I’ve always wanted to research the backstory, sources of inspiration, and cultural impact of the Avatar series, as well as why non-Asian audiences love it so much—especially considering the Avatar universe is essentially built on an Asian worldview with almost no blonde or white characters lol, and it's actually a relatively niche American cartoon in China and Japan.
To my surprise, someone has already done this and written two books:
Race and the Animated Bodyscape: Constructing and Ascribing a Racialized Asian Identity in Avatar and Korra
and
The Avatar Television Franchise: Storytelling, Identity, Trauma and Fandom.
I read the first book. Just for context, I am Han Chinese with partial ethnic minority heritage, and I enjoy watching Japanese, American, and European animation. Even though my college major isn't in a related field, I'm very interested in the humanities and social sciences. I think the author did a great job—the research is meticulous and reasonably objective.
As a side note: I noticed that some white racist Avatar fans actually claim Aang is white, which honestly leaves me and other minority netizens not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Aang's design and inspiration are so clearly rooted in Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism.
