Word: panda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...body) who has starred in Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express; co-wrote the last two, plus Drillbit Taylor, with his longtime pal Evan Goldberg, as well as co-producing them; and, presumably on weekends, provided voices for the animated films Horton Hears a Who and Kung Fu Panda and for the Hogsqueal character in The Spiderwick Chronicles. The characters he plays may be slackers, but in real life this guy is organized...
Where American media and pop culture are concerned, yes and no. Cable TV channels and news outlets have dutifully been trying to give Americans a crash course as the Games approach. But the country's biggest pre-Olympic exposure to Chinese culture this summer has been Kung Fu Panda, about a chubby bear (voiced by Jack Black) who becomes a warrior. The movie has grossed more than $200 million in the U.S. alone. As cartoon primers on Buddhist philosophy...
...Chinese Ursidae living in martial-arts monasteries--yeah, we're covered. But present-day, nonmagical, human China? Kung Fu Panda is set in a pre-industrial China, like Mulan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The new Mummy sequel, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, set in the 1940s, is about an undead 2,000-year-old Han emperor (Jet Li) and an army of terra-cotta warriors. The China that appears in American pop culture is about as modern as Arthurian England...
...Hollywood is reflecting our other institutions, which haven't quite figured out China either. Is it a rival? A partner? A repressive authoritarian state? An engine of prosperity? A sinister force that tortured Jack Bauer? Or a delightful panda that likes to gobble dumplings? We know that China matters and will matter more. But we don't exactly know how. So it floats undefined, a Middle Kingdom poised between fascination and fear. Kids collect Master Shifu Happy Meal toys at McDonald's while parents worry that they may end up flipping burgers there if their jobs go to China. Meanwhile...
...open or we just ignore its reality so we can make money. Western audiences need and want to know more about this country that figures ever more in their lives in ways good, bad and ambiguous. Let's not tell them to forget it and look at the cute panda. time.com/tunedin