level of seriousness in raya's case because the movie doesn't really go that far deep into the cultural traditions but i think the motifs on ryze clothing do imply that the textiles have some form of cultural significance after raya completes her training and officially earns the title of guardian of the dragon gem her dad breaks the news that the other lands are coming to visit and just when you're questioning how disney could push a child soldier movie in 2021 he tells her that they're actually not going to fight and they're actually just going to eat food her top looks like a sabai i know the word sabai is used in cambodian thailand but the garment is also worn throughout lao malaysia and myanmar the sabai is a shawl made of cotton linen or silk there's actually multiple ways to wear the sabai as detailed by this image but the way that raya is wearing it has it um draped around her shoulder the metal ring at raya's shoulder has a double-headed dragon design which plays off the bracelets that have stylized naga heads once again because the naga kind of exists in the raya universe this is pretty appropriate these bracelets exist in many countries but these ones in particular are from indonesia and are called galanguler okay actually looking at the screenshots again it seems like they removed the dragon head designs from the final look i'm assuming because it would have been too hard to animate but the dragon heads would have looked cooler for sure the shoes she's wearing look inspired by the sparkly leather slippers from india called modari or kusa and they have a very iconic curved toe they were developed by the mughal quartz and adopted by the wealthy they most likely spread across southeast asia via trade there's also a very special pair of slippers with the same curved toe design designated for the king the slippers are part of the royal regalia which are presented to the king during the coronation ceremony the ceremony goes all the way back to the 13th century during the suka thai period the scene transitions to the scene where all the other lands have already gathered and if you watch the promo and we're excited to see all these new characters i hate to inform you but they have no purpose of the story after the scene the ceremonial top that raya wears looks to be a stylized vietnamese outlook which is um an early 19th century precursor to the ausai which is what i'm wearing today hey i wonder if that could be purposeful [Music] you can see some inspiration in the way that the garment has these crossover flaps that are like sewn here together and also the wide sleeves also in earlier concept art it looks like the original design incorporated the mandarin collar as well much like the outside the outduck is essentially a long tunic and it's split at the sides and is worn over pants and yes both vietnamese garments are worn with pants which is why i get super peeved every time i see like a random vintage depop seller selling in outside labeling it as like you know vintage oriental garment and they model it without the pants the slit literally goes all the way up to the hip it just doesn't make any sense why you would not wear pants underneath it um you would literally flash everyone the fabric raya wears looks to be a very luscious and expensive silk with gold detailing according to robin maxwell wearing embellished gold was a sign of wealth and prestige cloth of gold in particular was a sign of physical and spiritual blessing across many cultures in southeast asia and heart is a very prosperous land compared to the others or as rich people say the residents were very comfortable we see this embarrassing slip up from raya when she meets namari and she asks amari if she likes stew or rice and namari says oh well we don't really have rice because we're poor would honestly kind of threw me off because i mean i'm no food historian or anything but rice is very cheap and plentiful and the climate of fang is not even desert land so i don't really understand why they don't have rice um but they have stew anyways this is all purposeful it seems because in the art of raya they said that ry's fit is made of rich woven silk and brocade fabrics often associated with royalty in southeast asia oh also i forgot to mention this earlier but her hairstyle looks inspired by burmese hairstyles in this part of the movie we also meet namari who i just talked about anyway but going back to namari raya first interacts with namari because she's the only other kid there and talking to adults is just you know not something you want to do when you're 12. so i do think it's strange that they call themselves dragon nerds and super fans i feel like it's making dragon lore into a fandom when it's really a religion it's kind of like saying oh i stand jesus oh i'm a buddhist super fan you know it's just a little weird but maybe that's just me um disciple nerds let me know in the comments what you think the tunic that namara wears has a mandarin color and cambodian and thai dance wear-esque epaulettes which are these upward curved shoulder things specifically the epaulettes resemble the male characters costumes worn by dancers in the cambodian royal ballet which is a form of performing arts that was established during the khmer regal court i really like nari's design on its own even though it kind of falls into the faux pas wearing gold and silver jewelry at the same time but i overlook it because she's 12. i also think her outfit skews in the direction of star wars which is a little it could be nice if all the other characters were wearing like futuristic clothing but because it's really just namari and her mom it's a little strange but according to the art of raya they created the sterile look for these characters by referencing fang's geometric structure for silhouette and patterning the costumes i guess are supposed to represent where the characters are from i still feel like they look more modern than the other lands though which also doesn't really make sense because namari said that their country is like kind of poor but i also feel like if they really wanted to do this they should have made all the other background characters from fang also dressed like this because the rest of them look way less sci-fi than the royal family the hairstyles she and her mom wear is a very modern undercut and i guess that's fine um creative liberties and whatnot but i feel like it was a lost opportunity to go for something more cultural because there are historical images of thai and cambodian women wearing very short hairstyles not to spoil too much but after this moment hits the fan and uh there's a time skip we're now back to where we were at the beginning with older raya riding around in her tuk tuk uh searching for sisu in the desert it's confirmed in the art of raya that raya's top here is based on