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Around the world and across all cultures, achieving social and economic equality amongst men and women has been a long-standing issue. Throughout history, the most common family structure has been the male assuming the role of the “earner” typically providing the economic means for the family while the female generally accepted the role of the caretaker that consisted of caring for her husband and the family. While watching the Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” and the American film “Mona Lisa Smile” two themes that were present and related in each were the 1) the pressures to conform to the norms of society and 2) the realities of physical beauty.

The Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” directed by Gu Changwei tells the story of a part time teacher at a local school named Ms. Wang who has a gifted voice and a dream of being an opera singer in the National Opera House but is challenged to achieve her dream by society’s views of women. Stuck in a tiny industrial town, conforming to the “normal” way of doing things was expected. Ms. Wang was a woman who had a unique voice that was foreign to the rest of the town and therefore her singing was not respected. Ms. Wang describes the pain and difficulty finding her way when she says, “I would be nothing without my voice.” Periodically, she escaped to Beijing to showcase her talent to people much more open and appreciative of her incredible voice. However, in her hometown, when Ms. Wang performed in public, her voice was not appreciated. At the local street show, when she finished singing, there was not a single person left in the audience. Audience member’s nonverbal behavior such as yawning, muttering, and physically leaving during her performance ultimately discouraged Ms. Wang and left her feeling hopeless.

The pressures to behave and act according to society’s expectations can have a dramatic impact on a person’s confidence. In addition to Ms. Wang, another character in the film, Mr. Hu, found himself in a similar position. Mr. Hu was also performing at the local street show. Ballet was considered a non-traditional form of dancing but something that Mr. Hu was gifted at. Immediately after beginning his routine the crowd began laughing, yelling, and ultimately getting up and leaving. Mr. Lu left the street in embarrassment. In this film, both men and women are challenged in society because both characters are incredibly talented, yet are uncomfortable expressing their unique talent and instead feel pressured to compromise to society’s expectations.

Throughout history, women were expected to find a husband and get married even if it was forced so they could take care of their husband and raise a family. This was considered the honorable choice by society. Often times, men took advantage of women and used them at their convenience. Despite briefly meeting after the embarrassment of the street show, Mr. Hu wants to marry Ms. Wang to escape his insecurities so he can stop being the “fish bone stuck in everyone’s throat” and ultimately fit in. Although love and marriage was something that Ms. Wang hoped to achieve, she knew Mr. Hu didn’t love her and was using her as a cover up for the discomfort he was feeling being “different”. Ultimately a combination of discomfort and frustration is what caused Mr. Hu to rape one of the women whom he was teaching and be thrown in jail. Sadly, it took jail for Mr. Hu to ultimately find peace and happiness because he felt he was no longer under society’s pressures to conform.

I believe society’s pressures to conform to expected behaviors and norms can have a serious impact on a person. Embracing your talents and paving your own path despite what others think is key to ultimately achieving happiness and finding purpose in life. Having the courage to be yourself and finding others who will support you is really important in standing up against society expectations.

In addition to the societal and economic pressures of living up to expectations, socialist realism was also a noticeable theme. Despite her incredible voice, Ms. Wang was called “ugly”. Throughout the film, there were a variety of intentional close up shots showing her imperfections such as the freckles and pimples on her face. This was done on purpose to try and capture the reality of the situation and get viewers to experience some of the pain and struggles that were present during that time. Chinese film is known for focusing on a realistic approach instead of masking it.

In the film “Mona Lisa Smile” the same two themes are presented but communicated differently. The main character, Katherine Watson, accepts a teaching job in the Art History department at the prestigious Wellesley Institute which is an all-girls university. Ms. Watson describes the atmosphere of the institute as having a lot of labels including, “Right family, right school, right art, and right way of thinking”. The first day of class, her students demonstrate their memorization of every single ancient art piece by reciting the facts including the year, artist name, and location of each piece. Disappointed that her students did not comment on the feel of the art and only on the facts, Ms. Watson challenges her students to think beyond the textbook and understand the beauty behind art itself. Ms. Watson notices her students so focused on getting their degree and immediately after getting married that she wanted to push them outside their comfort zone and away from society’s expectations of women. For example, one student pursuing a law degree has a dream of going to Yale. However, that dream gets put aside because she knew she was going finish her degree, get married, and start her new career as a housewife.

