Monday, January 24, 2011

China: A Tale of Two [Jekyll and Hyde] Videos

Static Chaos

China may be summarized in the following two contrasting videos - surface prosperity with dangerous undercurrents.

The first one is a 60-second film about China running at New York's Times Square from Jan. 17 to Feb. 14, meant to coincide with Chairman Hu Jintao’s arrival to the U.S. It is part of a multi-billion dollar campaign to renovate China's public image.



The second video, on the other hand, is quite distrubing, and here is WSJ's interpretation:
A boy dreams about white rabbits, representing regular Chinese citizens, living under the tyrannical rule of tigers who do nothing as the rabbits’ children are poisoned with tainted milk, who tear down their homes, who beat them, and who run them over with speeding cars—all referencing major public controversies in the past few years that have caused public outrage.
At the end of the boy’s dream, the rabbits reach the end of their patience and storm into what appears to be a government building in a bloody attack against the tigers, ripping their rulers’ heads off with sharpened teeth in a melee of animated gore.
OK, then.  Anyone interested in the translation may find it here.


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