the sabai top once again and the sambat the sambot is this cotton or silk tube shaped garment about a yard wide and when fastened into pants it's called chunkabun the changa bun is worn in thailand and cambodia and according to jillian green it came about around the 9th century some believe that the chunk of bun originated in india because of the resemblance to the indian adoti garment and also because of trade relationships between south and southeast asia there was a lot of shared culture and hinduism but magali told me that despite this it's actually very difficult to be completely sure because of lack of documentation and also the fact that garments in more humid climates tend to disintegrate faster just to put it in perspective the oldest garment in cambodia today is from circa the 1850s which to put it into even more perspective the oldest garbage in my closet is from the 1890s which is only 40 years later that's to me raya also now wears a conical hat that is super popular across all of southeast asia one example of it being the filipino salakot these hats are mostly made of bamboo palm and rotten leaves they are designed to protect wearers from the sun and they can also be coated in resin in a type of resin to make them waterproof as well you could also decorate them with tassels feathers and beads to show wealth in class so no they're not just farmer hats the vest or according to nasa bove the motorcycle jacket is based off of the geometric and sharp shoulder designs of some southeast asian garments and it's also made of leather i got this info from the art of ryobook and it unfortunately doesn't go much more in depth into that um but it did come across this research paper by sandra siryani sargono and i realized the shape of rya's vest actually matches the javanese gothan super well my friend ari who's indonesian hey ari if you're watching this they told me that the kotang actually means a bra in today's speech but in this research paper sandra uses the term to mean the royal army uniform jackets of the yogyakarta and surakarta courts in indonesia sarjona also adds that the raised collar was probably a borrowed european element also sargent says that warrior jackets of the 8th to 9th centuries were also most likely made of firm yet flexible materials such as leather or bark cloths which you know matches ryze's vest description very well boots are not common in most areas of southeast asia and in historical times regular regular people do not even wear shoes most the time but i was trying to look for boot references and i did come across two boots that i think could have inspired the design in raya boots from tibet or boots from bhutan early tibetan boots were also made of leather which is the confirmed material description for raya's boots where is namari during all of this well being the bad that she is of course i mean she's always been a bad like this screenshot of her with this mug grin is burned into my retinas but the first time we see her an adult she literally pummels a guy two times her size for just asking what they're doing like look at the expression on these giant cats as well she now wears a very stylized top that once again is giving some star wars vibes um the concept art of her actually has her wearing a sabai top but i guess they changed it to make her and raya look more different from each other and once again they're probably also referencing the geometric architecture of fang i will say the tightness of her top reminds me of cambodian royal ballet costumes the tops in these costumes have to actually be sewn onto the dancers to create this very tight fit namari wears a chanka bun as well and the belt that she wears looks inspired by the belts seen on stone carvings in angkor cambodia which are also replicated in cambodian dance costumes numari at this point thankfully also realizes her previous mistakes no not betraying raya but mismatching hardware now she wears only gold jewelry we love growth but gold is also an important material in southeast asian cultures looking at cambodian temple sculptures elite males and females are adorned with elaborate gold jewelry like bangles armlets anklets rings necklaces and pendants gold has also been used in the indonesian islands since prehistoric times with the earliest burial objects being from 500 bce to 200 ce in thailand common law of the funan period and the thai arabi period stated that only gold and diamonds could be worn by the king and royal family gold enamel could be won by court and noblemen and for commoners only copper and if you disobeyed you were punished and finally we have human form sisu so sisu gets her sister's power which is shape-shifting every time they collect a piece of the dragon gem she gets a new power of her siblings and they never really explain why that's the case but i'll just go with it because we get to see less of her my little pony design when i was talking to lang eung she told me that cesu's jacket was maybe inspired by the hmong cece's jacket looks like it was dyed indigo and the details look like they were wax stamped both practices which the among people take part in mung jackets also were traditionally woven by hand and the sleeves have these like sectioned off patterns that susu's jacket kinda has as well the patterns on these long sleeves actually distinguish between the different hmong groups because there are multiple women's jackets are also designed to be loose and the bottom hem is left unfinished because it's secured by a sash at the waist or an apron in the art of raya it's noted that the phrase at the bottom of cece's jacket are supposed to be reminiscent of her dragon fins and the sash is supposed to be reminiscent of her dragon tail which is why i think they decided to pick on the hmong garment for reference sisu also looks like she's wearing chunk bun with her jacket which is kind of like a weird combination because the chunk bun is usually worn in tropical climates and the jacket is worn in colder climates so um there's a lot of things that don't really make sense climate wise in this film though so i guess we will just accept it for the aesthetic anyways i hope you enjoyed this video it's nowhere near exhaustive so if there's anything i missed let me know in the comments if you want to see the full notes for this video including the notes that i didn't include in this video you can access them if you subscribe to me on patreon so yeah thanks for watching bye

Channel: Mina Le

Views: 133,917

Rating: 4.9822803 out of 5

Keywords: raya and the last dragon, raya, last dragon, kelly marie tran, awkwafina, southeast asian history, disney plus, disney princess, historical accuracy, cultural accuracy, cultural appropriation, southeast asia, namaari, sisu, disney raya

Id: uaJfExPF9EA

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021