Military Weaponry for Kids
November 30, 2006 10:56 AM Subscribe
Military Weaponry for Kids Is a Flickr photoset of scans from a Chinese children's coloring (and character art practice) book.
That's a hell of a neat coloring book. Educational, too -- each page teaches not only the word for the featured weapon, but also a common hanzi, with room for practice. I want one...
posted by vorfeed at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2006
posted by vorfeed at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2006
This is really odd. Is there a pressing need for children to be able to accurate identify different kinds of war fighting weapons?
Perhaps China is feeling that they are being left behind in the area of good Manga and are cultivating a new generation of artists and animators who grew up drawing guns and tanks.
posted by quin at 11:48 AM on November 30, 2006
Perhaps China is feeling that they are being left behind in the area of good Manga and are cultivating a new generation of artists and animators who grew up drawing guns and tanks.
posted by quin at 11:48 AM on November 30, 2006
Perhaps you're reifying "China".
Many kids love war stuff - movies, toys, books, games. Someone has realized this shocking fact and made a product to sell them. How is this different from the piles of GI Joe paraphenalia that I, as a fairly peaceful ethnically hippy child, totally loved?
posted by freebird at 11:54 AM on November 30, 2006
Many kids love war stuff - movies, toys, books, games. Someone has realized this shocking fact and made a product to sell them. How is this different from the piles of GI Joe paraphenalia that I, as a fairly peaceful ethnically hippy child, totally loved?
posted by freebird at 11:54 AM on November 30, 2006
Where can I buy this? Where can I buy this? Where can I buy this? Where can I buy this?
And where can I buy THIS?
posted by rokusan at 12:11 PM on November 30, 2006
And where can I buy THIS?
posted by rokusan at 12:11 PM on November 30, 2006
"ethnically hippie"?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:29 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:29 PM on November 30, 2006
China, in another few years, is going to have a surplus of military-age men who will be causing social unrest competing for a relative scarcity of women to partner with, due to the preference for male offspring in Chinese culture and the one-child rule -- there were plenty of aborted female fetuses and even, I'm told, infanticides in rural districts. North of China lies the last really large unexploited area of natural resources: Siberia, which the Russians, with their negative population growth and economic chaos, will be hard-put to defend. So how far-fetched does it seem that the Chinese, who are more given to large-format, long-term thinking than Westerners, might want to create a military culture they can crank up and aim north to (a) kill off the erstwhile troublemaking excess male population and (b) secure all that Lebensraum, timber, oil and gold?
posted by pax digita at 12:59 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by pax digita at 12:59 PM on November 30, 2006
Along with John Pasden's FLICKR set, you might also want to include his blog entry on it.
Sinosplice 是优秀 !
posted by RavinDave at 1:00 PM on November 30, 2006
Sinosplice 是优秀 !
posted by RavinDave at 1:00 PM on November 30, 2006
This reminds me of the art style used in the Worms series after the initial title. Where's the Concrete Donkey, China? You better learn how to render it so the few survivors that remain can carve its demented, honking visage into the desolated countryside. Hee-Haw!
posted by prostyle at 1:20 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by prostyle at 1:20 PM on November 30, 2006
Foreigners, man. What the fuck.
posted by ibmcginty at 1:26 PM on November 30, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by ibmcginty at 1:26 PM on November 30, 2006 [1 favorite]
I've been looking for an excuse to drop this 60's jello commercial, and this is as good an opportunity as any.
posted by subtle-t at 2:02 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by subtle-t at 2:02 PM on November 30, 2006
Thanks for this adorable post, jonson, and thanks for that alarming link, rokusan. Destroy the evidence! With a reactance!
posted by maryh at 2:20 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by maryh at 2:20 PM on November 30, 2006
"ethnically hippie"?
As in - it's a part of my ancestry but I'm not practicing.
posted by freebird at 3:03 PM on November 30, 2006
As in - it's a part of my ancestry but I'm not practicing.
posted by freebird at 3:03 PM on November 30, 2006
China, in another few years, is going to have a surplus of military-age men who will be causing social unrest competing for a relative scarcity of women to partner with, due to the preference for male offspring in Chinese culture and the one-child rule -- there were plenty of aborted female fetuses and even, I'm told, infanticides in rural districts.
