Asian America

I’ve been keeping up with some of these 2008 Olympic commercial ads and I ran into this commercial where they advertise the upcoming movie, Mummy 3, with the Beijing Olympics.

In addition to this commercial, there was another Olympics commercial (I believe for abc) featuring a majestic shot of the Great Wall of China with some spoken commentary of how the wall had always kept the outside world away from China.  But then this shot is suddenly disturbed by an American athlete who then successfully pole vaults right over the Great Wall.

All in all, it’s okay to be patriotic for one’s country during the Olympic Games.  But these commercials seem to be deriving patriotism at the cost of another country (i.e. China).  In the Mummy 3 commercial, the main enemy is a Chinese emperor brought back to life, while the hero is an American gun-slinging adventurer.  Although the hero in the movie maybe assisted by another Chinese, the emphasis of the movie seems mostly to be on the West vs. the East, with the East being the overwhelmingly sinister villain.  In the second commercial, a unique landmark representing Chinese pride and strength is first shown and described in its fully glory only to then be easily pole-vaulted over by an American athlete.

Perhaps, I’m looking into this too much, but all this gives a bad vibe to me.  Believe me, I don’t support the Chinese government and I’m going to be rooting for America all the way during the games.  But these commercials seem to be of poor taste and maybe they should have made better choices in promoting patriotism.   That’s my two cents.

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