The Blue Spirit Wanted Poster
緝拿
蓝神
劫持降世神通
頭戴蓝色土國面具
身份不明外傳為鬼之說不足信
如探得行踪須全力以赴
Wanted
The Blue Spirit
kidnapped the Avatar from the Fire Nation.
Wears a blue Earth Kingdom mask.
Unidentified rumor has it that he’s a ghost.
This has not been confirmed.
If you locate his whereabouts,
use maximum force to capture him.
I do realize that my translation differs from the Avatar Wiki one. The wiki one adds implied bits that are not there on the actual poster.
Dragon Dance and Lion Dance
The performance we see in ‘The Deserter’, when Aang, Katara and Sokka visit the Fire Nation colony, is a combination of the Lion Dance and the Dragon Dance.
As in the Lion Dance, the performers we see in that episode, are covered under the costume, yet the head of the costume closely resembles the Chinese dragon from the Dragon Dance, not a lion. It does, however, lack the pearl that would make it a true dragon.
The flaming pearl under the dragon’s chin or in their mouth is associated with wealth, good luck, and prosperity.
The Lion Dance
The Lion dance 舞狮 is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in a lion costume.
The story goes that once upon a time a monk had a dream in which there were many sorrows and evils plaguing the land. The monk prayed and asked the gods how he could prevent these evils from occurring. The gods told him that a lion would protect them and fight back the evils. The Chinese people had never seen a lion before, but had heard stories that the lion was the king of all the other animals, so the monk combined all the lucky or magical animals he could think of and so made a lion.
If you look closely at any lion, you can see a red sash tied on its horn. It is told that the lion was disrespectful to the Jade Emperor. This of course caused the Jade Emperor to get very angry, so as a punishment he chopped off his horn (The source of his life) and the lion died. The Goddess of Mercy (Guan Yin) felt bad for him so she tied his horn back on with a red sash with golden leaves and chanted to the lion and he came back to life.
The lion dance is often mistakenly referred to as dragon dance. An easy way to tell the difference is that a lion is operated by two people, while a dragon needs many people. Also, in a lion dance, the performers’ faces are covered, since they are inside the lion. In a dragon dance, the performers can be seen since the dragon is held upon poles.
The Dragon Dance
The Dragon dance 舞龙is a form of traditional dance and performance in Chinese culture. Like the lion dance it is most often seen in festive celebrations.
In the dance, a team of people carry the dragon — which is an image of the Chinese dragon — on poles. A dragon can be composed of up to 50 people. The dance team does mimic the supposed movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner. The movements in a performance traditionally symbolise historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity.
The temple we see in the “Bato of the Watertribe” episode follows the design of a courtyard house. Courtyard houses (siheyuan 四合院) epitomize traditional Chinese architecture.
A siheyuan 四合院 is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing. In English, siheyuan are sometimes referred to as Chinese quadrangles. The name literally means a courtyard surrounded by four buildings.
Throughout Chinese history, the siheyuan composition was the basic pattern used for residences, palaces, temples, monasteries, family, businesses and government offices.
Sources: One
One of the many reason I adore this show is the attention to detail you can find in it.
Take a look at the roof in the perfume monastery. The animators did not just draw any old roof, but went out of their way to accurately portray the way roofs were historically build in China. Pretty cool, isn’t it :D
The Fire Temple on Roku’s island is based on the
Yellow Crane Tower first built in the year 223 AD, the current structure however, was rebuilt in 1981. The tower stands on Sheshan (Snake Hill), at the bank of Yangtze River in Wuchang District, Wuhan, in Hubei province of central China. Yellow Crane Tower is considered one of the Four Great Towers of China.
There are some legends regarding it, too:
There are at least two legends related to Yellow Crane Tower. In the first, an Immortal (仙人) name Wang Zi'an (王子安) rode off on a yellow crane from Snake Mountain. A tower was later built in commemoration.In the second, after becoming an Immortal, Fei Wenyi (费文祎) would ride a yellow crane and often stop on Snake Hill to take a rest.[1]
Also: See the official art book, page 52.
Some movie references I have noticed:
The offshore platform the earthbenders are kept on in “Imprisoned” looks like Yubaba’s bathhouse.
