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SillySally
Joined: 26 Jul 2005
Posts: 167
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 Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:35 am Post subject: Gung Ho and Not Without My Child |
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| Two great movies to use for conversation english or cross-cultural classes. |
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tw
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 3898
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:35 pm Post subject: Re: Gung Ho and Not Without My Child |
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| SillySally wrote: |
| Two great movies to use for conversation english or cross-cultural classes. |
The problem is, I doubt too many Chinese know anything about Middle Eastern culture or have an unbiased view of the Japanese culture.
I recommend something that deals with Chinese culture. The Wedding Banquet is a good one that comes to mind.
http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/w/wedding_ban.html
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Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) has a problem. Living in New York with a well-paying job, a nice home, and a stable relationship (with Simon, played by Mitchell Lichtenstein), everything appears to be going his way. But his parents, unaware of his homosexual proclivities, are expecting a marriage and grandchildren, and Wai hasn't been able to get up the courage to tell them that he's gay. Meanwhile, Wei Wei (May Chin), a tenant in a building owned by Wai, has to find a way to obtain a green card or be deported. A solution to both problems is proposed: a marriage of convenience. Once agreed to by both parties, the arrangements are made, and everything seems to be working out well until Wai's parents arrive from China to plan the wedding banquet.
What at first seems like a simple romantic comedy is actually a deceptively perceptive look at cultural, sexual, and generational differences. And, despite The Wedding Banquet's often-light, occasionally-playful tone, a forceful dramatic structure underlies the film. Of course, this is what usually makes for the best kind of comedy -- a movie that cares more about its story and characters than making people laugh. Chinese-American writer/director/producer Ang Lee displays a remarkable aptitude for presenting a balanced view of issues while avoiding the dangerous trap of cliches and stereotypes. All the characters have their own unique identities. |
Apparently this movie won an Academy. |
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SillySally
Joined: 26 Jul 2005
Posts: 167
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:05 am Post subject: |
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TW: Thanks. I was not aware of this movie. I have placed an order!
China has millions of muslim citizens. Although many live in the Western areas, there are also large communities throughout central China. The point of "Not Without My Daughter" and "Gung Ho" is to broaden the Chinese students' world view. |
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virago
Joined: 06 Jun 2004
Posts: 151
Location: Approved Chinese Government Censor
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:34 am Post subject: |
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| SillySally wrote: |
TW: Thanks. I was not aware of this movie. I have placed an order!
China has millions of muslim citizens. Although many live in the Western areas, there are also large communities throughout central China. The point of "Not Without My Daughter" and "Gung Ho" is to broaden the Chinese students' world view. |
Yes, I am all open to broadening young Chinese minds. 
Anyway, more than 'Meet the Fokers' and 'Finding Nemo' movies that they love.  |
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tw
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 3898
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:57 am Post subject: |
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| SillySally wrote: |
| China has millions of muslim citizens. Although many live in the Western areas, there are also large communities throughout central China. The point of "Not Without My Daughter" and "Gung Ho" is to broaden the Chinese students' world view. |
I have a very good knowledge of both movies you suggested and since many of us have a good idea of how the Chinese think and perceive things, the movies may give them the wrong impression.
Gung Ho: Students may wrongly interpret the movie's message as that Americans (or Westerners for that matter) are intolerant people who look down on Asians and Asian people's customs, ethics, and traditions.
Not Without My Daughter: I really have reservations about showing this movie. It may strengthen non-Muslim students' stereotypical views that people from the Middle East, or for that matter all Muslims, are people who are unwilling to compromise or to negotiate, and are nothing but a bunch of brutes. |
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SillySally
Joined: 26 Jul 2005
Posts: 167
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 1:07 am Post subject: |
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| tw wrote: |
| SillySally wrote: |
| China has millions of muslim citizens. Although many live in the Western areas, there are also large communities throughout central China. The point of "Not Without My Daughter" and "Gung Ho" is to broaden the Chinese students' world view. |
I have a very good knowledge of both movies you suggested and since many of us have a good idea of how the Chinese think and perceive things, the movies may give them the wrong impression.
Gung Ho: Students may wrongly interpret the movie's message as that Americans (or Westerners for that matter) are intolerant people who look down on Asians and Asian people's customs, ethics, and traditions.
