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Was Mindy Park's ethnicity confirmed in the text of The Martian?


I spotted this article in the Guardian.




The anger focuses on the character of Mindy Park, who is described as Korean-American in the book and played by white actor Mackenzie Davis


Ridley Scott accused of 'whitewashing' Asian roles in The Martian



But I don't recall and any specific references in the book to Mindy Park's ethnicity and while it's true that Park is a somewhat common Korean family name, it's also a somewhat common Anglo-Saxon family name.


Were there references to her ethnicity that I missed?



Answer



Mindy Park's ethnicity isn't described in the novel. Weir has subsequently stated that he personally thought that she was Korean-American but that the movie casting was perfectly fair and equitable given her name and what limited physical descriptions were available to the casting agents and director.



He [Andy Weir] did admit that he’d always pictured Mindy Park as of Korean lineage, but emphasized again that he had never actually explicitly written her as Korean.



“Whatever ethnicity she has, she’s an American and her family has been in America forever, which is why her first name is just Mindy, but her last name is Park. But Park is also a British surname so the casting people [could have] thought Mackenzie Davis looks like someone descended from Brits,” Weir said, laughing. “And she did a great job! I’m certainly not complaining about anything related to casting.”


ONE PERSON WHO DOESN’T THINK ‘THE MARTIAN’ WAS WHITEWASHED? THE AUTHOR



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