The ruby studded monkey statue on the pirate ship in “The Waterbending Scroll” looks a lot like the golden monkey statue in Disney’s Aladdin.
The lock on Haru’s mother’s strongbox is shaped like an upside down bat:
A picture of a bat (fu 蝠) can be a visual pun for “good fortune” or happiness (fu 福) because both characters are pronounced fu. Often the bat is shown flying upside down because the character (dao 倒) for “upside-down” and the character (dao 到) meaning “to have arrived” are both pronounced dao.
Source: one
Omashu: Chongqing
There are quite a few similarities that point toward Chongqing being an influence on Omashu. Let’s compare location, history and building style.
The location:
The tall mountain peak on which Omashu was founded is located in the Kolau Mountains in the southwestern Earth Kingdom. It rises high out of a deep chasm and was created several centuries ago by Earthbenders. Being built on this mountain provides the city with one of its best defenses, the only way to reach the gates of Omashu is across a long narrow bridge of stone that spans the sheer gorge.[1
Chongqing 重庆is a major city in Southwest China. Located at the northern end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the eastern limits of the Sichuan Basin, Chongqing is intersected by the Jialing River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze. It contains the Daba Mountains in the north, the Wu Mountains in the east, the Wuling Mountains in the southeast, and the Dalou Mountains in the south.
The city is very hilly and as a result is unusual in China for its lack of significant numbers of bicycles.
Both cities are in the Southwest of the country, build on a mountain/s with rivers and gorges nearby.
History
An ancient legend states that a man named Shu and a woman named Oma, each from one of two feuding towns, met atop a mountain that divided their peoples and fell deeply in love.
Chonqing
Tradition associates Chongqing with the semi-legendary State of Ba that the Ba people supposedly established during the eleventh century BCE. By 316 BCE.
Ba territory originally included areas in the Han River valley; the ascendance of Chu pushed Ba westwards and further into the Sichuan basin.
Although the Chu sometimes encroached on Ba territory, Ba shared a complex relationship with Chu, with strong trade and marriage ties.
I am aware that this is not a complete match, but Chu and Shu do sound similar, especially since both are romanizations of Chinese words.
Occupation:
Omashu fared better than Chongqing did. Chongqing suffered greatly during the WWII occupation, while Omashu seemed to be mostly fine during the FN occupation. I do not see a parallel there.
Building Style: Please compare the pictures posted above.
To sum it up: I do think there are some strong similarities between the two cities i.e. the location and especially the Oma-Shu Ba-Chu case, but I am not 100% if this is not a coincidence.
Omashu: Bumi
Edit: Wherein Jin finds new sources:
Bumi’s character seems to be based on Lü Bu
A General from The Three Kingdom era.
Throughout Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lü Bu has been depicted as a ruthless and impulsive warrior who has no sense of loyalty and sympathy. It portrayed Lü Bu as an invincible warrior but an incapable leader who is further marred by character flaws.
Lü Bu was eventually defeated and captured by Cao Cao at the Battle of Xiapi. At Liu Bei’s suggestion, Cao Cao had Lü Bu hanged.
The feathers on Bumi’s hat/crown are also present in Beijing or Cantonese opera.As the quote says: In Beijing Opera the feathers are attached General’s helmets for the purpose of expressing and underlining emotion.
Bumi’s crown: reference (#6) 
i called 双雉盔 and worn by the Three Kingdom hero Lu Bu in video games, movies and manga. I am not sure how valid a source that is XD and how much of that and the Beijing Opera costumes is chicken and egg.
The quote is from: Beijing Opera Costumes by Alexandra B. Bonds p44
Omashu: Soldiers
And with Omashu we’re back on track with things Jin knows about :D
The references in Omashu are plenty, so I’ve decided to split them up into several topic posts.
The soldiers we see in Omashu are wearing a combination of Jin , Liao and Song Dynasty armor i.e. see the armor girdle. These dynasties share roughly the same time period of 900-1200 CE.
The studs on their wrist guards look more like the later Qing Dynasty to me. The Qing influence is more pronounced in Ba Sing Se and will be discussed then.
