Mr. Ping

Mr. Ping is one of the supporting characters in the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

He is Po's adoptive father, and the owner of the most popular noodle shop in the Valley of Peace. Mr. Ping discovered Po when he was a young cub, and soon after adopted him. Coming from a line of noodle chefs, Mr. Ping considered his work deeply fulfilling and taught his son all about noodle-making, hoping that Po would take over the family business in time. However, he has since accepted the differing ambitions of his son, and is proud of his role as the Dragon Warrior.

Background

Mr. Ping was born to his father, the noodle-maker and owner of the noodle shop. It is assumed that as Mr. Ping grew older, he eventually received the "Noodle Dream" and told his father about it, who then knew it was time to tell him the "secret ingredient" of the noodle soup and have him take over the shop. He did so, and as time passed, Mr. Ping eventually inherited the noodle shop from his father.

One day, while gathering the new shipment of vegetables he had ordered, Mr. Ping found a baby panda in one of the shipment's radish crates. Surprised, he looked around and waited for someone to come find the infant. When no one came, he turned to bring in the cabbages, but hearing the child cry, he decided to keep the child until someone came looking for him. Quickly finding out that the infant was too big and heavy to carry in, he led him inside with a trail of dumplings. He bathed him, fed him, nurtured him, and grew to love him until he came to realize that no one was coming for the child. He then made two life-altering decisions: he would never use radishes in his noodle soup, and he would raise the child as his own son. Mr. Ping then named the baby panda "Xiao Po" (小宝?).

Since then, Mr. Ping had raised Po in the noodle shop, teaching him all he knew as a noodle-maker and aspired that one day, his adopted son would take over the restaurant just as he did from his own father. It never bothered him when Po broke a plate or messed up an order, because to him, his son was a hero. Until the events in the second film, neither he nor Po ever brought up how different they were from each other, because despite their physical differences, both father and son share a deep mutual love and respect.

When Po is a teenager, Mr. Ping leaves Po to take care of the Noodle Shop while he's out getting more vegetables, though Po is very nervous. When Mr Ping gets back, he tells Po that someone poison Shifu and that Shifu is alright. As Mr Ping starts cooking, Po is seen writing on a scroll, thinking of all the things he could be due to his inability to cook. As Po suggested ideas, Mr Ping laughs at his ideas when he writes a cleaner, a comedian, a dancer, and a doctor though shortly gives up on the idea. But Mr Ping trys reasoning with Po on his dream goal and tells Po to throw the scroll away. As the villagers are preparing to evacuate because of the Boar, Po tells Mr. Ping that he was the one who poisoned Shifu. To his surprise Mr. Ping is delighted that Po could serve the palace people, and excitedly starts planning for his new restaurant at the new village. He then tells Po to get food items so he can start cooking, before Po can protest. But Poin the end, leaves by his father's orders to get more food items.

Personality

Mr. Ping: “In honor of my son, free tofu dessert for everyone!”

[The shop crowd cheers.]

Mr. Ping: “--with purchases.”

[The shop crowd groans.]

—In the noodle shop, Kung Fu Panda 2

There are three things in his life that Mr. Ping loves over anything else: his son, noodles, and tofu. He is usually happy, funny, humble, and takes pride in his business running the Noodle Shop. In the first film, he is delighted by the prospect of Po being next in the family tradition to own the restaurant after him, though fails to notice Po's obvious lack of enthusiasm to do so. Even though Po chooses to pursue kung fu, Mr. Ping is still very proud of him and comes to accept his son's destiny as the Dragon Warrior.

He enjoys the Winter Festival holiday in Kung Fu Panda Holiday, celebrating by cooking and hanging decorations, being particularly fond of a sun-lantern Po made when he was a cub. Even though Po continues to work at the Noodle Shop, Mr. Ping may worry about Po leaving him some day, as seen in his nightmare. In the special, he also shows compassion for others when he turns down the high honor of preparing a feast at the Jade Palace so that he can cook for the neighborhood and give any lonely people a place to stay. It is also partly because of his sympathy that Po was inspired to believe in himself and understand the symbolic meaning of the Dragon Scroll, as Mr. Ping offered him the secret ingredient to the restaurant's soup, which was nothing but one's own belief in it being special.

Po has pointed out that his father is "a little hard to live with", as Mr. Ping has displayed signs of being unwittingly bossy and intrusive, likely stemming from his experiences in managing his restaurant. This was seen in the episode "Master Ping" from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness while the goose was staying at the Jade Palace as a guest, and had turned the place into his temporary noodle shop, ordering Shifu and the Furious Five around and making them into servers. When he was kidnapped by a trio of pigs and called out on his behavior by Po, Mr. Ping realized the error of his ways and became more humble.

In the same episode, Mr. Ping also showed a mild disdain for kung fu, considering it boring and pointless compared to noodles. This was most evident when Shifu demonstrated the powerful Chao Wa Punch Kick on the training dummy. Rather than being impressed, Mr. Ping disrespected the move by calling it a lot of work and suggested simply hitting the opponent with a stick, much to Po's dismay. Mr. Ping would later be proven wrong when he discovered that the technique results in the opponent being completely frozen, something a stick would never be capable of. After using the same move to protect his son from Bao, Mr. Ping admitted that kung fu was actually very useful (though still not as good as noodles).

Mr. Ping has also been known to be a canny, if a bit opportunistic, business owner since the events of the first film. This was shown in Kung Fu Panda Holiday when Mr. Ping explains to Po that he can't leave the restaurant because the lonely people need a place to call home for the holidays (and also charge them extra for it). Similarly, in Kung Fu Panda 2, he offers "free" tofu dessert for his customers, but only with purchases.

Knownable Relatives

• Mr. Ping's father
• Mr. Ping's grandfather
• Po (Adopted Son)
• Yang (Presumed Brother)

Voice Actors

• Japanese : Naoki Tatsuta
• English : James Hong (all media)

all information on Mr. Ping came from http://kungfupanda.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Ping