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Look, I'm not exactly fond of huge corporations myself. And I think there might be a pretty good case for stating that The Lion King is a ripoff of Kimba the White Lion ("You must avenge my death, Kimba...I mean Simba." -The Simpsons), and certainly for Atlantis: The Lost Empire from Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water; perhaps fortunately the latter Disney movie wasn't nearly as successful as the former.

But those characters are still the property of their owners, and their royalties belong to them. One could say that yes, Disney and even Rumiko Takahashi (sorry) could afford to lose a few dollars here and there, but what about some budding cartoonist or the creator of a brand-new anime series? It's hard enough for them to get people to notice their material in the face of The Simpsons, Garfield, Naruto, and One Piece, and if you've read Rumiko's biography, you probably know how big a risk she was taking.

Perhaps the most troublesome part of all this was, as I said, this amusement park is run by the Chinese government. I think it said in the article that bootleg and ripoffs of popular cartoons and TV shows make up a large part of their economy. A recent episode of the Travel Channel show No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain (one of my fave shows lately) saw him visiting China, and in one scene he visited a market which carried several DVD's of shows not yet released in the West. And yet, Beijing is hosting the Olympics next year, usually a chance for a country to give the rest of the world its best impression. Also, its economy is said to become the leading one in the world this century. Question is, how much of that money will be legit?

There's an excellent biography of Rumiko on this website, Fanboy.

To change the subject a bit (after bringing this post back after a long time), what do you think of this year's Olympics being held in Beijing? I'd imagine there'll be a lot of protesters there (albeit under heavy supervision). Do you support your country's athletes going to the Games? Let me just start by saying that even aside from the human rights abuses in China, their mind-boggling labor exploitation (whatever happened to, "Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"), the job outsourcing, etc., etc., there's the air pollution. A family friend went there last year, and it almost always seems to look "foggy" in Beijing. With just five months to go now, I kind of expect to hear about problems in the outdoor events.

The whole Shijingshan Amusement Park business seems to be just the tip of the iceberg of a large underground economy. And of course Western businesses can't get enough of their bargain-basement labor market. It seems China has thrown out most of the benefits of rigid socialism but left in all the oppression. The guy who went to China last year heard this joke there...

President Bush is in a limo which pulls up to an intersection. "Which way should I go?" asks the chauffeur. "Turn right," answers Bush, and the chauffeur does so.

Then Vladimir Putin's limo pulls up. "Which way should I go?" asks the chauffeur. "Follow the American," answers Putin, and the chauffeur does so.

Then Chinese Premier Zhang Jemin's limo pulls up. "Which way should I go?" asks the chauffeur. "Signal left, but follow those other cars," answered Jemin.