Baoding Balls - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

In Kamen Rider Fourze, the character Kou Tatsuragi (also known as the Leo Horoscopes) uses a pair of walnuts as Baoding balls. Due to the wrinkled shape of a walnut shell, this creates a distinctive grinding rattle sound.

Baoding balls are used by the character CLU 2 in Tron: Legacy; this occurs in the arena scene as Sam Flynn battles Rinzler/TRON. Kevin Flynn himself is seen to have a similar pair of objects as decor in his home, but which are actually Yoshimoto Cubes that are spiked instead of rounded and resemble the Bit of the original Tron.

Aerosmith included clips of Baoding balls (including skull-shaped ones) being rotated in their music video for the song "Eat the Rich."

Cptn Philip Francis Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) uses them in The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Fearless (2006 film) features a scene where Master Chin (Chen Zhi Hui) is seen to be using Baoding balls .

Boyz n the Hood (1991) features a scene where Laurence Fishburne is seen using Baoding balls.

Open Season 3 (2010) Scruffy is seen using Baoding balls several times throughout the movie.

Children's television series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High featured a Baoding ball originally owned by the protagonist, Josie Trent. She loses one during a trip to the past, where it winds up gaining unusual properties and becomes a key plot devices in the series.

Arnold Rimmer, a character from television show Red Dwarf uses Baoding balls in episode Rimmerworld. They are prescribed to him as treatment of his stress-related condition. In the episode, Rimmer is imprisoned for 557 years, during which he manages to wear out the balls into the size of peas.