Talk:The Wizard of Oz

The Opium Wars had been the proximal cause of the collapse of China as a military power in the nineteenth century, and opium in general, by itself or in combination with other factors, wrecked many of China's economic, social and political institutions altogether, leaving China vulnerable first to Western semi-colonialism and then to Japanese conquest.

Chinese freedom-fighters would be very aware of that, and they'd also be aware that they were striking out against their conquerors in a treaty port city which was the jump-off point for all the cultural artifacts the West foisted upon China, cultural artifacts of which movies like The Wizard of Oz were typical. As communists, they'd also see capitalist exploitation at work; the film industry is a huge businss in which fortunes are made and lost, after all, and was huger still seventy years ago.

Given all that, I can't help wondering if the CCP bombers, or maybe HT, intended a little irony in setting off that bomb when they did. McGill's description makes it clear that the bomb went off just as Dorothy and the gang are in their final headlong run to the Emerald City's gates. The book makes no mention of the scene that came immediately before it (though I supplied it in writing the TWTPE section of this article), but anyone who remembers the movie well will recall that the previous scene, and the last obstacle our heroes faced before reaching the city, was passing through a field of poppies whose intoxicating scent sapped Dorothy's and the Lion's motivations to continue. 05:52, July 23, 2011 (UTC)