It seems China is finally getting some much-needed positive media coverage, with the official 2008 Beijing Olympics site up, more people using Skype media to learn Chinese with authentic accent integration, and now, some preschool positives to bring Mandarin into the home.
Nickelodeon’s diversity programming is enriched with the debut of the “play along, think-along” cartoon “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan,” now slated for the first day of the Chinese New Year. (now airing February 7th, with a ‘sneak peek’ next week on Nickjr.com and iTunes, Jan. 28)
Shaping Youth Correspondent Ashley who blogs at Children’s Media Consultant reported this awhile back, noting that it represents Nickelodeon’s first foray into Eastern culture, focusing on social and emotional lessons, multicultural values, cause-and-effect thinking, and basic Mandarin language skills for 2- to 5-year-olds. (NYTimes article here)
When I sent Ashley’s post to Shaping Youth Advisor Carmen Van Kerckhove of Racialicious last fall, she hadn’t heard of the show yet, but was VERY interested to see how the show would play out, as bilingual five-year-old Kai-Lan learns about her inter-generational Chinese-American family.
As you may recall in this first post in our three-part series on Carmen’s work to abolish ‘diversity-speak’ and sniff out false pretense a mile away, Carmen is a no nonsense gal when it comes to bluff and stuff. Sooooo, I’m dying to know if Ni Hao, Kai-Lan passes muster among her New Demographic crowd, as all the buzz so far seems to be that it’s not just “window-dressing.”
Carmen happens to be launching a 9-week “Anti-Racism Action Group” the same day as the Ni Hao Kai-Lan sneak peek, with a dozen people (no geographic limitation) taking an in-depth course in race, racism, privilege, and stereotypes.
I’m hoping perhaps she’ll assign the group this cartoon to review and report back with a first analysis! I’d love to join in myself, but am beginning to look like a vaudeville plate balancing act, so will take a pass this round.
Nickelodeon’s efforts are being positioningas the “next generation of programming that introduces the psychology of biculturalism,” and so far, I’m cautiously optimistic.
Their site says, “If Dora and Diego popularized bilingualism, Kai-lan will weave together being bilingual and bicultural. Ni Hao, Kai-lan reinforces the idea that being bicultural and bilingual is being American.”
They even toss around words like ‘curriculum’ so this seems like more than a ‘fill the void to sell stuff to a new demographic’ character-licensing deal.
As Ashley said in her last report,
“It is painfully obvious that Asian characters are absent on TV. When they are included, they are usually terribly stereotyped or supporting characters without much development. With almost 15 million Americans being of Asian ancestry, why aren’t they more frequently represented? More importantly, what’s with the lack of diversity in children’s television?”
Yep. Inclusion is a great start that merits kudos in my book…The fact that it’s educational and teaches cultural competence and language skills is an added bonus.
Here’s Ashley’s newsy Diverse TV post that tracks the trends in children’s television, from the heavily merchandised Dora the Explorer, to the hit spinoff, Go, Diego, Go and Disney’s Handy Manny with his “prosocial and problem solving skills with a singing tool box.”
At some point, I’d like to have Carmen do a ’round-up’ of media deconstruction on all of these cartoon offerings, to see how they fare in the stereotype circuit and diversity/realism arena in terms of content covered.
Big question though…
Why is it that all the efforts to create ‘the good stuff’ seem to halt after preschool?
Seems we all get lured into complacency with educational pbs ‘harmlessness’ then WHAMMO…a media messaging shift to “mean girl” stereotyped antics, snippy cliques and tribes, undermining parents with sass-mouthed behavioral cues treating them as dolts, and normalizing everything from backtalk to messy rooms, peer nasties, and brand-status.
Why IS that???
It’s almost as if the producers are thinking, ‘well, hey, we’ll start ‘em out right, but they’re gonna hit school age in a jiff, so why bother?’
Suddenly, everything is produced to the lowest common denominator setting vapid values in idiotic sitcom style.
I sure miss The Cosby Show reruns and quality family fare.
I still have Cosby scripts I use to teach kids how to write dialog and unmask the media magic of how screenwriting works. (though NO ONE can imitate Bill Cosby’s hilarious comedic timing and facial expressions; he’s my all-time fave) Ok, snapping out of memory lane now…
Anyway, by integrating compelling media, diversity, and life lessons far beyond passive entertainment and preach-n-teach methods, kids are inspired to open up to new ideas.
Examples?
The virtual world of Panwapa to begin to seed cross-cultural understanding…
Sites like pbs kids’ Eeko World where kids can build their own creatures and homes, and learn how their choices matter…(eco-post update soon, meanwhile check Ashley’s blog for more sites from Kelli Best-Oliver here)
Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President annual tradition with Linda Ellerbee that aired last Sunday (story on that forthcoming!) and their site in ‘voter sim’ style to teach and engage with the primary process. (See Izzy Neis’ post here)
There are pros and cons to media integration in multiple facets (for instance, the ‘soundbite mentality’ that we need to warn kids about in terms of ‘voting’ and such) but when handled well, media can facilitate (and add to) a far more dynamic conversation to enrich kids and appeal to them with engaging content.
That’s where it will be interesting to see how these language-learning cultural TV tidbits fit into the passive media mix…
Fingers crossed Nickelodeon gets it right!
And speaking of getting things right…
Did you know that Chinese fortune cookies actually came from Japan? Check out Carmen’s extensive post debunking the Chinese mythology once and for all!
