37 - Sun or Moon: Cultural difference in Heroines’ Persona in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring Comes

[Grace L.]

“Self” is a universal concept. But how to perceive self (with high or low autonomy) and its relationship with social context (self-oriented or other-oriented), according to some cultural theories, are culturally-bounded. Hofstede (1983), for example, argues that in comparison with Chinese, who view themselves dependent of the social context, Americans are more prone to view themselves as independents. Singelis (1994), in a more detailed manner, describes western self as “bounded”, “autonomous”, and “goal-oriented” while Asian self as emphasizing belonging and fitting in, attentive to others feelings and unexpressed thoughts, oriented toward duties and responsibilities to other people, and sensitive to the negative appraisals of others. Accused of being reductionist and essentialist, these theories, nevertheless, find support in the analysis of the persona of the heroines in the American movie Mona Lisa Smile and the Chinese movie And the Spring Comes, which both target gender issue—how aspiring middle aged women interact with the hash social context. Here persona refers to the character presented in the movies. Based on the theories mentioned above, I use metaphor “sun” to depict the persona of high agency, which has the power to transform and to effect changes, and “moon” to that of low self-esteem and agency, which is submissive to social norms and negative appraisals.

Directed by Mike Newell, Mona Lisa Smile (2003) features how a progressive, liberated 30-year-old art history teacher, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), overcomes adversity to inspire and guide her students in the conservative Wellesley College to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men. The Chinese movie And the Spring Comes, directed by Gu Changwei in 2007, tells a gloomy story of how a plain but gifted Italian opera singer, Wang Tsailing (Jiang Wenli), together with other frustrated artists, a would-be painter Huang (Li Guangjie) and a ballet dancer Hu (Jiao Gang), after hopeless struggle, give up their dreams to the blandness and uniformity life in provincial China.

It is worth mentioning that both movie stories took place in a time of social change. The story in Mona Lisa Smile took place in 1950s, a time when the American government shifted its effort from persuading women to throw themselves into the war effort by filling the jobs left vacant by their husbands in the armed services to persuading them to abandon their brief, newfound freedom to adopt the subversive roles as dedicated wives, caring mothers and proud homemakers. The 1953 Wellesley College is a good response to this call by preparing its students for wives of future leaders, as the president of the institute solemnly announced: “A few years from now, your sole responsibility should be taking care of your husband and children.” The Chinese story took place in the 1980s, a critical era which saw the end of the disastrous ten-year Cultural Revolution and the open of the country to the world (the 1978 opening-reform policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping). In this time of social transformation, on the one hand, the revival in both economy and thoughts brings new life to the country and its people, as indicated in the opera Wang sings in the beginning of the movie: “The soft spring breeze awakes…she is busy giving life everywhere…the air is fresh, the lands is full of jubilation…pitiful heart, don’t be afraid, everything around you is changing”; on the other, the negative influence of Cultural Revolution is so strong that “The spring comes, there is no real sign of spring” (Wang’s monologue in the prelude)

Framed in the concept of “self” and situated in the social background mentioned above, the following accounts examine in details in what way Katherine’s persona differs from Wang, what consequence it brings and why. A typical example is the difference Katherine and Wang treat their dream.

Both Katherine and Wang have a dream/aim. Knowing that she is going to teach art history in a conservative women’s private college, Katherine’s aim is to “make a difference”. But her way to make a difference is not that smooth. She has to confront challenges from students, president of the college, and the syllabus set by the college. And she made it. She made it by standing by her beliefs and facing the confrontations bravely. Katherine’s first class at Wellesley is a failure. She taught by the school syllabus only to find that her students have finished learning all the textbooks and can answer all her questions correctly in a scornfully manner. Frustrated, however, she does not let the students “get of her”. Instead, she fights back by challenging the students in a Socratic fashion, forcing them to ask questions about art that direct them towards interrogating the condition of their own lives in the next class and introduce modern art into the classroom, which is not included in the syllabus. When the school president warns Katherine not to go far if she wants to stay in Wellesley, Katherine responds “I thought I was headed to a place that would turn out tomorrow’s leaders—not their wives”. Katherine chooses to leave when the college invites her to return with conditions that she must follow the syllabus, submit lesson plans for approval, keep a strictly professional relationship with all faculty members, and not talk to the girls about anything other than classes. All the vignettes mentioned above reveal that Katherine has strong agency over what she is doing. When she is mocked by her students, she fights back; when the school syllabus does not work well, she changes it; when the school president’s education ideal is odd, she points it out. Instead of complaining and compromising, she takes actions to change. Instead of coming to the Wellesley to help the students find their way, she helps them find her way. And finally, she does make changes in her students: Betty, the highly opinionated and conservative girl questions the orthodox interpretation of the painting Mona Lisa Smile, devoices her unfaithful husband and plans to go to law school; Joan makes independent decision whether to be a wife or a Yale law school student or both. With these, Katherine wins her students’ heart by commented as “an extraordinary woman who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes.”

