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How Americanization present in Chinese pop-culture and it’s unseen cultural impact.

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How Americanization present in Chinese pop-culture and it’s unseen cultural impact.

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The main focus of this essay is the manifestation of Americanization in contemporary Chinese pop-culture, such as illustration, music, fashion, and entertainment TV programs, etc. The paper's beginning will analyze the inception and progression of Americanization in Chinese pop-culture through a brief historical overview. The conclusion of the essay will examine the unseen impacts of Americanization on Chinese youth, including its effects on cultural identity and values.

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·Decolonization
·Cultural identity
·Chinese pop-culture

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by Margaret C. Pearson

The Chinese cultural scene was in turmoil in the 1970s. The infamous Cultural Revolution's "Gang of Four" had been arrested on October 6,1976 and was still in custody awaiting trial at the time the US normalized relations with China on January 1, 1979. During the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing, the ring leader of The Gang of Four and Mao's 4th wife, led the effort to transform China's cultural landscape. Dominating the Chinese arts, Jiang had snuffed out most traditional Chinese culture, and instead substituted one-in film, theater, and art-intent on glorifying Mao's revolutionary ideology and the man himself.

For most of the ten years of the Cultural Revolution the Chinese could neither see nor hear anything besides the "The Eight Models" that Jiang had approved. Made into films and radio programs and performed at the opera, accounts say that "The Eight Models" were broadcast night and day on loudspeakers in the streets, in shops and theaters, and on radio. The lyrics were memorized and sung by millions. "The Eight Models" were the only available theatrical entertainment for the 800 million people of China. A joke that made the rounds in China after the Cultural Revolution recalled that "800 million people watched 8 shows." How amazing it must have been for the average Chinese to have the opportunity- beginning with the first U.S. Film Week in May 1981-to see American films approved for viewing by the Chinese government, and understand that after years of estrangement between the U.S. and China the film world was opening up once again.

The first US-China Cultural Agreement was signed by China's new leader, Deng Xiaoping, on January 31,1979 during a trip to Washington. Then, on an August visit to Beijing by Vice President Mondale, the first Implementing Accord was signed calling for specific expanded cultural relations The Implementing Accord opened the way to a revival of exchanges in the arts. In the film world there developed what was called "movie diplomacy."

Following on the Implementing Agreement the Chinese expressed an interest in an exchange of film weeks. The Chinese, who had a long and distinguished movie making history prior to the Cultural Revolution, worked with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the U.S. International Communications Agency (USICA)-the name then for what is now The United States Information Agency-to choose movies that both sides would find suitable for a Chinese audience.

Even before the Cultural Revolution Chinese theater-goers were used to a certain style of film. Films that might expose Chinese audiences to a positive image of western society (and which could contradict the image of capitalist societies as inferior to socialist societies) or films that showed people kissing, for example, could be both shocking and interpreted as an affront to policy and morals of the Communist Party. In addition to political and moral considerations, how exposure to US films (and US audiences to Chinese films) might benefit and promote a renewal of the Chinese movie industry-which suffered major setbacks under Jiang Qing-served to inform the choice of films.

As there was no trade agreement in film at the time, the movies went to China as one of the first major exchanges under the new Implementing Agreement. The Chinese would, in return, have their own Film Week in the U.S. in the fall of 1981. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represented the film studios, generously agreed to provide the five films gratis in order to foster goodwill between the U.S. and China.

The process of selecting the films was a lesson in negotiation. According to a Los Angeles Times article by Arthur Knight, a film critic and historian, a list of 100 films was compiled by the American Film Institute and The Museum of Modern Art after which availabilities were checked by the MPAA and, working with the USICA, yielded a final list of ten films which were sent to China for screening. Of these, the Chinese chose five.

Recent films that reflected on contemporary American life were ruled out and the Chinese specifically requested movies that did not contain sex and violence. According to Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, Dale Pollock, the result was a "sort of bland, if entertaining fare, that characterized the Hollywood of the '50s and '60s, the only Hollywood in which the Chinese seemed interested."

There was no imposition of American preference on the Chinese and the films that made the final cut were:

Singin' in the Rain
Shane
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Black Stallion

Singin' in the Rain and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were of particular interest. One Chinese senior official marveled that "a film could be made just for fun." Another described Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as "a serious drama, the kind we are used to here." Rejected films were:

To Kill a Mockingbird
On the Waterfront
East of Eden
Patton
Breaking Away

The Official Delegation consisted of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President and delegation leader, Fay Kanin, Cyd Charisse, who acted in Singin' in the Rain, and Arthur Knight, film critic, author, and historian. A USICA officer accompanied the group. On his return to the U.S. Arthur Knight was quoted as saying that the chosen films gave Chinese viewers "a fair idea of the development and diversity of American cinema over the last 40 years."

The films were shown for ten weeks in five of China's largest cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Xian. According to a follow up briefing by Fay Kanin that appeared in Variety and the Los Angeles Times, the demand in Beijing to see the films was so enormous-with people queuing up for tickets at 4 a.m.- that the number of theaters was increased to 18 and the showings to eight times a day beginning at 6:30 a.m. and ending at 1:30 a.m. In Shanghai, 36 theaters were increased to 45 with 8 performances a day and shown in 1,000-seat venues. Reels were bicycled from one movie house to another since a single print of each film had to serve both Beijing and Shanghai. Eventually, however, new prints had to be struck for showing in the last three cities because of wear and tear. All and all, nearly 3 million Chinese saw the films in five weeks.

During the American Film Week the delegation met with more than 50 Chinese film writers, directors, actors, historians and journalists at which they discussed the craft of movies. American reports mentioned later that the delegation had learned much about the Chinese film world, including that the giving of awards for best films and actors, banned during the Cultural Revolution, had resumed in 1980. There were two awards, The 100 Flowers Award, a reflection of popular sentiment, and the Golden Cock Award voted by film workers themselves, effectively a Chinese Oscar. The Chinese also signaled an interest in the MPAA Foreign Language Film Award and said that one day they hoped that Chinese movies would compete in the U.S.

While exchanges in other cultural fields waxed and waned in the years after 1981-a reflection of the political developments in the U.S.-China relationship-movie diplomacy developed free of negative effects. The phenomenon of American movie diplomacy was unique as Ru Zhang, Chinese historian and author, pointed out in the 1991 article "The Chinese Experience: Sino-American Arts Exchange 1972-1986."(1) This was partly because the Chinese agency responsible for foreign film issues showed great flexibility as it carried out a policy in step with current Chinese political developments and thinking. For example, the agency was attentive to the development of the Chinese film industry, to choosing films when politically required that were consistent with showing the under side of American life, as well as choosing films that would attract the most interest-particularly by younger Chinese-and therefore earn the most money.

Eventually, movies reflecting contemporary American life began to be introduced and by 1985 the American Film Week could present On Golden Pond, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Turning Point, and A Coal Miner's Daughter.

As Ru Zhang wrote, "culture is a close neighbor of ideology"-and a harbinger of political winds.

FOOTNOTE:

1. Ru, Zhang. "THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: SINO-AMERICAN ARTS EXCHANGE 1972-1986." Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 31 (1991): 65-103. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23891028.

