刮痧 电影英文影评

The Gua Sha Treatment is designed to discuss the culture differences. We can know that from Datong, the name of the leading man. Datong is a classical Chinese term. It refers to a utopian vision of the world in which everyone and everything is at peace. While life always plays jokes on people, Datong?s peaceful life didn?t last long. He was accused of abusing his son because of the bruises from Gua Sha.

Actually, Datong was not the person who gave the little boy Gua Sha treatment. It?s his father. But Datong decided to be a scapegoat. This was a culture difference. In Chinese traditional culture, law is not important than affection. Though we also praise those people who put righteousness above family loyalty, nobody wants that happen to themselves. Chinese think that being a scapegoat for family members especially for father or mother is a responsibility.

The biggest culture difference the film showed us was that Chinese culture was based on experience while western based on specific evidences.

Gua Sha has been used as a treatment for thousands years, and many people advocate it for their own experience. Just like many Ancient Chinese technique, we just know it is useful but we can?t explain it clearly. So to persuade westerner to believe it seems impossible. Then cultures

conflict happens.

But we can?t directly blame westerner in this case. Not only Gua Sha, but also laugh therapy and so on are not accepted by westerner as normal

treatments. It?s a responsible attitude for life. Because we know little about these treatments, we cannot make sure what is going to happen.

And how we should deal with it? Ancient Chinese have given us the answer: While in Rome, do as Rome dose. But we should not abandon our own culture, just like Gua Sha, a treatment that helps blood circulate better. So keep on Gua Sha and communication. May be someday there will be a Datong World.

I have heard of this movie for many times since I seen it last week. Till now, I am still confused by the concept that “difference and discrimina tion “, which are conveyed by this movie. There are so many cultural gaps shown in this movie. Ways of child education, value of friendship and concept of familial affection, all of these Chinese traditions torture Da Tong, the leading role of this film, and his family during their assimilation into American culture. All the disasters are triggered by a Chinese traditional medical treatment,Gua Sha. Because of a awful scar on Dennis?(Da Tong?s

son) back left by Gua Sha, the child protecting organization accuses Da Tong with child abuse and Da Tong is deprived of the custody right, then the whole family go divided.

Most people regard Da Tong?s family tragedy as misunderstand resulted from cultural difference. However, I have another peep on it. I have to say I was shocked by the scar at the first sight since I haven?t known about Gua Sha either, but as soon as I know that it?s really a tradition

treatment, I rest assure my worry. I can sympathize the American?s shock caused by the horrific

scar and accept their legal action at the very beginning, which is the only thing can be regard as

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cultural difference in my point of view. Nevertheless what they do after their initial action is motivated by racial discrimination rather than cultural difference, which I have to point out. I have several reasons for this.

Firstly, after the first hearing, they can know that how much Da Tong care about his son and get a brief idea about Gua Sha. I am even quite outraged about the American civil servants?

scrimshank when they bring an accusation against Da Tong to deprive his custody right. The most important point Da Tong pose on the hearing is Gua Sha treatment, but they seem to “forget” it that maybe the main cause of that scar since I haven?t seen they do any research on GuaSha

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their following investigation.

Secondly, When it comes to finding witness, the witnesses they find are Da Tong?s boss and janitor and even the midwife. How ridiculous is that! I mean the witnesses they find have seldom or even never talked to Dennis. How do they know or they sure about the relation between Da Tong and his son Dennis? If I am the investigator, I would find Dennis?

teachers as witness cause the time they spend with this child is only less than his parents.

Last but not the le ast, they totally “forget” the “victim” of this case. Although I don?t familiar with US law, I suppose Dennis?opinion in this case should be taken into account which maybe a most valuable one since he is the very person who knows what happens to himself most. In private or public, they should inquire the child himself about the situation goes on him. Regretfully, I haven?t ever seen them do so .

To conclude, this series of matter was mostly caused by racial discrimination rather than cultural difference, I finally confirm.

PS: This article was written in one year ago for my "English Culture Class". Hope to find someone to share a view on it.