In And the Spring Comes, Wang also has a big dream—to be an Italian opera singer at the National Opera Company. She sews costumes for the imagined performances, she waits for discount ticket for the opera show, she learns Italian to better her singing and in order to be geographically close to her dream, she even tries to buy a Beijin residence permit at high price. But these are all she has done positively for her dream. Unlike Katherine, who stands firmly by her beliefs and never makes compromise but actively confronts the challenges from both authority and the unfriendly, if not hostile environment, Wang is somewhat submissive to the social norms, becoming a fatalist. She subjects her dream to her feeling—she trades her Beijing residence permit (which is equal to her dream) for her lover’s future, when rejected, she even commits suicide; to emotions—angry to be deceived, she goes to a dating agency to get a husband to settle down (cf. she once mentioned that she would go to Beijing and would not get married in this small county); and to her parents—in order to please them, she adopts a child to appear normal. Facing the hash situation that her singing (high art) is not well received by the general public, Wang takes empathy in artists of similar experience, complaining other than taking actions to improve, to change. She has a low self-esteem, although she pretends to be high-and-mighty. Gifted voice does not buy her confidence as a woman. She concerns about her looks. She constantly describes herself ugly and believes that she is ugly and gets sensitive about people’s comments on her identity as an unmarried old virgin. Her fierce defensive dismissal of her neighbor’s marital woes reveals that she has totally has no faith in herself. The movie ends by seeing Wang selling meat in a street, with her adopted girl playing around. Instead of evolving from the reality, she gives in to the mundane life.

Self-construal is not the single reason for the different ending, hash reality (e.g. individuality not being encouraged) might as well be, but as illustrated above, it is an important factor. A major difference between Katherine and Wang, as the comparison suggests, is Katherine acts like a sun, active and transformative, while Wang, a moon, passive and submissive, which even decides the tone of the two movies, with the former being brisk and the later, oppressed. This sun-moon difference is closely related to how the two heroines perceive themselves. Are their values judged by others or by themselves? To what degree do they believe in themselves? Viewing herself as independent and different, Katherine fights her way through and achieve what she wants. But this is not the case of Wang. Situating in a culture that is heavily influenced by Confucianism, which encourages conformity and expects individuals to fulfill fixed social roles, Wang seems to have a humble self-construal. This humbleness comes from her deviations from the social norms: when it is time to get married, she does not; when it is time to be a mother, she is not; when men prefer beautiful faces, she has not; and when society values fulltime degree, guanxi (social connections), and status, she does not have. She has her value judged by the outside world, not by herself. So even though she has a good voice, she cannot find confidence and faith in herself, nor can she get highly motivated as Katherine to fight for her course.


Hofstede, Geert (2001). Culture's Consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hi Grace,
Your writing really impressed me in many ways.
First of all, you based your argument on cultural contrastive research and also introduced some theories and arguments from these research as evidence to support your own viewpoint. It helped make your argument more convincing and trustworthy. I appreciate your “researcher-like” mind and attitude.
What struck me most is the two metaphors you used to depict the two main characters in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring comes, namely Sun and Moon respectively. I think the following statement you made in your article well summarized the main characteristics of the two leading characters in the movies: “I use metaphor “sun” to depict the persona of high agency, which has the power to transform and to effect changes, and “moon” to that of low self-esteem and agency, which is submissive to social norms and negative appraisals”.
Last but not least, you organized your writing in a very considerate and logical way so that readers can follow your way to see how the life and dream of “the Sun” and “the Moon” are like and how they end up with.

There is one suggestion considering the length of your article. This assignment actually has a word limit of around 500 words but your writing is far beyond this limitation. Actually it’s good to give a very detailed and clear explanations to your audience. But in this interactive writing activity, you can freely regard your readers as film critics who know the two movies quite well as you do. So I suggest you can trim your Paragraph 5 and Paragraph 6 by reducing the detailed descriptions of the movie plots. For example, when depicting Katherine’s qualities, you can simply use your summary in the later part of Paragraph 5, “… Katherine has strong agency over what she is doing. When she is mocked by her students, she fights back; when the school syllabus does not work well, she changes it; when the school president’s education ideal is odd, she points it out. Instead of complaining and compromising, she takes actions to change”, since all the detailed plots you mentioned are quite familiar to your readers. Anyway, your descriptions are actually very elaborate.

In sum, I learnt a lot from your writing. Thank you for your hard work. Looking forward to hearing from you!

[Zihong Z.]

WHAT A MASTERPIECE!

It's not just a pleasure, but a privilege to be able to have a look at your article. My name is Zhou, Zihong. So nice to meet you, Grace!
Honestly, I've never seen anyone citing research papers in their film reviews, which you did remarkably well! And it is your scholarliness, I believe, that lays solid foundations for your subsequent arguments and viewpoints. It’s enlightening.