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1981: Hollywood Goes to China-First U.S. Film Week in The People's Republic

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by Margaret C. Pearson The Chinese cultural scene was in turmoil in the 1970s. The infamous Cultural Revolution's "Gang of Four" had been arrested on October 6,1976 and was still in custody awaiting trial at the time the US normalized relations with China on January 1, 1979.

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THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: SINO-AMERICAN ARTS EXCHANGE 1972-1986 on JSTOR

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Zhang Ru, THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE: SINO-AMERICAN ARTS EXCHANGE 1972-1986, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 31 (1991), pp. 65-103

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EP 01 | 中國有嘻哈 The Rap Of China 2017 | 嘻哈首戰製作人火力全開挑學員 | 吳亦凡 / 張震嶽 / 熱狗 MC HotDog / 潘瑋柏

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借鉴韩国的历史经验，朝鲜战争后韩国开始亲美，1968-2001的时候韩国教育部持有美国PhD证书的人多过持有其它国家PhD证书的人，所以2009年50岁以下的人都是在American- influenced的教育部官员的管理下成长起来的。美剧美国电影和美国明星开始在韩国大火。所以美国文化的传播很大程度依赖于美国影视剧。
Americanization给韩国带来的unseen impact：neo-liberalism，价值观改变，审美改变（近几年韩服越来越像婚纱or公主裙）

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1970-1976年文革，1979年中美关系正常化，在这一年中美签订了文化协议，并在8月开启了“电影外交”，由此可见1979是美国文化进入中国的起始点。1981年5月开展了第一届美国电影周。

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1979年由Center for United States-China Arts Exchange的机构赞助开始中美文化交流，同年，CFEIC购买的美国电影和美剧开始在中国上映。
The fever over American arts inaugurated in 1979 was increasingly developed in the following two years.
中美艺术交流在1979-1981迅速发展，在这段时间大量的美国文化进入中国。在中国12大上high culture被认定为spiritual civilization。中国渴望在国际上提高声誉，所以为了提高中国艺术家的水平，中国需要foreign expertise，所以需要外国艺术家进来进行指导和交流。
P69. 美国USIA明确说明自己的任务之一是‘to promote and administer......cultural exchange programs in the national interest.'
P76. 中国文人艺术家对中国实施的四个现代化中没有文化现代化而感到不满，从而在中美文化交流的时候与西方艺术家交流从而最终实现了文化开放。
P82.如果美国不能和中国建立正式关系，中苏关系就会更加密切。
P83.Boston Museum事件，1979年在北京作为文化交流而举行的modern American painting exhibition ，中国政府要求删除13张抽象画，而Director of the USIA-Charles Wick表示愤怒拒绝。Wick想通过这一次画展向中国人展示自由的艺术表达在美国是一种普遍接受的价值观，并通过他强硬的立场暗中支持那些在’bourgeois liberalization'中受到批评的艺术家和文人。
P87.Hu Qiaomu:（指bourgeois liberalization）partially attributed to the flow of western culture.
P96. 1985年在中国艺术机构任教的美国人的数量大致相当于其它国家从事类似工作的艺术家的总数。

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在1981年美国电影周上上映的电影，中国要求“不要反应美国当代生活的，也不要有性与暴力”，可见这三项是中国很怕被影响的cultural identity。

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Sex and the City
Lost
Desperate Housewives
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Convay
Future World
The Nightmare
Guess who’s coming to dinner
Hollywood
Hanna Montana
汤姆叔叔的小屋
亢奋
House of Cards

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P2.Ngugi and Thiong’o (1986): colonialism involved 2 processes: 1. The undervaluing of a people's culture. 2. The conscious elevation of the language of the colonizer.

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Furthermore, for Durkheim, society is a moral phenomenon which is represented through people’s thoughts and actions and binds people together in various ways, and culture is maintained through moral solidarity and social cohesion.
Durkheim 在他的著作‘The Elementary Form of the Religious Life’中提到宗教徒聚集在一起是因为她们共享源于她们宗教相同文化价值观和规范（同化另一个群体的方式就是向她们传递自己的价值观和规范）

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好莱坞解构中国文化反向输出美国人眼中的中

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好莱坞解构中国文化反向输出美国人眼中的中国文化，如花木兰，尚气

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Apple

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P54. Technological deternimism:认为技术的进步是社会变革的主要驱动力，而社会结构与文化习俗则是技术发展的结果。
P55. Instrumentalism: 认为工具就是工具，不会对文明产生影响，人控制了工具而不是工具控制了人。
P58. The history of language is also a history of the mind.
P158. 一个人成长的文化环境会影响这个人记忆的内容和特征，每个人头脑里的events，facts， concepts，skills是文化传播的关键。

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校服

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P.13: 'The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought.'
P.14: religious political and social beliefs是一个文明的根基。

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贝果
冰美式（有可能是先从韩国火起来然后传进中国的）
Brunch
沙拉

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Visible culture: Language, Literature, Music, Food, Dress, Visual Art, Festivals, Games
Non-Visible: Communication Style, Beliefs, Values, Notion of Time, Handling Physical Space, Handling Emotion, Ethics, Competition, Cooperation, Notion of Modesty

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说话夹杂中英文，办公室用词英语化

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说话夹杂中英文，办公室用词英语化

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取消英语主课
大学取消英语四六级考试
地铁站站名改成拼音
嘲讽归国留学生

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Capitalist consumerism
Cultural imperialism
Conspicuous consumerism

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P3. Hagen Koo: The most obvious way globalization affects the Korean educational process is through the increasing emphasis on the English Language, 会英语才能找到更好的工作。（visible culture语言影响了non-visible culture价值观，认为会英语更高级）
But acquiring proficiency in any foreign language constitutes much more than speaking and writing ability. It internalizes the cultural values that the language shapes, and, in this sense, many Korean students are internalizing US cultural values.

Warren I. Cohen: for much of East Asia, globalization has a distinctly American flavor; that for many Asians, the United States is perceived as the center of the world....when Asian people freely choose elements of American culture that they perceived as improvements over what their native cultures offered.

Korean's excessice preferences for US values lead Korean people to devaluate their culture, especially their body.

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（可视影响）影视剧改变人们对身体的审美（不可视影响）
整容
跟随美国明星潮流
tongue operations & lantern-jaw让孩子更好说英语，剪小孩舌头下面的筋让小孩更好说英语。舌系带。

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1979-1985许多Gen Z的父母都出生在这个时间段（或经历过）这个时间段，所以她们对美国持有很好的印象，并将这个思想反映在了下一代的教育上，而下一代又将这些影响反应到了现在的流行文化中。

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美国文化教育信息交流部门，会影响non-government orgnization的文化交流。

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P92. Furthermore, once citizens of one country accept the culture of another and once that culture becomes a part of their life, even a very small portion of their life, they would feel uncomfortable if that part of life disappeared.
The intensive exchanges in arts in the period of 1979 and 1981 succeeded enormously in making a strong, positive image of the United States in China......

P98. The assumption that American cultural products were the best has become a simple truth to many.

