美国价值观与中国传统文化元素的融合与冲突毕业论文

美国价值观与中国传统文化元素的融合与冲突毕业论文

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract ................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。摘要.......................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。Contents ..................................................................................................... I

I Introduction (1)

1.1 The Synopsis of Mulan (1)

1.2 The Synopsis of Kung Fu Panda (2)

II the Compatibility of American Values and Chinese Elements (3)

2.1 The characters (3)

2.2 Scenery, Architecture and other Details (4)

2.3 Martial Arts (5)

2.4 Chinese Philosophy (6)

III. Conflicts of American Values and Chinese Elements (8)

3.1 Conservatism VS Free Spirit (8)

3.2 Family Priority& Individualism (10)

IV. Conclusion (12)

4.1 General Summary of the Study (12)

Bibliography (14)

The Compatibility and Conflicts between American Values and Chinese Elements in Animated Movies Mulan and Kung Fu

Panda

I Introduction

1.1 The Synopsis of Mulan

As one of the representative work of ballads in ancient China, Ballad of Mulan is a celebrated folk tale which has been widely told from generation to generation in China for hundreds of years. It tells a story about a girl named Hua Mulan who is born and raised in a traditional Chinese family. However, unlike other populous Chinese families, Mulan has neither brothers nor sisters. When the war breaks out, Mulan substitutes for her aged father and joins the army to defend the country against northern invaders. Mulan’s filial loyalty, valiantness and outstanding military ability make her one of the most respected heroine in Chinese history.

In 1998, American film tycoon, Disney company produced an animated film Mulan based on this well-known Chinese folk tale. The main characters and plot remain same: the brave Mulan, her old, sick father and the vicious enemies. However, while the yellow-skinned, black-haired girl evokes some warm and approachable feelings in many Chinese audiences’ hearts, some of them find that the image of Mulan which represented in the American film is somewhat different from the traditional heroine image in Chinese textbooks. Therefore, the film Mulan is a story with a Chinese traditional structure but in essence, it is filled of American spirit and western values.

1.2 The Synopsis of Kung Fu Panda

In June, 2008, DreamWorks Animation Studio released globally another animated blockbuster Kung Fu Panda, choosing one of the most popular and renowned Chinese traditional elements, martial arts as the core element of the film.

The synopsis of Kung Fu Panda looks like something like this: a clumsy panda named Po lives with his foster father, a duck, in Peace Valley. On the surface, Po may look like just like another portly panda, but beneath his fur, he bears the mark of the chosen one. By day, Po works faithfully in his family’s noodle shop, but by night, he dreams of becoming a true master of the martial arts. When an ancient prophecy has come to pass, Po realizes that he is the only one who can save his people from certain destruction. In the end, with the help of the legendary Furious Five, Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper, Monkey and their wise mentor, Master Shifu, the noble Po masters the martial arts and somehow transforms his greatest weakness into his greatest strengths. It is these incredible strengths that beat the malevolent snow leopard Tai Lung. He fulfills his destiny as the hero who saves his people during their darkest hour.

It is not difficult to find that instead of applying the Chinese elements simply to film-making, the producers of Kung Fu Panda take some typical oriental philosophical themes, such as life, destiny, living and death into thorough consideration. The producers made great efforts to maximize the compatibility of American values and Chinese traditional culture and minimize the conflicts. If what Mulan presents can be generalize as Chinese form and American theme, Kung Fu Panda is more like a combination of Chinese essence and American spirit.

II the Compatibility of American Values and Chinese Elements

2.1 The characters

The title says it all with Mulan, a famous Chinese classic which tells a story about how an ordinary girl manages to be an honorable heroine. Since the plot background is set to be in ancient China, no wonder the characters closely resemble the Asian in terms of appearance.

Besides those black-eyed, yellow-skinned characters, there is also a little dragon which attracts much attention from the audience. Dragon used to be the symbol of Chinese royalty in feudal period. It stands for nobility, power and endless fortune. Even in today’s communist society, dragon continues to serve as the mascot of the Chinese nation. Even if Muxu( the name of the dragon) is nothing like the noble and fierce dragon which represents the temperament of the Chinese nation，the adorable little dragon successfully bring about laughter and make the whole film much interesting.