I LIVED in Japan and didn’t even know that! I told you she lifts the veil and reveals the truth, no matter how embedded the ethnic history may be. Here’s hoping she gives a thumbs up to Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan…
I’ll definitely be watching the sneak peek, and may ask our VP of Shaping Youth, Lori Tamura-Chinn to join me in assessing. (She’s Japanese, married to a Chinese man, so probably a pretty good reality check judge) Being raised in Hawaii, we all were keenly aware that lumping “Asian” into one big pot was a culture clash of the highest order. So let’s see how Nickelodeon portrays this multi-generational Chinese-American family…
Snapshot of Kai-Lan’s ‘Curriculum’ from Nickelodeon’s site
“The show will familiarize the viewing audience with elements of Chinese and Chinese American cultures to promote multicultural understanding in the next generation and goes beyond featuring “culture” as only ethnic food and festivals. Instead, it celebrates growing up in an intergenerational family, having friends from diverse backgrounds, and “habits of the heart” that are Chinese American.
These values include:
Mind-body connection Typically, television portrays excitement as the good emotion to feel. In many Chinese-American communities, the good thing to feel is often calmness and contentment. Feeling excited and feeling calm can both be happy feelings, but they differ in how aroused the body is.
Perspective-taking In many Chinese and other East Asian families, children are encouraged to take the perspective of others to maintain harmony in relationships with other people.
Being a good member of the group Ni Hao, Kai-lan also emphasizes the Chinese and Chinese American value of being a good member of a group.
Social & Emotional Goals Highlight cause-and-effect thinking about social and emotional issues germane to preschoolers and to support preschooler’s social and emotional development.”
Related Resources
Cartoons With Heart…And a Little Mandarin, NYTimes
Mandarin Media
Skype As A Second Language, Wired Campus, Chronicle of Higher Education
Google Chinese Translator article on Adoption Blogs showing how it works (cool tool!)
ChineseTutor (using Skype/MSN, video)
eChinese Learning (one to one learning using video instant messaging software)
Chinese Kids Prefer Surfing: Internet Use (Reuters/AP in Red Herring)
Do They Have Salsa in China? (Kai-lan post; int’l adoption blog)
I’m not sure Ni Hao Kai Lan is a good show for my daughter. She is 2 and everytime she watches it she gets very emotional. She usually retales the story but gets really caught up in telling it and usually spends the day acting out the emotion that the episode was about. Typically you can understand her when she tells stories and explains her needs, but after watching the show she is hard to understand and talks really fast.
Do you know if there are studies out there that discuss the outcomes of introducing young children to emotional programing?
Aside from the “no TV under two” American Academy of Pediatrics (wrote an extensive post on the “electronic pacifier” here> https://shapingyouth.org/?p=125) It’s not just the toddler/emotional content that concerns, for epic anime/cartoons like the older Spirited Away, etc., which I loved, can also have significant reverb if age-appropriateness isn’t assessed in a big way, based on the child’s personality, temperament, etc.
Study wise, I’ll ask around…Kff.org has an older one (’06)I reference often here: http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/The-Media-Family-Electronic-Media-in-the-Lives-of-Infants-Toddlers-Preschoolers-and-Their-Parents-Biographies.pdf and UC Davis has some interesting brain dev work here: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/sources/infants.lasso
But pertinent studies on emotional upheaval and media in wee ones as of late I’ve got ‘nada’…will check around!
If you find one pls. share? As always I’d use the data checkpoints of “who’s running the study, who’s funding it, etc.” for thorough vetting….as we all know vested interests can skew/downplay and/or hype up accordingly.
p.s. I’m sure you’ve seen all the ‘general’ articles/info out there re: emotional development from sites like “Pediatrics for Parents” etc. e.g. http://pregnancy.about.com/od/yourbaby/a/babiesandtv.htm but I’m more of a ‘resourcer’ than a researcher, so by no means an expert in any of this. (that said, sometimes objective parties bring all sides to light with full fairness too!) 😉
Anyway, I’ll keep my eyes peeled and ask around…thanks for raising the topic! Come visit again soon? –Amy
.-= Amy Jussel´s last blog ..Default Today! The Student Loan Documentary Needs You On Ideablob! =-.
will not let my son watch this show. His behavior changes as well during and after watching the show. This “i’m MAD” is getting on my nerves. We do not use those words in our home to each other. Where did he learn this —- Ni-Hao. He imitates the characters. Throws things, tantrum, pushes and hits other kids. Sometimes he thinks that right after doing it by saying I am sorry its ok to do it.
This is a bad influence cartoon playing on Nick Jr.
All parents that feel like this should make it known to the right people to try to get this show off the air or something.
We will no longer see this show in our house.
My youngest child is crazy about watching cartoons but I don’t really want her watching television until she is 3 years old.
My older child who is 12 years old is watching Chinese cartoons because I want her to learn Chinese because we leave in China.
I think it is very important for children to learn a language when they are young, and I think there are great online resources for Chinese videos such as http://www.mandarinnetwork.com.
As long as the kid is young enough, they are like sponges.
Of course now, kids can get international fare served up in huge digital dollops to learn multiple languages and expose them to all kinds of cool content…Recently wrote a post about Ameba TV who has become a bit of a holding tank for indie content that’s worthy of more eyeballs…check it out here:
Ameba: Best Childrens TV you’ve never seen:
https://shapingyouth.org/?p=17455
Please fix presentation of story line
I like this show for its cultural lessons. I like that a midst the more predominant characters that there is an Asian American character who is fun, loving and thoughtful! I understand the premise is to show emotions and how to handle them but to a 2 year old the lesson is lost. Temper tantrums are to be had but the characters take too long to address it. Present, address, resolve and repeat for younger viewers to understand the lesson. Instead, the emotion is presented, it continues, it escalates to the point of one character punching the other, it continues and then it resolves. All a 2 year old gets at this point is that he/she can be angry and then he/she can hit someone for it. I can’t let them watch this show anymore because of it and I am disappointed because I really want them to know about other cultures.