FAIL. there's absolutely NOTHING about sensitivity to pandas in china. Frack, the reason they're almost extinct is cause they were CHOPPED UP FOR MEDICINES.

The original backlash against blizzard about the pandaren was the original image which showed the pandaren wearing JAPANESE WEAPONS AND ARMOR. China haaaaaates Japan.
Samwise rectified this in later artwork, and now the standard aesthetic for the Pandaren is ancient Chinese, rather than ancient Japanese.

Kung Fu Panda was a blockbuster release in China and made over 100m yuan, or 15 million dollars (they consider anything that makes over 15m a huge success due to ticket prices being about 4$ each, and rampant piracy).

The China debacle was about the original art showing them in Samurai gear, which was a Japanese warrior. The art was redrawn before Warcraft 3 was even released, and the tension was quashed.

There is no law or problem with the use of Pandas in cartoon violence in the country of China.

I'm not sure it's hate towards Japan rather than it's fairly racially insensitive. The same thing would have happened had Pandaren had been in traditional Vietnamese, Cambodian, or Korean clothing.

Although I'm fairly certain that in the original art work, no offense was intended. From some that I've seen, there was an homage to Lone Wolf and Cub.

@AudreyR:

Not even close to the same thing.

There's been antagonism between Japan and China for centuries, but with World War II, things got really ugly. (Just check the wikipedia page on "the rape of Nanking" if you don't understand why and weren't feeling sufficiently depressed today.)

I'm not trying to say anything bad about Japan; lots of countries have very nasty pasts, but we shouldn't let that reflect on their modern incarnation. However, I'm willing to guess that for a lot of Chinese people, seeing a panda in Japanese armor would be like Americans seeing a bald eagle in an Osama bin Laden t-shirt.

Not to argue, AubreyR, but there is a LOT of bad blood between China and Japan. Atrocities on both sides; each country trying to conquer the other multiple times; and Japan even succeeding temporarily in the 20th century (when the might of China had failed to conquer Japan in earlier attempts); these two countries are not friends with each other. It's a lot more personal than simple Xenophobia.

No, I realize there is bad blood. But to take an animal that is found in one country and to dress it in the manner of another country that happens to be close by is bad form no matter the countries history.

Y'know, I've looked into these "Chinese Panda Laws" a couple of times over the years (pretty much every time a new expansion is about to be released and Pandarens always get brought up), and I think you guys are taking your conclusions just a tad too far.

There has, in fact, been one confirmed proposed law in Chengdu that would ban certain uses of panda imagery, basically along the lines of "cheap entertainment". It didn't pass as far as I can tell, but I put the link for it on the first page.

I've also come across numerous news articles where people were upset because some panda image wasn't being used in a fun/cute manner. It's somewhere between mildly uncomfortable and Depicting Muhammad, depending on who you talk to. All-in-all, I don't think World of Warcraft's depiction is going to breach most Chinese people's comfort level. I also don't think the Chinese government will censor too much, considering blood and skeletons aren't currently depicted for *any* race.

@AudreyR:

I understand what you're saying, but the point I'm making is that for the Chinese, dressing up one of their cultural symbols in Japanese garb is significantly worse than dressing it in stuff from most other countries.

To compare, I go back to the idea of the eagle. Yeah, showing a bald eagle in a t-shirt with the Canadian or Mexican flag on it would upset some people in the U.S. However, that is nothing compared to the uproar you'd see if it was an I Al Qaeda shirt.

It seems to me this whole " All China hates Japan" stuff is a lot of hooey at times.

Case in point, if they did despise Japan and the Japanese people as much as folks here seem to think, there is absolutely no way in Hell that this next thing would have occurred.

Namely, the filming of one of the "Four Great Classical Novels", (the masterpieces of early Chinese literature) - what we in the West know as "The Water Margin", the Chinese know as "Shui Hu Zhuan" (All Men Are Brothers) and the Japanese know as Suikoden In China. By the Japanese t.v. network, NHK, using a mainly Japanese cast and crew, using the Japanese language and having a Japanese theme song.

During the time of Chairman Mao Tse Tung!

(I despise Pinyin, so I do not use it when transliterating Chinese names etc, so that is the spelling I chose)

Some Chinese people do detest the Japanese for what they did to their country before and during World War 2. Most, however, prefer to do business with them and see personal grudges as an impediment to doing that business.