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Dumpling Sister's Thoughts
2.23.2008 Doraemon (a.k.a The Little Ding Dang) (Chinese Version)
This time when I visited Taiwan, I noticed something that I
previously didn’t notice – I found that Doraemon, the
robotic cat from a popular manga series, was present
everywhere.
When I went to the night market in Taipei, there were
flashlights with Doraemon printed on the body. The store
owner was very courteous and said that they had Doreamon or
the detective Conan, whatever we wanted they have! Not to
mention other daily stuff, like clothing or bags, Doraemon
is definitely printed on them, even on the food stuff. I
bought a pack of instant noodles only to find that there
were instructions printed on the package telling me on how
to exchange a Doraemon puppet with the many bags I would
have to consume.
Doraemon is a character from a long Japanese manga series.
It was about this robotic cat from the future who was sent
by his owner to the present time to help the owner’s great
grand father, Nobita Nobi, who was not good with whatever he
did, most important studying, and he was lousy at doing
anything. He was often being taken advantages by his peers,
Suneo and Jaian. Doraemon was meant to help Nobita study and
teach him principles, since Nobita often bent himself in the
favor of the situation. In order to do so, Doraemon had a
lot of future gadgets and inventions to help at various
situations. He was always trying to be straight and staying
on principles at first, but often was compelled to help
Nobita since he had a kind heart. But once Nobita was being
helped with the gadgets, he got carried away and started to
show off, then his peers would notice and try to steal the
gadget away, so Doraemon would have to go help retrieve it
back. The story evolved around one after one gadgets and one
situation after another. Pages after pages of story lines
and years after years, many school age children became fond
with it.
I went online and googled and found that Doraemon was an old
series, much to my surprise. In 1971 it had the first
official ending then later there were several endings being
introduced. Before in Taiwan it was translated to “Little
Ding-Dang”, but now it is more accepted by its phonetically
translation, Do-La-A- Mon. This series targeted fourth
graders, and it eventually crossed the Pacific Ocean and was
introduced to other places, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and
China. I bet there are not many people who don’t know about
Doraemon from these areas.
When I was growing up, I too read a lot of Doraemon eposides.
The one that I remembered the most was this one time, Nobita
needed to study because he always failed to study and
consequently failed the test, then his mother would be
scolding him, so as he remembered this horrible yet
predictable pattern, he begged Doraemon for help in tears,
as usual. Doraemon, being a nice cat, took out of loaf of
memory bread from his pocket. Its usage was to cover a page
with a slice of the bread, so the info was being copied onto
the bread and then one just needed to eat the bread to gain
the knowledge. It was a pretty clever invention and both
Doraemon and Nobita validated that this approach worked, so
they went on their day with ease and actually anticipated
the test next day. However, bread, like any food, would get
through the digested system and eventually being eliminated
by the system. So as Nobita went and flushed the toilet, so
did the knowledge that was being flushed away, so the next
day he of course failed the test again and both of them got
the scolding from the mother again.
True, every invention and every story was followed by a
moral concept, and Doraemon always got into trouble with
Nobita.
When I asked about Doraemon, a lot of people would reply and
comment that, “yes, yes, it was funny, I have read it.”
I was thinking, other than the fact that it was being read
at a younger age, what else made Doraemon something that we
can’t let go? We always remember it. Its merchandise still
sells and it has become a cultural phenomenon, just like
Hell Kitty.
I guess it is because during the time of growing up, we
always have a Doraemon to help us in the times of need, to
allow us to remember him dearly.
In our lives, there was a person with a good heart, the
stuff he did make us laugh, and when we were in trouble,
this person always had ways to help us out. But since life
is a series of stages, due to circumstances, we may lose
contact and eventually we all become our own Doraemons,
taking care of ourselves. When we mention about our Little
Ding Dang again, we didn’t know where to start. It is not
just about trying to search our Doraemons, but the fact of
letting go and recognizing that dear pain.
Our maturity is connected by our growing up, whose is not?
Therefore, we all become Nobita, no longer easily agitated.
What we can’t let go is the result of our child nature,
isn’t it? In fact, we still remember our Doraemons, which
explains our habitual searching.
Or eventually, good bye, Doraemon, the Little Ding Dang
Wiki Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemonx
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