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Down The Rabbit Hole: The Great Mascot Conspiracy










Down The Rabbit Hole: The Great Mascot Conspiracy



 
Using material recently gained from top-secret Government reports
and scurrilous liberal blogs
run by ill informed people, Angry Chinese Blogger can, for the first
time ever, reveal the shocking story of espionage, insanity and
Intellectual property, that it "The truth about China’s Olympic
mascots".



The Conspiracy


Contrary to the conventional wisdom; that Beijing’s decision to pick 5
individual Olympic mascots was scheme to extort five times more money
from dumb white tourists, Angry Chinese Blogger can now exclusively
reveal that China’s Olympic Mascots are part of a conspiracy, reaching
to the highest levels of the Chinese and American governments. A
conspiracy to conceal the existance, and operations to hunt down, a
rogue unit of American covert operatives.

MASCOT


According to reports, what have been billed as 5 ‘friendly mascots’ for
the 2008 Olympics are, in actual fact, members of an elite force of
genetically enhanced US ‘super soldier’, operating deep inside Chinese
territory.

The team, code-named MASCOT; Mighty American,
Subservient China, Obedient Taiwan, are a group of 5 elite commandos
who were enhanced at the genetic level using a combination of animal
DNA, experimental radioactive isotopes, and design sketches for cell
phone screen buddies, to enhance their fighting and infiltration
abilities, and to give them so-called ‘super powers’.

The team
was hand picked by the highest ranks of the CIA, and inserted into
China early in 2005. They were originally intended to infiltrate
Chinese society, posing as foreign teachers and South Korean
politicians (hence their outlandish appearance), and were assigned four
primary mission goals.




  • To bring down the Chinese Government through the raising of dissent and the disruption of command and control capabilities
  • To seek out defectors within Chinese civil and military structures
  • To plant false communications that will scare Taiwanese authorities into buying more US arms
  • To enforce RIAA death warrants.




Their first official mission, to
scare Taipai into buying more US weapons, and the EU out of selling
weapons to China, by encouraging Beijing to pass an aggressive
‘anti-succession law’ was a resounding success. As were 43 subsequent
missions to carry out RIAA ‘Termination Orders’ against Chinese file
sharers. However, from there on, things rapidly deteriorated.


In August, 4 of the 5 members of MASCOT suffered what has been
classified as ‘serious mental instability’ after being exposed to
copious amounts of MSG for an extended period, an eventuality that was
apparently never considered by US intelligence officials.














“When working to ensure the stability of the teams gentic enhancements,
we factored in steroids, growth hormones, insect feces, and human pubic
hair, all of the things that you normally find in American food, but we
didn’t consider for one moment that the Chinese might put MSG in their
food. How could we have known? It’s not as if they label anything, is
it?

Spokesperson, CIA.





Little is known about Mascot’s current
status, or their actions over the last 3 and a half months, except that
they have apparently deserted their primary mission and gone ‘rogue’.
Vanishing among China’s ex-pat communities, where their outlandish
garbs, bizarrely contorted features, and inability to get out of bed
before 2pm, have allowed them to blend in almost seamlessly.














MASCOT’s ability to blend into ex-pat communities is uncanny. How are
we meant to tell who they are? All foreigners look alike when they are
trying to destroy the Chinese way of life. Even the bright green ones.

Man seen scratching his private parts while standing behind the counter of a Government office, China







Team Profile


Though information about MASCOT is scarce, and their existence has been
denied by Beijing, Washington (now a subsidiary of Haliburton) and the
RIAA. Some information has been gleaned from official communiqués and
scribbling found on restaurant napkins.

From this information,
Angry Chinese Blogger has been able to construct a dossier on MASCOT,
and to put together limited profiles for each of its members. It has
also obtained the one and only authentic and unedited picture of the
team still in existance.





Mighty American, Subservient China, Obedient Taiwan



Each of the MASCOT team members has a
codename ranging from Weapon X 1 to Weapon X 5, and can be identified
by the characteristics given to them by their animal DNA.




  • Weapon X1: Huanhuan, Zippo Lighter (Rumored to be an Olympic Flame)
  • Weapon X2: Jingjing, Edible Panda
  • Weapon X3: Beibei, Carp
  • Weapon X4: Nini, Swallow
  • Weapon X5: Yingying, Tibetan Antelope




Weapon X1


An overseas Chinese, weapon X1 was originally trained, by the CIA, as a
commando in order to help Taiwan to cede from the mainland, but was
transferred to the MASCOT team when the Washington realized selling
arms to a semi-independent Taiwan was better for the US economy that
actually doing anything that would allow it to become independent.


