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There are layers of meanings to the best films, novels and plays, and we find our own points of significance in these works by cultural "re-imagining". Director James Cameron's Avatar is sweeping cinemas around the globe like a tsunami. Here, you have to book in advance or wait in long lines - and the only shows with tickets available are for odd hours. Groundbreaking special effects aside, the 3D movie has the themes of fighting colonialism, indiscriminate use of military forces and interracial relationships. But the moment the giant bulldozer appeared on screen, I had an "aha" epiphany: This movie is about today's China, or, more accurately, there is a specific Chinese interpretation. Avatar is, or could be seen as, a parable about the fight of ordinary people against the all-engulfing greed of real estate developers. In Chinese parlance, the Na'vi would be called "nail houses", people who refuse to give up their legally owned properties. They protect their rights and houses - or trees in this case - and stick out like nails amid a field of debris. I'm sure Cameron did not get his inspiration from the plight of Chinese "nails". He was obviously referring to the wars George W Bush launched in the Middle East. But I'm not the only Chinese person who "twisted" this tale to fit our paradigm. For example, when the Na'vi shoot arrows at the heavy machinery that crushes everything in its path, the scene that instantly come to my mind was the Shanghai woman, surnamed Pan, who used a homemade Molotov cocktail to thwart the rumbling bulldozers - albeit in vain. When the Na'vi hold a vigil reminiscent of the Zhang Yimou-directed Olympic Opening Ceremony, the sense of foreboding is so pervasive that I cannot help but think of Tang Fuzhen, the Chengdu woman who resorted to self-immolation to protest against "forced eviction". | 
