March 10, 1959 was the day of the Tibetan National Uprising against chinese occupation. The 2008 attempt to commemorate this event turned violent.
Although there was apparently some reaction in China along the lines of "why didn't we do this?" to the movie Kung Fu Panda (released that Summer), I actually felt the movie rather pandered to the Chinese (it is a giant market after all) by making the evil villian that Chinese nationalist symbol Po the Panda was pitted against a snow leopard, an animal as associated with Tibet as the panda is with China. Of course, as this blogger writes "Sometimes a Panda is just a Panda", so of course, sometimes a snow leopard is just a snow leopard. (and I did love the movie ;) The themes of the movie actually support the value of a passionate and kind heart over extraordinary skill and discipline, so I've no quibbles with that of course, but I can't help that feel this scene, in which the Snow Leopard Tai Lung escapes extreme bondage using only a feather, speaks to the deep fear demonstrated by the chinese government towards Tibet (or the Dalai Lama):
So what do my imaginary readers think? How whack am I? And didja like the movie? The full movie can be viewed here (alas the embedding code doesn't work & I don't feel like figuring out how to fix it).
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