they changed them from chinese to white irish-american to be precise and of course it made sense that they changed their ethnicity. The whole point I wanted to prove is that you don't have to stick to close to your source material to make a good film.

The close to the source on this case is relating to the location of action so it makes sense. And that isn't really trying to portray a book or anything like that, it is more a copy and paste.

Except, by completely ignoring the source material, it's no longer an adaptation, it's strictly a reimagining of said work, big difference. If they completely change the character, it is no longer that character except in name (which is where the whole GINO-Godzilla In Name Only acronym came from for Godzilla 98). It would be like if they made Batman a living humanoid bat who eats people in the middle of New York City instead of the technological crime fighter we all know him to be from the comics. You can claim "it's up to the adapters of said work" all night and day, but that shit wouldn't jive with anyone and for good reason. Or hell, if they changed Superman into a transgendered alien or gave Ellen Ripley a sex change in a hypothetical reboot of Alien (turned her into Allen Ripley), I guarantee you it would be met with the same level of shit-flinging, it's easy to see why.

Nick Fury WAS black in the comics at one point, though (Ultimate Marvel version of the character). Then when SLJ's iteration of the character was so well-received, that version of Nick Fury was later made the main universe version of the character in the comics and animated films and shows.

Well then it's a reimagining. Are reimaginings a priori bad? You just gave a bunch of worst case scenarios for a reimagining, I give you a best case scenario, West Side Story a modern reimagining of  Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

You see, it all depends on whether the adaptation /reimagining is good or not.

Maybe that's because most of Asia and especially Japan don't even come close to places like America in terms of Ethnic Diversity in the population. You know ... it's not like there's a huge demand in places like Japan for a black person to be represented at all in Asia. 

I don't mind a creative casting when a character's background or appearance has been non-conclusive, but in some of the cases, changing a character's race changes everything else we know about them culturally.  There is nothing wrong with being any race or background or personality in these characters.  Marvel showed that with a strong variation in most other traits of their characters.  It's a story, a fantasy, but once people hear it and believe it and care about it, then you should no longer change the things that created the story and belief.  It has the same effect on people as seeing Toys R Us close down or watching your childhood neighborhood be flooded.  Why would Hollywood want to do that to so many people in exchange for a potential viewership of other people who probably didn't really care about the change or product to begin with.  Seems like marketing suicide.  

Also why would anyone want a hand-me-down character anyway?  Correction: Why would anyone "put up with and accept" a hand-me-down character? It cheapens the sentiment.  "Oh, can't come up with something good to represent me, so you're going to just take the easy way out and slap me on someone else's representation...."  It's almost insulting.  Hollywood should do some quality work and actually put care into characters that naturally represent other people.  Stop this stupid half attempts and just give us something real.  Strong characters deserving of their own unique backstories. Where's the modern day superhero who came from the slums, made some misguided decisions, but rose above him/herself to be something amazing?  Why can't it be based in reality?  Why does it always have to have some humor base, stereotypical slant, or white washed tie-in that cheapens the character and makes light of the struggles that people go through?  Good movies and characters that could change everything are right in front of their face and they are afraid to look at it. If they give us truth on camera, which is something Hollywood has really rarely been able to pull off, then they will get the ratings and praise for it, and maybe, just maybe, it could spark real change in the world by instilling deserved confidence, encouragement, and spotlights on issues rather than disassociating from truth and encouraging people to turn a blind eye to their daily hardships. Rather than show people how to escape their lives and pretend, give what white people have always had: role-models who show them how to survive and deal with tough issues that relate to them. It's not like we have a shortage of material...... geez.  /rant

America is diverse though...obviously its going to be depicted as such in American media as opposed to Asia...

Do you know how hard it is for diverse writers/artist to become mainstream? There are many who do "Pick up the pencil and start writing/drawing" but if they're in a white dominated field for example, comics and fantasy genre novels, they most surely get overlooked and never given a chance. It's easier said than done.

I don't think he said it is bad

He basically said that when you are re-imagining everything, then there is no point in complaining about some trait of a char changing. But when you are adapting close to source then these type of changes can get a lot of complain.