I am a court room drama junky. Boston Legal, with its hyper eloquent and quirky iteration of controversial political and social issues of the day has been my recent favorite. I have also wondered when they would touch on China, a issue that ticks all boxes for the script writers.
And they finally did. The series ended with the Chinese buying the fictional law firm Crane Poole & Schmidt and changed the name into Chan Poole & Schmidt. To end a series in this way certainly is some food for thought. To quote a character from the drama, fine the Chinese are buying our tech companies, mining companies and financial institutions, but a law firm, the last frontier and safeguard of social justice and civil liberty? That is endangering American value. However, the drama does present a counterpoint of business is business.
Every race is stereotyped to some extent in popular media to reflect and reaffirm popular perception and misconception. And I am not saying other countries and people get a relatively balanced portrayal in Chinese media. But if adversary was the extent of China the masses in the States and rest of the world will see, what would we have but a world of fear and ideological divide? In my naive mind, it doesn’t have to be this way.
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May 21, 2009 10:37 pm
This is very interesting trend. One day when I was bored, I actually compiled a list of TV shows and movies that have something to do with China/Chinese. You can check it out here: http://maltzajava.net/2009/02/china-in-us-tv-movies/. I am sure there are a lot more…those are just the ones that I was aware of at the time.
May 21, 2009 11:56 pm
@taylor,
I was looking for exactly the list you compiled. Thank you for sharing! An additon, Jack Bauer was captured and imprisoned by the Chinese in an earlier season.
May 22, 2009 4:34 pm
It seems that China is becoming the new ‘Russia’ when it comes to American films. It’s probably a manifestation of the US’s fear of the upcoming superpower that is the Middle Kingdom.
Remember the days when Rambo used to battle the Russians for Afghanistan or when Rocky had to fight the superhuman Drago?
It won’t be long if we see the same thing happening, with China as its main adversary. Sad how China is depicted, but the reality is, it stems from an American (and also a global) culture of misunderstanding the Chinese. And with our human tendency to fear that which is misunderstood, it’s quite understandable why Americans are showing this misplaced fear on films.
Again, the need for dialogues and proper education, to take away unfair preconceptions.
On another note, it’s sad that Boston Legal is ending. That’s probably one of the smartest (and funniest) shows ever. I loved the episode when Denny Crane battled Donny Crane in court. Haha
May 22, 2009 10:19 pm
The loudest and most annoying mis-representations are by the political pundits (aka “Talking Heads”) – both left and right. They have very little understanding of economics, and they constantly speak of the Chinese government purchase of US treasuries as some kind of “threat” or “control”, rather than what it is: an inherent element of an unsustainable economic model (by both parties) that one day will correct itself.
May 23, 2009 1:22 am
The television series “Firefly”, created by Joss Whedon, presents a vision of the future where China and the United States essentially merged, and colonized a distant solar system together. Every charecter in the show is bilinguial – Chinese and English – and all signs are in both languages. Mostly in English, but the occassional “Dong ma”, “mei mei”, or other statement where context could allow an english speaking audience to infer the meaning, is thrown in. Elements of both cultures mix and heavily influence all the enviorments…
Might be worth checking out – it only ran one season, plus a followup movie, but is out on dvd. It is one of the best acted and written shows ever.
Oh, and the entire series is watchable for free on Hulu – though I’m not sure that website works inside of China. Here’s the link to the first episode.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4569/firefly-serenity#x-0,vepisode,1
May 23, 2009 6:35 am
For film and TV scripts, “China” makes a natural foil, as it is very uncertain what China will become over the coming years. This uncertainty does not exist for most other countries. In 20 years, France will pretty much be what it is today and what it was 20 years ago. Same with Germany, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the US, Thailand, even India, even Russia. But, China most likely will be something different. But, it is not yet clear what.
China is like technology: a complex, opaque, and uncertain source of great potential good and/or great potential evil. We won’t know until we get there. In the mean time, Hollywood will produce science fiction and China fiction stories that feed peoples worst fears.