Ms. Watson ends up getting in trouble with the Institute for pushing these college girls against the “traditionalist” ways of women which was to marry and have a family after receiving their degree. Although not shown in the movie, not all women wanted to accept this role, yet the culture pressure was so strong they really felt like they had no choice. Similar to the film “And the Spring comes”, there were a variety of societal pressures and set expectations that left women with little choice but to conform to these previously established cultural norms.
The pressures of conforming to society’s pressures as well as others expectations is definitely something that continues to be part of our culture today. Often times, kids in the United States are pressured to attend college immediately after completing High School. Although this may be the “expectation”, some kids are simply not ready for that transition and those kids that aren’t ready really struggle and either don’t make it through or end up getting a degree in something that they are not passionate about. I believe pursuing the career path that is right for you, even if that entails going against society’s expected behaviors may not be easy but it will definitely be worth it in the end.

In contrast to Chinese films, American films almost always portray beauty to be positive. Main characters represent the top of the social classes and appear to be living the “best life”. More often than not, American films conclude with a happy ending showing the main character overcoming a challenge or some degree of adversity. Very few American films show the pain and emotions related to the true struggles of the past.

While the issues are similar, the approach taken by the two films is quite different. The Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” seeks to capture reality taking on the issues very directly and rather harshly whereas American films often exaggerate characters’ appearance and take a gentler approach to the challenges our society faces. Both movies demonstrate the affect societal pressures can have on conforming to the expected behaviors. In addition, both films communicate the importance of investing in what makes you happy. After attempting to take her own life because she felt taken advantage of and disrespected, Ms. Wang adopted an orphan child. On the other hand, after initially disrespecting her for encouraging girls to go against societies traditional career path for women, a few of Ms. Watson’s students thanked her for her courage to teach what she believed.

Both the Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” and the American film “Mona Lisa Smile” tackle two key themes of 1) the pressures to conform to the norms of society and 2) the realities of physical beauty, in a creative and deliberate manor. Although both cultures experienced the same issues, each culture has a different way of showing it through film. And while one was not better than the other, both films were effective in communicating the themes and making their points while taking very different approaches.

Hi Katie,

It was a delight to read your thorough analysis. I was led to ruminate on some details in the movies (especially “And the Spring Comes”) which I had perceived as norms. You introduce an intriguing family myth shared by history in general that men are considered breadwinner and women caretaker, which is reflected in the movies as there is an absence of a reliable male earner for Ms. Wang and Dr. Watson. If you want, you can elaborate on this topic of gender stereotypes and its function in the social norms and realities.

In your comment on “And the Spring Comes,” you develop the discussion of the two themes through a breaking down of Ms. Wang and Mr. Hu’s characters and situations. They have unique talents that the public find eccentric and disturbing, so in this sense, they threat the silent order of the society. Your brilliant choice of the word “foreign” to describe their talents demonstrates the two-fold layer of why the society rejects them: firstly, the artistic pursuit is incongruous with other’s “secular” objective to find a job, get married and be like others. Secondly, opera and ballet are exotic forms of art which some may regard as “invaders” to the Chinese culture. The Townspeople give Ms. Wang and Mr. Hu’s square performance a side-eye partly because their talents make women want more that they “should” and man unlike the man needed by society. It is also very interesting to see how Mr. Hu is treated differently by his students, Ms. Wang, and other residents of the town. Do you think this suggest that art provides a possibility of mutual understanding outside social norms? Additionally, although artistically speaking Ms. Wang and Mr. Hu understand each other, they fall out when Mr. Hu proposes a fake marriage. I agree that this exposes the power hierarchy imposed on man, woman, and also homosexual man (if one interprets Mr. Hu as so) and ugly woman. I also feel that in this case, Ms. Wang refuses to settle because she wants more than being stuck in this small town; she wants to use art as a means to achieve higher social status, while Mr. Hu chooses to settle with the status quo because he wants to pursue art with less social barriers. His pursuit of art is more for the sake of art than Ms. Wang, and this is what touches me deeply about Mr. Hu.

In your observation, social norms in incarnated as the Wellesley institution in “Mona Lisa Smile,” and both Katherine and her students are bounded by society’s requirements of woman to conform as the followers of the authority and of their husbands. I agree with you that although “Mona Lisa Smile” proposes more choices for all women, it offers a rather narrow representation of upper-class women in the ivory tower of university, while in “And the Spring Comes,” beauty is presented both externally (like Ms. Wang’s neighbor) and internally, and we also see the opposite of beauty.

My suggestions for your essay are as follows 1) to state your argument with regard to the two themes in the beginning; 2) to give the readers an outline of how you will compare and contrast the two movies, I think topic sentence for each paragraph is of great help; 3) to better extend this discussion to two movies to a discussion of the Chinese and American culture/film genres, you can cite other movies which conveys similar themes through similar techniques.

