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The short film Ha Ha Ha America (watch it here), which recently appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, bills itself as a "translated harangue from China to the U.S.A. that laughs at our missteps." Are the Chinglish subtitles that serve as narrator for this 17-minute masturbatory farce really a translation of some nationalistic Chinese rant? Doubtful. Does the message come from China at all? Again, doubtful. The director is named Jon Daniel Ligon, and he apparently attended the University of Michigan in the 1980s. We gather that the movie was Ligon's way of issuing a wake-up call to the American government. But the movie, admittedly amusing at first in a cheap way, displays a very simplistic world-view, only a partial understanding of U.S.-China relations and the butchering of several "facts." The movie insults both Chinese people and Americans. Maybe the filmmakers figured that made it OK?
Ha Ha Ha America begins with scenes from Shanghai and the following subtitles:
Ha Ha Ha America / China move fast / too fast for / American hillbilly / So commence cry / as you not keep up / Too bad so sad / Already you behind / Ha Ha Ha / China giant blooming / like lady detectives / with swollen testicles / Be most curious America / China communist revolution / flow over world / like business tsunami / While you pants down / in oily desert / China surpass America / as world bully / Ha Ha Ha / What? No believe? / Here fact / China population / 1.5 billion / Maybe / Or 1.2 billion / Maybe / Either result mean / America just / rounding error / compare to China / We barnyard buffalo / You runt pig / with no formal access / to prosperity tit / Ha Ha Ha
It goes on (and on, and on -- a long 17 minutes) from there. Asiapundit found the movie "mercantalist, protectionist, and very loose with facts." But what do we know? We both live in China. Most folks over at MetaFilter loved it. Film Threat found it to be "a forceful scream in the ear for those who haven’t been in America this past year." And New York Magazine thought it was "a hilarious .... bit of lefty agitprop" and suggests MoveOn.org should hire Ligon.
Watch it yourself. And let us know what you think.
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I liked the videos of Shanghai, there was some interesting video throughout. It definitely goes on too long, and the politics are stupid. Still worth the download.
I watched this the other day and in the first few moments of the film I was somewhat disturbed by what appeared to be a racist poke at China, but then as the film went on I realised that it was actually poking fun at the way Americans tend to stereotype Chinese people.
Americans are growing more and more complacent with their status in the world and this film should serve as a wake-up call because if Americans don't reevaluate their priorities and rediscover their drive to compete and excel, they're going to fall behind.
Ha Ha Ha America
This is quite an interesting satire on America and its governmental globalization policies—like neoliberalism, that will eventually come around and bite the USA on its ass.
The stereotypical "chinglish" sayings actually come across very racist, but are exactly what makes this film so poignant. Without those colorful expressions Ha Ha Ha America would have come across as another preachy documentary that would have lost its audience after one or two minutes. So before you get offended, you should realize that this film has relatively little to do with China.
This short clearly lays out a few underlying issues that are plaguing America:
1.) A government that for years has allowed big business to control and profit over the American public's well being at the expense of civil liberties, worker's and human rights. Examples include its response to Hurricane Katrina, The bogus "War on Terror", Enron's fraud and Jack Abramoff's greed both part of Republican corruption. Should I continue?
2.) The American government's lack of investment in its own country's advancement: examples include; education cost that are hardly afordable for the middle class or poor.
New Republican Majority Leader, Ohio Rep. John Boehner has spent many years selling out American students to Sallie Mae—one of his biggest donors, now the largest student loan bank in America. There is a rapid shrinking middle class and a rising unemployment rate unless you count working at Mac Donald's or Walmart as creating new jobs for American families.
The harsh reality for America is too difficult to face so they prefer to, as the film said, "know the shortest distance to Wendy's" instead of educating, organizing and taking action against disfunctional government policies that are selling the USA out to corporate and multinational ideologies.
Not too many people will agree with what I have written here, which is expected, and exactly the response that I would get in my own home country of the USA. At the very least, I hope Ha Ha Ha America gets people talking about what they can do and "start shaking their fist" at the "hillbilly American government monkey tail".
I saw this video linked to another website on myspace. Without rambling on myself, I have to agree in full with Reactor's comments here.
Unfortunately, most people in the U.S. won't believe any of it. 'Propoganda' is a term we only relate to other countries and don't believe we could be suceptible to it - yet the last 5 years have proven that incorrect.
[I'd like to say more, but with the NSA monitoring these comments I'd rather not.]
I agree that it goes on too long, whoever the creator is they lack editorial control.
On the other hand, the tale told is of course entirely accurate. The US government, going back to Reagan (including Clinton), has legislated the US in to the hands of the multinational corporations. And because profit motive of under-regulated capitalism precludes rational long-term foresight, thus the awful state of the world. The politics are right on the dot. Who ever created it, the piece makes me want to be Chinese so I can laugh at the stupid American hillbilliy, with out it feeling like I am getting poked in the eye.