Of course, I need to mention your brilliant use of metaphor. Metaphor itself is nothing uncommon. Nevertheless, the ‘vehicles’ are marvelous. The sun and the moon are probably the most ordinary things we can see in our daily life, but it is the ordinariness that makes your arguments accessible. And it is their very ordinariness that is capable of clarifying the extremely complicated persona of the two heroines. I have to say, BRILLIANT!

However, I wonder if you could tell me more about the word ‘agency’, which is quite a key word in your review. I tried to look it up in the dictionary, but couldn’t find any suitable meaning in Chinese. I’d be very grateful if I could get your own explanation! Thanks in advance!

[Grace L.]

Hi Shuangshuang,
Thank you for your response and suggestion.
Guess different concerns for audience and writing purpose lead to our different perception of the essay length, paragraph 5-6, in particular. I composed this essay for two purposes. One is to cope with the across-border writing assignment. The other is an attempt to make it publishable in a movie magazine or something. This later concern dictates the tone and style of the essay: somewhat formal and scholarly-like. It also invites an elaborated analysis because most of the readers are supposed to be unfamiliar with the two movies in question (naïve readers). Treating the essay merely as an interactive writing activity, you are right by pointing out that the essay is a bit lengthier for involving too many details into paragragh5-6, as readers are familiar with the movies. In this regard, it is reasonable to follow your advice to cut some movie details in the analysis.

[Grace L.]

Hello Zhihong,
Glad that the essay is well-received.
You asked a good question: what is the meaning of “agency”?
I should have explained/defined it when it first appeared in the essay, but I didn’t; hence your confusion.
The meaning of agency in my essay refers to an individual’s ability to decide/choose what to or not to do/say. This decision/action is not forced upon by others, nor is it affected by social norms. It is out of one’s own willingness. High-agency individuals tend to prioritize their interest while those with low agency tend to subject their interest to group values or social norms.
Hope this explanation works.

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hey Grace,
Thank you for your explanation. And I'm so impressed by your attitude. I never thought of the possibility of publishing my movie reviews to a magazine, whereas you had this thought in your mind and tried to make your hardwork valuable. I learnt a lot from you. Thank you.
Meanwhile, I have another question for you. What do you think of today's Chinese women? Are they still like Wang Cailing in the 1980s from your perspective? Or what changes happened to them according to your own knowledge and experience? Do you think the characteristics of the "Moon" is changeable or unchangeable? (It seems I asked more than one question, sorry about that ><)
Looking forward to your reply!

[Zihong Z.]

Thank you, Grace!
Yes, I think you've offered a very clear explanation. And now, I believe, I've found its Chinese equivalent - '主观能动性'. You helped me a lot!
In a way, your analysis kind of compels me to go over some scenes in the movies, which is great since you succeed in triggerring us readers' interest and we can have interactions. So after watching them again, I've got some doubts and hope I could have your further explanation.
For instance, you mentioned 'her fierce defensive dismissal of her neighbor’s marital woes reveals that she has totally has no faith in herself.' Now I have two questions:
1) What is 'her fierce defensive dismissal'? (Forgive my poor perception)
2) Does it prove she has no faith? (Or could it happen to be the opposite?)
The points you raised are all very interesting. I believe I have a lot to learn from you!

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hey Grace,
Since the deadline of this overseas writing activity is approaching, I would like to thank you for your well-structured, elaborately-written and thought-enlightening good example of writing, as well as all of your kind and patient replies to my comments. I hope you could successfully publish your article on some movie magazine. Best wishes!

Shuangshuang K.

[Grace L.]

Hi Shuangshuang,
Hope this response reaches you before the deadline.
Your question about my impression on Chinese women today is fairly big. To my knowledge, Chinese women's access to education has been improved. At PSU, i see a good number of female Chinese students engaging in a wide variety of majors. Most of them are quite active and competent. i also see some 30-odd female Chinese students doing doctoral programs. These observations suggest that Chinese women enjoy equal right to education as men do, and they are independent and progressive, carrying more the Sun character than moon. But i also notice that female Chinese students, particularly postgrads have more concern than their American counterparts in securing a job and a marriage upon graduation. Many of them mentioned the age problem and the proper line expected to go through as indicated in the movie--get married before 28, conceive a baby before 30 and than live a stable life. Some female undergraduates said their parents/mothers want them to do that. So you see, although these female Chinese students have strong voice/novelty/initiative in academic discourse, they are somewhat confined to traditions in social discourse. The impact Confucianism is indeed profound. This split identity in female students at PSU, I believe, also appears in women in China, a sun and moon mixture.

Thank you for your late message. I hope I will and best wishes to you.

[Grace L.]

Hi Zhihong,
1) What is 'her fierce defensive dismissal'?
2) Does it prove she has no faith?
Remember the vignette Cailing's neighbor visited her in great depression after her husband was missing and t