Watch Nick Jr., see the future of globalization's content

TELEVISION: "Cartoons With Heart ... and a Little Mandarin," by Michael Davis, New York Times, 15 April 2007, p. AR32.

You can always spot the future, in demographic terms, by watching children's TV.

The first glimpses of the rising Sino quotient are generated by Chinese Americans operating in our mass media. Amy Tan's PBS series about the "Chinese Siamese cat," called "Sagwa," was a ground breaker.

Now we have "Ni Hao, Kai-lan!" (or "Hello Kai-lan!) from a second-generation Chinese woman who--none too surprisingly--writes about what she knows: her bicultural childhood. The show will start in August.

The rise of the Chinese-American role model comes just in time for this father of a Chinese-American household. Vonne Mei is always captivated by Chinese faces in mass media (you have no idea how big "Mulan" can be when there's so little out there to grab a hold of).

Vocabulary will be a big part of this show, basically tutoring kids in beginning Mandarin. This just follows the rising trend of kids taking Chinese in primary and secondary schools, which in turn will generate a flood of tertiary school training within a generation.

But understand this: these opening bids by Chinese-Americans will inevitably be overwhelmed by a flood of such efforts coming out of China itself in coming years, especially in animation, where China sees how effectively Japan and South Korea export their mass media in anime and video games.

Meanwhile, the creator of "Kai-lan" hopes the series will have a "special resonance for the estimated 60,000 girls in the United States who have been adopted from Chinese orphannages," or what I called in BFA a small army of Tiger Woods-like powerhouses soon to be released upon American society (go figure, as they all live in mid-to-upper-income families where most are single kids of older parents who will spare no money on their success). The Chinese-American girl who voices the lead character has a bio exactly like Mei Mei's (left on doorstep in infancy and adopted by American couple at 8 months).

Rest assured, Vonne and I will make the same over-the-top effort with Mei. I like to say that we have four "single," all of whom share the same problem: they have three siblings.

Now, at least, Mei Mei will have some of the same role-model opportunities that the other three have long enjoyed.

As I often say in my brief, I've got one Asian kid and three kids turning Asian.

Comments

[zenpundit]

Avatar is big with my kids, rates with Spongebob and higher than Fairly Oddparents.

[XuJames]

Check out these ramblings . . . He is a junior Army Officer in the SF, learning French obviously for the "African Situation". For a guy who hasnt read PNM or BFA, he sure mirrors your thoughts with this blog post:

http://guttersnake.blog.com/1629113/

[Mark in Texas]

I don't know if it is the kind of Chinese language vocabulary that you want to encourage for your kids, but a basic premise of the the Firefly TV series was the space was colonized by Americans and Chinese and that pretty much everybody was fluent in both languages. As a consequence, all cursing is done in Chinese.

The series also has a lot of Gap-Core issues for that matter. If you get the series on DVD, you might as well get the movie "Serenity" at the same time since you will eventually buy it any way.

[Dave Porter]

As a Tom Barnett fan, I asked myself what I could do in my community (Portland, Oregon) to further his vision (and now mine). I hit upon promoting more Mandarin studies. Languages are best learned young, by immersion and by spending time in a country that speaks the language, so I've been promoting more Mandarin immersion programs starting in kindergarten and the development of programs to send high school and college students to study abroad in China. I have a website with info on my efforts at http://daveporter.typepad.com/.

[ry]

I'm surprised nobody's made a bad 'Vapours' reference yet. What with the 80s rock influenced audience around here.

Just one thing thrown into the pot. 'American' is a mutt breed, but still special. We're mutts. Can't point clearly to anyone parent ethnicity or culture. We're mutts, and we like it.

[Sean Meade]

Ry: yep. we're like the Borg. look for what's useful to us and assimilate.

[mollie]

I think the show is cute it reminds me of anime and i am a big fan of anime. who cares what race the show is made from its a cute show. if you ask me its better than dora the explorer and go deigo go.