Weapon X’s strength has been greatly enhanced beyond the levels of the
other MASCOTs and he has ability to fire heat rays from both his eyes
and anus. He is also completely impervious to all forms spicy food and
cannot be subdued by means of pepper spray or Sichuan curry.


After exposure to MSG, Weapon X1 was the first to show signs of mental
instability and, in particular, is believed to have developed an
obsession with the Chinese concept of ‘Face’.
















“If you make him loose his, he will kick you in yours.”

Ill informed Bystander






Little is known about Weapon X1’s
habits or tendencies except that he likes nachos and that he suffers
from bloomophilia; the compulsive desire to snatch white cotton panties
warn by petit Asian Women.














“He took my wife’s panties and sold them for a small fortune on eBay. I
wouldn’t mind so much, but he refused to take her as well”

Man waiting in visa queue






Weapon X2


Males are urged to be particularly aware of Weapon X2, an electronic
espionage specialist, who has been described as being ‘a hyper sexual
Panda’.














“From her initial genetic modification, we found X2 to have been
infused with an insatiably desire to mate with sleazy Chinese
businessmen with oversized egos and undersized genitalia. However, in
her current [MSG induced] state of mind, she may also resort to mating
with students, drunken white tourists, and people’s legs.”

Chinese Spy working in a Top Secret defense facility, US





A rash of calls by women, offering
“massages” to hotel patrons, has lead Chinese authorities to believe
that Weapon X2 may currently be in the Puxi area of Shanghai. As yet,
western intelligence sources remain skeptical as to the validity of
these leads. Chinese security services
assured Beijing
that the calls, mostly made between 1 and 2 AM, must be the work of a
foreign agent because “No Chinese women would ever do that”.

Additionally, Weapon X2 has the power to fly without mechanical aid, and to use squat toilets without falling over backwards.

Weapon X3


Weapons X3 is an explosive expert who was originally trained to
infiltrate and destroy fake Nike factories, food convoys bound for
North Korea, and buildings containing civilian.

Unlike the
other three operatives, Weapon X3 is not thought to be suffering from
MSG induced mental instability, but is instead believed to have been
infused with the belief that he is Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi
Junichiro, after he was accidentally exposed to an issue of the Sankei
News that Beijing forgot to censor.

As such, security forces
are basing their capture strategy on the premise that Weapon X3 is
likely to seek out war criminals and the tombs of mass murderers in
order to glorify them in ways that are never fully explained by the
Chinese media.














“In light of this information, authorities have posted a 24-hour guard
around Chairman Mao’s mausoleum and will be providing extra security
during President Bush’s forthcoming visit to China. They have also
advised member of Walt Disney’s board of directors to avoid any
non-essential travel to China.”

Spokesperson, Halliburton, Beneficiary of Aggressive US Foreign Policy





Though Weapon X3’s present whereabouts
and intent remain unknown, there have been persistent reports from
North East China of a ‘giant’ or ‘hideously mutated’ carp like creature
roaming the countryside and apologizing at random to complete
strangers.

Chinese officials have however dismissed these reports and are discouraging their dissemination.














“These so-called sightings are baseless lies propagated by foreigners,
separatists, and foreigners in league with separatists. Anybody found
circulating them will be shot for revealing state secrets”

Communist Lackey, Beijing







There have also been indications
that Weapon X3 may have, on several occasions, tried to reform the
welfare state system, and to privatize China Post.

Weapon X3’s
special abilities include super speed, naturally occurring synthetic
aperture Gaydar, and the power to link completely random events
together and determine that they must be a terrorist plot again the US.

Weapon X4


Weapon X4 differs from her fellow MASCOT in that she was modified from
birth rather than later on in life. She has no enhanced physical
strengths or abilities but instead has been bred for enhanced mental
abilities. Her powers include:




  • Telepathy: the ability to
    read minds, which has been greatly enhanced by the fact that Chinese
    only think about four things (Face, sex, whatever the Government is
    telling them to think at that specific time, and Japan).




  • Telekinesis: The ability to move small objects through the power of the mind.




  • Temporal-Precognition: The ability to predict the future.




  • Propagando-precognition: The ability to predict which line of bull the Chinese Government will come out with next.




Since her exposure to MSG, Weapon
X4 is known to have become increasingly distressed about her inability
to control her mind reading powers, and is believed likely to head to
areas were no conscious human thought takes place. As such, Chinese
middle schools have been asked to be on the lookout for a freakishly
large swallow like creature, and extra guards have been placed around
the offices of CCTV 1.

Weapons X5


Weapon X5 was the chief MASCOT linguist. He is a fluent Chinese speaker
and is conversant in many Chinese verbal arts that seem either
completely incomprehensible, or completely pointless, to foreign
onlookers.

Even before the MSG incident, Weapon X5 was the
least mentally stable of the MASCOT. A former postal worker; Weapon X5
joined the MASCOT team, taking on the guise of a Tibetan Antelope, as a
means of escaping years of being teased for his inane smile and
resemblance a Thunderbird’s marionette that had been allowed to sit in
the sun for too long.

During basic training, the pressures of
learning the Chinese language, mastering the ability to eat peanuts
with Chopsticks, and remembering not to write with his left hand,
became too much for Weapon X5, and he began to suffer delusions, in
particular that he was a Canadian named Mark Rowswell. However, despite
this obvious mental aberration, Weapon X5 was allowed to join the
active service rosta and was dispatched with the MASCOT team.


Shortly after being exposed to MSG, it is believed that Weapon X5 ‘went
native’; suffering the terrifying mental affectation of believing that
the Chinese system worked, and that the Government was a nice friendly
regime with its people’s best interests at heart.

Weapon X5’s
possesses the same enhanced strength and senses of the other MASCOT
agents, plus a frightening array of linguistic powers, including:




  • The ability to render an opponent senseless through the performance of Cross-Talk




  • The ability to simultaneously feed bull to 1.3 billion people while grinning and waiving his head around like a madman




  • The ability to be instantly disliked by Ex-Pats, yet be loved by Chinese




  • Weapon X5 also possesses an
    advance cloaking ability, allowing him to be instantly recognizable in
    China, yet utterly obscure in the rest of the world.



Authorities have however noted that, despite his ‘native’ stance, Weapon X5’s family is currently located in the west.
















“If he loves China so much, why are his children attending a western
school and why does his wife live in a western apartment and shop in
western stores.”

Curtain twitching neighbor with a night vision headset, House opposite Weapon X5’s House, Canada.







Weapon X5 was last seen accepting a
large bribe in Canada; shortly after making a film to promote
federalism that included no mention of federalism. He is currently
thought to be resident in China, where he has been employed by the
ministry of propaganda to promote the belief that whites can’t see
anything wrong with imprisoning farmers who complain about corrupt
officials steeling their chicken.






3.12.05 09:15


China's New Great Leap Forward - Or America's great leap Backwards?

'China is a rising military power that
has been underestimated for far to long. It has learnt from its
adversaries, it is adapting to the times, and its armies are far closer
to our gates than ever before'.


It might sound melodramatic,
even alarmist, but this was the stark message delivered by the
influential Hudson Institute earlier this month, when it went before
congress to present its finding on an investigation of China's
so-called military rise, and its implications for both the US and US
interests in the Asia-Pacific region.

China's New Great Leap Forward

Delivering
its 95 page report, titled: “China's New Great Leap Forward: High
Technology and Military Power in the Next Half-Century”, the Hudson
Institute warned Washington that the 'comfort zone' of technological
and strategic superiority that has always existed between China's
large, but unsophisticated, military, and America's own armed forces,
is not only far smaller than previously thought, but that is shrinking
at an alarming rate due to the rapid modernization of both China's
military strategies, and its domestic R&D capabilities.

The Report

The
report covered all areas of China's military, ranging from its navy and
air force; which the institute advised have grown worryingly in terms
of size, capability and quality. To its land based forces; which have
contracted in size but grown in capability, now fielding numerous units
of Special Forces units that are trained and equipped to a similar
level to America's own.

It also covered the expansion of China's
domestic construction and R&D infrastructures, highlighting several
key areas for concern. Including China's recent domestic production of
four 7000-ton destroyers, each equipped with modern stealth technology,
advanced anti aircraft defenses and anti-submarine capabilities, and
its successful deployment of the nuclear powered 094 Class of ballistic
missile submarine in 2004.

An event which sent shockwaves
through Washington by occurring several years ahead of predictions, and
which gave China a stable sub oceanic platform from which to launch its
next generation of missiles, including the feared Julang-2; a three
stage missile capable of carrying 4 90 Kiloton tactical nuclear
warheads, or one warhead of up to 1 Megaton, over 8000KM. Providing
China with the ability to survive even the most determined preemptive
strike by US forces against the mainland, and the capability to launch
in retaliation against any military target or population center on the
western American seaboard.

Furthermore report covered
enhancements made to China's command and control systems. Revealing
that much of China's military infrastructure is now interconnected by a
modern system that affords Beijing a high level of integration between
the different elements and branches of its military.











“Thousands
of kilometers of buried fiber-optic cable, connected by modern switches
and routers, now provide secure communications to nearly every unit of
the Chinese armed forces”'

China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





Controversially, and uncomfortably for
Washington, the report also chose to draw attention to an often
overlooked fact of the Sino-US military dynamic that serves to increase
the impact of the lessening of the technology gap between US and
Chinese force. This being the relative concentration of US and Chinese
Forces.“











Chinese military deployment will be overwhelmingly in Asia, while U.S. Deployment is global in scope”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





While America's overall military forces
remain superior to China's, they are currently dispersed globally, and
at the sufferance of its allies. China's forces, on the other hand, are
mostly concentrated in and around Chinese territory. Providing them
with both the 'home-side' advantage of having short supply lines and
established operational parameters, and the advantage of fighting an
enemy that cannot bring the full weight of its forces to bear on it.

Contrast

Though echoing a number of recent reports of China's military expansion, including documents produced by the Washington sponsered 'U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission',
'China's New Great Leap Forward' still came as a shock to many, not
least of all because of its stark contrast to previous reports which,
as late as May 2004, had pegged China's military as being 'backward' ,
and its domestic R&D and production capabilities as being
marginaland, leaving China dependent on imported technology.











“China
has not yet demonstrated the ability or innovation to go through a
research, development, and acquisition process for a sophisticated
weapon system without foreign assistance”

Department of Defense evaluation of Chinese capabilities, 2004





Similarly, this latest report also
comes in start contrast to reports throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, all
of which showed America as having a near insurmountable lead on China;
which was, near universally, considered to pose little conventional
threat beyond its immediate borders because of its relative immobility,
and lack of advanced capabilities.











“During
the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Defense consistently assessed the
Chinese military capability as being at least 20 years out of date
across the board, a view shared by most independent analysts”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





The China Factor

According
to the Hudson institute much of the military gap, that has been closed,
was closed as a result of a drive for modernization that China begun
approximately 10 years ago. which was itself catalyzed by the
deployment of long range precision weapons and other technological
systems, by American forces, during the first Gulf War. An event which
sent shockwaves through the Chinese leadership; forcing them to look
again at how they might fight a smaller, yet more advanced, enemy.











“The
U.S. use of “surgical” bombing and electro-magnetic warfare in the Gulf
War in 1991 dramatically demonstrated the huge gap that China faced
vis-à-vis the United States”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





Out with the Old

China is
thought to have embarked on a upon a multi phase realignment of its
military forces soon after the events of the Gulf War . Attempting to
move them away from being a 'manpower' centered force that relied on
the massed application of low technology solutions to overwhelm and
outlast an opponent, towards being a froce that more closely resembled
the US military. Relying on advanced technological solutions over
manpower, and the use of modern tactics over the waging of a war of
attrition.











"China
has thus switched from emphasizing mainly manpower mobilization to
scientific and technological and knowledge-based mobilization."

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





In this light, the Chinese military
shed upwards of 1 million men at arms, using the cost savings to fund
improved training and better equipment for its remaining forces, while
using a proportion of the capital gained from the national economic
upturn to acquire more precision and tactical weapons systems, and to
upgrade its command and control systems to aid in battlefield
co-ordination and advanced information gathering.

Additionally,
in moving away from its old manpower-intensive 'attrition' based model
of warfare , China was able to substantially reduce its military
stockpiles. Allowing it to produce fewer arms and munitions at a higher
quality, and to divert funds that were originally required to
manufacture, store and maintain arms and munitions, towards the design
and development of newer, more advanced military solutions.











“Regarding the modernization of armaments, China has adopted the practice of conducting less production and more R&D”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





Efficiency Through Rivalry

In
support of the restructuring of the physical and doctorinal aspects of
its military, China also moved to reorganize the R&D infrastructure
that supplied it with new technology. Moving it away from a centralized
socialist model, where all factors were under central military control
and production was based on near-arbitrary decisions made by military
leaders, and where there were few crossovers between military and
civilian interests, and towards a more streamline competition based
structure under which multiple interests and contractors, including
those from the private sector, compete for defense contracts.

This reorganization is recorded as consisting of three main factors:


  • The transference of defense R&D interests from military control to civilian government administration.
  • The removal of barriers separating military and civilian development interests (the cross fetching of R&D resources)
  • The introduction of competition into the Chinese defense sector.












"[China
moved to employ a model where] civilian defense companies [compete] on
the basis of price and performance, with considerable interaction
between primary defense contractors and many other advanced technology
companies engaged in everything from R&D to dual-use components.

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





The US Factor

Though
concentrating on the Chinese factors of the narrowing of the militar
gap between the US and China, the Hudson institute did however note
that such a pronounced change could not exclusively be due to Chinese
efforts, but that it was instead a combination of the advancement of
China's military, and the failure of the US to keep up the momentum at
its end, thus allowing its technological advantage to be eaten away
though split priorities and complacency over the need for it to
maintain its edge in the face of increasing competition from rival
nations.

As such, the Hudson instituted placed much of the blame
for the loss of US momentum on the Bush Administration. Stating that it
had become overly concerned with reshaping American forces and
priorities, in order to fight the the so-called 'War on Terror', and in
doing so had redirected important fiscal and knowledge resources away
from traditional areas, such as Military R&D and the upgrading of
existing military assets, and towards anti-terror measures.

All
of which has had the effect of slowing down America's military
advancement at a time when China's own program was acceleratingly.











“Foreign
policy over the past several years has focused overwhelmingly on the
war against terror and democratization of the Middle East .... the
Chinese challenge to long-standing U.S. technology leadership has had a
generally low priority.”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





Mixed Reactions

Although
the report was magnanimously accepted by right wing elements of the US
administration, it received a less than glowing reception from the left
elements, and a mixed reaction from centerists. With observers,
including China watchers, issuing a number of strong criticisms of the
report With detractors labeling the report as being an 'overtly bias
document' with a propensity to present only selected information, and
stating the opinion that it was drafted, not so much to inform the
reader about a realistic threat posed by China, but to back up calls by
the American right for the Washington to step up measures to 'counter'
China in order to prevent it from reaching any kind of parity with the
US.

Among the arguments offered against the report, by its
critics, were that its writers appear to operate on the  unblenching
premise that China's moves are primarily hostile, as well as the 'fact'
that they that they largely ignored that the bulk of Beijing's military
modernizations appear to be in defensive rather than offensive in
nature. Occurring, as the have, in areas that would help to ensure
China's security in the face of hostile assault against it territory,
rather than in areas that would provide China with the long range force
projection capabilities that it would need in order to launch a war of
aggression against its neighbors.

In this line, critics have
pointed out that the report persists in labeling China's rise as being
hostile despite itself containing a full 5 chapter near exclusively
devoted to Beijing's efforts to develop or obtain technologies and
strategies to defend Chinese military targets and population centers
against from an attack by a technologically superior enemy, but very
little information on China's efforts to acquire offensive
technologies, or to reorganize its armed forces into the kind of mobile
force needed to wage a war of aggression except for supposed efforts by
China to develop and deploy exotic 'future technology'; including
lasers, nanotechnology and electro-magnetic pules weapons in order to
combat the Us and to invade Chinese-Taiwan.











“[China
plans to develop “New Concept” weapons, including] infrasonic wave
weapons, electro-magnetic pulse weapons, laser weapons, climatic
weapons, etc.— which often trigger a destructive effect second only to
that of nuclear weapons.”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





In reality, no military force in the
world has any workable form of these technologies at the R&D level,
and no nation, including the United States, looks set to possess the
technology to deploy such weapons on the battlefield in the modern age.

Additionally,
the report received strong criticism for its refusal to draw parallels
between the US and China. Particularly on the issue of intent. With
opposition elements citing the fact that the report chose to ignore
that much of China's so-called military 'expansions' has almost exactly
mirror military 'realignments' carried out by the US, yet were
presented in a completely different light, and that it conveniently
sidesteps any mention of the fact that, while China has no conventional
strike capabilities capable of threatening American territory, and only
a rudimentary rlong range nuclear capability, America currently has
significant air, ground, and naval forces, stationed within easy
striking distance of most of China's coastal population centers, and
sufficient nuclear capabilities to exterminate a significant proportion
of China's population at will.

Other Areas of Concern

Though
the Hudson institutes's report was primarily concerned with the impact
that China's increasing military prowess may have on the US and its
ability to influence Asian affairs, it did however  also highlight a
number of side issues that are likely to have far wider implications
for America, and to be of concern to Chain watchers and non-China
watchers alike.

Among the concerns highlighted by the Hudson
Institute was the increasingly observable shift that has occurred in
the Sino-US educational coefficient that has accompanied, and to some
extent made possible, the advancement of China's military forces. As
shift that has seen the number of Americans being trained in science,
mathematics and engineering decreasing, while the number of Chinese,
including those trained as foreign students in the US, has been
steadily increasing.













"In
1995 three times as many engineering doctorates were awarded in the
United States as in China; in 2005, conversely, the number of Chinese
doctorates outnumbered those of the United States by a margin of two to
one.

"China's New Great Leap Forward", Hudson Institute, US





Not only does this shift mean that
China will increasingly able to design and develop new military
technologies using its own knowledge resources, but also that it is
increasingly able to compete with the US in civilian science and
engineering fields, including civil engineering, automotive
engineering, electrical engineering, and the applied sciences.











“The
long-standing U.S. leadership position in advanced technology
innovation, production, and international competitiveness, has been
reduced significantly."

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005





Projections from the US National
Science Foundation predict that this trend is only likely to increase
in the foreseeable future. Particularly if US education policies
continue to value innovation and 'form' while Chinese policies continue
to concentrate on the building of the so-called 'basic skills' that
form the foundation of all sciences, and the application of 'substance'
based learning.











“China now graduates six to eight times as many undergraduate engineers as does the United States.”

'China's New Great Leap Forward', 2005



26.12.05 17:51


'Memoirs of a small minded Dumb*rse'










子怡 (Zhang Ziyi) is undoubtedly one of China's greatest cinema assets.
She is young, talented, and has stared in such domestic epics as 英雄
(Hero) and 十面埋伏 (Ambushes from all sides. Also known as 'House of
Flying Daggers'). She has even broken into the notoriously fickle halls
of Hollywood, with a role in the Smash Hit 'Rush Hour 2', where she
stared alongside Jackie Chan, one of China's other great film exports.

So,
you would think that she would be hailed as a hero, and showered in
adulation by her fellow Chinese, for winning the coveted lead role in
one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2005. No, quite the
opposite in fact.

Instead of being congratulated, Zhang has been
called 'Shameless' and denounced as a traitor by many Chinese. Why?
because of acted outside her race, by playing a Japanese, when she
accepted the role of 小百合/さゆり(Sayuri), the lead character in the film
adaptation of Arthur Golden's controversial novel 'Memoirs of a Geisha'.

In
a remarkable show of small mindedness, China's chat rooms and bulletin
boards have, this month, been overflowing with criticism of Zhang. With
many Chinese complaining that it was wrong for a Chinese to play the
role of a Japanese, and denouncing her for taking part in a small
number of 'intimate' scenes with Japanese actor Wanatabe Ken. Which
some Chinese referred to as being 'shameful, not just because her
'interaction' was with a Japanese, but also because it went against the
polite fiction, that exists in China, that Chinese women 'do not do
that kind of thing'.

Different people, Same Mindset

Unfortunately,
criticism of the choice of Zhang for the lead in 'Memoirs' has not been
limited to China, with similar controversies arising in Japan. Where a
number of people have expressed disappointment that a foreigner, though
not specifically a Chinese, had been selected to play the role of such
an evocative Japanese figure, with some critics voicing that the role
should have been reserved for a Japanese, and that the choice of non
Japanese actress, to play a Japanese institution, was a poor one.

Complaints
from Japan, where feelings in regards to Sino-Japanese issues are
understandably not so heated as they are in China, however, appear to
be more muted, and largely limited to a smaller section of society.
Though they are no less small minded.


Shallow Arguments from Stupid People.