Not Without My Daughter: I really have reservations about showing this movie. It may strengthen non-Muslim students' stereotypical views that people from the Middle East, or for that matter all Muslims, are people who are unwilling to compromise or to negotiate, and are nothing but a bunch of brutes. |
You are correct! That is the message of each movie. Pretty accurate stereotypes wouldn't you say? |
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SillySally
Joined: 26 Jul 2005
Posts: 167
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 1:36 am Post subject: |
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tw:
Westerners in Chicago beat a Chinese to death because they thought he was Japanese!
Years ago in the USA there was a TV ad campaign "There is a smart way to watch TV" To many people watched something on TV and took it as real. A young man watched World Wrestling Federation and then went out and body slammed a young girl who subsequently died from her injuries. (Florida I think)
Then there was Orsen Wells radio program without disclaimer, breaks or commercials that panicked the USA. (Invasion of aliens or something)
What I am saying is that no movie is without its prejudices. The author, director and actors all bring their own prejudices to the production. We teachers need to tell our students that "This is Hollywood" and only entertainment, containing elements of realism but not to be taken as absolute fact.
No movie can just be shown without some introduction beforehand and much discussion afterward. That is why as teachers we should not use movies when we are too lazy to make a proper lesson or experiencing a hangover. Movies are not good babysitters! |
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Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 9138
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 3:08 am Post subject: |
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Silly Sally,
haven't you acquired some wisdom in your decades of vegetating through China's permanently continous revolution?
I deem it immoral to use films and other media to stereotype and negatively profile foreign communities with whom Chinese have next to no personal contact and who they consequently cannot judge competently.
You are merely playing into the hands of the Party ideologues, racists and bigots. They are now in the middle of their polticial survival struggle and desperate to clutch at any straw. Are you their straw man, Martin? |
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billy chong
Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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| SillySally wrote: |
tw:
Westerners in Chicago beat a Chinese to death because they thought he was Japanese! |
You know, the way you're wording it, it's like saying, "blacks raped a white woman in central park," in justfying why you would show Death Wish in a classroom. The semantics are exactly the same. You also trivialize the death of Vincent Chin.
| Quote: |
| Years ago in the USA there was a TV ad campaign "There is a smart way to watch TV" To many people watched something on TV and took it as real. A young man watched World Wrestling Federation and then went out and body slammed a young girl who subsequently died from her injuries. (Florida I think) |
Now you're going off on things that didn't exist, and you are further trivializing a real tragedy. I am apt tp think you aren't an American, and in reality, someone who likes to slam America at any drop of the hat, in knee jerk, hysterical fashion. The commercial "there is a smart way to watch tv," never existed. Certainly not on a national level, if even a local or regional level. Additionally you trivialize the Lionel Tate incident. For those who don't know, Lionel Tate was 12 years old and had a history of emotional problems. After a lengthy, bogus trial that cost Florida taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars and was highlighed by having the Rock sequestered to endure examination by the defendant's legal team only for no other reason than to try and make a mountain out of a mole hill that didn't even exist, and eventually Tate fessed up that he didn't even watch wrestling. To add to the irony, he claimed a commercial he saw with a wrestler named "Sting," who wasn't a WWF wrestler, was his inspiration. It was eventually revealed that the boy intentionally murdered his 6 year old, half- sister Tiffany Eunick, because he felt that his mother favored her. He basically crushed the life out of her. An emotionally troubled 12 year old boy left alone with a six year old. Of course, no one pointed fingers at the "parents." The wrestling lie was later debunked, in court, ad nausieum and resulted in the WWF successful suing Tate's legal council. To further the criminal capacity and conmanship that this mentally troubled boy was capable of, he was arrested again, at the age of 17, in September of 2004 when he was chased down by sherrifs, from whom he was running from but without any reason. When they stopped him, he gave a false name and had been carrying a knife with a four-inch blade. Tate's probation officer determined he was violating his parole and later arrested him. Clearly the boy had/has issues and wrestling had nothing to do with the incident. Of course, given your previous defence and stereotyping of Americans, and the belittlement of the murder of Vincent Chin, you are proving to use anything that vaguely has something to do with whatever preconceived agendas you might possess, and you bandy it about as truth. Do you work for the Xinhua News Agency? I really, really, really fear what mistruths and fabrications you are using to indoctrinate students into your very narrow, ill formed view of the world.
At least it seems that way.
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Then there was Orsen Wells radio program without disclaimer, breaks or commercials that panicked the USA. (Invasion of aliens or something) |
How old are you? You're really grasping at straws here, trying to use anything possible to justify your case, including an incident some 67 years ago, before people had television, let alone any system even coming 1/100th of a parsec to resembling what we have today. Such trivializing of this incident reveals an individual who is out of touch with historical context, and one who is pretty desperate to justify their feeble case, or at least to make an excuse for cheap shots towards a nation.
