Pandas take over capital

The giant panda — whether animated, in the zoo or in the wilds — was the star at a party at the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Wednesday.

Co-director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and producer Melissa Cobb of the movie Kung Fu Panda 3 joined Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo wildlife ecologist Bill McShea, a panda expert at a reception for some 200 guests before the movie was shown in the embassy’s auditorium.

Cui, who visited the National Zoo’s giant panda cub Bei Bei just last month, described the giant panda as a “goodwill ambassador”.

The cub Bei Bei was named last September when Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama, first ladies of China and the US, visited the zoo. The zoo was also the first one in the US to house giant pandas in 1972, following President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China.

McShea, the scientist, described the giant panda as a “rock star” at the zoo.

“This is their birthday celebration,” McShea said, showing a photo of crowds gathering outside the yard of the zoo’s panda house. “My birthday is never like this,” he said.

McShea, who has made 30 trips to China for giant panda research, talked about the science.

Yuh, who became famous for her directorial debut of Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2011, said people would be surprised how much time it took to make everything from costumes to flowers authentic.

She described Kung Fu Panda 3 as very different from the previous two because it was a co-production.

The computer-animated, action-comedy martial arts film was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Oriental DreamWork, a China-US joint venture.

“We tried very hard to make sure things were very authentic on the first and second one, but we had to do that on our own. This time we had actual Chinese staff working on the movie with us,” Yuh said.

“We just pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, is this design right? Is this setting authentic? Can you do something to make things better,’ ” Yuh said. “They would just create it. It’s amazing for us.”

Cobb, producer of Kung Fu Panda 3, said that the team visited villages and other sites in China for inspiration on the production.

She noted that there are Mandarin and English versions of the movie.

Kung Fu Panda 3 has made $58.5 million at the Chinese box office since its release on Jan 29. It made roughly $41 million at the North American box office.

“Opening in January instead of the summer had some advantages since there was nothing of its type competing,” said Stan Rosen, professor and director of the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California.