The policy started in 1979, twenty seven years ago. I would imagine that military age is less then that in China. In fact, in only a few years the first of the one-childers would be to old to serve.
posted by delmoi at 5:54 PM on November 30, 2006
The policy started in 1979, twenty seven years ago. I would imagine that military age is less then that in China. In fact, in only a few years the first of the one-childers would be to old to serve.
posted by delmoi at 5:54 PM on November 30, 2006
Also, Lots of kids love guns and stuff, if this is post is meant to serve as some indictment of Chinese culture, then the poster needs to get out more
posted by delmoi at 5:55 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by delmoi at 5:55 PM on November 30, 2006
"This is really odd. Is there a pressing need for children to be able to accurate identify different kinds of war fighting weapons?"
I guess you didn't grow up in America anywhere in the period between 1950 and 1976 or so. Every boy my age had war toys unless his parents vehemently refused him for religious or philosphical reasons... and those that didn't would play Army with the boys who did!
My friends and I all knew the hardware pretty well when we were 7 or 8 :)
posted by zoogleplex at 6:09 PM on November 30, 2006
I guess you didn't grow up in America anywhere in the period between 1950 and 1976 or so. Every boy my age had war toys unless his parents vehemently refused him for religious or philosphical reasons... and those that didn't would play Army with the boys who did!
My friends and I all knew the hardware pretty well when we were 7 or 8 :)
posted by zoogleplex at 6:09 PM on November 30, 2006
So how far-fetched does it seem that the Chinese, who are more given to large-format, long-term thinking than Westerners, might want to create a military culture they can crank up and aim north to (a) kill off the erstwhile troublemaking excess male population and (b) secure all that Lebensraum, timber, oil and gold?
Extremely. Really. Look at your own question for the answer: "the Chinese, [who] are more given to large-format, long-term thinking than Westerners." Why take over the world militarily whe you are already about take it economically. The solution to the little male-oriented conundrum, westerners need to learn Chinese so that we can talk to our future sons-in-law.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:20 PM on November 30, 2006
Extremely. Really. Look at your own question for the answer: "the Chinese, [who] are more given to large-format, long-term thinking than Westerners." Why take over the world militarily whe you are already about take it economically. The solution to the little male-oriented conundrum, westerners need to learn Chinese so that we can talk to our future sons-in-law.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:20 PM on November 30, 2006
Oh whatever. Like you wouldn't have killed for such a wicked coloring book as a child? And no US company has ever marketed alarmingly accurate military toys to kids?
*cough*GI JOE*cough*
posted by drmarcj at 6:34 PM on November 30, 2006
*cough*GI JOE*cough*
posted by drmarcj at 6:34 PM on November 30, 2006
"ethnically hippie"?
As in - it's a part of my ancestry but I'm not practicing.
No? But your username is freebird! If that ain't a practicing hippie, I don't know what is ;-)
oh, but, if that's your real name, you know, that your practicing hippie parents gave you, then... sorry, man.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:46 PM on November 30, 2006
As in - it's a part of my ancestry but I'm not practicing.
No? But your username is freebird! If that ain't a practicing hippie, I don't know what is ;-)
oh, but, if that's your real name, you know, that your practicing hippie parents gave you, then... sorry, man.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:46 PM on November 30, 2006
if this is post is meant to serve as some indictment of Chinese culture, then the poster needs to get out more
Based on jonson's posting history I'd venture that this is simply something he found interesting, culturally and visually (y'know, as art). I wouldn't assume he intended any indictment of Chinese culture.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:49 PM on November 30, 2006
Based on jonson's posting history I'd venture that this is simply something he found interesting, culturally and visually (y'know, as art). I wouldn't assume he intended any indictment of Chinese culture.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:49 PM on November 30, 2006
So how far-fetched does it seem that the Chinese, who are more given to large-format, long-term thinking than Westerners, might want to create a military culture they can crank up and aim north to (a) kill off the erstwhile troublemaking excess male population and (b) secure all that Lebensraum, timber, oil and gold?
Meh, it's been done.
posted by Upton O'Good at 7:40 PM on November 30, 2006
Meh, it's been done.
posted by Upton O'Good at 7:40 PM on November 30, 2006
"This is really odd. Is there a pressing need for children to be able to accurate identify different kinds of war fighting weapons?"
