China is a country with long long history, and many mythical animals of remote ages that have been passed down by word of mouth or documents. There are four Saint Beasts in Chinese myths and legends of the ancient times, i.e., Taotie, Hundun, Taowu, and Qiongqi. The origin of the four Saint Beasts are four Immortals, i.e., Sanmiao, Huandou, Gun, and Gonggong, who who had done all kinds of evil without virtues. And after the death, the four Immortals were debased from Heaven to Earth, and then Sanmiao, Huandou, Gun, and Gonggong transformed into Taotie, Hundun, Taowu, and Qiongqi respectively. To be practical and realistic, the history of four Saint Beasts in Chinese myth is much richer than the Beasts in King Kong, Godzilla, and Alien series. The Chinese Beasts always cannot prove their presence and strength to film fans for lack of stages. The Taotie in The Great Wall (film) is a good start, which means that the movie road of the four Chinese Saint Beasts become smooth.

The Great Wall is a 2016 epic historical fiction action-adventure monster film directed by Zhang Yimou. The film stars Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau. In ancient China, the man-eating monster, Taotie, will gather together to invade the human territory to eat people every 60 years. Human Legion has to build the Great Wall to resist the invasion of monsters. Because of an accidental opportunity, the Foreign Mercenaries who look for gunpowder accidentally enter the Great Wall where they get to know the shadow troops who are against the Taoties. And together they resist the beasts hand in hand.

As a monster film, The Great Wall constantly emphasizes that Chinese invented gunpowder and compass. And The Great Wall makes another contribution that it presents the Chinese traditional Saint Beasts to the world audiences. The Great Wall, the ambitious work of Zhang Yimou, shoulders an important mission to introduce the Chinese cultural landmarks and mythical monsters to the world. Like that the shadow troops affect outsider Matt Damon with their indomitable spirits, Zhang Yimou uses his recreation of Chinese culture to influence more people to concern Chinese native cultures.

What is the Saint Beast Taotie?

Taotie only has his head and big mouth, and it eat everything, including its body. Taotie dies from overeating, and it becomes the symbol of greed. There are several versions of the origin of Saint Beast Taotie.

According to the ancient Chinese work, Shanhaiching, or the Classic of Mountains and Rivers, the Gouwu Mountain was rich of jade, and copper mine underground. There was a Beast on the Mountain that had the goat shape, and human face. Its eyes were under its armpit, and its teeth were like tiger teeth and its paws human hands, and it sounded like human infant. Here the Saint Beast Taotie is shaped as Humanoid beast. Below are two sketches of Taotie, according the description of Shanhaiching.

But somebody believes that Taotie was the transformation of Chiyou, the mythological warrior engaged in fighting with the Yellow Emperor who was the ancestor of Han nationality. In the decisive battle, Chiyou was killed, and he became resentment lingers, and his head was cut and fell to the ground to become Taotie. It is said that Chiyou looked thin, but infact greedy, which happened to coincide with Taotie.

In another story, Taotie was the fifth son of the Dragon. It had the shape of wolf, and was always desperate to eat. Because Taotie was extremely greedy, people in China call those persons that are greedy of food and fortune as Taotie persons. And in The Great Wall, Taotie is sent from God to punish the human because of the insatiably avaricious King Zhou, so human and Taotie are engaged in war every 60 years, which lasts 2000 years.

But Taotie was not the symbol of greed at the beginning, and it was once deemed as the mythical animal of deterrent to the nine regions of ancient China, so its image was engraved on many bronze wares, especially bronze tripod that was very important for ancient Chinese. Taotie pattern on the bronze wares dated from the Liangzhu Culture jade carving, 5000 years ago in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Traditionally, Taotie pattern on the bronze wares are not only an animal face images design, but also means Sun God. And the eyes are especially important for Taotie. In The Great Wall, the eyes of Taotie are given importance. Once the eyes are wounded, Taotie is seriously injured or dies. That may be the reason why the eyes are under its armpit.

Space exploration is always a good topic to make films, as people on the earth have been working a long time to find something out of the planet. But now, the American people get their first time to finish the job with the Chinese help. The Martian is a 2015 American science fiction survival film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. The film is based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel The Martian, which Drew Goddard adapted into a screenplay. Damon stars as an astronaut.

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. He even manages to plant potatoes on the Mars. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists, including Chinese and American Chinese scientists, work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. The most important help is from the Chinese scientists, and the Chinese even abort their “Taiyangshen” Project to offer the space booster. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. And the end of the film, Astronaut Mark Watney begins a peace and sound life, which is the typical American movie ending that peace often comes after storms.

