Aviation & TESOL in China

Has it really been over a quarter of a century since the original Karate Kid came out? Wow, that’s scary, since I still remember it quite well. I just finished watching the Karate Kid remake and, well, it was pretty much what I expected: sappy but fun, similar to the original.

Dre (Jaden Smith) and mom (Taraji P. Henson) followed by members of Air China cabin crew.

Whatever Air China paid, in consideration and in services, to get involved in the movie, they probably got their money’s worth, since their name and logo is quite prominently plastered all over the screen during the opening scene, lasting several minutes. Overkill, IMHO. I didn’t recognize the crew members, but they all looked proper. What wasn’t so proper was CA982 flying out of Detroit, a city which no Chinese airline currently serve. Detroit to Beijing would most likely be on Northwest (now Delta) via Tokyo. CA982 is the JFK-PEK flight on a Boeing 747-400, which they did get right in the movie.

I’m sure there are forums talking about the movie’s miscues, but one thing those who haven’t been to Beijing in the last year or so won’t know is that directly adjacent to the brand new CCTV tower, the first Beijing landmark we see in the movie, after airport terminal 3, is the burnt steel hulk that was to be the Mandarin Oriental.  No doubt conscious efforts were made not to have that in the movie. I remember during the filming of Mission Impossible 3 in Shanghai many residents were asked to remove their hanging laundry from public view so that the movie wouldn’t capture any of this potentially embarrassing habit. Image, aka face, is of utmost importance in this culture.

With the word karate being of Japanese origin and given the sporadic but somewhat strong residual anti-Japanese sentiment in China, I was very surprised that the government did allow the film to retain its name. Of course, the movie’s Chinese name actually translates into Kung Fu Kid.

Jackie Chan with Jaden Smith in his red star tee.

Hey, did you notice the shirt Dre (main character played by Jaden Smith, son of superstars and producers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) was wearing during his visit to Shaolin Temple? It’s a simple green t-shirt with a red star on it. Simple, but it wasn’t so easy to find for me way back when. I first saw this shirt in the massive indoor market at Xizhimen about 7 years ago and wanted it right away, but they didn’t have my size. (I’m in no danger of being charged an extra seat on flights, but let’s just say I’m not the skinniest person in the world either.)

The agnès b version

For the next several years after that I searched almost everywhere, but either my size wasn’t available or the color wasn’t quite right. One day, shopping in agnès b in Guomao (World Trade Center), lo and behold there were solo star t-shirts in different colors. No Maoist green, but they did have a black one with a white star.I looked at the price tag and gulped: 880 RMB ($130 USD at today’s exchange rate, slightly less then). Up to that time my most expensive t-shirt purchase was $85 for an Armani Collezione, about 15 years ago. But I had to have it, and have been living with the guilt of such wasteful spending ever since. (Did I tell you I have possibly the worst timing in the world? Soon after this splurge I did find my green tee, for about $5 USD.)