Satirical Olympic Videos Take on Anxieties Over China

Since major sporting events are an exception to my no-TV rule, I watched the Olympic opening ceremonies on a giant screen in our town square with about a thousand other people. There were many Chinese and Chinese-Americans in the audience, with beaming faces and red Beijing 2008 t-shirts. The pageant dramatized the history of China and their hopes for the future on a scale never before seen at the Olympics.

Whereas China is beaming with national and cultural pride, the Olympics only seem to highlight the concerns U.S. citizens have of their Eastern neighbor--of the workforce competition and potential environmental havok their massive population represents. They are also concerned about the Chinese government's suppression of free thought amongst it's citizens, which American's hold dear. Meanwhile, China routinely tells the U.S. to look at the beam in their own eye and bugger off.

It's only fitting that there have recently been a spate of satirical videos online dealing with the intricacies of modern U.S.-Chinese relations--and that even in the realm of comedy, things are tense.

This first one, from The Onion parodies the fear-mongering in the U.S. media and attitudes some American's may actually have.

The Beijing Olympics: Are They A Trap?


Whereas most people who view this at The Onion's website would know that The Onion was a satirical news site, those who find it on YouTube don't always realize what they are seeing and have left some offended comments on the video (even I was a little shocked when I first watched it but the comments about dragons kinda tipped me off). With satire, it is often hard to tell who is being made fun of, as the New Yorker learned from the response to their recent Obama cover cartoon.

"The Chinese Are Coming!" from Scott Blaszak at Slate Magazine, examines the fears of a Chinese medal sweep (as with the Cold War, the Olympics have become a proxy for other types of global competition, and this year economists predict they will edge the U.S. out) It took me a while to figure out that this one was a satire too, perhaps because they look exactly like the alarming "Did You Know?" video series.


This last one from Black20 takes "Welcome to Beijing" the official song of the Beijing Olympics staring a host of Chinese pop singers, and gives it subtitles that poke fun at the Communist party (here, I believe, are the real lyrics).



Again, commenters at YouTube alternately praised and berated the creators. However, while this time the video was a critique of China, I don't think it is critical of the Chinese people. Lyrics like "I would have fled here years ago but they've wired my chest to explode" are a bit over the top, but it reflects the concern Westerners have on behalf of Chinese citizens. Those of us who saw democracy demonstrations crushed in Tianamen Square in 1989 (which many Chinese have forgotten according to this news clip) worry that Chinese citizens are imprisoned routinely for expressing free thought and dissent. While I'm sure the average citizen lives in peace and relative prosperity, arrests for dissent still occur. At worst, the creators of this video are guilty of not politely ignoring inconvenient truths. But I imagine we would not be amused if someone overdubbed "We Are the World" with lyrics about Katrina and Abu Graib.

It's a wonderful moment for the citizens of China and while these videos throw something of a wet blanket on the festivities, I'm thankful none of them are seriously portraying a red menace or yellow peril taking over the world, nor are these videos making fun of the Chinese themselves--well, except maybe for the crack in the last video about one of the singers dressing like Elvis.

Update: South Park debuted an episode on October 8 called "The China Problem" in which one character has a rather vivid nightmare:

It's Movie Week: Please Vote for Me

There is democracy in China--at least in one third grade classroom in the city of Wuhan. In Please Vote For Me, documentary director Chen Weijun follows the campaigns of three candidates for classroom monitor. Based on the trailers and clip below, it's shockingly familiar for kids who have never seen American democracy in action: the backroom deals, the negative campaigning, the constituencies, the denials. One hardly knows if this is China's way of easing into democracy or to show it's youngsters how democracy can be a popularity contest.




Unfortunately, I didn't get to see this at a film festival or on PBS on Independent Lens, so I'm out of luck until August 19 when it becomes available at Amazon. Ryan Stewart at Cinematical did see it, however, and gave it a positive review.

Trailer on YouTube




Alternate trailer

Look to Mr. Deng's "blog" and be happy!

In 2001, laid-off dot-commer Todd Rosenberg started posting semi-autobiographical cartoons about his life at www.oddtodd.com and quickly developed an avid following. He scanned and posted all fan letters in 2002 and stopped in 2004.

