Wong Fei Hung Marathon

I thought Noah and I might watch all the Once Upon a time in China movies this week. But it turns out Noah just wants to watch the lion dance fights. I used to wish that these movies were more realistic. But now I realize that Wong Fei Hung happened to exist, but the movies have made him into a Paul Bunyan Cultural hero where you can use the events to preach certain ideas. Mainly the movies from the 90's with Jet Li are Hong Kong ideals that Chinese People should be modern, support foreign investment, continue to hold on to their traditions but not superstitions, make the country strong, and be Christian. This last one is easier to see when you look at actual history versus the movies.

Most of the frothing at the mouth bad guys in the movies are Buddhist. But the biggest frothing at the mouth rebellion at real Wong Fei Hung's time was the Tai Ping. Supposedly he was a medic for the black flag militia which fought some battles for them too.

But in the movies, Wong Fei Hung is like an invincible god who preaches and hits people with crosses or cross like objects.

The world he is in is so far away from the modern world that it' more like a fairy land or Camelot even though it's not actually that ong ago. That's because there was so much change from his time to 1990's Hong Kong.

Now it seems like 1990's Hong Kong is a world away from today's Hong Kong and China. But this fantasy world Wong Fei Hung is in that never happened willed with lion heads... well that's not that different from Noah's house.