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| What I am saying is that no movie is without its prejudices. The author, director and actors all bring their own prejudices to the production. |
That's what we call "art," dear. It's about perspective. I do find a tremendous amount of what I'm sure you did not intend, irony, in what you typed, since you brought your prejudices to your students when it wasn't your job, and you brought them out to justify your actions. It's as if you know your bck is agaisnt a wall but you still won't fess up and say, "hey I was wrong. Sorry."
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| We teachers need to tell our students that "This is Hollywood" and only entertainment, containing elements of realism but not to be taken as absolute fact. |
No we don't. We're teachers of English. We are not here to mind rape, preech, pontificate, ridicule, belittle, or force our bias and beliefs onto them. We're in classrooms to guide, assist, help out, encourage and, if lucky, provide actual, practical, substantive facts that could enrich their minds, but in the least, enrich their skills to go out into the workforce one day and make a living. No, we're not Jamie Escalantes, but we are there to help the best way we can. Being a mother or a father or another propagandist in a country filled with them: we are not.
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| No movie can just be shown without some introduction beforehand and much discussion afterward. |
I think the CCCP used to say the same thing.
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| That is why as teachers we should not use movies when we are too lazy to make a proper lesson or experiencing a hangover. Movies are not good babysitters! |
And English teachers are not qualified to be the voice of god and preach ethics, morals, and political agendas furthered by poorly cobbled together "information" that is tossed about to further some clear biases against a nation. You did just that.
I don't post a lot because I don't have much to say about matters here, but I do read a lot of posts. I'm usually happy with that, but after reading your attacks on other posters who offer up information and solid facts to back up their opinions, and then to read something where you are clearly fabricating facts and using horrible crimes to further render your point shows a clear lack of respect towards the dead. When reading your defence of why you showed films that reinforce negative stereotypes, you presented litany of stereotypes! So, I regret being angry and hope that I'm not violating some terms of service to post here, but someone needed to point out some glaringly offensive remarks in your post, as well as correct your mistakes/fabrications. |
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jg
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 1263
Location: Ralph Lauren Pueblo
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:55 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Westerners in Chicago beat a Chinese to death because they thought he was Japanese! |
When? Do you have a link to any article about this?
Sorry to highjack this thread but it was pretty much shot-to-blazes anyway.
Edit: Checked on the internet, Sally had the wrong city and wrong nationality, but I guess it doesn't matter now if she is toast.
Last edited by jg on Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Zero Hero
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 944
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| SillySally wrote: |
| tw wrote: |
| Not Without My Daughter: I really have reservations about showing this movie. It may strengthen non-Muslim students' stereotypical views that people from the Middle East, or for that matter all Muslims, are people who are unwilling to compromise or to negotiate, and are nothing but a bunch of brutes. |
You are correct! That is the message of each movie. Pretty accurate stereotypes wouldn't you say? |
So, you are suggesting everyone from the ME � and particularly those from Iran � are "nothing but a bunch of brutes"? You are a troll, and a bad one at that. I am very surprised no one else has identified you as such yet.
I am willing to bet that you have never been to Iran. Indeed, I am willing to bet that you have never even been to the ME. Your mental picture of ME men most likely comes from the baddies in such classic offerings of Hollywood as True Lies (aptly named, in my view).
No one who claims to get their cultural information about and insights into Iran from a US-made film (especially one made during the height of the anti-Iran propaganda war that followed Iran�s successful ejection of US forces from their land) is worth taking seriously. |
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Revenant
Mod Team
Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 1109
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| Zero Hero wrote: |
You are a troll, and a bad one at that. I am very surprised no one else has identified you as such yet. |
Zero Hero n all,
SS already had their summer vacation extended into an indefinite leave of absence. |
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tw
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 3898
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:33 am Post subject: |
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| Revenant wrote: |
| SS already had their summer vacation extended into an indefinite leave of absence. |
Wow, not even 3 weeks since joining and already banned. That has got to be a record? |
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Revenant
Mod Team
Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 1109
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:40 am Post subject: |
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I could be wrong, but I think there's been a few who've enjoyed the umbrella drinks by poolside in less than a few hours. Those were usually of the Spam wielding trolls that somehow got mixed up travel plans and when leaving the underside of their little bridges accidently landed here.
Our travel agents and tour operators work hard to make sure such booking mistakes don't occur but they do try their best to accomodate when these problems arise. |
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