Because He Is Chinese: Chinese Immigrants? Struggle for the recognition of American Society

—The Maze of Different Value Systems and The Disillusion of Those Outsiders? Daydream

Brief Introduction to the Movie:

Datong Xu and his wife Jian Ning have been lived in America for eight years; through struggle they have made great success in their career and with their son Dennis they live a very happy life.

Xu?s father comes from China to visit his family. While there, he gives his grandson a harmless traditional Chinese medical treatment of Gua Sha, which the local authorities wrongly regard as child abuse. The

family goes through a very hard time when the child is taken away by the child protection agency. Meanwhile, the Xu?s father leaves America because he finds that the living environment is really not suitable for him, as he feels that Gua Sha, which is so common in China is treated as child abuse in America. Worst of all, he cannot converse in English.

Eventually, an American friend of Datong tries Gua Sha and proves

that the treatment leaves

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painful-looking marks that are not actually harmful at all. And the end result sees that Dennis is returned home and the family is reunited.

Movie Analysis: with a focus on pieces taken from the movie

Value Systems deeply rooted in Different Cultures Do Make Clashes As is shown to us, despite the fact that Datong, with his wife has been to the States for eight years, deep in his heart his root is in China and some of the most fundamental viewpoints of his are still

typical Chinese style.

Scene one: at the very beginning of this movie Dennis and the son of Datong?s friend Quinlan have a fight and Dennis beats the other boy,

then Dennis goes to play computer games. Let?s see what Datong has done

to his son: he shuts down the computer, beats his son and asks him to apologize to Quinlan?s son, an act making the Quinlan family feel confused and puzzled.

Now you see, having lived in America has made Datong look like an American citizen and has gained him a good reputation as an American

computer game designer; however, it fails to change his value system since he is brought up in China and mainly educated there. Family structure and their inherent relationships and obligations are a major source of cultural difference. (Xu, page 94) And differences between

west and east in value systems occur, thus making the culture clashes: Quinlan never did this to his son, so he can?t understand Datong?s deed and feel quite surprised.

Scene two: at the hearing Datong shows his fury and “overacts” as

he witnesses someone saying something bad about Chinese culture, making people present at the court feel so astonished.

As we all know, the curt is a sacred place and no one should be led

by his own emotion and behave rudely to the judge, as this is an offense to sobriety of the law and the legal system. Complex as the scene may appear to be, what causes Datong?s deeds can be carefully reasoned: Here again come the cultural clashes: American culture is so

different from ours that they may not be able to correctly comprehend

and decode our culture; this has caused the person who has said something bad about Chinese culture at the court misperceive our culture, which is a sad truth. When somebody misunderstands your motherland, what will you do? Of course we?ll fight back and defend our country, wherever and whenever. And this, is the very answer to Datong?s deeds at the court.

Cultural Conflicts and Its Causation

We should admit the fact that this is a movie full of cultural conflicts, among which the different opinions towards Gua Sha and the unhappy life of Datong?s father in America should be the most serious two. Gua Sha, along with the life experience of Datong?s father, can be taken as the two significant factors when we are studying the clue of this movie.

Scene Three: Dennis is taken away from Datong?s family because of the seemingly

painful-looking marks left by the treatment Gua Sha.

Here the mark is taken for the testimony that Datong?s family has abused the child; however, Chinese people, as the inventor and practitioner of this traditional treatment, will never come to the conclusion that this is harmful to the patients. Unfortunately, probably no Chinese has thought of the problem that Americans don?t make sense of this treatment; and also, probably no Americans have realized that Gua Sha is not a punishment or abuse but a way to heal people?s illness.

Misconceptions from both sides has jointly led to the cultural conflicts, both sides need to

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retrospect themselves and communicate with each other, which in the movie we can hardly see. And the movie is the reflection of the reality, though a little unwilling to accept the fact, we have no choice but to face this serious problem: lack of understanding and interaction between different cultures.

Scene Four: Datong?s father, finding it extremely difficult to live

in a totally different environment and feeling a sense of loneliness, finally leaves for China.