I’m looking forward to read your revised essay!

Yangzi

Yangzi,

Thank you for your feedback.

I think that the stereotype of the man assuming the role of the economic provider and the female taking on the role of the caretaker is a stereotype that has changed significantly overtime. Regardless of if women wanted to pursue that career path or not, back then they were given little voice and going against society's expectations was not an option. Women felt obligated to fulfill the role expected of them. Fortunately, this has changed as now the majority of women are entering the workforce immediately after college. Although each family is different, I feel a typical family in the United States has both parents in the workforce providing economic stability for the family. In addition, the male has accepted an increased role in caring for the children.

Do you feel as if this was the case in China too? What is the primary "role" or the male and female today?

I think your comment that art can provides a possibility of mutual understanding is really interesting. I go back and forth on that statement. In the film, "Mona Lisa Smile", the students share baseline knowledge on the classic and most recognized pieces of art. However, they lack appreciation of the beauty behind art itself. Instead, they simply know the facts and fail to recognize the craftsmanship. This mutual understanding is also shared among the people living in the town in the film "And the Spring comes", however they fail to accept and appreciate this "other" and foreign form of art that is performed by Ms. Wang and Mr. Hu. I agree with you that Mr. Hu recognizes his talent as art more so than Ms Wang. Towards the end of the fire, after accepting the fact that her dreams of becoming an opera singer in the opera house we not going to come true, she treats singing as more of a hobby.

Katie,

Thank you for answering my question about the gendered roles in the United States. The situation in China is slightly different from the States, as a majority of Chinese women are in the labor force, and a working wife/mother is accepted as a social norm. Meanwhile, the responsibility of raising the children also lies mainly on the woman. When the father change a diaper for the baby, for example, he will receive praises for being a "good" dad, but if a mother does the same, people will say it is her job. I think the most serious problem is that the caretaking part is never given its due recognition in both financial and psychological terms. With the double burden, it becomes challenging for women to balance work and life.

I think this discussion can lead us back to the case of Ms. Wang. In my essay I didn't interpret on the script's arrangement for her to adopt a daughter, but now looking back, I do feel that in some ways this ending reconciles with the norms proposed by the society, though not I use the word "reconcile" not necessarily in a negative way. Given the situation in the film, it might as well be the best settlement for Ms. Wang to have someone to love. What do you think of this ending? Does it suggest that women's maternal instinct will always lead them to caring/child-bearing? I am looking forward to read about your thoughts.

I'm sincerely appreciated that we had this opportunity to know each other and exchange our ideas about Chinese and American culture. As the final season in the states in approaching according my friends studying there, I hope that you will do an excellent job in your finals

Yangzi

Yangzi,

I completely agree that this was the best settlement for Ms. Wang and her maternal instinct played a role. I think it circles back to the idea of finding purpose in life. Finding your purpose can be challenging as it may be different than your peers but that is something that I've been taught throughout my childhood. I am a firm believer that "everything happens for a reason" and I think this message is communicated in the film "And the Spring Comes". Somethings don't always go your way but trusting the process is key. Although Ms. Wang's dreams didn't come together as she had hoped, she found a new way to bring happiness into her life and that was her daughter. To me, finding things that will bring you happiness is something that is so important.

Thank you for your responses. I throughly enjoyed communicating through this cultural exchange and I learned so much about Chinese culture! Glad we got the opportunity to discuss these two films and share our thoughts and reactions to each of them. Thanks so much!! Good luck with your studies!! Let me know if you ever have additional questions.

Katie
email : klm6346@psu.edu
cell phone : 952-250-8414

Around the world and across all cultures, achieving social and economic equality amongst men and women has been a long-standing issue. Throughout history, the most common family structure has been the male assuming the role of the “earner” typically providing the economic means for the family while the female generally accepted the role of the caretaker that consisted of caring for her husband and the family. While watching the Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” and the American film “Mona Lisa Smile” two themes that were present and related in each were the 1) the pressures to conform to the norms of society and 2) the realities of physical beauty.

