"Prince Pickles is our image character because he's very endearing, which is what Japan's military stands for," said Defense Ministry official Shotaro Yanagi.Remember way back when I said that we wanted to make sure that our adopted daughter is as fully conversant with her native Chinese culture as possible?
(Okay...umm...that was actually...umm...yesterday)
This is the kind of thing I was talking about when I commented on the difficulty, as a Westerner and a non-language-speaker, of "getting" stuff about Asian culture. Just when you kick back in your ignorant Caucasian way and say to yourself: there now, that's not so different, is it...all of a sudden there's..."endearing, which is what Japan's military stands for???"
Huh?
What fresh hell is this? What military since Cain whacked Abel stood for "endearing"??? So is there a cutesy little Chinese People's Liberation Army character out there somewhere that Mei-mei should know about? Comrade Pickles? Hero of the Red Banner Pickles? Is this a pan-Asian thing? Does the PLA stand for "endearing", too? Or is this just a Japanese thing?
WTF!
Call me stodgy. Call me reactionary. But I liked it when armies were mean and nasty. Sure, they might kill you and burn your village down, but at least you knew where you stood with them.
Stuff like Prince Pickles just makes my brain itch.
There. That's better. Whew. Never mind, Mei-mei, China has nothing like Prin...
Well, damn!
1 comment:
Funny post!
Not sure if you get the Sundance Channel, but they recently screened a short film by Wu Gong - "Xiao's Long March" - about an 18-year-old drop-out who joins the PLA. It was part of the "Interesting Times" series, and it really was an interesting look at family life, expectations, and military training...
http://www.filmakers.com/indivs/
InterestingTimes.htm
Post a Comment