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P92. 美国艺术团体满足了中国队高水平文化活动和多样性的期待。

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P1.  In one sense, I should not have been surprised by his reply. We all know that many sports have followed their historical and political paths of diffusion. Cricket is played and continues to be popular in places such as Australia, West Indies, and the Indian subcontinent, all former British colonies. Baseball happens to be popular primarily in places influenced by American presence, such as the Americas, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. （近期在中国大火的飞盘运动）

P2. As Mangan (1992) had often argued, sport in general was Britain’s chief spiritual export of the imperial era, insofar as it served as a moralizing, culturalizing and politicizing force behind the institutions of law, religion and education. The sports ethic was one that essentially mapped the socialization in Victorian England of a new class of administrators and imperial elites. （中国最擅长的乒乓也是源于英国）

P3. Nonetheless, in addition to the rhetorical investment into the imperial ideology of cricket, I think the way in which the game was disseminated and the institutions that crafted the various norms of social exclusivity and cultural elitism played a more significant role in forging the links between cricket and colonialism. （飞盘文化在中国被定义为年轻，精英文化）

P6.  In Taiwan, baseball was introduced by the Japanese during the early colonial period. The first baseball team was set up in 1906, and the first baseball league was formed in 1915 (Slacket al.2003). By 1920, baseball became a popular sport played by both Japanese and Taiwanese alike.

P8. McDonald’s entered the Taiwan market packaged as high-end Western cuisine, vis-à-vis local cuisine—although we all know that in an American context, it epitomizes low-end, mass-market cuisine. （美式快餐在中国的高调包装）

P9.  It can be argued that much of contemporary pop music in Asia and elsewhere is wholesale mimicking of Western music. Hip hop started out in Taiwan as a fad promoted by Taiwanese American youth bands and eventually inspired the creation of local hip hop music (sung in Taiwanese or Chinese), much of which is not played on ICRT and is more popular than American hip hop.（K-POP是否是全盘模仿美国音乐）

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传入日本再传入中国

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中国人听英文播客学英文

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The Americanization of pop culture in Asia?

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The Americanization of pop culture in Asia?

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大规模标准化，商品化

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沃尔玛，山姆，costco

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沃尔玛，山姆，costco

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A nineteenth-century baseball team in uniforms

Fairplay, Colorado baseball team in uniforms, 1899

A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, coaches and managers. Most baseball uniforms have the names and uniform numbers of players who wear them, usually on the backs of the uniforms to distinguish players from each other. Baseball shirts ( jerseys), pants, shoes, socks, caps, and gloves are parts of baseball uniforms. Most uniforms have different logos and colors to aid players, officials, and spectators in distinguishing the two teams from each other and the officials.

Baseball uniforms were first worn by the New York Knickerbockers Baseball Club in 1849. Today, sales of replica uniforms and derivative branded products generate large amounts of income for Major League teams through merchandising.

The Philadelphia Athletics in 1874 wearing their baseball uniforms

The New York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to wear uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849, in pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts and straw hats. The practice of wearing a uniform soon spread, and by 1900, all Major League Baseball teams had adopted them. By 1882 most uniforms included stockings, which covered the leg from foot to knee, and were used to differentiate one club from another. The uniforms themselves had different colors and patterns that reflected the different baseball positions. In the late 1880s, the Detroit Wolverines and Washington Nationals of the National League and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the American Association were the first to wear striped uniforms.

By the end of the 19th century, teams began the practice of wearing one of two different uniforms, one when they played in their own baseball stadium and a different one when they played on the road. It became common to wear white at home and one of gray, solid dark blue, or black on the road. An early example of this is the Brooklyn Superbas, who started to use a blue pattern for their road uniforms in 1907.

Jeff Tesreau, wearing a New York Giants pinstriped baseball uniform, c.1912-18

In 1916, on the New York Giants' road uniforms, purple lines gave their uniforms a tartan-like effect, and another kind of road uniform was a solid dark blue or black material with white around this time. The Kansas City Athletics' home and road uniforms were changed by Charles O. Finley in 1963, to the colors of gold and green. Some teams used light blue for their road uniforms from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Early striped patterns developed into long stripes along the length of the uniforms, called pinstriping. This was first worn on some major league baseball team's uniforms in 1907, and the pinstripes were then widened in 1912, so that the crowd could see them more clearly. The Chicago Cubs were wearing pinstripes in 1907 The Brooklyn Bridegrooms used checked uniforms in 1889, and brought them back in 1907 (as the Superbas) and 1916-1917 (as the Robins). Satin uniforms were developed by several teams including the Brooklyn Dodgers for night games, as the sheen of the fabric was more reflective and thus easier to see. Pinstripes were commonly worn on the uniforms of the New York Yankees. Legend had it that the stripes were adopted to make Babe Ruth look slimmer, but since the Yankees had already been wearing pinstripes a few years before Ruth played for them in 1920, the legend is most likely a myth. The Yankees' pinstripes on their home uniforms soon became a team symbol.

In 1916, the Cleveland Indians became the first team to add numbers on their uniforms, positioned on the left sleeve of the home uniforms only. (Okkonen, p. 36, p. 120) In 1929, numbers were first added on the backs of uniforms by the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians. By 1932, all major league baseball teams had numbers on their players' uniforms. The Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1952, became the first baseball team to add numbers to the fronts of their uniforms. In 1960, the Chicago White Sox were the first team to place players' names on the back of their jerseys, doing so on their road jerseys; within a few years, this practice became almost universal in MLB, though to this day the Yankees have only worn names on their uniforms for Players Weekend, a discontinued event (2017-2019) where alternate uniforms with nicknames were used.

In most parts of the world, numbers are no more than two digits long; however, Japanese players who are on their team's developmental roster have three-digit numbers. Major league teams typically assign the highest numbers (#50 and above) in spring training to the players who are not expected to make the regular-season roster; hence the lower numbers are considered more prestigious, although there are many veterans who wear high numbers anyway. Two Hall of Famers who wore high numbers are Don Drysdale, who wore #53 for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, and Carlton Fisk, who wore #72 for the Chicago White Sox (reverse of the #27 he wore with the Boston Red Sox; Fisk also was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1972).

Oakland Athletics unofficial baseball cap.

Caps, or other types of headgear with eye-shades, have been a part of baseball uniforms from the beginning.

From the 1840s to the 1870s, baseball players wore various types of hats, or even no cap at all, since there was no official rule regarding headgear. Examples included full-brimmed straw hats such as boating caps, jockey caps, cycling caps, and flat-topped caps.

The Brooklyn Excelsiors was the first team to wear what would later become the modern baseball cap, with its distinctive rounded top and peak, in the 1860s. By the early years of the twentieth century, this style of cap had become common, but some teams occasionally revived the flat-topped cap, such as the New York Giants in 1916 and the Pittsburgh Pirates as recently as during the 1979 World Series. Over time, the peak has enlarged slightly to further protect the player's eyes from the sun. More recently, players have worn hats with fold-down ear flaps in cold weather.

A baseball team and their uniforms in the 1870s

In the late 19th century, soft but durable leather shoes were the preferred choice of baseball players.