The panda Po in Kung Fu Panda is another Chinese symbol which is probably even more popular than dragon in western world. While the dragon has historically served as China's national emblem, in recent decades the Giant Panda has also served as an emblem for the country. Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins.

However, unlike a real black-eyed panda, the American panda Po has a pair of green eyes which resemble the Caucasian. In Kung Fu Panda Po is not a docile panda that everyone loves. On the contrary, he is chatty, obese, slothful, gluttonous, and has interpersonal relationship issue. Undoubtedly, the film aims to tell another typical “American Dream” story of how an extremely ordinary character manages to succeed in achieving a great accomplishment. All these seem to be reminding the audience that, this is, after all, an animated

film made in the United States. No matter how much Chineseness the producers have attached in the film, it is impossible to get rid of American spirit.

2.2 Scenery, Architecture and other Details

The first scene of Mulan is when the invaders are about to invade China, the messenger takes the message to his commander. Here comes the significant Chinese symbol—the Great Wall.

The construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. when the vassal states under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country built their own walls for self-defense. After the states of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., the separate walls were interconnected and extended to more than 10000 miles. Constructed of masonry, rocks and packed-earth, the Great Wall is landmark of the earth. The Great Wall has long been incorporated into Chinese mythology and popular symbolism. As a film whose background is set in ancient China, the Great Wall is certainly an indispensable element.

Besides, there are many other Chinese architecture and decorations in film Mulan, such as drawbridge in the valley, tapestry hanging on the wall, festive red lanterns decorating the eaves. All these details give full expression to the oriental styles.

Likewise, in Kung Fu Panda, the producers also add a bunch of Chinese images and even present them in a more exquisite way. Audience may find the flying petals, tortuous paths, distant pavilion and terrace are as picturesque as the scenery that is depicted in many Chinese ancient poetry.

Moreover, the loanwords used in the movie make it more hilarious. By keeping the Mandarin pronunciation of words, such as “shifu”(master), “wugui” (turtle), “bingbong” (ice-cream), the producers shorten the distance between the English-speaking panda Po and Chinese people.

2.3 Martial Arts

Chinese martial arts have a long history, converging Chinese philosophy, medicine, military strategy, techniques, education, aesthetics, etc. and mirroring the character and sagacity of the Chinese people. With vigorous, graceful and somewhat laborious movements, Chinese martial arts provide the exercisers with beauty and strength. With the ongoing globalization and revitalization of the great Chinese civilization, more and more westerners find Chinese culture very attractive thus want to learn something more about it. However, for most westerns, it is never easy to fully comprehend the traditional Chinese ideology. Under the circumstances, martial arts appear as the perfect breakthrough point to start with.

In Mulan, when the army is in danger, there are several well-designed fighting scenes. At that time, martial arts are used fictitiously. Ten years later, in Kung Fu Panda, martial arts have become a necessity. The title Kung Fu has said it all. What is more comforting is that martial arts in Kung Fu Panda do not equal to superficially showing some fighting skills.

The top concern of the Chinese martial arts is to settle the relationship

between the body and muscles and the internal exercises for breath. The functions of the martial arts in fighting are: defending oneself against the opponent, checking the attacks and winning the fight. On the level of philosophy, the martial arts stress “unification of man and nature”, i. e, the unification of existence and nonexistence, acting and stopping, Ying and Yang. On the social level, the martial arts stress cultivation of mind and personality, awareness of the natural law and complacency. They thus break all prejudices with regard to winning and losing and to success and failures, and take a calm attitude.

In Kung Fu Panda, the invincible secret of martial arts is supposed to be recorded in the dragon warrior scroll. However, when Po unfolds the scroll, to his great amazement, there is nothing written on it. Not even a single word. This “assume formlessness” method is the highest degree of martial arts to a certain extent, and the tactic does not rigidly adhere to a style. Instead of indiscriminately imitating the movements and techniques, the producers of Kung Fu Panda grasped the marrow of the Chinese martial arts.

