Apropos of some of the comments to my last post, I note the following from today’s New York Times:
China, it can be safely said, has a complicated relationship with “Avatar.” Last week it was reported that the 2-D version of the science-fiction epic, directed by James Cameron, was being pulled from many Chinese theaters; now a mountain there is being renamed for a peak seen in the film. In a ceremony on Monday, the Southern Sky Column in Zhangjiajie City, in China’s Hunan province, was formally renamed the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain… Travel companies have already begun offering tours that emphasize the region’s resemblance to Pandora, the lush alien moon depicted in the film. On its site, the municipal government wrote: “Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near. Welcome to Zhangjiajie to see ‘Avatar’s’ Hallelujah Mountains and discover the real world of Pandora.”