Simu Liu Had Some Strong Words For Ethan Hawke's Mandarin Pronunciation In "Moon Knight"

"Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher."

You know Simu Liu: star of Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

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Though he grew up in Ontario, Canada, Simu was born in Harbin, China, and speaks fluent Mandarin.

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So, safe to say Simu is definitely an authority on accurate Mandarin pronunciation and its portrayal in Hollywood.

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Well, the other day Simu had some strong words for the Disney+ series, Moon Knight, which stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, F. Murray Abraham, and the late Gaspard Ulliel.

Marvel / Disney / YouTube / Via youtube.com

On Twitter, Simu wrote: "Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher" after the latest episode showed Ethan Hawke’s character, Arthur, speaking Mandarin.

Simu Liu (刘思慕) @SimuLiu

Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher

03:47 PM - 09 Apr 2022

@SimuLiu / Via Twitter: @SimuLiu

Here is the scene, for reference.

xw @sgtpepperonii

Moon Knight has by far one of the worst attempts at Mandarin I’ve ever heard

01:03 AM - 07 Apr 2022

@sgtpepperonii / Via Twitter: @sgtpepperonii

As the Los Angeles Times points out, the exchange is not subtitled. The closed captioning only says they are "speaking in Mandarin," meaning there's no translation for non-Mandarin speakers.

@themoonknight / Marvel / Disney / Via instagram.com

Not to mention, this isn't the first time the MCU has bungled an Asian language, as the LA Times notes. In Avengers: Endgame, Jeremy Renner's Ronin/Hawkeye speaks really bad Japanese while fighting in Tokyo. And then in Black Panther, viewers were critical of the Korean spoken by actual Korean characters in a scene where Chadwick Boseman's T’Challa, Danai Gurira's Okoye, and Lupita Nyong’o's Nakia are in South Korea. 

Do better, Hollywood.