The Mandarin on “Moon Knight” could use some work.
Over the weekend, “Shang-Chi” star took to Twitter to offer a bit of light criticism of the Marvel series, in which at one point Ethan Hawke’s character Arthur Harrow spouts off a bit of Mandarin.
READ MORE: Simu Liu Thanks Ex-Employer For Firing Him: ‘I Could Finally Begin To Build A Life For Me’
Liu’s advice upon hearing the evidently unintelligible dialogue was that Harrow “needs to fire his Mandarin teacher.”
Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher
— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) April 9, 2022
Other fans of the show also noticed the poor deployment of the Chinese dialect, with one commenter sharing a clip of the scene and wondering “what happened here?”
YES. EXACTLY. @MarvelStudios what happened here? 😭 What is this?? 🤡 pic.twitter.com/Yb9IwBSshJ
— Zhen Wei (@so_zhenwei) April 9, 2022
READ MORE: Simu Liu Shares Tom Holland’s Personal Message After Watching ‘Shang-Chi’
More fans on Twitter shared Liu’s tweet, adding that the Mandarin in the episode sounded more like “gibberish” than a real language, and wondering why Marvel couldn’t afford a better translator.
Hahaha definitely sounded like gibberish to me. https://t.co/aNBKsTDANC
— chilli padi (@tambahsambal) April 14, 2022
Dear @Disney and @Marvel, you pour millions and millions of dollars into cast, special effects, etc. But you couldn’t afford a decent translator? Even now when the Asian community has been the punchline of xenophobic jokes? Lord have mercy. https://t.co/pT0M6KAMs5
— Colby Bachiller🌹 (@bachillerette) April 14, 2022
Some y’all not getting the point. It’s not that they werent fluent — it was gibberish. Assuming actors did honestly try, my guess is either the teacher sucked or was too starstuck to correct it. May sound like nonissue, but quite often it’s typical case of zero shiz given is why. https://t.co/yfofLnJzS8
— Dayyan Eng (@dayyan) April 12, 2022
For real. The subtitles said "speaking Mandarin" and I thought it was a mistake! #MoonKnight https://t.co/iqc0dFgHGE
— Jen Wang (@JeniverseAbr) April 12, 2022
I told my husband the "Mandarin" exchange sounded like gibberish. It's not that they spoke "bad" Mandarin. It wasn't even Mandarin! #MoonKnight https://t.co/nJI7zww1K7
— Raymond Vagell 🏳️🌈🍥 (@PrancingPapio) April 12, 2022