Pressures to conform to the expectations of society and physical beauty are two themes that jumped out in the Chinese film “And the Spring Comes”. Directed by Gu Changwei, “And the Spring Comes” tells the story of a part time teacher at a local school named Ms. Wang who has a gifted voice and a dream of being an opera singer in the National Opera House, but is challenged to achieve her dream by society’s views of women. Stuck in a tiny industrial town, conforming to the “normal” way of doing things was expected. Ms. Wang was a woman who had a unique voice that was foreign to the rest of the town and therefore her singing was not respected. Ms. Wang describes the pain and difficulty finding her way when she says, “I would be nothing without my voice.” Periodically, she escaped to Beijing to showcase her talent to people much more open and appreciative of her incredible voice. However, in her hometown, when Ms. Wang performed in public, her voice was not appreciated. At the local street show, when she finished singing, there was not a single person left in the audience. Audience member’s nonverbal behavior such as yawning, muttering, and physically leaving during her performance ultimately discouraged Ms. Wang and left her feeling hopeless.

The pressures to behave and act according to society’s expectations can have a dramatic impact on a person’s confidence. In addition to Ms. Wang, another character in the film, Mr. Hu, found himself in a similar position. Mr. Hu was also performing at the local street show. Ballet was considered a non-traditional form of dancing but something that Mr. Hu was gifted at. Immediately after beginning his routine the crowd began laughing, yelling, and ultimately getting up and leaving. Mr. Lu left the street in embarrassment. In this film, both men and women are challenged in society because both characters are incredibly talented, yet are uncomfortable expressing their unique talent and instead feel pressured to compromise to society’s expectations.

Throughout history, women were expected to find a husband and get married even if it was forced so they could take care of their husband and raise a family. This was considered the honorable choice by society. Regardless of whether women wanted this role, they were given little choice and rebelling was not an option. If a woman did not pursue this career path, it was extremely challenging for them to succeed in the workforce and ultimately achieve a respectable and high social status. Unfortunately, the pressures of finding a partner often resulted in men taking advantage of women and using them at their convenience.
Despite briefly meeting after the embarrassment of the street show, Mr. Hu wants to marry Ms. Wang to escape his insecurities so he can stop being the “fish bone stuck in everyone’s throat” and ultimately fit in. Although love and marriage was something that Ms. Wang hoped to achieve, she knew Mr. Hu didn’t love her and was using her as a cover up for the discomfort he was feeling being “different”. Ultimately a combination of discomfort and frustration is what caused Mr. Hu to rape one of the women whom he was teaching and be thrown in jail. Sadly, it took jail for Mr. Hu to ultimately find peace and happiness because he felt he was no longer under society’s pressures to conform.

I believe society’s pressures to conform to expected behaviors and norms can have a serious impact on a person. Embracing your talents and paving your own path despite what others think is key to ultimately achieving happiness and finding purpose in life. Having the courage to be yourself and finding others who will support you is really important in standing up against society expectations.

In addition to the societal and economic pressures of living up to expectations, socialist realism was also a noticeable theme. Despite her incredible voice, Ms. Wang was called “ugly”. Throughout the film, there were a variety of intentional close up shots showing her imperfections such as the freckles and pimples on her face. This was done on purpose to try and capture the reality of the situation and get viewers to experience some of the pain and struggles that were present during that time. Chinese film is known for focusing on a realistic approach instead of masking it.

In the film “Mona Lisa Smile” the same two themes are presented but communicated differently. The main character, Katherine Watson, accepts a teaching job in the Art History department at the prestigious Wellesley Institute which is an all-girls university. Ms. Watson describes the atmosphere of the institute as having a lot of labels including, “Right family, right school, right art, and right way of thinking”. The first day of class, her students demonstrate their memorization of every single ancient art piece by reciting the facts including the year, artist name, and location of each piece. Disappointed that her students did not comment on the feel of the art and only on the facts, Ms. Watson challenges her students to think beyond the textbook and understand the beauty behind art itself. Ms. Watson notices her students so focused on getting their degree and immediately after getting married that she wanted to push them outside their comfort zone and away from society’s expectations of women. For example, one student pursuing a law degree has a dream of going to Yale. However, that dream gets put aside because she knew she was going finish her degree, get married, and start her new career as a housewife.

Despite her courage to speak up for what she believed in, Ms. Watson ends up getting in trouble with the Institute for pushing these college girls against the “traditionalist” ways of women which was to marry and have a family after receiving their degree. Although not shown in the movie, not all women wanted to accept this role, yet the culture pressure was so strong they really felt like they had no choice. Similar to the film “And the Spring comes”, there were a variety of societal pressures and set expectations that left women with little choice but to conform to these previously established cultural norms.

The pressures of conforming to society’s pressures as well as others expectations is definitely something that continues to be part of our culture today. Often times, kids in the United States are pressured to attend college immediately after completing High School. Although this may be the “expectation”, some kids are simply not ready for that transition and those kids that aren’t ready really struggle and either don’t make it through or end up getting a degree in something that they are not passionate about. I believe pursuing the career path that is right for you, even if that entails going against society’s expected behaviors may not be easy but it will definitely be worth it in the end.

