‘Kung Fu Panda’ could not have come from China
I haven’t seen Kung Fu Panda myself (apologies to Mini-Musashi - I’ll get you covered when the DVD comes out), but this piece at the Los Angeles Times (China had to import ‘Kung Fu Panda’) is a pretty interesting look at the cultural differences between the film’s American roots and its’ Chinese inspiration. A lot of it boils down to ‘Lazy pandas makes for bad P.R.’, but the truth of the matter is that Kung Fu Panda could not have been made in China because of basic differences between lazy, undisciplined round-eyes (Jack Black) and lock-step Confucian Chinese (Mao).
The idea that Po would lift a hand to his kung fu teacher, a raccoon named Shifu, is beyond the pale in Confucian China, with its deep respect for elders. Nor would a teacher in a Chinese film be so “weak” as to show sympathy for the evil snow leopard character, Tai Lung.
“If ‘Kung Fu Panda’ were produced in China, audiences would be sniping at the director for not setting a good example,” said Cao Sidong, a movie critic and promoter.
Others say change is coming slowly. “In cartoon school, we learned to combine instruction and entertainment,” said Chen Ming, vice president of Beijing Crystal Film & Animation. “But we had a certain tradition before China opened up, and it’s hard to get away from that overnight.”
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