The life of an old person living in a foreign country is always a heated topic to be discussed. Today I?ll focus on the conflicts part: The grandfather, symbol of the Chinese traditional culture and the Chinese past, is confronted with modern America and the contemporary American mainstream culture. It is obvious that these two differ in lots of aspects, and of course so many differences are to cause cultural conflicts, in which the Datong?s father is too weak to fight back and have no choice but to return to its own culture.

What has made a Chinese old man face those cultural conflicts? The reasons are as follows: living environment, language, worldview and values, etc. And in all those elements, I think the unfamiliarity of an unacquainted culture should be the most striking one.

Conclusion Part:

American Dream? So Hard to Achieve for a Chinese Immigrant

Do you still remember the words said by Datong Xu at the start of

the movie when he is addressing his prize-winning speech? In his speech he says that if he can keep working hard he will one day become a real, successful American, American as he has thought of is a country full of opportunities and he is the lively example, and at last he says he loves America and that?s his American Dream.

Sarcastically, the start of the movie turns out to be Datong?s peak, and then both his career and his life have become worse and worse. It is certain that the family is reunited and things begin to become better, but you can?t deny the fact that Datong?s American Dream is actually ruined and disillusioned, maybe through time he will soon “recover”, but the pain left by the tragic memory

of this incident is sure to last long.

In his famous novel The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald wrote the famous sentence: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past (Fitzgerald, page 224). American Dream is far away from those immigrants, the famous Chinese writer Zhu Ziqing has once said: “but the happiness is theirs, I have nothing.” And this theory can also be adapted here: the American dream is American?s, they immigrants have nothing. Even Americans themselves can?t easily realize their dream, how about immigrants?

And what has made this? Of course the difference of culture and

value systems! To solve this problem, we still have a long way to go.

The name Datong means great harmony, I guess it is not only the ultimate goal of the director but also the ultimate goal of people all around the world. It comes as no surprise that it is of vital importance to realize this goal, but there still exist a great number of obstacles, especially in the aspect of culture and communication. What should we do? Just keep walking, keep fighting and trying hard to build bridges

between different cultures and help them understand each other to

fulfill our dreams.

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If one day the great harmony arrives, the world will take on a new look and the earth will make a true global village.

When a member of one culture produces a message for consumption by a member of another culture, intercultural communication occurs, which is a kind of communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinctive enough to alter the communication event. People are alike and different. We carry our culture with us wherever we go, and it influences how we respond to the people we meet.

The leading man in the movie Gua Sha Treatment has been in America

for eight years as a new immigrant. At the beginning of this movie, the man, Datong addressed a speech in American way to show his love to America and American dream. It seemed that he has gained great success

in the American mainstream society. Yet it was just an exaggeration of his success when used to make the comparison with the ensuing events.

Datong and his wife were born and raised in China, while their son was a Chinese American. They taught their son in American way and spoke English all the time. In the celebration, we can find Datong was praised and encouraged by his boss, who can be taken as a representative of the mainstream business. At the party, because of the quarrel between the two children, the son, Dennis was beaten by his father, which is just a very common action in Chinese culture. The grandfather of Dennis also

admitted the way of education. Because the other boy is the son of his boss, Datong gave his son a lesson to show his respect to the boss, who can not understand it at all. The boss was shocked and accepted it temporarily. In American culture, individualism is the key point of American cultural pattern, even between the father and the son. But in Chinese cultural pattern, fathers have the right or responsibility to educate the sons, no matter in a legal way or his personal way. We tend to take it as family privacy, instead of family violence or child abuse. In traditional Chinese culture, family conflict is often solved between family members and it?s a shame to spread family conflict outside of the house, while in America, the law and regulations make the difference.

There was a very plain role in this movie, Lao Huo, the man who

acted terra-cotta warrior, which was a loser in pursuing American dream compared with Datong. There were only the daily life and death of Lao Huo in this movie, which reflected the pursuit and struggling of an ordinary person in America. The death of him made the father of Datong think a lot, which was a clue to tell us the old man will return to China finally. According to the two different results of pursuing American dream, two different result of cultural conflict revealed.

