Where are all the CHINESE???

[Robert Bruce Scott]

More than 1/4 of the entire human population is Chinese. More than 1/8 are Indian. Half of humanity is Asian. Where are these populations in your Trekverse?

One answer is that these populations were decimated in the eugenics wars as this was the area dominated by Khan. Coming from primarily caucasian North American and British writers, this convenient excuse is way too pat and borders on racism.

If you follow UN population projections, humanity is pretty much inexorably on track for a final, stable population of 10-12 billion by 2100. Roughly 1 billion of these will live in the Americas (north and south), 1 billion in Europe, 1 billion in Asia Minor, 4 billion in Africa, and 5 billion in Asia.

Food for thought as you design your Trekverse...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps members of decimated cultures removed themselves to a colony world to recover culturally, if they felt Earth was too metropolitan and interconnected to allow them to focus on themselves.

Granted, the landscape and development wouldn't be what it was, but perhaps augmented by holographic re-creations of past versions of their home country, they can become what they might have been.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The same also applies to aliens, with 150+ member worlds by the mid-24th century the UFP and Starfleet are very human-centric.

 

[Orbing Master]

One thing I noticed when I started taking writing more seriously, was my unconscious bias to use Caucasian characters and 'casting'. Now, I make a concentrated effort to broaden my cultural spectrum when I create human characters.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Has it ever been considered that the writers want us to consider the Western leadership that did that to China in the Trekverse was racist? The 21st century isn’t exactly a beloved era in universe, and the middle of the 21st century isn’t supposed to be a feel good story. Even in the 22nd century, it was suggested that bigotry was a century ago in the early 2050s. I know that the attitude of Archer and others towards the Vulcans is contradictory, but perhaps this bigotry was just redirected from humans to aliens. And Archer hadn’t yet met a Chinese captain who took the opposite viewpoint that it was humans that needed to change, not Vulcans and other aliens. A viewpoint that would be rooted in how the Chinese were treated by others in the mid-21st century.

On the question of where are the Chinese, to me, it less that the backstory is racist and more why hasn’t this story of them recovering from such a horrible history been told? I refuse to accept that Earth culture was so pan-American in the mid 22nd century.

So, maybe the Chinese still had their own space agency under the ECON. And it worked alongside with the British and a few others space agencies. Maybe unlike the British, they didn’t roll their space program into United Earth Starfleet and wouldn't until Federation Starfleet was a thing. Maybe the ring shaped Enterprise XCV-330, the Y class/J class freighters, and the Daedalus class are actually ECON designs - created and manufactured in China - that were popularised by the US space program/Earth Cargo Authority/United Earth Starfleet.

Maybe the Chinese are the occupants of the dome cities on Mars and are the majority of freighter families out in deep space. And maybe these few successful colonization efforts on Vega, Deneva and Alpha Centauri were undertaken by the Chinese and other invisible groups in Star Trek (West Africans, Middle Easterners, South Asians, Maori/Polynesians, Central Americans, South Americans, Caribbean people). And the Chinese are also the miners that allow for there to be Earth freighter operations to begin with.

Maybe Reed, Sato and Mayweather not being a part of the big three in ENT is indirectly commentary on how the China based ECON is treated in the Star Trek universe, even those that are Americanized. Maybe ENT is the take of a sheltered Americanized crew, and in particular captain, that does not take into a consideration of the extrasolar human colonies that has already dealt with Ithenites, Nausicaans, Orions, Rigelians, and unofficial first contacts with Andorians, Tellarites and possibly Romulans. Mirroring a lot of firsts that actually have their origins in China.

Maybe that lost era between ENT and The Cage is filled with many famous captains of Asian descent, and Captain Philippa Georgiou was the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe the story of the Romulan War is actually intended to be told from the perspective of Chinese people all along; people that are invisible and are unseen by the general Western audience vs people that use invisibility to hide from others.

Basically, their stories haven't been told yet.

