The title of the book Sokka is holding is 子白 “child white”
As far as I Know, and I’ve also asked people who know more than me, this is not the title of a real book, or a recognizable phrase. My best guess, unless one of you knows better, is an injoke.Someone suggested it to be random characters, but honestly ATLA has never done that before.
Oddly enough, though, when I googled the term, I got A LOT of cabbage pictures.
Foxy Knowledge Seekers
Fox Spirits are called Huli Jing in Chinese and Kitsune in Japanese. Neither description fits the fox spirits we see in ATLA one-hundred percent, but they do seem to have more in common with the Kitsune than the Huli Jing. Kitsune are believed to possess superior inteligence i.e. this matches the ‘Knowledge Seeker’ part, where as Huli Jing are usually malicious. Both can take the form of human women. We know, Zei, we know.
In Chinese mythology, it is believed that all things are capable of acquiring human form, magical power, and immortality, provided that they receive sufficient energy, in such forms as human breath or essence from the moon and the sun.
Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in Pu Songling’s Liaozhai Zhiyi are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male.
Kitsune are believed to possess superior intelligence, long life, and magical powers. They are a type of yōkai, or spiritual entity, and the word kitsune is often translated as fox spirit. However, this does not mean that kitsune are ghosts, nor that they are fundamentally different from regular foxes. Because the word spirit is used to reflect a state of knowledge or enlightenment, all long-lived foxes gain supernatural abilities.
The Library
The document says 萬知堂神祕圖書館.
‘Spirit Wan Zhi Tang’s Hidden Library’ or 'The Hidden Library of the Spirit of the
Hall of Eternal Knowledge’
萬知堂神 Wan zhi Tang shi
萬 means 10000 if you read it literally, but also means 'a huge number, unending, gazillion’.
知 zhi means to know
堂 tang means hall
神 shen means spirit or god
祕 mi means secret, hidden, or mysterious
圖書館 tu shu guan means library
The Fire Nation palace and the Earth King’s palace in Ba Sing Se are both modeled on the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Fire Nation
The Fire Nation palace is modeled on the Hall of Supreme Harmony, with some added Thai architectural elements i.e. the flames on edge of the roof.
Earth Kingdom
The design of the Earth King’s palace, on the other hand, is modeled on the Meridian Gate.
Note: There will be more on the palace in Ba Sing Se, once I get to those episodes.
Earth Rumble Promotes Socialism
The Earthrumble symbol does look a lot like the Socialist ‘raised fist salute’.
No, I am not being serious. This is 99.9% just a coincidence, or, at the most, someone giggling over their visual joke.
Professor Zei practices Phrenology
Professor Zei, the the head of the Anthropology Department at Ba Sing Se University, uses phrenology to asses Aang. What is thrown in as a quick joke actually portrays Professor Zei as -while affable- more than a tad racist. And that is not the only time. Remember how dismissively he treats the Sandbenders? Using the word ‘shoo’ to actual people, in a non-joking way, says a lot about what he thinks of them.
Phrenology is a theory which claims to be able to determine character, personality traits, intelligence and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head by measuring the size and shape of the skull and reading bumps.
It has NO base in reality but is/was solely used to justify racist, sexist and classist ideologies i.e. women have smaller skulls, so 'of course’ we have to be less intelligent than men, who on average have bigger skulls. Or shall we try the 'that low brow makes you a criminal’? Yeah…
Guess who also used this charming theory? The Nazis and other eugenics loving governments.
Aang’s Wanted Poster - Earth Kingdom Edition
At the end of the season two episode “The Blind Bandit” the Earth Rumble boss says he’s going to turn in Aang, for the reward, to the Fire Nation. The wanted poster he is holding up does not resemble the one we see in ‘The Deserter’, but the one Zhao uses to threaten Zuko in “The Blue Spirit”.
How did Xin Fu get his hands on one of those? Does the Earth Kingdom reproduce them on their own?