After the Gua Sha treatment rendered by the grandfather, Datong and his wife accepted it because of their Chinese culture background and the previous experience. It?s natural for the couple to keep the accident of child abuse secret to their father. And Datong confessed it was he who gave the treatment to the child, although his wife showed a little

reluctance and hesitance. Actually his father gave the Gua Sha treatment to the son. There was an obvious culture difference in the episode. Chinese people behave on the basis of experience, while American act

with the reference to the specific evidence. It?s praiseworthy for Datong to be a scapegoat for his father. In Chinese traditional culture, the law is important but sometimes affection counts. It?s dutiful and responsible to reduce the pains of parents both in China and America. If Datong admitted his

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father gave the treatment to the child and his to father will be accused by the court. Although it?s lawful, it?s unfilial in Chinese culture, which is an unforgivable fault.

Chinese view on interpersonal relationship network has been

illustrated richly in this movie. When Datong needed a lawyer to help him, he sought help of his friend, who is actually not a lawyer of

family law, but copyright law. Because of the lack of legal knowledge

and the good relationship between them, Datong insisted on his help. Before the hearing commenced, Datong?s wife asked why the court was not the same as she saw before on TV. The tiny episode accounted for the difference between the judicial systems. Because Datong was in trouble, he turned to his friend for help, regardless of his professional field. Chinese weak legal consciousness was also criticized and satirized in

this movie and Datong?s family became victims of culture shock.

Although Gua Sha treatment is common and effective in China, we

never tried to understand how it worked. We learned our culture from

folk tales, mass media, and education. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation, so we never question the therapy. Everyone is a product of his own culture, it?s undoubted for American to have nothing idea about the treatment. But we can also find strong prejudice and ethnocentrism of America in the response to the case.

The trial of this child abuse case could be regarded as the climax

of this film. Datong?s family fights against the charge, which is an intense conflict between the Chinese and American cultures. Traditional medical treatment cannot be proved and admitted. They have no interest in proving why Gua Sha treatment is advisable but tried to prove how much the couple loves their son. The judgment and condemnation are just based on the scratch, the judge never showed a fair and sensible

attitude to the medical treatment. Chinese classical book Journey to the West is considered from the negative perspective, even though the accuser knew it was wrong. The malicious and deliberated objection described American competition and materialism. The aim of the dispute is just for the victory in the court, regardless of the wicked ways. The prejudice and discrimination are two apparent obstacles in the intercultural communication. Moreover, the ethnocentrism of America was also perceivable. The judge and the accuser never showed justice to Datong?s rebuttal. Because of the ignorance of the treatment, they were very indifferent and pride to Datong?s statement. This uncooperative

attitude made this event worse. It seems all of them are well-educated and civilized, but the communication problems repeatedly arose. Both of the parties held respective strong cultural background and different values, which have implemented enormous impact.

Additionally, the stereotyping to Chinese or easterners are mentionable. When Datong said he hit his son to save his boss? face, to make him feel better. The boss felt it was twisted and absurd. When Datong said it was a common sense to save his wife rather than the child, the female accuser said, your Orientals are barbarian. Stereotypes were

a means of organizing our images into fixed and simple categories that we use to stand for the entire collection of people. In most distances, stereotypes are the products of limited, lazy, and misguided perceptions. In the movie, some Americans never delete their confirmation bias and tend to put Chinese to shame. Then, the failure in intercultural communication occurs.

According to Hall?s high-context and low-context communication, the Asian mode of

communication is often indirect and implicit, whereas western communication tends to be direct and explicit-that is, everything needs to be stated. Westerners are more prone to making very explicit statements and have little capability with nonverbal forms of expression. High-context