In the 1970s, as artificial turf became prominent on developed countries' baseball fields, modifications to footwear became necessary. Detachable spikes became popular in the 20th century, as they helped players to avoid slipping, especially on turf, but they were banned in 1976.

In the 19th century and the first part of the 20th, baseball shoes were commonly black in color. In the 1960s, the Kansas City Athletics began wearing revolutionary white shoes, a tradition carried over when they moved to Oakland. Since then, some teams are wearing colored cleats corresponding to their team colors. For example, the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals now wear red cleats, the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers wear blue cleats, and some of the San Francisco Giants players wear orange cleats. In recent years, however, players are now allowed to wear cleats regardless of team color, and often customize them as a form of self-expression.

Inspired by the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the stocking colors of teams in the 1860s onward were a principal device in distinguishing one team from another (hence team names such as the Chicago White Stockings, St. Louis Brown Stockings (or Browns), etc.). Except for a few "candy-cane" varieties (particularly by the New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Senators), striping was quite minimal during the 1920s and, in contrast, a revival of other sorts in the early 1930s.

Alfonso Soriano wearing traditional knee-breeches

By the 1990s, new styles of close-trimmed pants legs made it possible for players to wear pants that ran clear to the shoetops, in lieu of the traditional knee-breeches style that had prevailed for generations. This led to a violation of the literal concept of a "uniform", in that different players on a given team might wear knee-length and full-length pants on the field at the same time. Players such as Manny Ramirez have taken this fashion trend to an extreme, wearing loose-fitting pants whose legs nearly lap under the heels of the shoes. Some, such as Gary Sheffield, have even developed straps that hook under the cleats. Meanwhile, players such as Alfonso Soriano continue to wear the traditional knee-breeches, though most of these players still lack the traditional stirrups.

By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, nearly all players wore either traditional knee-high socks or pants that covered the shoetops and contained no elastic in the bottom. Such loose-fitting pants are called "pro-flare", as they are worn by most major league players. However, a few older players, like Derek Jeter, wear pants that stop right at the shoes, like the style of the late 1990s/early 2000s.

In recent years teams that wear throwback uniforms usually outfit themselves with stirrups or knee-breeches, to simulate the look of a particular era. In addition, some teams began to wear stockings with stripes. Examples include the Tampa Bay Rays sporting Columbia blue and white striping on their navy stockings, the St. Louis Cardinals with navy and white stripes on their red stockings, and the San Francisco Giants in black stockings with orange stripes.

Jim Creighton sporting an Old English "E" for his team, Excelsior, ca.1860-1862

From the beginning, graphic designs were used to identify teams. Often an Old English letter was worn on the chest. This style survives with the Detroit Tigers and their gothic style "D" on their home jerseys and caps and the Oakland Athletics, who currently have an Old English "A" on their caps and their alternative jerseys.

As official nicknames gained prominence in the early 1900s (in contrast to media-generated and unofficial nicknames of prior generations), pictorial logos began emerging as part of the team's marketing. Some early examples include a small red tiger on the black cap of the 1901 Detroit Tigers, as they were officially the Tigers from the beginning; and a bear cub logo on the Chicago Cubs shirts by 1907, as that unofficial nickname was then adopted officially by the club.

In another famous example, the Boston Americans (an unofficial designation that merely distinguished them from their across-the-tracks rivals) adopted the Nationals' abandoned red stockings in 1908, and have been the Boston Red Sox officially ever since then.

By the 1930s, nearly every team had distinctive logos, letters or the team nickname on their home shirts, as part of the team's marketing. The trend of the city name on the road jerseys continued. In recent years, with team nicknames being so strongly associated with the clubs, logos that were once only used at home also turned up on road jerseys, in place of city names.

Okkonen, Marc (1991). Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide.

1. ^ "Evolution of Baseball Equipment: The Uniform". 19th Century Baseball.

2. ^ DiMeglio, Steve (July 27, 2006). "Baseball cap has endured generations as the all-American hat". USA TODAY.

3. ^ At Baseball and socks appeal, go to page 2 and scroll down to "Create a sensation" (for history of high socks in MLB). Vitez, Michael (August 29, 2011). Philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2011-09-02. "This led to the invention of the two-in-one, a white sock with a colored stripe down the side, an innovation that all but ensured the demise of the stirrup."

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A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, coaches and managers. Most baseball uniforms have the names and uniform numbers of players who wear them, usually on the backs of the uniforms to distinguish players from each other.

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P1. In one sense, I should not have been surprised by his reply. We all know that many sports have followed their historical and political paths of diffusion. Cricket is played and continues to be popular in places such as Australia, West Indies, and the Indian subcontinent, all former British colonies. Baseball happens to be popular primarily in places influenced by American presence, such as the Americas, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

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Baseball is not a really popular sport in China, however, baseball uniform is very common to see in China, even in students' uniform. The 'Yankees' cap, jackets and jumper, these fashion trends not only directly input by America, but also from Korea and Japan pop culture.

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The music video 'Oh!' from Korea girls group 'Girls' Generation'. The key visual element in this video is American baseball, from clothes to background design.

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Baseball and Its Indelible Mark on American Culture

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Chinese Embrace America’s Culture but Not Its Policies (Published 2015)

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China’s increasing prominence makes the contrast between cultural attraction and political distrust especially stark.

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On Friday, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted something a bit outside his lane as a sports guy but fundamentally banal in the context of American public opinion: "fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong."

Athletes and sports figures have sparked controversies for generations in American politics by wading into contested political issues. These controversies have only heated up in the Trump era.

But Morey turns out to have stepped onto a much bigger landmine - Chinese politics, just as the National Basketball Association grows more thirsty to get into the Chinese market.

Morey got himself denounced by the Chinese consulate in Houston and by the owner of his team. His tweet was deleted, the Chinese Basketball Association announced that it is suspending all cooperation with the Rockets, Morey was made to apologize, and the NBA put out a statement characterizing his tweet as "regrettable" and clarifying that his support for Hong Kong protesters "does not represent the Rockets or the NBA." The Rockets are reportedly considering firing Morey in an effort to appease the Chinese.

Meanwhile, the NBA's eagerness to squash a backlash in China is prompting its own backlash in American politics.

Ted Cruz, Beto O'Rourke, and Julián Castro were among those to swiftly denounce the NBA for giving in to Chinese denunciations.

We're better than this; human rights shouldn't be for sale & the NBA shouldn't be assisting Chinese communist censorship.
- Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 7, 2019

The only thing the NBA should be apologizing for is their blatant prioritization of profits over human rights. What an embarrassment. https://t.co/bbiwCBTwc1
- Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 7, 2019

China is using its economic power to silence critics-even those in the U.S.

The United States must lead with our values and speak out for pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong, and not allow American citizens to be bullied by an authoritarian government. https://t.co/87U4jgsAAp
- Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) October 7, 2019

Washington is otherwise consumed with investigations of Donald Trump's corrupt activities and counter-investigations aimed at proving wild conspiracy theories, so the bipartisan nature of the backlash is a testament to international conflict's enduring ability to bring people together.

