The Berestain Bears Teaches Us About Wacky Chinese Neighbors

By Ernie | Sunday, January 4, 2009 | 19 Comments

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Stan and Jan Berenstain are children books illustrators of an older time and place — Jan Berenstain is 85, Stan passed away in 2005 — but have created the Berestain Bears; a family of rural walking, talking clothes-wearing bears, and through a media empire of books, television shows and terrible video games, teach children important lessons about life and sharing. Kind of like the bible, with less God and more animal anthropomorphism.

The books have been around since I was a kid, and lessons are universal to 4 to 8 year olds: Don’t watch too much TV! Don’t eat too much junk food! Be grateful for what you have! But this link from the 10 most Awkward Berenstain Bear Books pointed out one book that missed my radar growing up, probably because it came out in 1994: Don’t be afraid of your Chinese neighbors.

Okay, technically the neighbors in The Berenstain Bears’ New Neighbors aren’t Asian; they’re pandas. You know, animals that known to be from China and dress in two-tone colors like people from the Cultural Revolution. (Let’s not kid ourselves here folks, a bunch of Latvians did not move into Bear County.) And similar to Clint Eastwood with his new Hmong neighbors in the movie Gran Turino, Papa Bear is the racist neighbor, ~~brandishing a shotgun when gangbangers come to town and~~ generally resistant of his new neighbors.

But thankfully this a children’s book and not an Oscar platform and in a couple of easy to digest pages, and a glass of bamboo juice, “all learn a valuable lesson in acceptance and the dangers of bigotry.” But wait until Papa Bear finds out that pandas aren’t a part of the bear family; Papa Bear might be brandishing that shotgun after all. Feel lucky, panda? Do you?

(Hat tip: Mike)

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http://www.8asians.com John

Berenstain Bears – damn, I remember those books. Brings back memories of elementary school, getting the Weekly Reader and Scholastic Book club. I came across an interview on NPR with Judy Blume and her talking about “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”

Panda Bears as Chinese neighbors – makes sense to me in the context of the Berenstain Bears. I wonder what stereotypes the book perpetuated…? Are they Kung Fu Pandas?
http:/www.thesweetesttongue.com stan

LOL, I remember reading the Berenstein bears growing up. I always knew Papa Bear was prone to bigotry. I say we send a copy to Bristol Palin!
CaliStunna

Did the Panda neighbors tell the Berestain bears family to take off their shoes before entering their house?
http://www.chrisminglee.com Christopher Lee

Everyone – if you look at the last page of the book, you see that the Mama Panda Bear looks f*cking pissed, while everyone else is enjoying their bbq’ed bamboo shoots. This means one of two things:
1. She didn’t get any of her own shoots.
2. The other Bears didn’t put on slippers when they walked into Panda Bear house. (CaliStunna – the Berenstein Bears family didn’t wear shoes – they’re bears.)

It must have been a million years since I saw this book, but my memory is pretty ridic. I’m just glad the Boy Panda Bear was ill-nasty at soccer, though I think it would’ve been funny if they drew him playing ping poing instead.
jennifer

omg i think this is hilarious. do korean tigers live next door to the pandas?
CaliStunna

(Christopher – the Berenstein Bears family didn’t wear shoes – they’re bears.)

Contradiction!. Notice how they are wearing clothes!
Xxxtine

LOL@jennifer – have they actually been able to find Tigers in Korea? Is anyone tending garden in the DMZ? I hear it’s an oasis in there.
http://chopstix.wordpress.com/ Moye

oh man. i used to love these books. i think i even tried to collect them all and had the official calendar and everything.
http://www.chrisminglee.com Christopher Lee

@ CalifStunna – touche! However, they still do not wear shoes.
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