But to this day, he continues to post letters of his most prolific pen pal, Mr. Deng (closest thing to a picture here). Postcards from Suzhou, China began arriving in Todd's mailbox in April 2004 and while the medium eventually switched to email and photos, his pen pal has written ceaselessly and enthusiastically at least once a month since then. All 3+ years of correspondence are archived here.

If you flip through the archive from the oldest to the most recent, it is easy to laugh at the postcards featuring glaring, Spock-faced Peking Opera singers in Maoist propaganda plays and at the broken English of Mr. Deng (First postcard: "I would make many happy to see this on my internet machine! It say onto your web sight that you will be a television star! That is exciting news you must be full of beans.") . While he talks about "sexing" and wanting to find a girlfriend, he's still seemingly innocent and thus hilarious:

I like to play the electronics and interwebs. But these days t gets to many e--mails these days that say the subject as "your bottle of enlargement tablets is ready." What this mean?Is it joking meaning or nauty?

The Franch man at my company want me to show this statyu photo to you. He think it is very funny, but I do not know why he think so that.

His cultural observations are equally funny. About a French co-worker's arty black-and-white photographs of the town:

The Franch man working in my factory give to me to show you the photo he make this time since I did not take the photo this week. It so strange he do not use the colour, his camera maybe is bad.

But if you keep reading, that naiveté and sincerity of his wishes and advice becomes poignant. While many Americans might commiserate with OddTodd over their crummy or non-existent job, here is Mr. Deng, who uses a nightsoil pot in the backyard, worries if he'll have enough money to fix his bicycle, and works in a factory making shoelaces, sending "Mr. OddTodd" snacks from China, encouraging him not to feel down, and sending him dating tips.

Deng, apparently, has ventured beyond the pages of OddTodd.com and established his identity on Tribe.net as well as on YouTube, as seen below.



One writer at The Chinese Outpost says that while the correspondence is highly entertaining, Mr. Deng must be a fraud, due to the childlike handwriting and consistently funny "Chinglish," that he is the invention of a mid-twenties, Mid-western American girl who happens to be living in Suzhou (all the postcards are postmarked). On some recent posts, Todd added the ability to comment and others share that skepticism, even comparing him to Borat. When I first read these opinion, I thought, yeah maybe, but I've seen enough feminine and childlike handwriting out of men, Asian and Caucasian, as well as bad Chinglish to think that these examples could be real, especially in a population of 1.3 billion.

If anything would make me think this was pure fiction, it is the fact that, intentionally or unintentionally, his letters are a gentle satire-- not of China, but of the U.S. The simple things we take for granted are called out in many of his photo essays:

The man carry the recycle bottle on his bicycle. Many people in China earn the money by collect the recycle garbage and take it to the factory to get the money. You should try to do this job in USA also then you will be richer!

This man walk around yelling and fix the shoe. I take this picture from my apartment window. A forgeiner told me you do not have this kind of man in the U.S.A.! How can the People fix the broken shoe then?

While some may laugh at how backwards this seems, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has come away from these photo essays thinking that compared to the Chinese, we are all wasteful, complaining, slackers who don't appreciate what we have. Deng's letters are, in fact, the perfect counterpoint to OddTodd's own funny, navel-gazing animations.

And yet there is no hint of indictment or accusation in his words, only kindness. Every letter ends with some sort of an exhortation ("Please enjoy the life and always try", "Wish you happy forever!") and an invitation to write back, extended not only to Todd, but to the entire world. While he knows parts of his city are ugly and dirty, he shares his pride in the ancient beauty of Suzhou, the modernizations, like long distance telephone and the rash of new buildings and television shows sprouting up everywhere, his growing salary, and his wife's growing belly--yes, there will soon be a Deng Junior.

So I choose to believe he is real. If such a caring, funny man does not really exist, he ought to. I leave you with a typical hilarious and thoughtful translation of an famous American poem from Mr. Deng:

Bean, bean

The musicle Vegtable

The more of that you eat

You will Fart so much

But the bean is very healty so you should eat many bean and you will feel more happy to that.

I change the ending of the song now so the USA people can still like to eat the bean and so the farmer of the bean will not be crying.