Confucius loses his way

The wave of anti-Confucius sentiment following the removal of Avatar from 2D screens reveals a backlash against official maneuvering

In the ongoing holiday movie season, there is an "I-hate-Confucius" undercurrent. It has boiled to the surface and become a form of "counter-terrorism". In Chinese, the homonym for Confucius and terrorism are both "kong".

Not that Confucius is a terrible movie. The biopic is in the same vein as those Jesus movies produced in the West. You cannot depict a saint-like Amadeus, the music prodigy, as all giggles and antics. It has to be a one-dimensional portrayal. But public reaction has been largely negative. In one online survey, 67 percent of respondents gave the movie a thumbs-down; while in a much larger survey, the same percentage gave Avatar the thumbs-up.