But it's also quite broadly illustrative of a much larger issue. Once upon a time, the American people were promised that the integration of China into the global economy would promote freedom and democracy there. That promise has not been borne out. And the Rockets ownership and the NBA as a league are giving us a vision of the frightening possibility that the reverse will happen, and American capitalists' eagerness to please the Chinese government will become a threat to freedom at home.

The greatest Chinese basketball player ever played for the Rockets

The story behind all of this is that back in 2002, the Houston Rockets used their No. 1 draft pick to select a Chinese player, Yao Ming, a 7'6" giant who was also an unusually adept mid-range shooter for a big man of his era.

Yao was the first-ever foreign player to be selected with the No. 1 pick who hadn't first taken a detour into playing NCAA basketball. And while by 2002, NBA teams were accustomed to drafting players with experience in European basketball leagues (some of them born in Europe, others from South America or Africa), the level of competition in the Chinese Basketball Association was not well understood or well respected.

Yao faced considerable skepticism from American sports fans (Bill Simmons labeled him "a disaster waiting to happen") and his entry to the league was not without its share of cultural miscues, like a promotion for his debut game in Miami where the Heat passed out fortune cookies to the fans, seemingly unaware that fortune cookies are an entirely American invention.

But Yao turned out to be good (though he admittedly struggled with injuries) and his Rockets teams routinely made the playoffs.

Chinese basketball fans followed his career closely. But critically - and somewhat unexpectedly - Chinese Yao fans became Houston Rockets fans. By 2006, the bestselling basketball jersey in China wasn't Yao's - it was Tracy McGrady's. McGrady was an African American wing player with no connection to China other than that he played on the same team with Yao. It's typical for wing players to be more popular with fans than big men, so in the abstract there's nothing particularly surprising about McGrady rather than Yao being the Rockets' big star. But the fact that Chinese loyalties transferred so rapidly to Yao's teammate laid the foundation for an enduring business relationship not just between the NBA - which has an audience in many foreign countries - and China, but very specifically between the Rockets and China.

Yao retired in 2011, but the Rockets are still the second-most popular team in China (behind the Golden State Warriors who've dominated the league in recent years) and their games were routinely shown on Chinese state television - at least until the current controversy, which has CCTV saying they're cutting the Rockets off.

Chinese opinion is very different from American opinion

One thing you will notice if you compare the anti-Morey statements coming out from NBA stakeholders to the anti-NBA statements coming out from American politicians: The anti-Morey statements emphasize the idea of giving offense to Chinese basketball fans while the anti-NBA statements emphasize the idea of bowing to the demands of the Chinese government.

These are, of course, in practice somewhat different things.

Chinese public opinion exists in a context that is profoundly shaped by government control of television broadcasting; government censorship of the internet and domestic publishing; and an overall situation in which even people with access to outside sources of information know better than to publicly relay an understanding of world events that's at odds with the government's official line. So any backlash among Chinese fans to Morey's tweets would necessarily be a reflection, in large part, of the Chinese government's own propaganda efforts. It's the Chinese government that has worked to convince the Chinese public that the Hong Kong protesters are leading a foreign-backed separatist movement rather than standing up for rights they were promised under the terms of Hong Kong's reunification with China.

At the same time, by most accounts, grassroots nationalist sentiment in China is authentic and sincerely felt by the Chinese mass public - albeit felt in large part as a result of government policy.

Consequently, American companies eager to march to the tune set by the Chinese leadership can always point to the more respectable-sounding desire to cater to the views of Chinese people and be not necessarily incorrect. That said, this isn't how globalization was supposed to play out.

Globalization was supposed to promote democracy in China

Back in 1999, then-President Bill Clinton signed legislation establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States and paving the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organization. This was intended primarily as an economic policy measure, and indeed it turned out to have much larger economic effects (both for good and for bad) than the Clinton administration anticipated.

But Clinton also argued in his statement celebrating the signing of the bill that "China is not simply agreeing to import more of our products; it is agreeing to import one of democracy's most cherished values: economic freedom." Economic freedom, he believed, would lead to political freedom. "The more China liberalizes its economy, the more fully it will liberate the potential of its people," Clinton said. "And when individuals have the power, not just to dream but to realize their dreams, they will demand a greater say."

Oftentimes, this was tied to a specific theory about the internet and modern communication technology.

In October 2000, Thomas Friedman, the influential New York Times foreign affairs columnist, wrote that "the leadership here knows that you can't have the knowledge that China needs from the Internet without letting all sorts of other information into the country, and without empowering more and more Chinese to communicate horizontally and create political communities." His view was that China would face a sharp choice: either stay poor and authoritarian, or else get rich by embracing modern technology and letting in the flow of information.

Nobody was necessarily promising a rapid march to democratization. But the consensus view of the American establishment was that economic integration between China and the West - and China obtaining prosperity through the adoption of western technology - would at least directionally shift Chinese politics in a liberalizing direction. In practice, the opposite seems to have happened.

Globalization is letting China export censorship

First, simply on a technical level, it turns out that utopian globalization proponents were massively understating the feasibility of building a censored version of the internet.

Second, they underrated the extent to which the entirety of the modern technology industry would end up looking like a massive surveillance machine. In the specific context of western capitalist economies, that's largely a privatized surveillance machine whose goal is to deliver targeted advertisements. But the same mechanisms that let internet ad brokers know I've been considering buying a new wallet and planning a family beach vacation in Mexico this coming winter can (and are) used by authoritarian regimes for political purposes.

Consequently, Chinese authoritarianism seems to have been - if anything - strengthened by modern digital technology. It's easier than ever to know where everyone is at all times and who they are talking to.

Last, as Bill Clinton predicted, as China has gotten richer they now "import more of our products." That means American companies are changing what they do to access the Chinese market. It's become increasingly common for Hollywood studios to bend over backward to appease the Chinese authorities. The Tilda Swinton character "The Ancient One" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example, is specifically a Tibetan monk in the comics. Screenwriter Robert Cargill says she was transformed into a white woman of no specific national origin or religious tradition because otherwise there's the risk of "the Chinese government going, 'Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We're not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.'"

In a practical sense there probably isn't very much the United States can do to prevent the Chinese government from repressing Chinese culture and there never would have been under any sort of policy choices. But the intermingling of the US and Chinese economies that was supposed to generate liberalization in China instead seems to be leading to the erasure of Tibet from American cultural products.

The Morey incident is a further intensification of that trend. Nobody was talking about the Rockets addressing the situation in Hong Kong during the game or flying a "stand with Hong Kong" banner in the arena where a global television audience could see it.

What happened was simply that a high-ranking Rockets executive offered an opinion on the subject in English on a platform that's banned in China. In effect, the Chinese government is trying (and seemingly succeeding) in getting the NBA to censor participation in the American public square.

In theory, the same logic could lead China to trawl the social media posts of every employee of every Western company that does business in China and start making complaints. Obviously in practice they're not going to start worrying about the tweets of random Apple Store employees tomorrow. But what happened to Morey is disturbing in large part because it's not at all clear how far this slope will slip.

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The raging controversy over the NBA, China, and the Hong Kong protests, explained

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Globalization is exporting Chinese authoritarianism rather than American democracy.

