It's lucky for Superman that he's landing in air-conned theaters this summer as Beijing's "fog" has a certain kryptonite effect on even the best of us. On the heels of The Da Vinci Code's astonishing – and prematurely terminated – sensation, Superman Returns arrives in Beijing as Hollywood's latest blockbusting incarnation. Can we expect Brandon Routh-the brand new Man of Steel-to win Chinese hearts and minds?

 

　　

 

Despite exposure to the Superman legacy, it seems some Chinese find the entire superhero conceit a little, well, superfluous. "I think that for most Chinese people, they haven't gotten around to the idea of fantasy yet," says Beaver Kui, a comic book fan. 　　　　

 

Yet Superman comes from modern fantasy – science fiction – which, as one expert points out, is magic "dressed up" in the language of science. "Science fiction and fantasy offered a language to creators like (Superman authors) Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster that their audience could accept," observes Peter Coogan, co-founder of the Comic Arts Conference. 　　

 

Though Superman's 70 years might seem like a long time, by contrast, most Chinese heroes have been around for eons. Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and Cao Cao, who debuted in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms-a tragic but exhilarating story about the end of the Han dynasty-are just a few examples. 　　

 

And with the notable exception of furry favorite Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of Journey to the West, most Chinese heroes are "real" – and historical. So to the extent that they could leap buildings in a single bound, it was probably just because the houses tended to be smaller back then. 　　

 

"I respect Yue Fei. He was real and he devoted his life to defending his country (against the Jurchens)," says Jerry Zhang, a thirty-something native of Beijing. "American superheroes aren't real, so they're less inspiring." 　　

 

What's not real about the Man of Steel? He wears glasses, grew up in Kansas and works as a reporter. Perhaps it's the X-ray vision and cape-wearing that Zhang has trouble with. Still it's hard to believe that a man who could punch out bad guys-and see through women's clothes-wouldn't capture the imagination of China's young men, regardless of his implausible talents. 　　

 

Some Chinese say they think the superpowers of Western characters seem silly. Snagging on the idea that heroes have to wear tights and have special powers to be heroic, they instead look up to intelligent and "loyal" heroes. 　　

 

"There's something just very brash about the superhero – these characters flaunt their special abilities by dressing so as to draw attention to themselves," says the director of ComicsResearch.org, Dr. Gene Kannenberg Jr. "Perhaps it's this very brashness that seems 'American' to other cultures-the USA calls itself a 'superpower' after all-and is therefore a little off-putting." 　

 

Compared to China, with its millennia-sprawled history and richly layered legends, this peculiarly American audacity is the mark of an upstart culture. "We have myth and history, but American heroes just have one writer, one man," says Nicole Li, a Beijing-based journalist in her late twenties. "The writers think they can say, 'hey he's here-it's Superman!' and we'll get excited. But we don't have the imaginary space for him." 　

 

Kannenberg agrees with Li that the American superhero comes out of a historical vacuum – out of a cultural landscape without Robin Hoods or Hectors or Wu Songs to celebrate. In a sense, Superman is a metaphorical outgrowth of America's patchwork past. "He is the ultimate American in the sense that he's the ultimate immigrant-who has traveled further than Kal-El to become an American?" he says.　

 

Perhaps his imminent immigration to China will be well received – after all, he is the most popular character of the American superhero tradition. "We like Superman the best," says Wang Jie, an English teacher who watched the Superman movies in the 1990s, but isn't sure if she'll see the movie. "At least he's a man. Spiders and bats – those are hard for Chinese people to like."

 

(That's Beijing July 24, 2006)