How endearing. Turns out that several unfortunate villagers of Tsoi Yuen who have to move because of the unnecessary Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, have found inspiration in the recently released sci-fi movie Avatar. And indeed, there are similarities between both stories: in the movie the blue Na’vi living on the planet Pandora are forced to leave their eh.. tree after the evil earthlings decide to blow it up, whereas the villagers are forced to relocate due to our evil government and corporations who want another railway. At one point in the film, the character played by Sam Worthington rallies up a good crowd by yelling (at 3:09):

“They have sent us a message that they can take whatever they want. Well, we will send them a message that this, this our land!”

So naturally, a creative way to draw attention for the cause is by identifying with three meter tall CGI aliens and protest outside of a cinema with blue signs attached saying: “This is our land.”  The Sunday Morning Post further reports about a heart-breaking event that occurred: Chimmy Chan Hoi-shan - the daughter of one villager- cried during the movie when the big tree -and home of the aliens- was destroyed.

Very creative indeed! Yet unfortunately there is another resemblance. The distance between most of us and the village of Tsoi Yeun is approximately similar to the distance between Earth and Pandora: five light years. So of course, the majority will not care or take notice. The identification with blue, three meter tall aliens does illustrate another point however: there are reasons why it will take ownership of U.S. debt and brand new anti-ship ballistic missiles* in order for some to take the Chinese seriously.

* Full article here, if you have an SCMP account.