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The Crazy, Scary Stories of Kobe Bryant’s Insane Popularity in China

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Kobe Bryant is in danger. It’s not the Achilles injury. It’s not the knee procedure. It’s the Chinese. On Friday, Bryant is heading to China with the Lakers for the NBA Global Games exhibition promotion…

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Basketball is the most popular sport in China. According to Ampere's Sport - Consumer survey in Q4 2022, over half of Chinese sports fans (53%) say they enjoy basketball, with 22% citing it as their favourite sport. Football (soccer), the second most popular sport in the country, is the favourite of 21% of fans, and enjoyed by 48%. China is the only country covered by Ampere's survey where basketball is the top sport, with football the most popular in eight out of the 12 countries included. And, despite the popularity of the NBA, basketball comes second to American football in the USA.

In 2023, basketball has also surpassed football as the top sport by media rights value in China, with a total value of $316m (2.18bn CNY). This total includes events such as this year's FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Chinese Basketball Association, but the bulk of it comes from Tencent's deal with the NBA.

Tencent signed its first five-year contract with the US basketball league in 2015 for $500m, and then acquired the rights to NBA League Pass for an additional $29m for the 2016-2020 seasons. When it renewed the rights from 2020 to 2025, the contract tripled in value, totalling $1.5bn over five years i.e. $300m per season. In 2023, this accounts for almost half (47%) of the total value of sports rights deals agreed in China to date.

Until recently, football accounted for a larger share of spend on sports rights in China than basketball, due to high value deals for a number of football leagues. The most notable of these are China Sports Media's five-year deal for the top domestic football league, the Chinese Super League (CSL), agreed in 2016 for $1.25bn (8bn CNY) and the three-year deal agreed between PPTV and the English Premier League in 2019 for £564m ($700m) over three seasons.

However, the latter deal was terminated after the first year, due to PPTV's failure to pay the rights fees, and Tencent picked up the rights for the following season for $40m - 17% of the previous season's value. Tencent also acquired the rights for the Chinese Super League from 2021 onwards for just $12m per season. This decrease in value of the CSL may, in part, be due to rule changes limiting numbers of foreign players along with the introduction of salary caps, ending the influx of stars transferring from European leagues that had been seen in previous years.

The drops in value of both of these competitions led to the proportion of TV rights accounted for by football falling dramatically in 2021, allowing basketball to become the sport with the largest share. The FIFA World Cup boosted the value of football in the country again in 2022, but basketball is back as the highest value sport in 2023.

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Basketball nets the highest sports rights in China

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Basketball is the most popular sport in China and also surpasses football (soccer) as the top sport by media rights value in 2023. This is mostly due to the high value of the NBA, and also recent drops in value of football competitions in the country.

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Playing frisbee, or flying disc, has emerged as a popular sport among young people in cities across China.

In recent years, it has become one of the favorite niche sports among Chinese youths, according to a report on niche sports among young people released by an institute engaged in research on the subject.

Frisbee-related content on one of the mainstream Chinese social media platforms increased by six times year-on-year, according to a report on the top 10 lifestyle trends in 2022 published by the platform.

(Shaanxi Daily/Zhao Chenwen)

Data from the Chinese Flying Disc Administrative Committee has shown that about 500,000 people played frisbee in China last year. This figure is moreover expected to increase exponentially this year.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Frisbee was officially listed as a compulsory education curriculum by the Ministry of Education in April.

On July 7, the General Administration of Sports of China announced that the country would launch its first flying disc league in the second half of this year in various cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

All these trends and developments indicate that playing frisbee has gained great popularity in China as a physical exercise and social activity.

The popularity of the sport has a great deal to do with the way each game is played. The sport is easy to set up and play, while no prior experience is needed for anyone wishing to join in on a game. It is easier for people to continue playing frisbee because even new players can gain a sense of achievement soon after they begin to play.

"I tried other physical activities such as jogging but then quit. Playing frisbee is an exception," said Wang Bin, who is now a frisbee coach. "Throwing a frisbee and catching a frisbee give you a sense of achievement and can help lift your mood," Wang added.

Currently, most players play Ultimate Frisbee, a kind of non-contact team sport. The game is played by two opposing teams, each consisting of any mix of men and women, and the rules are simple. By cooperating with other team members, those players able to catch the frisbee in the designated area on one end of the court can score a point for their team.

Frisbee also helps players to eliminate social barriers and provides a way to meet like-minded friends. It's a self-refereed team sport, and players need to communicate with each other prior to, during and after a game.

"After I took up a job, I seldom made any new friends. But I met many interesting people through playing frisbee," said Wen Zhe, a frisbee enthusiast.

The sport is also affordable. A frisbee on a Chinese e-commerce platform is usually priced between 50 yuan (about $7.4) and 150 yuan.

Some frisbee players said they like the sport because it helps them burn excess fat. According to one frisbee enthusiast, a single frisbee competition can help a player burn up to more than 900 calories.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)

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Playing frisbee becomes trendy niche sport among Chinese youngsters in recent years

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Playing frisbee, or flying disc, has emerged as a popular sport among young people in cities acros

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Nike, Inc. (stylized as NIKE ) is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, United States. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022.

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https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1AJ411e796/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

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https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1H3411A7Mw/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=8f6916b92afc7853f66d5a0eeae2a3c8

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P1-P2. For instance, the American films Transformers, 2012, Avatar, Transformers 3 and Titanic 3D were the top-grossing films in China in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively.

P4. This is encouraging: warmth towards American celebrities increased warmth towards America much more than Chinese nationalism decreased it.

P8. However, further analysis revealed that national narcissism moderated the impact of the experimental prime on the warmth towards America scale (see Figure 2). Specifically, exposure to Chinese magazine covers with American (versus Chinese) celebrities on them increased warmth towards America– but only among more cosmopolitan Chinese low on national narcissism (see the rising solid line in Figure 2). However, for those Chinese participants who ranked highly on national narcis sism (the falling dashed line), indirect exposure to the American celebrities prime led to greater coolness towards America. This finding replicates recent research demonstrating that the broader construct of collective narcissism also moderates how individuals react to outgroups.

P11. Notall Chinese were pleased, however. Zhao Bandi 赵半狄, anartistknownfor his ownuseofpandamotifs,urgedanationalboycottofthefirstfilmin2008.Kung FuPanda, heinsisted, was exploiting China’s “national treasures”: pandas and the martial arts. He persisted in 2011, arguing that Children’sDay– the date Kung Fu Panda2wasreleased–“shouldbepure.Don’tturnitintoamoney-makingdayfor Hollywood and don’t fool our nextgeneration with American ‘fast food’.”23 Zhao was not alone. Kong Qingdong 孔庆东, a professor of Chinese at Peking University, claimed that the Kung Fu Panda movies were “a cultural invasion.” Thepanda,Kongcomplained,shouldbeasymbolofChina.Instead,Poisdepicted as indolent and fat– a typical American.

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P2. North American hip-hop, rock and pop musicians have also looked to China in search of new fans. In 2007 alone, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Talib Kweli, Linkin Park, Beyoncé, Eric Clapton, Avril Lavigne, the Nine Inch Nails, and Sonic Youth included China in their world tours.3 In recent years, Avril Lavigne and Celine Dion have performed on televised Chinese New Year galas, which were broadcast nationwide by CCTV. Dion even performed a popped-up version of the Chinese folk song, “The Jasmine Flower” (Molihua 茉莉花), in Mandarin.

Despite such censorship, contemporary American pop stars are everywhere in China today. For instance, Taylor Swift boasts 112 official music videos and 100 pages (nearly 2,000 videos) of live performance and fan-made videos uploaded to YouKu, China’s equivalent of YouTube. One video has had over two million views. Swift is hardly alone among American celebrities breaking into the Chinese mainstream. Actor Tom Cruise maintains a Weibo account which has over three million followers, “pop-punk” singer Avril Lavigne has signed an endorsement deal with a Chinese brand of iced tea, while the actor Bradley Cooper, star of The Hangover series of films, has appeared in Chinese advertise ments for Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

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P2-P3. American popular culture is also transmitted through sports. Since 2002, when China’s Yao Ming 姚明 was chosen as the number one overall draft pick by the Houston Rockets, Chinese interest in the National Basketball Association (NBA) has soared. NBA stars have become among the most recognized and popular foreign celebrities in China. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard grace Chinese magazine covers, billboard advertisements and shopping mall store fronts. The NBA’s Sina Weibo micro-blog has over 41 million followers, making it the most followed professional sports league in China; its China-based website (nba.com.cn) registered over 4.5 billion page views during the 2012–2013 season. Demand for NBA brand merchandise, now available at over 25,000 retail locations, continues to rise in China.

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Review products

Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World's Largest Movie Market Ying Zhu. New York: The New Press, 2022. 370 pp. US$32.99 (hbk). ISBN 9781620972182

Abstract

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World's Largest Movie Market Ying Zhu. New York: The New Press, 2022. 370 pp. US$32.99 (hbk). ISBN 9781620972182 | The China Quarterly | Cambridge Core

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Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World's Largest Movie Market Ying Zhu. New York: The New Press, 2022. 370 pp. US$32.99 (hbk). ISBN 9781620972182 - Volume 255

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Skateboarder doing a hard-flip

A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7-8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.

The skateboarder moves by pushing with one foot while the other foot remains balanced on the board, or by pumping one's legs in structures such as a bowl or half pipe. A skateboard can also be used by standing on the deck while on a downward slope and allowing gravity to propel the board and the rider. If the rider's leading foot is their left foot, they are said to ride "regular". Conversely, they are said to ride "goofy" if their leading foot is their right foot.

The two main types of skateboards are the longboard and shortboard. The shape of the board is also important: the skateboard must be concaved to perform tricks.

Skateboarding started in California in the 1950s. The first skateboards were made from roller skates attached to a board. Skateboarding gained in popularity because of surfing: in fact, skateboarding was initially referred to as "sidewalk surfing". The very first skateboards were handmade from wooden boxes and planks by individuals. Companies started manufacturing skateboards in 1959, as the sport became more popular. In postwar America, society was carefree with children commonly playing in the streets.

Skateboarding is a very individual activity, and it continues to evolve. Since 2000, due to attention in the media and products like skateboarding video games, children's skateboards and commercialization, skateboarding has been pulled into the mainstream. As more interest and money has been invested into skateboarding, more skate parks, and better skateboards have become available. In addition, the continuing interest has motivated skateboarding companies to keep innovating and inventing new things. Skateboarding appeared for the first time in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

"Long" boards are usually over 36 inches (91 cm) long. Plastic "penny" boards are typically about 22 inches (56 cm) long. Some larger penny boards over 27 inches (69 cm) long are called "nickel" boards.

The longboard, a common variant of the skateboard, is used for higher speed and rough surface boarding, and they are much more expensive. "Old school" boards (those made in the 1970s-80s or modern boards that mimic their shape) are generally wider and often have only one kicktail. Variants of the 1970s often have little or no concavity.

The wheels allow for movement on the skateboard and helps determine the speed while riding. There are typically four wheels on a skateboard that are attached to the trucks. Ranging in size from around 48mm to around 60mm, smaller wheels are lighter in weight and are used for shorter distances and tricks. The wheels are typically made of polyurethane (PU) and come in different grades of PU. Higher-grade PU is more durable and provides a smoother ride, while lower-grade PU is more affordable but wears out faster. Larger wheels are heavier in weight, which are better for maintaining speed and longer distances. Wheels that are larger than 60mm are typically used for longboards.

The metal parts known as skateboard trucks are what hold a skateboard's wheels to the deck. They are made up of a hanger that holds the axle and wheels and a baseplate that is mounted to the board. The hanger and baseplate are joined by a kingpin, allowing the truck to swivel and turn.

Trucks for skateboards come in a variety of forms and sizes and can be modified to the rider's preferences. The truck's height can have an impact on the board's stability and turning ability. The truck's width should equal the width of the deck.

To manage the looseness or tightness of the trucks, the kingpin's tightness can also be changed. This is a matter of taste and has an impact on the board's stability and ability to turn.

An Independent brand skateboard truck

Each skateboard wheel is mounted on its axle via two ball bearings. With few exceptions, the bearings are the industrial standard "608" size, with a bore of 8 or 10 mm (0.315 or 0.394 inches) depending on the axle), an outer diameter of 22 mm (0.866 inches), and a width of 7 mm (0.276 inches). These are usually made of steel, though silicon nitride, a high-tech ceramic, is sometimes used. Many skateboard bearings are graded according to the ABEC scale. The starts with ABEC 1 with the least precise manufacturing tolerance, followed by 3, 5, 7, and ABEC 9 with the strictest tolerance. Bearing performance is determined by how well maintained the bearings are. Maintenance on bearings includes periodically cleaning and lubricating them.[better source needed ]

An animation of the working principle for a ball bearing.
While an 8-balled bearing is shown here, skateboard bearings are typically 7-balled.

Risers/wedges

Wedges can be used to change the turning characteristics of a truck.

While not part of a skateboard, an all-in-one skateboard tool capable of mounting and removing trucks & wheels and adjusting truck kingpins are commonly sold by skate shops.

Deck rails are thin, plastic strips usually screwed into the bottom section of a skateboard to decrease friction while performing slide tricks and protecting the board's graphic from damage.

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A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7-8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.

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In some ways, American cultural influence reaches into China deeper than ever. Despite censorship, restrictions on cultural imports and heavy Internet barriers, American television, films, music and technology are widely and avidly consumed. During his visit, Mr. Xi nodded to that influence, citing American authors, the popular Netflix series “House of Cards” and several Hollywood movies, as well as meeting with prominent business leaders from Silicon Valley.

Distrust toward the intentions of the United States persists despite the popularity of American entertainment. Over the past month, the eighth season of “The Big Bang Theory” has drawn over 45 million views on Sohu.com, an online viewing service. “Furious 7,” the American action film, has been the most popular movie at the Chinese box office so far this year, narrowly beating “Monster Hunt,” a Chinese animated adventure, according to government estimates.