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cultures tend to be more aware of their surroundings and their environment and do not rely on verbal communication as their main information channel. According to the analysis of the movie, we can find the difference between high-context and low-context communication. At the beginning, Datong?s wife disliked the grandfather?s smoking, but she said nothing directly and opened the window. Certainly the grandfather understood it easily. On the contrary, Americans often get permission first. And if they want to show the objection, they spoke it out. But

it?s not

impolite and respectful to ask the elder not to do something. When Chinese show their anger, it is also implicit. Datong was very angry to his boss, because he has thought his boss would help him on this issue. Datong hoped his boss to support him, but the fact that the boss told everything straightforward, which was unfavorable to Datong. In Datong?s view, they were friends and it?s responsible for the boss to help him and he took the frankness of his boss as a kind of betrayal. He was unwilling to work there any more and planned to quit that job after no discussion with his boss. It?s normal to a Chinese man to show his anger and express their spilt relationship. From the perspective of the American, it has nothing to do with their friendship. It?s reasonable and lawful

to tell the judge all the truth. They don?t show personal emotions in the business and persuaded Datong to work, which is a way to show his kindness and concern.

The ending of this movie is happy and warm. The boss understood Gua Sha treatment and Datong?s family gained reunion on the important western festival. No matter in East or West, family reunion and family love are enjoyable and happy. In the end, the grandfather educated and taught his son again. It was warm and moving because we can feel the father?s love; no matter he expressed his love explicitly or implicitly. The grandfather left America because he found it was troublesome and upset for a person like him to live in the Western culture. It was a failure for an elderly like him in intercultural communication, and it was a success for the young generation in America.

The last episode in the movie was the boy?s learning mandarin, which was a strong contrast to the beginning of the movie, where the boy was educated to speak English to prepare for the competition of the future. No culture is more advanced than others and cultural diversity should be advocated and protected. Human brain is an open system and supposed to appreciate the diversity.

Finally, the name of the leading man in this movie, “Datong”, is also a Chinese Confucian classical term, which means great harmony. Obviously, the name was created with the implied meaning. “Datong” society is the perfect and ideal society in Confucianism, which conveyed the

hope and wish of the movie producers. Although there are so many different countries, cultures, systems, races, etc, it?s a pursuit to

build such kind of harmonious society without discrimination, prejudice, conflict, war…

Most of us grow up with a strong depressor of American dream, which encourages thinking big and struggling for it. The so-called American dream shows us that all people can succeed through their hard work, and that all people have the potential to live successful lives. Until now the American dream even becomes more concrete. It?s a dream for many intellectuals to continue their studies and works in America. They

firmly believe that it?s a real paradise where one deserves his own behaviors without any imparity of race, family, fortun etc.

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However, is this sort of dream as perfect as we image? Well, the movie Guasha shows the other side of the …dramatic dream?. Life could never be so easy and ideal as no matters will trouble you. Sometime even a tiny thing could be a fuse of big trouble. In the movie we couldn?t simply say that it?s just the butterfly effect, but also a kind of certainty—the certainty of cultural

difference between China and America.

In fact, the cultural difference shouldn?t be ignored for the immigration.

The main line of the movie is the Chinese treatment Guasha. The children welfare organization confirms it as abusing. The hero Datong tries hard to explain what Guasha is and separate Guasha from abusing. For us Chinese, it?s really ridiculous to consider Guasha as abusing.

But no matters how hard the father tries to persuade the native Americans, all the efforts turn out to be in vain. The judge can?t

believe nor understand the poor father?s heart. Finally in order to

bring their son from charity, the parents have choice but to live separately.

Also the teaching method turns to be another difference. In China,

we have an old saying: scolding and beating is a kind of love. But the Americans don?t think so, for them, scolding will

hurt a child?s feeling and beating is an illegal action. They

couldn?t understand how parent beats his own child in name of love. The way Chinese parents show their love is quite different to the American?s. Once a parent beats his child, the other will bite the evidence to prove his

irresponsibility. That is why Datong loses the case.

The view of respecting and caring aged parents is also different. In the movie, Datong?s boss doesn?t understand Datong?s being scapegoat of his father. When he asks this to Jianning,

Datong?s wife, she replies with a simple sentence ?because he is a Chinese?. She knows it?s hard to explain Datong?s behavior to his boss.

It?s as difficult as to persuade the judge that Guasha is not abusing.

We can?t avoid the cultural difference or ignore its existence. So,

do as Rome does while in Rome. And communication is a no bad way. Maybe after the communication the world would be more harmony in the future.

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