Cultural Essay

[mnc5223]

Megan Covone

Both movies, Mona Lisa’s Smile and And The Spring Comes, are concerned with women’s empowerment. The main characters strive to meet their goals that break traditions (li) and are not considered appropriate actions for women (yi). In Mona Lisa’s Smile, Professor Watson breaks traditions by attempting to talk young females out of marriages and convincing some to continue their education. Professor Watson is also not considered an appropriate professor because her teachings break traditions. In And The Spring Comes, Professor Wang breaks tradition because she wants to become a famous opera singer even though her looks are not considered beautiful enough to be taken seriously. Professor Wang is also unmarried and it seems to be inappropriate for women not to be married at her age. By showing the desires and goals of the main characters, both movies bring attention to women wanting to be more than housewives.

Professor Watson studies art history and teaches at an all-female college. She is supposed to be teaching from a syllabus that has already been written, however, she decides to teach her own lessons. Professor Watson’s unique classes make the female students think about their place in society. Unlike Professor Watson, Professor Wang studies opera and music. Both of these professors are respected for their talents. However, they both need to overcome the obstacles of breaking tradition to meet their goals. Professor Watson must break the traditions of teaching female students to be good housewives, while Professor Wang tries to get famous without having the typical “beautiful” appearance. Professor Wang must put on plenty of makeup when she performs in public. Professor Watson ends up leaving the university because they won’t let her teach the way she wants to. Both of the main characters had to adjust their lives in order to meet their career and lifestyle goals.

Both of the main characters are expected to follow the tradition of marriage and reproduction. When Professor Wang visits her parents, they ask her if she has met anyone to marry in the upcoming year. Professor Wang even goes as far as telling Huang, the artist, that she would drop her dreams to support him in marriage. Similarly, Professor Watson’s students are all very concerned with her plans to be married. One of her students runs into her at a bar and notices her engagement ring. Even though Professor Watson doesn’t want to be married, her student still tells the rest of the class and they all congratulate her. They are shocked when Professor Watson tells them she doesn’t want to be married and the engagement is over. Unlike Professor Watson, Professor Wang did want to marry. However, the adoption of a child seems to fulfill that need. Professor Watson proves she doesn’t need a husband by refusing to marry her fiance, and Professor Wang proves she doesn’t need to marry to have a family.

In Mona Lisa’s Smile and And The Spring Comes, the main characters break tradition (li) and act inappropriately (yi) in order to achieve their goals. In both American and Chinese cultures, women were expected to marry and raise a family. Careers and higher education were difficult to achieve. As women, these main characters were expected to give up their dreams to be housewives. However, because they broke traditions and acted inappropriately, they changed their own lives and positively affected others.

[1348831303]

Dear Megan

Hello, we're glad to read your article and know what you think of these two films.
This article points directly to the theme--the two protagonists achieve their goals by breaking tradition and acting inappropriately. Then, the review compares the characters of the two from their occupation, marriage and other aspects. We think this film review is easy to understand and well organized.

But there are some aspects we want to make some suggestions. The film "Mona Lisa's Smile" should be "Mona Lisa Smile". First of all, the title is the soul of an article. The title of the "Cultural Essay" may be a bit broad, and it might be better if the title can be detailed, such as the title about culture on women's rights and breaking with the tradition. Additionally, we don't quite understand the words "act inappropriately". Do you want to express that the protagonists behave differently from other women or that their behaviors are unique? What's more, does the "li, yi" in parentheses express the "礼" and "义" of Chinese culture? If so, we thiIf so, we think you can focus on this aspect of the two protagonists. Finally, we think there is a little more repetition in this review, and if you can turn the same word or sentence into another way, it may make the whole article more diverse and rich.

You did a good job! If you have any questions, please tell us. We can tell you in detail. (Do you have an email or WeChat? We call communicate in detail. )

Guo/Liang(This review is written by my companion and me.）

[1528156245]

Hi Megan,
Thank you for sharing your article with us. I am glad to read it.I notice that you make a comparison and contrast of the two protagonists. Besides, you point out that though live in different society, they have similar personality that they try to break the shackles of tradition. You also use many evidences to support your idea. Through reading the article, I can see that you focus on the interpretation and comparison of the liberation of women's rights in the two films in terms of marriage and mention that when the students found that Watson had a ring on her hand, they were all positive towards her. However, because of her lack of beautiful appearance, Wang Cailing wanted to marry but could not find her marriage partner.
The theme of the whole article is clear. I think it would be better if you associate the movie to the reality. For example, you can introduce the position of women in 1950s American. Besides, I think the last paragraph is like the first paragraph in meaning and contexts. You may improve it.
Please let me know if you have some questions.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin

[mnc5223]

Dear Cao and Li,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I agree that I could include cultural details about the time periods these two movies are set in. I think it would make my analysis stronger because it will be more clear that the characters are breaking traditions to meet their goals. I also agree that I could change my conclusion, however I need to think about what I could say. Do you have any ideas so that I don't repeat myself again?

