When You're Bored, You're Boring

Thanks to some new teachers and a canceled class, I haven't had much to do this week. While a long weekend is often appreciated, I must admit it has left me with little to do. So, to keep the content fresh, here's another random thoughts-type post about pop culture. Enjoy.

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Cartoons from other countries that are really popular in China:

-Tom & Jerry
-Winnie the Pooh
-Crayon Shin-Chan
-Naruto
-CGI films from Dreamworks

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As long as we're on the subject of Japanese crap, I'd like to note the love-hate relationship between Changchun and the Land of the Rising Sun. During WWII, Changchun was the center of the Japanese occupation. As you'd imagine, this makes Japan even less popular here than the rest of the country, at least among the older generation. At the same time, Japanese pop culture is a common site here. Every magazine vendor has a few manga trade mags, and the DVD vendors usually have a few anime titles here and there. Among my younger students, Pokemon and Naruto merchandise is quite common. Interesting what a difference a few decades make.

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There are a few movies around here which show foreign films. Obviously the big blockbusters always show up, but what's interesting is when. In my experience, movies which appeal to children and adolescents come out concurrently with the American releases, while R-rated movies come later. For example, Madagascar 2 is playing now, while Live Free or Die Hard (Here called Die Hard 4.0) was only released since I've been here.

An additional note: All these films seem to be dubbed. What's more, in many cases the dubbed-in voice sounds wildly inappropriate coming out of the actor's mouth. It's for this reason alone that I think I should have shelled out the money to catch Dark Knight - hearing badly mismatched voices coming from Christian Bale and Heath Ledger would have put a hilarious new spin on it.