Magical Asian

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A wise Asian mentor to a usually white character.

The Magical Asian, like the Magical Negro or Magical Native American, exists to dispense lessons to white characters using the wisdom of his people. He will usually be a martial arts master, a practitioner of traditional Asian medicine, or a sage of some Eastern religion. He will often (but not always) be so highly skilled in his art that it will appear superhuman. Martial artists will be impossibly good fighters, the medicine-men will be able to easily diagnose and cure any illness (bonus points if he mentions chi), and the sage will be enlightened with some kind of supernatural intuition. Expect at least one scene of them meditating.

Unlike the Magical Negro, the Magical Asian is not always nice to his white protégé. It is common for the Magical Asian to put his student through a number of demeaning and seemingly pointless tasks. However, it always turns out that there is a purpose to these tasks that helps get his lesson across. Mr. Miyagi's famous "Wax On, Wax Off" routine is one of the best known examples. This tendency is possibly related to Asian Rudeness.

He will speak in proverbs and Koans. He will often be referred to sensei, sifu, or master.

Often overlaps with Old Master.

Examples of Magical Asian include:

Film

• Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, though he's more well-developed than most other characters on this list.
  • Mr. Han, played by Jackie Chan, in the 2010 remake.
• Jackie Chan and Jet Li's characters in The Forbidden Kingdom.
• Pai-Mei from Kill Bill. His treatment of students is less Wax On, Wax Off and more Training from Hell.
• Mr. Lee, played by Mako, in the Karate Kid ripoff Sidekicks. His own version of Wax On, Wax Off is throwing raw dumpling dough at his student and giving him a demeaning nickname.
• The Indian characters in Eat Pray Love, who teach spiritual lessons to Julia Roberts' character.
• The nameless monk in Bulletproof Monk.

Literature

• The Destroyer series. Chiun is a Korean who is the Master of Sinanju, which is the sun source (original) martial art and the basis for all other martial arts. He teaches his knowledge to the other protagonist, Remo Williams.

Live Action TV

• In Kung Fu:
  • Master Po and Master Kan. Their protege Caine is half Chinese and half White.
  • Caine himself to the people he meets when he's Walking the Earth of The Wild West.
  • In Kung Fu: The Legend Continues the Identical Grandson of Kwai Chang Caine, also called Kwai Chang Caine, took this role towards his long lost son Peter and others, and The Ancient One was this to Kwai Chang.
• Bruce Lee's character on Longstreet.
• An acupuncturists' teacher in The Invisible Man. He is able to intuit that the acupuncture needles he is using were stolen by his apprentice from a museum when they are ineffective.

Web Original

• One of Hollywood's 6 Favorite Offensive Stereotypes on Cracked.com is "The Wise, Old, Asian Asshole".

Western Animation

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, younger characters tend to have American accents while older, wiser mentor figures tend to have Asian accents regardless of what nation they are from. Iroh is the most prominent example.

Other

• James Hydrick claimed to have learned telekinesis from a Chinese master.