IN THE south China resort town of Yangshuo, there is a cafe called "Mickey Mao's". Its symbol is a picture of Chairman Mao with the round black ears of Mickey Mouse.
It is hard to find a better example of the ultimate infusion of Americana with Chinese culture which has been taking place during the past few years. Evidence of the advance of American popular taste is visible throughout China. The "M" of MacDonald's appears all over Beijing, even within view of Tiananmen Square, the historic heart of China. The hamburger chain now has 63 restaurants in China, while Kentucky Fried Chicken with its Uncle Sam like symbol has 78.
Young people have been packing cinemas to see the latest hit from the US, The Bridges of Madison County. The Chinese government allowed 10 first run US movies to be seen last year, of which the most popular was Rumble in the Bronx, which featured martial arts specialist Jackie Chan, followed by hue Lies, The Fugitive, Speed, and Forrest Gump.
Such examples of American popular culture are tolerated by the Communist Party leadership, but not without many misgivings. Like France, China is more than a little resentful of the intrusion of American values and entertainment icons into its ancient civilisation.
Shortly after Mr Michael Ovitz, president of the Walt Disney company, told President Jiang Zemin in Beijing that Disney's entertainment programme was compatible with China's ancient traditions, the Chinese leader pointedly urged an animation company in Shanghai to promote Chinese cartoon heroes for children.
The state run Xinhua news agency later announced plans to find Chinese substitutes for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, who have become popular television cartoon characters here.
The resentment has grown into something of an anti US backlash, at least at official level. When a symphony conductor from abroad arranged a concert of American music, including jazz and songs from Broadway shows, he was asked by state television officials to make the programme less American by removing such items as Sousa's march, Stars and Stripes Forever.
The state controlled media has also been promoting an anti US collection of essays called China Can Say No. Xinhua announced this week that it had "climbed to the number one spot in book sales" and has been a hot seller for over a month.
As there is no free market in books in China, a work cannot become a best seller without the blessing of the party, which means someone in the leadership approved of China Can Say No being widely disseminated throughout the country.
The book criticises "blind faith in foreign things" and the "unhealthy feelings they provoke", the agency said. It also "advances the idea that China should follow its own path and say no to what are considered to be irrational demands by Western powers".
Written by scholars and reporters, the book actually goes much further than that. It advocates the training of Chinese youth for war with Taiwan, suggests that Hollywood should be burned, expresses admiration for Iran backed Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon accuses the CIA of encouraging promiscuity among young Chinese people in the 1980s and advises Chinese travellers never to get on an imported Boeing 777.
Two of the contributors, Zhang Xiabo and Song Qiang, argued in The Perspectives Quarterly that a generation of Chinese has uncritically absorbed Western, particularly US values, but that "lately the tide has begun to turn". "Because of the growth of the Chinese economy and the legacy of China's rich cultural traditions, many of us maintain that China should aspire to take its place as a world power, instead of lamely emulating Western society as, for example, Japan has," they write.
"The bold expression of this point of view has drawn sneers from Western observers and China's own established intellectuals. But those who sneer have not been able to propose any way of their own for China to become democratic and more prosperous.
"Those who criticise America bashing in China ignore the fact that China bashing has always been fashionable in America. In fact Chinese intellectuals are now in the process of seriously examining and rejecting the pro Western views of the older generation."
The authors conclude: "At the end of the 20th century, China has once again become a world power in its own right. It need not play second fiddle to anyone.
Such sentiments appear designed to bolster a sense of anti US nationalism which some Western analysts say is being encouraged by the Chinese leadership as a substitute for the Marxist theory it is gradually abandoning in favour of market oriented reforms.
It may also be an expression of an internal party debate: the reference to an older generation's pro Western views could be taken as a criticism of Deng Xiaoping, the ailing 92 year old leader, whose enthusiasm for rapid growth through foreign investment is not shared by more left leaning members of the leadership.
New evidence of rising nationalism was found in this week's film awards when the top honours, decided by 24 prominent Chinese directors, actors and commentators, went to movies which showed heroic resistance to US and Japanese aggression. The joint winner for the Hundred Flowers award went to The July 7th Incident, a movie about Japan's invasion of China before the second World War.
The nomination for best documentary for the Golden Rooster Awards went to an account of China's fight with US forces during the Korean war. The film "exposes the aggressive nature of the US imperialists and sings praises of the Chinese people's love of peace," the Xinhua news agency said.
The new war looming between the US and China will be a proxy one, however. conducted by cartoon characters seeking to capture the hearts and minds of very young Chinese. The latest news is that the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party Central Committee is planning to launch 15 "key comic books" with Chinese cartoon heroes.
Let Mickey Mouse beware.