Diasporic Chinese family drama through a transnational lens: The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Saving Face (2004)

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-343
Author(s):  
Qijun Han

Abstract The immigrant Chinese family has increasingly been represented in transnational Chinese cinema(s) over the past three decades. Two representative films, The Wedding Banquet (Lee, 1993) and Saving Face (Wu, 2004), are chosen to shed light on Chinese filmmakers' engagement with the complex process of identity formation for immigrants through the artifice of family conflict. Both movies examine how homosexuality can pose a threat to traditional Chinese family ethics such as filial piety, family continuity and family reputation, and how the seemingly incompatible ideological standpoints can be accommodated in the end. In both cases, on the one hand the depicted denial of homosexuality comes from its association with failed family education and bad ethnic and cultural practice, and its violation of traditional Chinese values. Therefore, sexuality becomes linked to the effect of Americanization and what it means to be Chinese. On the other hand, the 'undesirable' homosexual identity can be accepted or at least tolerated within the family as long as the family lineage is ensured, or the family remains intact. The disaporic subjects show us that submission to one's ethnicity can be modified or unlearned.

Corpus Mundi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-119
Author(s):  
Asia Alyevna Sarakaeva

The article, through the lens of crimes and court cases, explores the complex relationship between the individual, family and state in China in the XVII-XIX centuries. The research is based on archival court cases and fiction literature of traditional China. The author examines crimes committed within the family, analyses the testimony of criminals and witnesses, as well as sentences and government decrees; compares the real transcripts of court hearings with the depiction of family conflicts, investigations and trials in adventure novels and short stories by Chinese writers. As a result, the author comes to a number of conclusions, in particular, that the Qing government gradually shifted the emphasis from the value of filial piety and generational hierarchy to the special importance of marriage relations; while in public mindset, on the contrary, the inertia of Confucianism and the desire to protect the integrity and autonomy of the family body from interference by state power were extremely strong. Speaking about the reaction of the Chinese family to the crime that occurred within its ranks, the author identifies several typical ways of responding, with the choice of method being often determined by the gender of the conflicting parties.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Qijun Han

Being embedded in the interdisciplinary area of media and culture studies, this articlel explores the family melodrama in transnational Chinese cinema drawing upon theoretical discussions with regard to the historical emergence of melodrama in correspondence to, as Th. Elsaesser says, “periods of intense social and ideological crisis”. While serving as a reflection on the tension between tradition and modernity displayed in the domestic domain, Ang Lee’s Chinese-characterized family melodrama also illustrates the differences between Chinese and Hollywood family melodrama. Linked to the ongoing debate about “melodrama as a cross-cultural form”, in the process of analyzing the film text, our perceptions of generic dislocation or displacement, transcultural entanglements and globalization in light of contemporary cultural practices will be furthermore complicated.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-398
Author(s):  
Stone Han (韩逸平) ◽  
Artemis Ching-Fang Chang (张静芳) ◽  
Hsi-Mei Chung (钟喜梅)

Abstract This study investigates the impact of immigrant context on continuity and success in Chinese family business. We conceptualize the immigrant context as exposure to country differences in family logic, arguing that the immigrant context influences transgenerational intent by affecting family practices and relations. Based on a multiple-case study of Taiwanese business families in Brisbane, Australia, we show that variations in three family practices – parental control, children’s filial piety, and parental role in children’s career development – play an important role in this matter. To explain why, we theorize that the extent to which Taiwanese immigrant business families continue with or depart from traditional Chinese family logic in terms of these three practices enables particular meaning of intrafamily succession to prevail in the family, which ultimately affects their transgenerational intent.


1970 ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
May Abu Jaber

Violence against women (VAW) continues to exist as a pervasive, structural,systematic, and institutionalized violation of women’s basic human rights (UNDivision of Advancement for Women, 2006). It cuts across the boundaries of age, race, class, education, and religion which affect women of all ages and all backgrounds in every corner of the world. Such violence is used to control and subjugate women by instilling a sense of insecurity that keeps them “bound to the home, economically exploited and socially suppressed” (Mathu, 2008, p. 65). It is estimated that one out of every five women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching up to 70 percent in some countries (WHO, 2005). Whether this abuse is perpetrated by the state and its agents, by family members, or even by strangers, VAW is closely related to the regulation of sexuality in a gender specific (patriarchal) manner. This regulation is, on the one hand, maintained through the implementation of strict cultural, communal, and religious norms, and on the other hand, through particular legal measures that sustain these norms. Therefore, religious institutions, the media, the family/tribe, cultural networks, and the legal system continually disciplinewomen’s sexuality and punish those women (and in some instances men) who have transgressed or allegedly contravened the social boundaries of ‘appropriateness’ as delineated by each society. Such women/men may include lesbians/gays, women who appear ‘too masculine’ or men who appear ‘too feminine,’ women who try to exercise their rights freely or men who do not assert their rights as ‘real men’ should, women/men who have been sexually assaulted or raped, and women/men who challenge male/older male authority.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Su-hua Wang ◽  
Shinchieh Duh

