Chinese in Manga: Ranma 1/2's Shampoo and Dialect
By Harley Acres
With Shampoo making her debut in the 2024 adaptation of Ranma 1/2, English-speaking fans have been curious about how her speech will be approached. In the English dub of the 1989 Ranma 1/2 series, Shampoo was portrayed as speaking broken English. Is this accurate to how she was portrayed in the original manga and anime? Did Rumiko Takahashi indicate that her Japanese speaking ability was in some way stereotypically foreign or different from other characters in the original manga?
Put simply - yes.
Shampoo is shown speaking in a fashion that is commonly used by mangaka (not just Rumiko Takahashi) to indicate that the speaker is Chinese (initially just generically a foreigner, but eventually this manner of speech became associated with Chinese characters in particular). [1]
Let’s take a look at this panel from chapter 48. In Japanese Shampoo says 「わたし選ばない、不死鳥丸渡さない。」 If this were literally translated (or machine translated) someone would mistakenly think Shampoo was saying “I not choose, Phoenix pill not given.”
This is because her Japanese is very “pidgin” or simplistic. A human translator would know that although she is speaking incorrectly, the meaning of what she is saying is “(If you) don’t choose me, I won’t give you the Phoenix pill.”
What’s missing that would “correct” Shampoo’s Japanese? Generally, Shampoo leaves out her particles.
In the right-hand text bubble Shampoo says 「わたし選ばない」 (Watashi erabanai). The missing accusative particle is を (o), which should be used after わたし (watashi) which is “I/me” (the direct object). Rather than "Shampoo is not choosing" the accusative particle を (o) makes it clear that "Shampoo is not chosen". The context of the imagery helps us understand the information that is left out by Shampoo's grammar, however.
This manner of speaking Japanese has its origins in something called "Kyowago" (合和語), or "combined Japanese". Kyowago developed during the Japanese presene in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War as a simplified way for Japanese and Chinese speakers to communicate with one another. However, as the Japanese presence in Manchuria shifted towards occupation this sort of pidgin Japanese was seen as going against the concept of "kotodama" (言霊) the power of Japanese words. As a result, Kyowago, this hybrid Japanese, was soon discouraged and largely disappeared in the wake of World War II and Japan's ejection from China. [2]
Eventually a new term for discussing this type of Japanese language use took shape. "Yakuwarigo" (役割語), which can be translated as "role words", is a term that was coined in 2003 by researcher Satoshi Kinsui to refer to any grammar and vocabulary in Japanese fiction that helped the reader to have some sense of a characters origins or personality. [3] [4] This can include the use of "ja" by characters that are doctors, "gozaru" by samurai and ninja or "boku" used as a personal pronoun by tomboys. Under this umbrella term is the use of "aru" by characters of Chinese origin, a characteristic grammatical trait shared by fictional Chinese characters across many popular works.
Shampoo's speech is rendered in this stereotypical fashion in that she overuses ある (aru), the Japanese word for “to be” or “to exist”. Interestingly, this is not adapted into Shampoo’s portrayal in the anime (either the 1989 version or the 2024 version). The overuse of “aru” is considered a “stereotypical” way or portraying Chinese people speaking Japanese, and was not invented by Rumiko Takahashi, it is a concept that has long been used in manga for many decades.
Shown here is Cyborg 006 (real name Chang Changku) from Shotaro Ishinomori’s 1964 manga Cyborg 009 (サイボーグ009). Because of his Chinese nationality, he also frequently uses “aru” in his speech. In Ishinomori’s manga, he even writes “aru” in katakana (アル) to indicate it is a foreign word (Takahashi writes it in hiragana when used by Shampoo). Kagura, from Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama, Miss China from Spirit of Wonder (スピリット・オブ・ワンダー) by Kenji Tsuruta and Shenhua from Black Lagoon by Rei Hiroe all follow Shampoo's manner of speech in using "aru" to indicate their Chinese origins.