James Fallows wrote an excellent article for the Atlantic about how the powers that be unwittingly feeds this: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/chinese-progress.
May 23, 2009 9:32 am
Sure, it doesn’t have to be this way…
And it needs to be emphasized a little more that this is happening on both sides… in China and in America with respect to eachother, in this financial situation. We are BOTH seeing this in a confrontational way.
WHICH MEANS, there is nothing left to do but to regard all of it as merely talk. It means nothing. And we will continue to talk emotionally and confrontationally, until there is more communication, more middle grounds and more tolerance. This is done through talking and learning.
I think your position and DISposition are good places from which to perpetuate such understandings. Your character may be well recieved for its communicative nature. Therefore you may be well fit for the function of a cultural bridge.
May 23, 2009 11:13 pm
Yeah, unfortunately I see a lot of Americans fearful of China’s rise. I believe it’s just plain ignorance, and you can see it on TV shows and coming from the government.
If only more people could visit China and see how wonderful it really is!
May 24, 2009 1:22 am
I was thinking something similar when Jon Stewart made an offhanded remark “when China invades the U.S.”. I’m sure he doesn’t really believe that and didn’t think too much about the comment beforehand, but the instinctive “enemy” or ostensibly “obvious” looming enemy to many Americans is China. That’s not the reality, but that’s what people think and offhanded comments like Stewarts’ and Boston Legal and most everything else that mentions China in American media.
I’m reminded of Susan Shirk’s anecdote of China as a “fragile superpower”; Americans confused that China is fragile and Chinese confused that China’s a superpower.
May 25, 2009 4:41 pm
@MICKEY,
There is a fair amount of prejudice and misconceptions about the U.S. in China too. But of course, it is balanced to a greater extent by America’s soft power demonstrated through pop cultural icons and sports stars. China needs more human faces too besides the perenially adorable pandas.
May 25, 2009 5:08 pm
@prez life,
Unfortunately, political arguments are often reduced to emotive sound bites. The arguemnt that China buys its way into and out of everything has reached banality (but there is also truth in that).
But a subject as weighty as this sometimes could be simplified to a smart HR decisions. For example, Obama’s pick of Joh Huntsman as the new ambassador to China has already won applause among the masses here. People love the fact that America has put someone who speaks fluent Chinese, with a deep understanding of China to this key post. He has hit the ground running so to speak.
I went to a talk by James Fallows in Shanghai in which he shared his always observing insights about China. But when an audience member asked him if he spoke Chinese and whether that affected his work, he said not at all. I don’t want to judge his answer because language ability isn’t the only pathway to deep understanding of a country, but it is quite remarkable to see the generational difference in attitude regarding learning Chinese. It went from being a Sinophile obsession to a skill that most foreigners seek to acquire.
May 26, 2009 9:08 am
@Tim Bender,
Speaking of Firefly, they used to ask ChinesePod to help with translation. I actually translated some of the lines for them. I remember most didn’t make sense at all in Chinese because they were extremely creative ways of swearing. Only if America and China could laugh at each other’s profanity and jokes.
May 26, 2009 9:17 am
@Aaron,
Totally agree. Speaking of friendly faces and communicative efforts, I look forward to the day when China’s president could pull another Deng Xiaoping in cowboy hat. He went to a cowboy show during his visit to the States in the early 80′s, wore a cowboy hat, which became one of the greatest moments in U.S.-Sino relations. BTW, ‘bridge bloggers’ is actually a bona fide profession now.
May 26, 2009 9:22 am
@Alex,
Absolutely. In fact, it goes both ways. Many Chinese I know who have been to the U.S. have exactly the same feeling as you. Taking my mom as an example, she has just come back from a trip to the U.S. and she is so enamored with how lovely the people were. ‘Kind-hearted and so helpful’.
May 26, 2009 9:29 am
Jenny,
That’s really interesting – yes, its sad how many of them are swear words. And the actors were so helpless with the tones…Still, hearing Simon refer to his sister as “mei mei” makes me forgive the other shortcomings (including the very odd fact that the ship’s computer speaks Cantonese – they should have stuck with you as translator).
