Shanghai'd

Cartoons.

Today is a sad day, we had to say goodbye to our good friends the Keeleys since they are headed back to the states today. It was wonderful getting to show Joe, Irene and Andrey around Shanghai. They said Shanghai was their favorite place in China, possibly just to patronize us, but it made us happy anyway :)

Having a 2-year-old around the house is a different experience for us, and today I sat down with her while she watched Chinese dònghuà. I thought it was interesting how she was so engaged in them, but didn't understand what was being said. What was even more interesting, I found while I watched with her, is that this program was all cartoons depicting scenes from the recent earthquake in Sichuan. In one 5-minute clip that played repeatedly, 2 bobble-headed girls are playing in the house when it starts to shake. One of the girls is buried by building debris that falls from the sky while the other watches. Then the lights go out and all you can see are a set of white blinking eyes. Flash to the next scene and the girl who was buried digs out with windmill like arms. Her friend who had been in the dark (the lights are back on) pulls her from the rubble and they hug.

All Chinese stations are still playing earthquake footage 24/7. Seems it is also the case for children. I hope these cartoons can help the children to deal better with the traumatizing experience they went through. I wonder if any children's programming went to this effort after Katrina or some of the tornadoes that hit the midwest. And I wonder if it really helps kids cope.