 

[Gibraltar]

In the United Trek-verse, China was largely destroyed in World War III, as referenced in this snippet from Prophets and Loss:

Dejong, on the other hand, was of medium height for a human. In his sole to concession to vanity, he colored his hair to retain the jet-black hue of his youth. Of Chinese ancestry, Dejong’s forebears had immigrated to Malaysia in the mid 21st century, thus avoiding the thermonuclear holocaust visited upon China in the Third World War. His family had narrowly avoided being wiped out by a scant matter of months, a fact that had been passed on from generation to generation. As a result, Xin was especially sensitive to the kinds of horrors taking place at present within the Briar Patch.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

In the United Trek-verse, China was largely destroyed in World War III, as referenced in this snippet from Prophets and Loss:

I think that idea had been suggested for the franchise, but I'm not sure if it became canon (partly because of the backlash such a move would create.) If it was made canon, it was downplayed.

I do appreciate that one of your leading characters in the Gibraltar series is a Japanese captain. As was one the leading characters in Galen4's Intrepid series.

 

[Galen4]

I think the best way to approach this as writers is to incorporate more diverse characters into our stories, and start leaning away from a white western majority, which doesn't make sense in a united earth of the future.

There is also an enormous population of middle eastern and Latin peoples that are rarely seen, for example. Where are they?

I've been making an effort, but it takes work to override our cultural biases.

On a similar topic, how many of you think it's weird that there's only one Starfleet Academy and it's located in North America? I'm stating in my series that there are many Starfleet campuses all over the world and that my principal character attended two, one in Mexico City and another in Europe (Although I haven't decided which country. France always seems to be the "go to place" but I'd like to switch it up a bit.)

Good food for thought, here!

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The Vatican? Monaco?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think that idea had been suggested for the franchise, but I'm not sure if it became canon (partly because of the backlash such a move would create.) If it was made canon, it was downplayed.

In the DVD commentary for ST:FC, it's said that every reference to the Eastern Coalition was originally supposed to be China, but they changed it at the last minute.

FWIW.

It does make a kind of sense, though. Assuming the ECON is in fact China (and its various allies), and was particularly hard hit by WWIII, it would explain why the Chinese population took such a downturn.

On a similar topic, how many of you think it's weird that there's only one Starfleet Academy and it's located in North America?

There are also satellite campuses, such as Relva VII (TNG "Coming of Age").

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

On a similar topic, how many of you think it's weird that there's only one Starfleet Academy and it's located in North America?

Based on the U.S. military system, it does make sense to have only one academy (e.g.: West Point), but that's not where the majority of officers come from. The majority of officers in the U.S. Army come in through ROTC from college campuses around the US and, I think, a few others around the world. There are a lot more enlisted than officers and nearly every base has a boot camp.

In STH, Lt. Commander Mlady, Lt. Moon Sun Salek, 2nd Lt. Gaia Gamor, 2nd Lt. Sun Ho Hui and Ensign Ethan Phillips came in via ROTC, although Moon and Gamor both did their final year at SFA, so technically, they are academy grads.

Another contributor to the officer corps - including some of the serious career track officers - is Officer Candidate School. Significantly, General Colon Powell came in not from West Point, but from OCS. To qualify for OCS, candidates must have either a Baccalaureate or 4 years service as enlisted. There are also rare instances in which enlisted personnel receive field promotions into the officer corps.

In STH, Commander Tali Shae, Lt. Commander Kenny Dolphin, Lt. Commander Sarkson Carrera, Lt. Tauk, 2nd Lt. Tolon Reeves, Ensign Geoffrey Horatio Alstars and Ensign Sif all came in via OCS. OCS is famously grueling and is designed to filter out all but the toughest candidates, which is why some of the best officers are OCS grads. They also tend to be a bit more disciplined than even academy graduates (which if you're following STH, is part of the storyline as Kenny Dolphin takes over as first officer.)

My dad tried to get into the U.S. Navy by OCS and it kicked his ass. He ended up enlisting instead, making him an oddball among the sailors because of his age and having a degree.

To get around SFA being located in North America, I distributed Federation offices around the world. SFA grew to take over the old Star Fleet HQ across the bay in Oakland, so a new SFHQ was built in Dubuque, Iowa. I had the Federation offices removed from Paris (following the Dominion War, the antiquated Paris infrastructure was deemed insufficient for security needs.)

The Federation Council moved to Nairobi, Kenya and the administrative offices, including the presidency, moved to Caracas, Venezuela. The Interplanetary Center for Justice, home of the Federation Tribunal, is located in St. Petersburg, Russia and EarthGov administrative offices are located in Shanghai, China. Since Star Fleet is an arm of United Earth Governments, the real center of power for Star Fleet in the Hunter Trekverse is Shanghai.

Thanks!! rbs