We provide a framework of analysis for Chinese ways of learning that extends beyond the individual level. The theoretical framework focuses on Confucian principles of <i>xiào</i> (孝, filial piety), <i>guăn</i> (管, to govern), and <i>dào dé guān</i> (道德觀, virtues), which leads us to argue that directive guidance as a cultural practice nourishes Chinese-heritage children’s learning as early as in infancy. To illustrate how directive guidance occurs in action for infants, we present an empirical study that examined the interaction of mother-infant dyads in Taipei, Taiwan, when they played with a challenging toy. The dyads co-enacted directive guidance more frequently than their European-American counterparts in the USA – through hand holding, intervening, and collaboration – while infants actively participate in the practice. We discuss the early development of strengths for learning that is fostered through culturally meaningful practices recurrent in parent-infant interaction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 112067212110083
Author(s):  
Shu-Hua Ni ◽  
Juan-Mei Zhang ◽  
Jun Zhao

Purpose: To demonstrate the underlying genetic defect that contribute to inherited cataract in a northern Chinese pedigree. Methods: The study recruited a family pedigree with a diagnosis of bilateral coronary cataract with blue punctate opacities. Fourteen family members and 100 healthy volunteers were enrolled. DNA sample of the proband in this family were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing, which was then demonstrated by Sanger sequencing in the remained people in the family and 100 controls. The functional effect of mutant genes was investigated via bioinformatics analysis, including Polymorphism Phenotyping version2 (PolyPhen-2), Protein Variation Effect Analyzer (PROVEAN v1.1.3) Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), and Mutation Taster. Results: In this three-generation family, a novel heterozygous mutation was found in the kinase domain of CRYBA1 gene (c.340C > T, p.R114C), which was only detected in patients in the family with inherited cataract and were not detected in the remained people in the family nor in normal people. The pathogenic effect of the mutation was verified via bioinformatics analysis. Conclusion: Our study presented the molecular experiments to confirm that a novel missense mutation of c.340 C > T located in exon 4 of CRYBA1 gene results in a bilateral coronary cataract with blue punctate opacities, which enriches the mutation spectrum of CRYBA1 gene in inherited cataract and deepens the understanding of the pathogenesis of inherited cataract.


Author(s):  
Elena de Andrés-Jiménez ◽  
Rosa Mª Limiñana-Gras ◽  
Encarna Fernández-Ros

The aim of this study is to determine the existence of a characteristic personality profile of family carers of people with dementia. The correct knowledge and use of psychological variables which affect the carer, helps to promote appropriate actions to mitigate the impact of care and improve the carer’s quality of life and likewise the one of the person cared for. The study population consists of 69 family carers of people with dementia, members of various associations and care centers. The results allow us to identify a characteristic personality profile for these carers and it reveals a specific psychological working in this sample, although we cannot directly relate it with the tasks of caring for people with this disease, this profile gives us very relevant information to pay more attention to the needs of this group. Moreover, the analysis of personality styles depends on the sex of the family carer, showing, once again, that the woman is in a situation of most vulnerability.


Author(s):  
Joanna Senderska ◽  
Iwona Mityk ◽  
Ewa Piotrowska-Oberda

AbstractThe article discusses the image of the family and the family home in a series of novels for young people by the popular Polish writer Małgorzata Musierowicz in the context of literary conventions and stereotypes about the family in contemporary Polish society. The novels, which cover a period of over 40 years, generally fit contemporary Polish realities; however, the didactic function of the novels results in the author creating an idealized image of the Polish intellectual family, filling the readers with optimism. The picture created by the writer, on the one hand, fits perfectly into the stereotype of the family, which is one of the values highly esteemed by Poles. On the other hand, it adapts to the conventions of novels for girls. In this article, the stereotype of the family is reconstructed on the basis of language data and surveys. We present the meanings and contexts of family as a noun and family as an adjective. We also present the results of our survey, the aim of which was to determine an essence of a stereotypical family and how the traditional family model is comprehended by respondents coming from various groups. We also present the respondents’ attitude to the patriarchal family model and the division of roles into male and female. In our opinion, the correspondence between the family picture created in the novels and the image of the family operating in social consciousness is the reason for the popularity of the series.


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