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Details for: Hollywood and the Americanization of Britain from the 1920s to the present / › UAL homepage catalogue

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For 100 years, Hollywood has provided both the majority and the most popular of films shown on British screens. For many Britons, Hollywood films are not foreign films. Whether seen in the cinema, on television or the internet, they are regarded as normal screen fare and a part of everyday life. Hol…

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P1. The movie of Monkey King: Hero Is Back and Nehza: I Am the Destiny were two dark horses in the year of 2015 and 2019.

P2. In addition to this, the development of Chinese animation industry has always been influenced by Japanese anime and American cartoons.

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P2. The creation of Chinese animation started in the 1920s. It can roughly be divided into three competing steps: ink animation, (fine) art animation and animated films. In 1926, The Big Room was produced by Wan Brothers. It was China’s first original comic video, showing a painter who painted in the studio while a small naughty man who jumped off the drawing board, giving the painter a lot of troubles.

P5.Unlike Japanese anime, the created cartoon images make audience recall the pure emotion of romantic love; the main purpose for watching American animation is to enjoy its entertaining moments. The cultural characteristics of American animation are very obvious, setting characters by Western humor, and exaggerated expressions.

Firstly, the exaggerated way of American cartoons uses an image language to indicate the culture, like Mickey Mouse and Snow White, taking Disney as a symbol.

Lotus Lantern (Baolian Deng, 1999, directed by Chang Xiguang) won the 19th China Film Golden Rooster Award for the best art film. It learned from Hollywood techniques and achieved commercial success, marking the beginning of Chinese animation into commercialization and internationalization (Ding, 2019: p. 59).

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P.4 Looking back at the decades of China’s development, the modern partially lied in China’s recognition of foreign cultural values, and awareness of learning from others, as Wang Shubo (Wang, 2013: p. 163) notes that, the collision and assimilation between cultures has also become an unavoidable challenge for China, due to the competition among nations has become increasingly fierce in many fields and levels of communication.

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大圣归来和哪吒

P5-6 The movies of the Monkey King: Hero Is Back (2015) and Nezha: I Am the Des- tiny (2019) did not follow the images of the previous Monkey King and Ne Zha. In other words, the characters of both Sun Wukong and Ne Zha created as any types but the one in the Journey to the West, who was full of divinity, and was a hero of a great master, or the one in Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, an image of children’s hero (Wu, 2016). They were rebellious at some point, brave but depressed, and kind but indifferent. The presentation of the two works made audiences very impressive.

P6 For instance, the character changed from om- nipotent to a seemed-selfish, evasive and tragic one, and more accessing to daily life. In Nezha: I am the Destiny, the boy bore the prejudices of the people of Chen Tangguan, and chose to be an “evil”, indicating kinds of prejudices in real life and their negation of human values (Ning, 2018).

P7. The image of Sun Wukong has been popular for decades. In 1964, Uproar in eaven (Da Nao Tiankong) marked a glorious page in the history of Chinese animation, taking Sun Wukong in Crystal Palace to fight with other kings. Sun Wukong was designed in a peach-heart face, with goose-yellow jacket, tiger skirt around waist, big red trousers, and a pair of black boots (see Figure 1). The so-called brave and vigorous description of Chinese characteristics of the hero (He, 2016: p. 80). While in the Monkey King: Hero is Back, the character of a hero is somewhat unusual. It was designed as exaggerated, along with horse-like long face, sloppy clothes and irritable temper (see Figure 2). By protecting Jiang Liuer and the lit- tle girl, though, The Monkey King: Hero is Back shaped Sun Wukong into an image of a knight, and a mature elder brother with affectionateness and righ- teousness.

P12-14 American’s Kung Fu Panda, for instance, the main character A Bao, with his fat body and grassroots behavior, represented very Hollywood-style (see Figure 16). His exaggerated expressions and rich body language made the American national characteristics more vivid. Despite a bit of luck of A Bao, the process of a hero’s birth embodied the social rule of fair play in American society (Yan & He, 2014: p. 21).

In addition, expectation of a hero and his value in Chinese culture lies in a noble moral character, ready to sacrifice the ego to ensure the interests of the public. The concept in both Monkey King and Nezha was particularly evident, in which sacrifice, reform, resistance and other distinctive symbolic characteristics were in compliance with the collective principles, so as to achieve Chinese-based image of heroes.

While again, in Kung Fu Panda, A Bao as a hero strongly revealed the indivi- dualism of an American character, implied a contradiction between the individ- ual and the social order. In the movie, A Bao didn’t have to abide by the long and orderly moral norms, and his pursuit of personal liberation and his realiza- tion of personal dreams could exist along with his defects and fears (Yu, 2017: p. 134). Furthermore, unlike American cartoon movies, either through images or di- alogues, it can be seen that American humors would be everywhere. The two Chinese animation movies also reflected an oriental charm of humor. Take Nezha for instance, in the portrayal of Tai Yi, a fat, round face, wine bad nose and big belly poo were arguably oriental, but the use of Sichuan dialect born most of the laughing points (see Figure 17).

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中国第一部动画影片不是公认的《大闹画室》?

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P409-410: In speaking of these films, Chris Berry (building on Arun Appadurai’s notion of globalization as “not a single process, but a multiplicity of localized events as different cultures are brought into contact”) asserts that, “in the postcolonial politics and globalized economics of blockbusters, borrowing and translation are only the first step on the road toward agency and creativity.” Berry sees locally-produced blockbusters in East Asia as “De-westernizing/De-Americanizing” although still tied to Hollywood in various ways. 虽然Berry认为这些电影都在反西方化和反美国化，但我个人认为这还是美国化的其中一种。

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P410. “dramedies”—to use a term invented by Lisa Odham Stokes: the films that tell stories of people, relationships, and micro/macro change in China.这里指的是中国合伙人和北京遇上西雅图。

P410. A few examples of the most popular of the dramedies released since 2010 alone include, in addition to Finding Mr. Right and American Dreams in China, So Young, Tiny Times I/II/III, and The Stolen Years. Neither historical epic nor martial arts romp, these films nonetheless invoke a certain time period or series of readily recognizable historical or current events. Often they are nostalgic coming of age narratives, or romantic comedies (or both) that invoke the shared pasts of moviegoers. In some cases they are loosely-based narrations of actual events (in the case of American Dreams in China, which is based on the saga of the highly successful New Orient English tutorial centers in the PRC) or referencing “real” trends (birth tourism in the case of Finding Mr. Right). The films zero in on the economic and social changes that have occurred in China over the past several decades, and on the ways in which friendships, partnerships, and romances (including bromances) are changed by China’s economic fortunes, in the process thereby altering the course of various histories, micro and macro.

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P411. Both the national and the modern territorial nation-state were part of a Western package called modernity, as was cinema, which followed on their heels. Like elsewhere, when Chinese grasped the enormity of the imperialist threat they realized that they would have to take from the West in order to resist the West. 这句话是Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar 说的。

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The Chinese animation blockbuster and Lotus Lantern (1999)

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The Chinese animation blockbuster and Lotus Lantern (1999)