There are subtle differences between the one Zhao shows and the one we see Xin Fu having, e.g. Aang’s trouser leg and his sleeves, that point toward it being a re-print.
Selling out to the Fire Nation seems to be a thing. Not that I can blame the EK. Ba Sing Se decided, a long time ago, that it could not be arsed to give a damn about anything/anyone but who lives in their walls, so why should they?
The Bei Fongs and Delusions of Grandeur
Note how they serve the same food you’d get at a royal invite-only party. And, no, those are not the same images, there are slight differences that show that this was drawn separately.
Here’s to hoping that the Ba Sing Se version the royal chef cooked up tastes better XD
Ba Sing Se Fashion – Qipao is not Qipao
People in Ba Sing Se wear traditional Manchu clothes. This means women wear qipaos/cheongsams. Like any other clothing these follow different fashions in different decades. What you get when you google qipaos/cheongsams is not what we see in Ba Sing Se, but a more modern version of the same style created in Shanghai in the 1920s.
The cheongsam is a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women; the male version is the changshan. It is known in Mandarin Chinese as the qípáo旗袍; and is also known in English as a mandarin gown. The stylish and often tight-fitting cheongsam or qipao (chipao) that is most often associated with today was created in the 1920s in Shanghai and was made fashionable by socialites and upperclass women.
Note: This is not the same as hanfu. China has 56 ethnic groups, each with their own distinct traditional dress.
What time period is A:TLA set in?
Note: Click the links to read the full entry I wrote on that topic, with more facts, comparisons and sources.
I came across this //What time period(s) would you say ATLA is based upon? I understand that LOK is a bit based on America in the early 1900s but ATLA’s time period has always been a puzzle to me.// on my dash and since I’ve seen similar questions pop up time and again I’ve decided to answer that one in detail.
Before I start, please remember that neither A:TLA or LOK are set in the real world. Both are set in a fictional universe that draws from real world sources for reference and commentary, as well as multiple time periods at once. It is not, and I have to stress this hard, set in the West. A:TLA is set in a Sino-centric universe i.e. as all Western cultures are based on a Roman and Greek foundation (e.g. writing, law, democracy, mythology, naming, etc.), A:TLA is based on a Chinese one, with Chinese writing, clothing, architecture etc.
Part one: Where is Legend of Korra set?
In Republic City, a fictionalized version of Hong Kong, with a side of Shanghai. It is not set in the US or any other Western Country.
Now the time period is a bit more tricky. The political commentary on Hong Kong sets Republic City it in the future, since right now Hong Kong is not its own country, but is destined/doomed to become part of the Mainland in 2047 when “one country, two systems” ends
The costuming/fashion in LOK, as well as the cars, weapons and the mob situation reference Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. The political situation, as far as we know now, does not.
As for the anti-bender movement, I am not yet sure what exactly they are referencing, if they are referencing anything at all. Potentially it could be the Communist movement or the Cultural Revolution. We’ll have to see what is going on in the Earth Kingdom first.
If you have any doubt about the time period setting, do watch this movie, it is pretty awesome!
Part two: When is A:TLA set?
As I said before, it is not set in one time period. Different places draw from different times in Chinese history.
Parts are set in the Three Kingdoms period e.g. Bumi is based on a Three Kingdom general.
We see a lot of Tang Dynasty clothing (Toph and her family) as well as Tang dynasty armor (Fire Nation).
Kyoshi’s time and Chin the Great specifically references Qin Shi Huang Di, the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty 221 BC–206 BC.
Ba Sing Se is, on the other hand, set in the late 19th, early 20th century when China was still being ruled by the Manchu dynasty e.g. Kuei is a direct reference to the Last Emperor Pu Yi (as I mentioned in the Republic City post).
The Air Nomads, and the genocide, reference the ongoing political situation in Tibet.
Place references without time period:
Ember Island strongly resembles Thailand, Song’s village Korea and Kyoshi Island Japan, the Water Tribes have strong Inuit and Sami influences.