However, even Japanese people have wondered "why is 'aru' (ある) used to indicate someone is Chinese?" [5] Japanese readers have pointed out that they have never met real-life Japanese language speakers of Chinese origin that show this particular gramatical tendency. [6] Mangaka Hebizo posted a brief manga of her own illustrating the question after she looked into the question and received an answer from the aforementioned professor Satoshi Kinsui of Osaka University. He states that although Chinese nationals do not speak Japanese in this fashion now, historically they did.
"Its roots date back to the end of the Edo period and the Meiji era. During this time, when the country opened up and the number of foreigners suddenly increased, simplified Japanese was spoken among foreigners in the hope that they would be understood . One of these was the ending "-aru," which became popular as an image of Chinese speech." [7]
However, Ranma 1/2 has no shortage of Chinese characters. Mousse, Cologne, Pantyhose Taro, Jusenkyo Guide, Pink and Link... all of these characters are Chinese, but in the English dub, some of them are not depicted as speaking in the same fashion as Shampoo. Why is this?
Do other Chinese characters in Ranma 1/2 speak the same way Shampoo does?
Shampoo's rivals, Pink and Link, have a different verbal tick where they end each of their sentences in よろし (yoroshi/okay) and どうぞ (dozo/if you please). Jusenkyo Guide and Plum also use the ある (aru) vocalization that Shampoo shares.
However, Mousse, Cologne, Pantyhose Taro, Herb, Lime and Mint despite their Chinese origins, do not speak in the stereotypical fashion that Shampoo and many other manga characters do, though Jusenkyo Guide and Plum do use other verbal characteristics like saying "aiyaa," a typical Chinese expression. Why are these Chinese characters depicted differently than Shampoo? It's anyone's guess, Rumiko Takahashi has never commented on it. However a logical suggestion would be that Shampoo's vocal uniqueness makes her more of an appealing character. Rumiko Takahashi's most famous character, Lum, an alien from outer space, has the unique vocal characteristic of ending most of her Japanese sentences with "daccha" (だっちゃ), it is easy to imagine that Shampoo's Chinese verbal trait is meant to have a similar appeal and if every other Chinese character in the series spoke that way, it would make her less unique and exotic.
And so yes, Shampoo (and many other famous Chinese characters from anime and manga) do indeed "speak that way" in the original Japanese.
Footnotes
- [1] 岡島, 昭浩. "文献に現れた述語形式と国語史の不整合性について." 日本語の歴史と日本語研究の歴史. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.ne.jp/asahi/ nihongo/okajima/huseigo/.
- [2] "協和語." Wikipedia.org. July 27, 2023. Accessed (December 9, 2024). https://ja.wikipedia.org/ wiki/協和語.
- [3] Rahardjo, Hardianto, Ranadireksa, Dinda Gayatri and Uning Kuraesin. "Yakuwarigo and Linguistic Stereotype in Japanese Fiction (Linguistic Stereotype Phenomenon in Japanese Novel, Comics and Animation)" JARDCS. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://www.jardcs.org/ abstract.php?id=879#.
- [4] Satoshi Kinsui (金水敏) is a linguist who has worked at Kobe University, Osaka Women's University and Osaka University. In 2006, he was awarded the Shinmura Izuru Prize for his book The History of Japanese Existential Expressions (日本語存在表現の歴史/Nihongo sonzai hyogen no rekishi).
- [5] "漫画、アニメの中国系のキャラは語尾に「～アル」「～ネ」をつけてしゃべりますが." Yahoo.co.jp. March 11, 2010. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/ qa/question_detail/q1437863539.
- [6] "らんま1/2で、シャンプーの語尾が漫画とアニメで違う理由はなんですか." Yahoo.co.jp. September 16, 2019. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/ qa/question_detail/q14213607404.
- [7] 中澤, 星児. "なぜ中国人キャラは「～アル」と話すのか？ 日本語史の教授に聞いてみたマンガが話題 → ルーツは幕末にあった！." Rocket News 24. March 20, 2018. Accessed November 7, 2018. https://rocketnews24.com/ 2018/11/07/1137020/.
Harley Acres is an art history professor at Pikes Peak State College in Colorado Springs. He has previously written about mangaka Makoto Raiku's lawsuit against Shogakukan editors for the loss of his artwork.