Not identify - draw! The Japanese are already on postmodernist giant fighting robots. Can China even stand toe to toe with Speed Racer?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:58 PM on November 30, 2006
Not identify - draw! The Japanese are already on postmodernist giant fighting robots. Can China even stand toe to toe with Speed Racer?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:58 PM on November 30, 2006
I really like the other flickr set: Chinese Kid Art. That's all.
posted by of strange foe at 8:22 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by of strange foe at 8:22 PM on November 30, 2006
of strange foe- Wow, some of those kid drawings make me think of Mark Beyer. And by that I mean, Yikes!
posted by maryh at 9:09 PM on November 30, 2006
posted by maryh at 9:09 PM on November 30, 2006
If China wanted to get more land, they'd probably go for Mongolia. It used to be part of China, after all.
...
Personally, I chalk it up to kids' fascination with guns. It's no more government propaganda than Star Wars or Barbie are.
posted by jiawen at 10:12 PM on November 30, 2006
...
Personally, I chalk it up to kids' fascination with guns. It's no more government propaganda than Star Wars or Barbie are.
posted by jiawen at 10:12 PM on November 30, 2006
If China wanted to get more land, they'd probably go for Mongolia. It used to be part of China, after all.
I think you may have that reversed. That said, note the large norther region of the PRC known as "Inner Mongolia"
posted by Pollomacho at 10:22 PM on November 30, 2006
I think you may have that reversed. That said, note the large norther region of the PRC known as "Inner Mongolia"
posted by Pollomacho at 10:22 PM on November 30, 2006
jiawen : If China wanted to get more land, they'd probably go for Mongolia. It used to be part of China, after all.
Which to my mind raises the obvious question, new tech or old? I mean China has been adept and industrializing, and the Mongol hordes have always been old school. Honestly, it's an interesting question in this day and age (of low tech insurgent fighters); barring the Great Wall, how could China stave off a serious, skilled, and determined fighting force? The clear and obvious money is on technology, but the Mongols in their day were a force to be reckoned with. And there are parts of China that haven't moved too far from those old and dangerous days.
For the record, this is totally hypothetical and very near hyperbolic.
/though I am hashing out some Red Dawn meets Chinese kung fu scripts in my head right now.
posted by quin at 10:30 PM on November 30, 2006
Which to my mind raises the obvious question, new tech or old? I mean China has been adept and industrializing, and the Mongol hordes have always been old school. Honestly, it's an interesting question in this day and age (of low tech insurgent fighters); barring the Great Wall, how could China stave off a serious, skilled, and determined fighting force? The clear and obvious money is on technology, but the Mongols in their day were a force to be reckoned with. And there are parts of China that haven't moved too far from those old and dangerous days.
For the record, this is totally hypothetical and very near hyperbolic.
/though I am hashing out some Red Dawn meets Chinese kung fu scripts in my head right now.
posted by quin at 10:30 PM on November 30, 2006
Meh, it's been done.
More than once, if you've followed that author.
posted by pax digita at 2:46 AM on December 1, 2006
More than once, if you've followed that author.
posted by pax digita at 2:46 AM on December 1, 2006
When I was a kid, we (first an older brother, then I) had a coloring book called "Combat Action!" or some such, and it pretty prominently featured a lot of the shootin' hardware, with accurate names. It was where I first heard of the M-60 machine gun and the B-40 rocket, for example. This was during the Vietnam War, so a different Zeitgeist was operating...
...or so I thought.
posted by pax digita at 2:59 AM on December 1, 2006
...or so I thought.
posted by pax digita at 2:59 AM on December 1, 2006
barring the Great Wall, how could China stave off a serious, skilled, and determined fighting force?
Cell phones. Give the serious, skilled, and determined fighting force all cell phones. Game over.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:38 AM on December 1, 2006
Cell phones. Give the serious, skilled, and determined fighting force all cell phones. Game over.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:38 AM on December 1, 2006
The only reason this is shocking is because of the light in which it's presented. I am sure that with a little digging, one could turn up a dozen analogues from western manufacturers.
posted by tehloki at 8:13 AM on December 1, 2006
posted by tehloki at 8:13 AM on December 1, 2006
The United States has GI Joe, Top Gun, 450 episodes a day on the History channel about modern military equipment, countless numbers of WWII video games, the Rainbow Six series, and a video game literally designed by the Army.
But China's disturbing because they have a coloring book.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:26 AM on December 2, 2006
But China's disturbing because they have a coloring book.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:26 AM on December 2, 2006
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posted by Cranberry at 11:15 AM on November 30, 2006