AVATAR in China

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I heard on Kevin and Bean this morning that Avatar has been banned in China due to the fear that the people are too much like the Na'Vi people and it will be disturbing to them...and even more interesting, there are mountains, who some Chinese are saying were the prototype for Pandora. I know KROQ is not the best source for my news, but it gets me going in the A.M.

[Anonymous]

That IS interesting! Maybe that is true, although a few of my students told me they'd heard on the news that China had banned Avatar because no one was going to see Chinese-made movies and their industry was losing money big-time. Your version may be closer to the truth. At least it sounds more interesting and is what you'd expect from a paranoid Communist government!

[Anonymous]

Some Asians have protested against AVATAR since its original cast was Asian.
In James Cameron's version, there are no Asians.

Still AVATAR bloggers claim that AVATAR is racist since the white male
character "saves" the NA'VI from the corporation who wants their
minerals (colonialism ??). In the movie, the corporation gives the NA'VI
English lessons in hopes that
when the corporation asks them to move to the other side of the planet,
they will comply.
Instead, the NA'VI refuse and the corporation declares war.
At its climax, the lead character comments to the character
who defends the NA'VI, "How does it feel to betray
your race?"

However, AVATAR blogs did not disuade movie goers - it has out grossed TITANIC!

[Anonymous]

That is simply crazy! I had no idea the racist idea came from that. Shows why Kevin and Bean with a grain of salt, well Ralph's showbiz report anyway.

[Anonymous]

I have not yet seen the movie but I have heard about the politics with it, show how we (the us) go to other country and tries to make them convert to our ways. Has anyone seen that in the movie?

[Anonymous]

Did you guys know that China allows imports of only 20 foreign films annually for showing in cinemas? I wonder who and how they decide what these 20 films are?

It's amazing that Chinese authorities have ordered cinemas to stop showing Avatar.
I found this article about this entitled: "Avatar scares China, film's 2-d version blocked"
They only banned the 2-d version, not the 3-d version.

The website is: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/avatar-scares-china-films-2d-version-blocked/108890-8.html

Some highlights to the artivle:
Avatar took about 300 million yuan ($40 million) at the box office in its first eight days after its release in China on January 4, the official China Daily quoted the China Film Group as saying.

Many commentators in China found a political resonance in the film's story of the Na'vi's battle to protect their land and culture from outsiders, comparing them to Chinese citizens fighting to protect their property from the government and developers.

"Somehow, the film struck a chord with Chinese audiences and created nothing less than a social phenomenon," commentator Huang Hung wrote in China Daily on Tuesday.

"Why? All the forced removal of old neighbourhoods in China makes us the only earthlings today who can really feel the pain of the Na'vi," she said.

"For audiences in other countries, such brutal eviction is something outside their imagining. It could only take place on another planet or in China," popular blogger Han Han wrote of Avatar.

[Anonymous]

Avatar reminds me of the movie "The Mission" with Jeremy Irons and Robert Di Nero. In the movie, Jeremy Irons appears as a Jesuit priest who enters the South American reinforest with the intention of building a Christian mission, converting a small tribe of native Amazonian Indians. With Robert Dinero, an ex slave trader who eventually falls in love with the idyllic lifestyle of the natives, Jeremy Irons tries to protect the Indian village from the aggressive Portuguese. Avatar has a happier ending but I hear they are making two Avatar sequels. I'm looking forwrad to seeing them all.

[Anonymous]

It definitely is about racist colonialism. When I first saw it, what immediately came to mind was the westward movement of the United States into the lands of the Indian (Native American) nations. My friend immediately thought of the European colonization of Africa. The same story has happened in most places on the earth. I did not know that China had banned the movie however. And as a real stretch - maybe because they see themselves in the movie also (the different non-Chinese provinces).

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