In contrast to Chinese films, American films almost always portray beauty to be positive. Main characters represent the top of the social classes and appear to be living the “best life”. In the film “Mona Lisa Smile” the main character Ms. Watson appears to be perfect. Kind, confident, and beautiful. More often than not, American films conclude with a happy ending showing the main character overcoming a challenge or some degree of adversity. Very few American films show the pain and emotions related to the true struggles of the past. Instead, American films tend to take a much gentler approach to mimicking the challenges our society faces. In the film, it appears Ms. Watson goes against the traditional career path and encourages her students to pursue the career of their dreams without hesitation even though, at the time, this was not socially acceptable.

While the issues are similar, the approach taken by the two films is quite different. The Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” seeks to capture reality taking on the issues very directly and rather harshly whereas American films often exaggerate characters’ appearance and take a gentler approach to the challenges our society faces. Both movies demonstrate the affect societal pressures can have on conforming to the expected behaviors. In addition, both films communicate the importance of investing in what makes you happy. After attempting to take her own life because she felt taken advantage of and disrespected, Ms. Wang adopted an orphan child. On the other hand, after initially disrespecting her for encouraging girls to go against societies traditional career path for women, a few of Ms. Watson’s students thanked her for her courage to teach what she believed.

Both the Chinese film “And the Spring Comes” and the American film “Mona Lisa Smile” tackle two key themes of 1) the pressures to conform to the norms of society and 2) the realities of physical beauty, in a creative and deliberate manor. Although both cultures experienced the same issues, each culture has a different way of showing it through film. And while one was not better than the other, both films were effective in communicating the themes and making their points while taking very different approaches.

1) Although I did not have any expectations going into the border crossing activity, I was committed to keeping an open mind throughout the process and eager to learn about Chinese culture. After completing the exchange, I noticed that several students pointed out the same two themes in the movies. However, everyone’s interpretations were a little bit different and I thought it was very interesting listening to the Chinese Student’s observations on American culture. I think this activity was fun and different and something that should be continued because it allowed us to develop an increase in cultural awareness and also allowed us to form new relationships with students overseas.

2) There were a variety of things that struck me while interacting with the Chinese students. First, I was really impressed with their English. Both students in my group wrote very clear, easy to read essays. Considering that English is their second language, I was taken back by their writing. Second, I noticed that, in general, people had similar observations. Although no right or wrong answer, it was fun to listen to their interpretations of the movies. For example, a common theme that was mentioned a lot was the pressures of conforming to societies expectations. However, no two students had the exact same analysis which made it interesting to talk through their thoughts and takeaways and ultimately develop an appreciation for a different point of view. Third, I noticed that both the Americans and Chinese students followed the same essay structure. Beginning with an introduction, followed by a few paragraphs of analysis and supporting details, and ending with a conclusion. However, I noticed that American students embedded their own opinions into their essay more frequently than Chinese students.

3) I appreciated the feedback I received on my essay and made a few changes that strengthen my essay. First, I elaborated on my observation of the “common” family structure which was the male assuming the role of the “earner” typically providing the economic means for the family while the female generally accepted the role of the caretaker that consisted of caring for her husband and the family. Second, I added/tightened up the opening sentence at the beginning of paragraphs. Third, I elaborated on my comments on American films always portraying beauty to be positive and added an example from the movie “Mona Lisa Smile”. In addition, my group had very interesting discussions and conversations (not included in the essays) on Chinese/American education and current cultural ways in the exchange which I thought was the most fun/noteworthy part.

4) I think this activity was very beneficial in terms of knowledge gains and skill enhancement. It allowed me to gain an appreciation for different viewpoints and while one culture is not better than the other, both films were effective in communicating the themes of 1) the pressures related to conforming to societies expectations and 2) the realities of physical beauty both films making their points while taking very different approaches.

7) Three adjectives I would use to describe my feelings toward the exchange are absorbing, amusing, and successful. Absorbing- I learned a lot through this exchange and I definitely look forward to learning even more about Chinese culture and advancing the relationships I made. Amusing- I was thoroughly impressed with how smooth the exchange went and with their English / writing skills. Successful- I would highly recommend continuing this activity because it’s something different and highly interactive.

8) The only suggestion I would make is to have stricter deadlines for the exchange because I did not complete three rounds of communication and I think the more interaction between students, the more we learn and takeaway from this activity. Other than that, it was really interesting and fun and I would highly recommend continuing this activity in future years.