Saturday, July 19, 2008

The NYT on KFP

The New York Times has now weighed in on the angst in China over Kung Fu Panda:

... A few weeks ago, when the movie opened in China, there was already a call for a boycott — on the grounds that foreigners had lifted one of China’s most precious symbols, the panda, and were using it for their own profit.

The boycott never got off the ground, and “Kung Fu Panda” was an immediate box office hit. In the last few weeks the movie has provoked a deeper discussion, even a degree of soul-searching and critical self-examination of the sort that China, which has an amazing mix of ambition, self-confidence and insecurity, goes through from time to time ...

In a way, “Kung Fu Panda” is only the latest illustration of a centuries-old tradition whereby Western artists have used China and other Asian countries to produce enduring works of art. You only have to think about Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado” or Puccini’s “Turandot” or, for that matter, the animated feature “Mulan” of a few years ago, to recall the strength and age of this tradition.

Indeed, all of these works illustrate a continuing historical imbalance in cultural cross-fertilization. The West’s use of China as an artistic setting is unmatched by any Chinese use of Europe or America as backdrops for its own cultural productions.

That imbalance is connected to another element in the picture: the animation itself. From Walt Disney on, Americans have long been developing animation as a cinematic form, while China, in this particular area of the arts, has not developed much ...

Let's give the Middle Kingdom a break. China is only thirty years out from the dead hand of Maoism and the Cultural Revolution. Kind of hard for individual artists to flourish in that atmosphere. They're all beaten into conformity with the Party Line (whatever it happens to be that month) or shipped off to a re-education camp until they've seen the light.

China, of course, has ceased being a Communist state. Today it's closer to Franco's Spain than Stalin's Russia. Lots of capitalism, but also plenty of dictatorship of the fascist type, which still makes sensitive, artistic souls unhappy:

“China has first-class directors, first-class playwrights, first-class actors, but it’s a shame that we have censorship by government officials,” one anonymous blogger wrote. “If they don’t like your work, then there’s no way.”

Mr. Lu, the commentator in China Daily, had a telling story in this regard, about a project he undertook to produce an animation for the Olympic Games. “I kept on receiving directions and orders from related parties on what the movie should be like,” he recalled. “We were given very specific rules on how to promote it.

“Under such pressure, my co-workers and I really felt stifled,” he continued. In the end, “the planned animation was never produced.”

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahahahahah.....

welcome to the global economy. At least its not unregulated out of control piracy.

Anonymous said...

I feel no sympathy for China's angst over "their" precious symbol being "lifted" for American profit. China has spied on and stolen our technology and is busy retro-engineering most of OUR "symbols" - such as the Jeep - so it can manufacture and sell knockoff versions. It serves them right to get a hefty kick in the ass from a certain reality known as American ingenuity. That trumps theft and piracy every time. I'm happy to say I've seen KFP four times and thus have done my part for truth, justice and the American way. ;)

Anonymous said...

It wasn't STOLEN. Idiots like nixon, reagun, and bush 1 & 2--along with their version of "capitalism (not free enterprise)" GAVE it to them.

They sure like commies.

(and no, reagun didn't have anything to do with the fall of the USSR...he just happened to be in office).

Chris Battle said...

Funny.. you don't hear any European nations complaining about Miyazaki's occassional use of European locales for films like Howl's Moving Castle & Kiki's Delivery Service ;)

But I get the real point; Let's hope our fellow artists in China someday get the chance to produce truly unrestricted creative works.

Anonymous said...

*It wasn't STOLEN. Idiots like nixon, reagun, and bush 1 & 2--along with their version of "capitalism (not free enterprise)" GAVE it to them.

They sure like commies.

(and no, reagun didn't have anything to do with the fall of the USSR...he just happened to be in office).*

Right. Enjoy your Kool-Aid.

Anonymous said...

How come if the word "American" comes up in these talkbacks some foamy lefty cockroach from Moveon.org creeps in and tries to take it over with the usual BS revisionist historical fairy tale?

Anyway, KFP rulz. I hope a sequel is made, which would probably piss China off all over again. Bonus!

Anonymous said...

I suppose the Reagan Kool-Aid tastes better.

Anonymous said...

*I suppose the Reagan Kool-Aid tastes better.*

And doesn't make its drinkers foam at the mouth.

Anonymous said...

As if the Panda bear is a product of Chinese culture and not the result of a billion years of evolution (or divine creation, take your pick).

Anonymous said...

How dear westeners steal chinese iconography, and use it for profit!!....

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678


oops, never mind....


R.

Anonymous said...

How dare!


typing is not my forte....

R.

Anonymous said...

I heard that the Chinese critic mentioned was doing this all to draw attention to his line of Panda-Inspired clothing on his website.

Goethe's Faust was Germany's great epic and the first time it was on stage it was from a Frenchman, CHarles Gonoud, which caused a mini-scandal. Carmen, the ultimate Spanish show, was written by a Frenchman, and the Danes didn't seem to mind us doing their favorite story, the Little Mermaid. For that matter, we didn't kvetch when the best westerns seemed to be done by Sergio Leone in Italy!

Welcome to the GLobal Club!

Anonymous said...

well, I heard that the term 'spaghetti western' was a derogatory term coined by americans, but whatever Im not gonna split hairs Tom!...

Oscar Wilde said a portait, is more a depiction of the painter more than the depiction of the subject...

R.

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