So I later realized the Jade Palace in this film might be based on the Temple of Confucius in Qufu. The front of the main building has 10 dragon pillars . It is such a special sight that legend has it, when a Qing Dynasty emperor came to visit, they had to cover up all the pillars with red cloths, just to "humble" it a little.
Of course, it is still pale in comparison to the dozens of golden red pillars in Kung Fu Panda. So the point still stands, I guess?

I'll be posting these kind of tidbits on my social media in the upcoming days. Come follow me on Twitter or Facebook!

Also, check out Xiran Jay Zhao's amazing video on the cultural inspirations behind Kung Fu Panda:
https://youtu.be/x1eHIfUyYfs

I swear I didn't plan for this video to come just two weeks after their video :)

To be fair, having Shifu present Kung Fu as a violent fight-obsessed art instead of a vehicle for self-reflection and self-defense is part of the plot. His teachings drove the Furious Five to attack Tai Lung first, who similarly uses Kung Fu to assert force and dominance (and he was also taught this by Shifu!). Meanwhile, Po learns from the dragon scroll that the key to mastering Kung Fu is through self-reflection. I believe it's actually commentary on how the west DOES see Kung Fu as "might makes right" and subverts it by having the hero self-reflect and learn balance and control to prevail instead.

Kung Fu Panda being about a fat American kid simping for Chinese culture was quite an interesting insight that you can only get from this channel

I believe the "ninja star" at the beginning of the film actually represents Po's naive/misguided view of Kung Fu more than the film not understanding Chinese culture.

"There is a Chinese proverb for this, because there is a Chinese proverb for everything."
I will not be surprised if I learn that this is, in fact, a real Chinese proverb.

"American kid growing up admiring kung-fu movies" your insight about movie is amazing.

As the panda is inherently gentle, I feel that the panda sort of embodies the enlightenment and balance, only being enhanced, but not lost as the instrumnet of power. I think this is the reason the panda was chosen, already being in the right mindset

"Why China loved kungfu Panda?"

Master oogway: "mmm monke"

"The film is more interested in the badassery, and not so much it's culture."
That's when you know it's really American.

But at the end of the chopstick fight, Po tosses his dumpling back at Shifu, says he's not hungry, and bows...it's a reflection that he's learnt self-control and respect, two cornerstones of kung fu. That one scene said more about kung fu than a lot of mindless HK action movies in the 90s lol.

I remember I was in a taxi in San Francisco driven by an immigrant Chinese driver. He told me in China nobody cared about pandas as stuffed toys until Kungfu Panda appeared. He went on to say that Hollywood has a cultural power that even the Chinese leadership envied. I think this was also voiced by Jiang Zhimin himself in one interview.

"This film loves China more than China loves itself."

This is legitimately the funniest thing I have heard from you.  And it's fucking brilliant.

So, Kun Fu panda is a love letter/cultural appreciation of /one specific part/ of chinese culture. It doesnt pretend to be authentic, or to know more about China than their people unlike Mulan (2019). Instead, it works with its knowledge and tells their (incredibly western) tale, without forgeting the love for /specific part of chinese culture/ . As a writer, this is good knowledge to have. I have no way to do authentic chinese culture in my history. I can't pretend that i'm not western, but i don't have to. I can work with /chinese fantasy/ without being pretentious, just being authentic to my knowledge. Thanks, this is wonderfull advice for everyone who wants to tell a story with different cultural elements.

There is a saying in China before is called: "We have kungfu, we have panda, but we don't have kungfu panda."That's a kind of self-deprecating, reflection on lack of creativity.

I remember a video on why Kung fu Panda is the perfect trilogy, and I love how the video explained that each movie represents an aspect of Chinese Philosophy, 3 parts of a person that one improves upon, and what Po improves himself.

The first movie represents Body, because Po had to train his body in kung fu, discover his own power, to become the Dragon Warrior and defeat an opponent who trained his body his whole life.
The second movie represents Mind, because Po had to face his past and focus his mind to achieve inner peace and defeat an opponent who toyed with his mind.
The third movie represents Spirit, because Po had to learn the power of Chi, to connect to the Spirit realm to defeat an opponent who manipulated chi/spirit.

Based on my limited knowledge, there are a few concepts in Chinese philosophy that the film does actually manage to encapsulate, such as Oogway's lesson not to distort the essential nature of things by struggling to improve them into what they can never be, which is rather Taoist. Zhuang Zhou would call such efforts, "beating a drum in search of a fugitive."

What this video leaves out as that the emphasis on martial prowess is a bait and switch: the movie isn't just telling you to be yourself, but that being yourself is the real purpose of Kung Fu, Kung Fu meaning "excellence of self," in direct contrast to the flashie movies that everyone else in the movie, including the supposed mentor figure, Shi Fu, thought was so important.

The only person who gets it is Oogway who says,
"A man often meets his fate on the path he takes to avoid it."
This is not a Chinese quote, but it captures the same atmosphere as Zhuang Zhou; that self improvement is a red herring and of inferior virtue, whereas self acceptance leads to genuine growth because you become aligned to your own nature.

I like that distinction between accuracy and sincerity. You can feel the appreciation of Chinese culture in the film, but there's no actual attempt to make it authentic.

There a portion somewhat incorrect, you are correct that the 5 and Shifu care more about fighting, but they are not representation of good martial spirit, which is why they all failed. Oogway is the true master archetype from asian cinema, not shifu. Shifu is actually the bad or disciplinarian archetype that also exist in abundance in Chinese wuxia literature and cinema. Everything Shifu taught was wrong because he was suppose to be wrong.

I wish you also mentioned how Master Shifu's name is representative of Shi fu in Chinese, so his name is basically "Master Master" and it's kinda both a self-referencing joke but also a show of how warped the perspective of China you get when the only exposure you get is from Chinese Kung Fu movies.

I would argue that him being trained as a strict warrior is actually playing into the foil of the series which is the leopard.
Tai lung is the result of training this way. In learning this you can learn that something about the sifu's training was wrong.