Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

TELEVISION: "Cartoons With Heart ... and a Little Mandarin," by Michael Davis, New York Times, 15 April 2007, p. AR32.

You can always spot the future, in demographic terms, by watching children's TV.

The first glimpses of the rising Sino quotient are generated by Chinese Americans operating in our mass media. Amy Tan's PBS series about the "Chinese Siamese cat," called "Sagwa," was a ground breaker.

Now we have "Ni Hao, Kai-lan!" (or "Hello Kai-lan!) from a second-generation Chinese woman who--none too surprisingly--writes about what she knows: her bicultural childhood. The show will start in August.

The rise of the Chinese-American role model comes just in time for this father of a Chinese-American household. Vonne Mei is always captivated by Chinese faces in mass media (you have no idea how big "Mulan" can be when there's so little out there to grab a hold of).

Vocabulary will be a big part of this show, basically tutoring kids in beginning Mandarin. This just follows the rising trend of kids taking Chinese in primary and secondary schools, which in turn will generate a flood of tertiary school training within a generation.

But understand this: these opening bids by Chinese-Americans will inevitably be overwhelmed by a flood of such efforts coming out of China itself in coming years, especially in animation, where China sees how effectively Japan and South Korea export their mass media in anime and video games.

Meanwhile, the creator of "Kai-lan" hopes the series will have a "special resonance for the estimated 60,000 girls in the United States who have been adopted from Chinese orphannages," or what I called in BFA a small army of Tiger Woods-like powerhouses soon to be released upon American society (go figure, as they all live in mid-to-upper-income families where most are single kids of older parents who will spare no money on their success). The Chinese-American girl who voices the lead character has a bio exactly like Mei Mei's (left on doorstep in infancy and adopted by American couple at 8 months).

Rest assured, Vonne and I will make the same over-the-top effort with Mei. I like to say that we have four "single," all of whom share the same problem: they have three siblings.

Now, at least, Mei Mei will have some of the same role-model opportunities that the other three have long enjoyed.

As I often say in my brief, I've got one Asian kid and three kids turning Asian.