Women need to be their own dignities
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:10 am
Li Yi
Last week, I saw two films, And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile. The ideas of feminism and the concept of self-pursuit reflected in them made me have profound thinking.
First let me talk about And the Spring Comes. The film takes place in the 1980s. The protagonist is an elderly leftover woman named Wang Cailing.
Wang Cailing positioned herself like this: I’m as poor as a church and not good looking, my only blessing has been my voice. Without it I am nothing. She dreamed of being able to get into the Paris Opera, but she was repeatedly rejected by everyone. The desperate pain continued to erode her willpower. At this time, she was still dreaming about the fame and fortune brought by art. Fortunately, her view of love became more assertive. In the end, Wang Cailing left the opera without a second thought, lived on meat sales, and lived a single life with her adopted girl Wang Xiaofan.
Wang Cailing was born for both art and love. She is fighting alone in the pursuit of her artistic dream, relying on that distant noble dream. Art and love have always been inseparable and depreciated in her heart, although she has never been able to obtain these two things.
Throughout her first half of life, her vanity blinded her eyes. And she mistook the pursuit of art as a tool for a successful life. In the end, art did not redeem her barren soul, and she did not ask art for compensation. At the cost of losing the nourishment of enjoying art, the ordinary people's fireworks daily life was obtained.
The reality is always harsh. This literary youth wanted to flee. She fight until she was covered in bruises, but in vain. Fortunately, as a woman, she was not completely defeated. At least, not bowing to marriage is her last only dignity.
At the end of the movie is a dream for Wang Cailing. In the dream, she really sang in the Central Opera House. However, in reality, because of secular prejudice and public misunderstanding, Wang Cailing was unable to be respected, so that her self-pursuit as a woman was completely lost in the end. The result of fighting against such a realistic world is no result except a lot of injuries. So whether they are willing or unwilling, forced or proactive, all people on the lonely island must eventually return to shore.
Anyway, And the Spring Comes is a story that set the background in China. Women's self-development can tell a different story abroad in the United States. Mona Lisa Smile is one of those films that discusses whether women should pursue themselves or return to their families. And it really impresses me.
The film takes place in the United States in the 1950s. And I would never have been interested in the decades-long debate between China and the United States until I had seen these two films. However, after I watched them, I have to admit the fact that they are both similar and have differences.
At Wellesley College, a prestigious women's university, most of the students come from good families and have received an excellent education since childhood. But the college education does not teach them how to acquire knowledge of the subjects they are interested in, but defines their success as whether they will be a good and virtuous wife.
This view of masculinity may have been formed at the beginning of human society and became more deeply rooted with the agricultural and industrial revolutions. As the pillar of a family, men are expected to take care of money, while women are expected to take care of their husbands and children. This view was not unusual in those early days. And in this university, even the best students think in this way. They didn't even hesitate to try to carry on with this standpoint. Their goal is to marry a good man.
There's a dialogue in the film, “Dear Betty, I came to Wellesley because I wanted to make a difference. But to change for others...” Said by Catherine which is the heroine in this movie. As a maverick, she first want to change herself in a new environment. Instead of changing her, however, traditional ideas made her even more indignant. It also made her more insistent on maintaining her point of view. So she gradually changed her students. Until the end of the story, the most disobedient student Betty also published an article to thank her teacher. I think this is also a change of Catherine herself.
That may be why America is usually ahead of us in some ways. When a concept is contrary to the tradition that individuals will not understand or reject it. However, unlike the masses in And the Spring Comes, they will not deny this concept, but let it develop. They will let people observe and judge for themselves. In this way, what we lack is such an environment.
Women have the right to choose to get rid of marriage or devote themselves to the family. But the most important point is that marriage is not the shackles of women, but liberation. When women can be their own dignity, their lives will be truly thoroughly understood.
Last week, I saw two films, And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile. The ideas of feminism and the concept of self-pursuit reflected in them made me have profound thinking.
First let me talk about And the Spring Comes. The film takes place in the 1980s. The protagonist is an elderly leftover woman named Wang Cailing.
Wang Cailing positioned herself like this: I’m as poor as a church and not good looking, my only blessing has been my voice. Without it I am nothing. She dreamed of being able to get into the Paris Opera, but she was repeatedly rejected by everyone. The desperate pain continued to erode her willpower. At this time, she was still dreaming about the fame and fortune brought by art. Fortunately, her view of love became more assertive. In the end, Wang Cailing left the opera without a second thought, lived on meat sales, and lived a single life with her adopted girl Wang Xiaofan.
Wang Cailing was born for both art and love. She is fighting alone in the pursuit of her artistic dream, relying on that distant noble dream. Art and love have always been inseparable and depreciated in her heart, although she has never been able to obtain these two things.
Throughout her first half of life, her vanity blinded her eyes. And she mistook the pursuit of art as a tool for a successful life. In the end, art did not redeem her barren soul, and she did not ask art for compensation. At the cost of losing the nourishment of enjoying art, the ordinary people's fireworks daily life was obtained.
The reality is always harsh. This literary youth wanted to flee. She fight until she was covered in bruises, but in vain. Fortunately, as a woman, she was not completely defeated. At least, not bowing to marriage is her last only dignity.
At the end of the movie is a dream for Wang Cailing. In the dream, she really sang in the Central Opera House. However, in reality, because of secular prejudice and public misunderstanding, Wang Cailing was unable to be respected, so that her self-pursuit as a woman was completely lost in the end. The result of fighting against such a realistic world is no result except a lot of injuries. So whether they are willing or unwilling, forced or proactive, all people on the lonely island must eventually return to shore.
Anyway, And the Spring Comes is a story that set the background in China. Women's self-development can tell a different story abroad in the United States. Mona Lisa Smile is one of those films that discusses whether women should pursue themselves or return to their families. And it really impresses me.
The film takes place in the United States in the 1950s. And I would never have been interested in the decades-long debate between China and the United States until I had seen these two films. However, after I watched them, I have to admit the fact that they are both similar and have differences.
At Wellesley College, a prestigious women's university, most of the students come from good families and have received an excellent education since childhood. But the college education does not teach them how to acquire knowledge of the subjects they are interested in, but defines their success as whether they will be a good and virtuous wife.
This view of masculinity may have been formed at the beginning of human society and became more deeply rooted with the agricultural and industrial revolutions. As the pillar of a family, men are expected to take care of money, while women are expected to take care of their husbands and children. This view was not unusual in those early days. And in this university, even the best students think in this way. They didn't even hesitate to try to carry on with this standpoint. Their goal is to marry a good man.
There's a dialogue in the film, “Dear Betty, I came to Wellesley because I wanted to make a difference. But to change for others...” Said by Catherine which is the heroine in this movie. As a maverick, she first want to change herself in a new environment. Instead of changing her, however, traditional ideas made her even more indignant. It also made her more insistent on maintaining her point of view. So she gradually changed her students. Until the end of the story, the most disobedient student Betty also published an article to thank her teacher. I think this is also a change of Catherine herself.
That may be why America is usually ahead of us in some ways. When a concept is contrary to the tradition that individuals will not understand or reject it. However, unlike the masses in And the Spring Comes, they will not deny this concept, but let it develop. They will let people observe and judge for themselves. In this way, what we lack is such an environment.
Women have the right to choose to get rid of marriage or devote themselves to the family. But the most important point is that marriage is not the shackles of women, but liberation. When women can be their own dignity, their lives will be truly thoroughly understood.
