When the Hollywood movie Kung Fu Panda was shown in China in 2008, Zhao Bandi, a Beijing-based performance artist, strongly called on the people not to go to the cinema on the grounds that we shouldn't allow Hollywood to make money in a China that had just survived a severe earthquake. Now with the Kung Fu Panda 2 on Chinese screens, Zhao again targeted the movie, claiming that Chinese should "say no" to the movie and shouldn't turn the "pure" Children's Day of June 1 into a money-making day for Hollywood. 

Zhao's campaign team includes Kong Qingdong, a professor from Peking University ,and Sun Lijun, Beijing Film Academy animation school dean. They jointly issued a letter that called for children to explore nature instead of watching Kung Fu Panda 2. 

However, we can't see any conflict between exploring nature and watching the film. Moreover, children love to watch cartoons, and we have no right to deprive them of the chance.

Being a "responsible" advocate, Zhao spent his own money in publishing "I won't watch Kung Fu Panda 2" circulars in local newspapers over the past few weeks. He claimed on his microblog that the box office of Kung Fu Panda 2 was lower than expected in many cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. However, the real story is that Kung Fu Panda 2 made 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) at the box office within two days. Some netizens even jokingly claimed that Zhao's boycott had been the best advertising possible for the movie. 

Zhao criticized Hollywood films as a cultural invasion.

In fact, it's a reflection of lack of confidence. If we aren't able to produce as elegant a piece of animation as a Hollywood studio, shouldn't we tolerantly accept and appreciate this? 

Nowadays, many cities in China are endeavoring to build animation communities, but it is a pity that there are still no Chinese animation brands or characters that are famous worldwide.  

Imagination and creativity are the core factors for the development of cartoon industry, but Chinese animation is just simply copying and imitating others. 

So, the imported first-rate cartoon products including Kung Fu Panda 2 should be taken as a mirror to reflect our deficiencies.

Boycotting competitors is useless. What we need is to learn from them and improve ourselves.

China Youth Daily