The guard that was guarding the park gate was Hindu. Were Hindus common in China? I found that odd that he was there.
shareWell , Hong Kong has a large population of Hindus and it's not so strange that Shanghai had Hindus also....prolly not as many as today though.
shareHe may not have been Hindu, and if he was he wasn't a very good Hindu. As far as I know turbans as religious garments are more characteristic of Sikhism.
He could be wearing a turban for numerous reasons, possibly out of personal fashion preference (seeing as he's a nasty fella, I'd say that he's not a devout religious believer - though being a person of faith by no means guarantees that you'll be a good person). As for ethnicity, I'd ay that he's made his way to Shanghai during the days when it was in the British Empire alongside India.
"don't think...feeeeel"
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In those days Shanghai was considered an "international city" ruled by the victorious nations that defeated the Chinese in the Boxer Rebellion. People from all over the world lived there. You'll notice that many of the police officers who killed Chen were Caucasians, probably mostly British, as the police force was officially called "The Shanghai International Police Force."
Besides, if you look closely, you'll see that Hindu/Sikh guardsman was actually a Chinese actor in brown makeup. People from India and Pakistan are Asians, but they are Caucasian, not of the same race as Japanese and Chinese, once known as Oriental or Mongoloid before those terms were deemed offensive.
the paler skinned north indian might be passed off as middle eastern or even white, but the southern indians are dark skinned and definitely not caucasoid, wiki says they're autraloids. as for 'inddian' guard in china, why not, india was still british colony and those brits sure like to take their indian servants/ workers every where else they colonized, there're even indians in africa.
shareSkin color is not the only determinant of race. There is also skin pigment, hair texture and structure, and bone structure. Other sources such as outlookindia.com say Indians are Caucasians. As for the guardsman, you can see by examining his features that he is Chinese, made up to look Indian. Of course there were Indians wherever the British colonized, and an Indian guard in the "international city" of Shanghai would not have been unusual in 1908. However, that particular fellow was a Chinese actor with dark makeup portraying an Indian.
shareHe wasn't a Hindu, he was a Sikh. The turban tells us that. Both religions arise out of India
shareHe was a Sikh.
shareI think it was to emphasise the portrayal of Chinese as increasingly estranged in their own country. Having him as authoritarian, working for the Japanese oppressors and yet from an entirely different country adds insult to injury.
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He is simply a...wait for it...Sikh Man of Asia.
(Sorry. I had to say it.)
Ahahahaha, bloody brilliant.
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