If you do get a chance to watch the show, I promise the English lines are better than the Chinese ones.;)
May 26, 2009 9:31 am
@Luyi,
I remember Jay Leno saying that a joke is only funny when it is based on facts. Like your analysis, Jon Stewart’s offhanded remarks illustrates that point. People are mostly scared of things that they don’t know. It is funny that most people I talked to in China interpret Susan Shirk’s “fragile superpower” the reverse of yours, that America sees China as a superpower while the Chinese feel fragile.
May 27, 2009 10:11 am
Thank you for sharing your perspectives, Jenny.
Re: Fallows
Other than sporting events, the most heavily covered Olympic story in the US was: the protest zones. Not due to “anti-China” bashing or anything like that, but just because it was an interesting and controversial topic – a necessity for something to be “news”. And, because the other hottest topic before the Olympics – the the pollution effect – fortunately turned out to be a non-story.
Many US media outlets posted regular daily reports from the protest zones. E.G. “Five people applied to protest today, all were rejected, and three were arrested and sent to jail.” It turned into a public relations debacle, and reinforced the perceptions that show up in US TV and films. But, none of the reporters were able to explain why the situation (and others like it) were so badly managed. Fallows was the only one I’ve come across that has taken a credible stab at it. Although, I don’t know if his information and analysis was sound or not.
June 16, 2009 3:06 am
We always assume that exchange breeds understanding and that understanding will lead to friendship. It is like the fallacy illustrated in Darius Rejali’s new book about torture and its relationship to modernity and democracy. We forget that it is entirely possible and likely that we will meet, we will “understand” and we will continue to hate, fear, dislike, loathe, conquer, etc. So much more than simply visiting is required to even begin to understand. A yearning, a want to know is needed. Surely Mr. Fallows could benefit from learning Chinese but his open mind provides him with much greater ability to understand than those that learn the language, read the books, watch the movies, visit the countries – hell, live in the countries – yet still keep a closed mind. A friend of a friend, a mid twenties college educated Chinese male, explained to me that his best friend lived in California, earned his MBA there and had shared his experiences upon returning to China. The young male informed me that most, based on his friends’ account, Americans don’t want to work because you can make more money from welfare, that even poor Americans have cars. I have heard this statement many times. What is not “understood” is the need for cars in America because of the shape and design of our communities coupled with the lack of public transportation. That cars are not luxuries but necessities for most all Americans.
I was told by a middle manager at a company I was formerly employed with that I didn’t understand America, that he knew more than I did because he lived in California and worked in kitchens in LA during grad school. “How could I, a rich white kid, know anything about the real America?” Well the truth is I’m a lower middle class white male who grew up on a farm in the Midwest and whose parents work in a hospital and a factory, respectively. What is often painted to me is an America of fat, lazy people that get money from the government for nothing and only have to work six, maybe 9, months a year.
The truth is, all the exposure in the world won’t affect those that refuse to open their eyes. I too used to have the idealized view that democracy, modernity, education, exchange, economic aide all of these things paved the way toward a more peaceable world or at least a more cooperative one. Alas, as I’ve aged, though I still find value in all of the aforementioned, I have realized that we are and will always be groups of self interest, too large to not compete, to not fight, to not war, to not maintain large militaries, too large to ever understand because too many of us simply don’t care enough or find value in the endeavor. For those of us that do, well, hopefully we become the leaders, the visionaries, the organizers, the educators of our countries, states, cities and communities.
September 18, 2009 12:21 am
Boring if there is nobody to hate.
March 17, 2010 5:19 pm
Would you kindly translate your website into German because I’m not so comfortable reading it in English? I’m getting tired of using Google Translate all the time, there is a little WP plugin called like global translator which will translate all your pages by default- that would make reading posts on your great blog even more pleasant. Cheers mate, Writing Guide!