The Chinese scientists, booster, cheering crowd, food, and the American Chinese.

That Watney wants to find the Mars Pathfinder which was launched in November, 1996, and lost contact in August 21, 1997, to get contact with NASA is observed by NASA, and the NASA call in the team led by an American Chinese to try to make the Mars Pathfinder back to work. Maybe the American Chinese is the typical image of which is the American think American Chinese scientists to be, not careful about personal figure, lack of exercises, but intelligent and hardworking. And he appears even without a tie, not like that those American white all shine up like a new penny.

The team works very hard to do the job, and they have Chinese food often. Where there are Chinese, there is Chinese food. In the film, the team eats Chinese food bento to save time. In American films, Chinese food never appears in the dinner, but just a way of fast supplementary. Maybe with the help of Chinese food, they finally get in contact.

Considering Watney is short of supply, the NASA team decides to launch a rocket in a hurry to to bring him back. Unfortunately, the rocket explodes into pieces after the launch. But this time, Chinese scientists prove their spacecraft is able to fly to the Mars and back to the earth after accurate calculation, and the Chinese really offer a favor to help.

The Chinese scientists make the great and grand decision in a dictatorial way that just two directors discuss for a minute. That is really undemocratic. I don’t know if the film deliberately describes this detail to make a contrast. In the next plot, the aircraft crew holds a democratic lengthy conference to analyze the bad and the good about going back to save their comrade when the arrow is fitted to the string. What if the Chinese government holds a democratic lengthy conference to analyze the bad and the good about offering their spacecraft? The Martian might die already.

Anyway, the rescue becomes the focus of all over the world, and this is no exception in China. Numbers of average people constantly pay close attention to TV shows that tell the details about the rescue, and the Chinese crowd cheers for the success of the rescue. The American really flatter themselves.

The story sounds impressive that the Martian heroic efforts to explore the space are so admirable, that people work so hard to search the unknown world to look into the future, that the space team work together to take care every member, that the American humanistic concern flows into everybody’s heart because the American people would never abandoned one man behind, that American scientists sacrifice themselves to the nation and people. And this is the American way of American films. But let’s taste the story carefully.

There is a saying that war is a continuation of politics by other means. Film is a continuation of politics by other means, too. The West always criticize that Chinese government is not transparent about certain affairs. In the film, the American people criticize that the Chinese is not transparent about the “Taiyangshen” Project with the result that the American are near to fail in the rescue, even though the Chinese CNSA scientists prove that their “Taiyangshen” booster is able to get to the Mars orbit, and offer to help. And with the grievances, the film says nothing about that Chinese make a big sacrifice, that Chinese abort the “Taiyangshen” Project, that Chinese do a lot of things to get the booster ready, that Chinese care about every spaceman. What Chinese get is just a saying thank you from the NASA director. And the American rescue is live all over the world to witness that the powerful American people consolidate world source to do the right thing. Even the Chinese cheering crowd is proud of the American behavior. China is ignored again.

Whatever, all efforts done by the Chinese are just to manifest the greatness of American.

The associated event is so ironic.

Galileo is the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that is currently being created by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA), headquartered in Prague in the Czech Republic, with two ground operations centers, Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich in Germany and Fucino in Italy. Galileo is to provide a new global search and rescue (SAR) function as part of the MEOSAR system.

In September 2003, China was invited to join the Galileo project. China was to invest €230 million (US$302 million, GBP 155 million, CNY 2.34 billion) in the project over the following years. With the Chinese money, the finance shortage eased, and with the Chinese participation, the European Union got great political capital against America. That is, in the beginning when Galileo was viewed as a private-sector development with public-sector financial participation, European Commission program managers sought Chinese participation in pursuit of Chinese cash in the short term and privileged access to China’s market for positioning and timing applications in the longer term.

But from 2005, EU pro-U.S. political leaders began to push China aside. What China got was not proportional to the huge amount of funds. China also dissatisfied with the obstacles set up by European Space Agency in the technology cooperation. In November 2006, China opted instead to independently develop the Beidou navigation system satellite navigation system. At the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit on 10 March 2010, a Chinese government official asked the European Commission why it no longer wanted to work with China, and when China’s cash investment in Galileo would be returned. China planned to set up BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of global coverage in 2020, and Asia-Pacific coverage in 2012. BeiDou is better than Galileo in most performance parameters, and BeiDou even possesses the orbit and frequency which was planned by Galileo before.

In the film, the noble westerners accept the Chinese help. Would they be sorry about the past events?