Fortunately
for Zhang, and the wider film industry, critics of her role as the
Geisha 小百合/さゆり (Sayuri) have not had the monopoly on criticism, and
have themselves been criticized by Hollywood insiders and China
watchers alike, as being shortsighted, racist, and of failing to
understand 'the basic concept of acting'.

In defense of Zhang
and her role, the actor 鞏俐 (Gong Li), a fellow Chinese who also stared
in 'Geisha', decried Zhang's critics, both those in China and Japan,
for complaining over something so shallow as the nationality of an
actor.

In her defense of Zhang, Gong stood firmly by the principle that 'a role in a movie is the character that is presented to the audience, and not the actor who played it',
and issued a strong reminder to audiences that cinema has a long
standing history of diversity, and would have seen many great
performances lost to the world if directors been as closed minded as
Zhang's critics.











"Think
of all the amazing performances that would be lost. Meryl Streep, as a
Polish woman in `Sophie's Choice'. Russell Crowe, as an American in
`The Insider'. Ralph Fiennes as a German in `Schindler's List'. Vivien
Leigh, as an American in `Gone With the Wind'. Sir Anthony Hopkins ,as
an American president in `Nixon'"

鞏俐 (Gong Li), Actress





Zhang also received a robust defense
from the renowned master coach Chang Li, a senior teacher at 中央戏剧学院
(the Central Academy of Drama) in Beijing, who taught the young actor
for four years.

Chang pronounced that, as an actress, Zhang
should be free to take on any role that she saw fit, without fear of
being criticized if that role did not match up to some esoteric
standard set by observers in regards to who can or can't play who in a
film.











"The criticism is unjustified. Zhang has the right to take any role she wants"

Chang Li, 中央戏剧学院 (Central Academy of Drama), Beijing





Chang also took time out to scold
fellow Chinese for failing to recognize the prestige that Zhang has
earned in winning such a coveted role, and the ground that she has set
to help others to break out of the typecasting that has beset many
Chinese actors.











"The
Chinese people should be proud of her for getting the recognition she
is receiving. Do you see Japanese audiences getting angry when a
Japanese actress plays a Chinese character?"

Chang Li





Others have, at least in jest, also commented that it was a pleasant surprise that Hollywood picked an Asian to play 小百合/さゆり
(Sayuri). A tongue in cheek reference to films such as 'The Conqueror',
a Hollywood epic depicting of the life of Genghis Khan that was
released in 1956, where most of the the films Asian lead characters
were played by Whites and Hispanics (including John Wayne and Pedro
Armendáriz) wearing makeup.

Other Complaints

While
most of the complaints over Geisha have been shallow in nature, and are
typified by the bickering over the nationality of the lead role,
other's have gone deeper, and have more substance. Including the
accusation that the production was written 'by an American, for
Americans' and without a proper understanding of, or sensitivity to,
Japanese; leading it to incorrectly portrayed Geisha as being similar
to 'hostesses' in western bars, and into failing to correct some of the
myths and misconceptions created by the book on which the film was
based.

In this light, the film's crew and script writers were
also criticized for 'an overly liberal attitude' towards the
sensitivities surrounding both the portrayal of Japanese traditions,
and their choice of a Chinese actress to play such an evocative
Japanese role. With critics saying that their actions showed a blatant
lack of understanding of both China and Japan, and of the conflicted
national dynamic that exists between these two Asian neighbors because
of Japan's bloodsoaked invasion of China during the first half of the
Twentieth Century.

Critics of the production also accusing
Hollywood of being purposfully 'blind' to cultural issues in the name
of diversity, and of perpetuating the myth that 'all Asians are
basically the same, because they look the same'; a fallacy that could
be considered equal to the statement that “The presidents of America and France are both white, therefore they must think alike”.

Breaking the Mold, or setting the Standard?

Despite
the complaints, most of which appear to emanate from traditionalists
and ignorant nationalist agitators on both sides, Zhang's performance
has been well received by many, including members of Japan's Geisha
community, who saw nothing wrong with a Chinese playing the role of
小百合/さゆり (Sayuri), even if they did have issues with some elements of
the film's script.

In touching gesture, and one far removed from
any criticism of her or her role, Zhang is reported to have received a
number of high quality antique Kimono, and a letter of gratitude, as a
gift from a former Japanese Geisha, who congratulated her on bringing
this evocative topic to life.




28.12.05 21:00





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