Thank you!

Megan

[mnc5223]

Dear Guo and Liang,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I agree that I need to change my title to something more specific about women's empowerment. I also want to address your question about what I mean by "act inappropriately." In short, yes, I'm trying to say that the main characters act differently from other women of their time and culture and that their behaviors are unique. Professor Watson, for example, acts "inappropriately" when she decides to change her syllabus and topics in class. If she were to act "appropriately" she would have not changed her class topics or syllabus because that's what the school administration told her to teach. However, this wasn't what Professor Watson believed was right, and so she decided to do what she wanted to do. Under her job description, this would be considered "inappropriate." By acting "inappropriately" she is going against what women are expected to do in American culture because women were expected to follow rules and not cause trouble. Hopefully that explanation helps! Let me know if it's still confusing or doesn't make sense. I also agree that I should be using "li" and "yi" throughout my essay more. And yes, those terms are meant to be the Chinese culture terms. We learned these terms among others when we studied Confucian rhetoric, so I thought they were useful terms for my essay.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Megan

[1348831303]

Dear Megan:

Thank you for your explanation. I think I can understand the meaning of "act inappropriately" now. Because of the translation problem of our Chinese students, if you can add quotation marks to this word in your article, maybe we will understand its special meaning better. Secondly, I think it's really great for you to associate these two films with the "li", "yi" of Chinese culture. If there is a problem with this, we can discuss and communicate together.

Look forward to your reply!
Guo/Liang

[1528156245]

Hi Megan,
I am glad to receive your reply. Here, I would try to make some suggestions.
In the first paragraph, you mention women's empowerment. I think you want to put women's empowerment as the core of your article. In the second paragraph, you make a comparison and contrast of the two protagonists. I think it would be better if you contrast them point-to-point. For example, their living backgrounds, personalities, etc. In this way, you can talk more about women’s emancipation based on women themselves: it is important for woman to be a free spirit. Besides, in the third paragraph, you write the people around the two protagonists. Maybe you can expand your range of " people". Not only their friends or parents, but also irrelevant people. You can introduce the society 's view towards women's position. In doing so, you can write more about women's embarrassing position in the family and society. As for the last paragraph, you can try to write your own understands of women's empowerment after watching the two movies.
Hopefully that suggestions help. If you have no notion of what my words meant or your think it is inappropriate, just tell me directly.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin

[mnc5223]

Hi Guo and Liang,

Thank you for your reply! I will incorporate "li" and "yi" when I mention "act inappropriately" and "breaking traditions." I agree it would be best to always mention the English term and the corresponding Chinese term together in quotation marks for the best meaning.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

Megan

[mnc5223]

Hello Cao and Li

Thank you for your suggestions! I like the idea of comparing and contrasting the two main characters point-by-point in my second paragraph. I think I would be able to incorporate your suggestion about my third paragraph, I just have some questions that would need answered first. I think I want to discuss English culture and Chinese culture expectations of women of that time period. I know the English culture, but I'm not an expert in Chinese culture.

From the movie, it seems like women are/were expected to marry and have children. It also seems like Professor Wang is poor, are women expected to enter the workforce or have their husbands provide for them? I just want to make sure I would be accurately representing Chinese culture's expectations for women.

Thank you for the help! Also, I will reflect on my own feelings of the movies in the final paragraph.

Megan

[1528156245]

Hi Megan,
Thank you for the messages. I would like to explain the background of And the Spring Comes to you.
There were a set of basic moral principles specially for women in ancient China that affected Chinese for a long time. It was hoped that women should get married and have kids. Though women's status has been improved gradually since 1949, and they leave their homes to go to work. Nevertheless, this archaic recognition of women, has existed for thousands years, is hard to change. You can notice this phenomenon from the movie: Many people, Zhou Yu, Miss Zhang, Wang's mother, persuaded Wang to marry. However, When come to 1980s, the traditional thoughts were not accepted by young people who have been affected by the opening-up policy in 1978 and the western idea women's emancipation. Wang was a representative woman in that times who did not rely on men and hoped that she can stood out by her own efforts. Nevertheless, in that transition age, most people still can not accept this kind of new women and even regard them as kind of an exotic in the society.
If you have any problems of the explanations, let me know at any time.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin