Comments on: Extra! Avatar is NOT about China

By: Uln

Uln — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:13:00 +0000

Oops, this comment was in response to a previous one with a smurf link. I think somehow I erased that comment while I was answering it. Sorry, here is the link:

http://smurfswillbefree.wordpress.com/

By: Uln

Uln — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:54:39 +0000

Not sure I agree with the story but LOL.
BTW, I have seen people call Mao lots of things, but “loser” thats a new one!

By: Papa Smurf

Papa Smurf — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:27:06 +0000

Smurfs are endangered creatures though – see link

http://smurfswillbefree.wordpress.com/

By: Uln

Uln — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:29:40 +0000

Hey that is an interesting article, but I think it would have made more sense in the previous post, it is slightly offtopic here. Also, please provide links, not copy+paste.

By: nanheyangrouchuan

nanheyangrouchuan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:03:57 +0000

China and its seedy, leacherous expats will burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn!

Contrarian Investor Sees Economic Crash in China
by David Barboza
Friday, January 8, 2010

provided by
The New York Times

James S. Chanos built one of the largest fortunes on Wall Street by foreseeing the collapse of Enron and other highflying companies whose stories were too good to be true.

Now Mr. Chanos, a wealthy hedge fund investor, is working to bust the myth of the biggest conglomerate of all: China Inc.

As most of the world bets on China to help lift the global economy out of recession, Mr. Chanos is warning that China’s hyperstimulated economy is headed for a crash, rather than the sustained boom that most economists predict. Its surging real estate sector, buoyed by a flood of speculative capital, looks like “Dubai times 1,000 — or worse,” he frets. He even suspects that Beijing is cooking its books, faking, among other things, its eye-popping growth rates of more than 8 percent.

… More on the NYT

By: Uln

Uln — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 12:38:31 +0000

Hi Kai,

Actually, my criticism was not intended against Chinese people. It is quite natural to watch a movie and draw parallels with your own life.

I was rather making fun of us, the China-observers, who have become so used to watching China for any interesting news that we take seriously even the tiniest joke of the Chinese forums and try to read deep into them.

I am sure some Chinese thought of evictions while watching that, others perhaps thought of Tibet, and myself I thought of the Smurfs,seriously. And this movie has been so big that probably American, Spanish, etc. forums also drew parallels and jokes from it. The difference is they don’t have a legion of foreigners watching every step to analyse them.

Anyway, dont take this post too seriously, I am just poking some fun at the China blogosphere, a bit of self criticism is always healthy. Of course I include myself as well, I actually went to buy that movie with an eye on learning something about China (admittedly, I hadn’t really read the blogs before, just skimmed some headlines).

PS. I just corrected my name in your post. I might go open ID some day but for the moment I stick to my nickname.

By: Kai

Kai — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:26:44 +0000

Uln, I think you’re confusing Chinese people using the evocative movie’s similarities to forced evictions to criticize the forced evictions AS Chinese people narcissistically scanning for Chineseness in Hollywood movies. This, I feel, is being unfair to the intelligence of those Chinese people. I don’t doubt that some Chinese are indeed narcissistic like that, but the vast majority are more or less just saying “hey, that sucks, and hey, you know what else sucks? SOMETHING SIMILAR THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OUR EYES.” Avatar’s popularity is being co-opted to solidify the critical feelings Chinese have towards forced evictions. Few of them genuinely think anything like Cameron was intentionally telling specifically their story. They’re not that stupid, Uln.