2.4 Chinese Philosophy

In these two films, both Mulan and Po have been stuck in perilous situations. Mulan has to win a life-and-death battle for her country at the risk of being found out her real sex identity. And as for Po, he has to defeat Tai Lung, whose power is obviously several times greater than him. Although the

hope of winning seems to be distant and dim, neither of them gives up on themselves. Their positive attitude can find its origin in Chinese Confucian philosophy.

The situation what Mulan and Po are facing in the films is very much like what sage Confucius and his disciple Yan Hui, were going through hundreds of years ago. How could they find delight and joy from critical time and harsh living conditions? There are two key possibilities. Firstly, none of them were ever depressed or in despair. They were optimists, holding fast to a philosophical attitude toward the status that downplayed their plight. Second, they were capable of self-reliance and tolerance, not in the sense of being content with what they were and what they had, but of being acceptance of whatever destiny might bring them.

Compared to the intelligence Mulan, the sloppy Po is even more unlikely to become a historic savior. Even if Master Oogway sticks to the idea that Po is the chosen one and the only dragon warrior who has formidable strength underneath, Master Shifu highly doubts it and treats Po as a joke. After a series of frustration, Master Shifu happened to know Po’s biggest hobby—food. He thus decides to make full use of it to train Po who is seemingly incorrigible at that time. As expected, Po somehow transforms his biggest weakness into biggest strength and becomes a real martial-arts master.

Master Shifu’s strategy seems to be superficial but on looking deeper, another more subtle truth emerges. His strategy makes the best use of Po’s

weakness according to the specific situation. It turns out, fortunately, very effective. This dialectical speculation which had been prevailing in ancient China indicates that everything has two aspects that are in a state of continuous opposition and mutual transformation.

There is another very impressive scene in Kung Fu Panda where Master Oogway is bidding farewell to Master Shifu. With the pink petals dancing about in the wind, Oogway is more like vanishing into the other world rather than “pass away”, as we usually call it.

This scene represents another Chinese philosophical thought in two aspects. Firstly, many philosophers believe that the circle of life is just like the blooming and withering of a flower. Oogway’s disappearing with the withered petals implies the end of his life. Secondly, the beautiful and romantic scene seems to be telling the audience that Oogway is not “dead”literally but is integrating into the entire universe. His flesh and blood may no longer exist but his soul has raise to higher level thus can remain immortal. This is very much similar to one of the most ideal concepts which are promoted by Taoism —Heaven-Man Oneness, in which the famous Taoist Zhuang Zi pictured the paramount level of human life that Chinese people have been always longing for.

III. Conflicts of American Values and Chinese Elements

3.1 Conservatism VS Free Spirit

As a country with a continued uninterrupted history of five thousands years, China has a unique cultural system which is deeply rooted in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. This cultural system had been ruling

Chinese people throughout the whole feudal time. One of the most distinguished scholars in China, Lin Yutang once wrote in his book, “one of the most notable characteristics of this system (Chinese cultural system) is that it not only asked about the meaning of life but also answered it in a way that left people satisfied with having found the meaning of human existence.”The answer was solid and clear, so that it left people with no desire to speculate about the future life or to change the present one. Man naturally becomes conservative when he realizes he has got something that work and therefore something that is true. The Chinese people saw no other way of life, thought no other way possible.

The first sentence of Ballad of Mulan described a traditional Chinese girl who was weaving cloth. (唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织。) Several years later, when Mulan returned from the army, the first thing she did was redid her hair and made up.（当窗理云鬓，对镜贴花黄。）This implies that no matter how many years Mulan had been pretending to be a man, she was still the same traditional Chinese girl at heart. It was never going to change. Even Mulan, the marvelous heroine herself, were unwilling to change.

In comparison with ancient China, the United States has a comparatively short history of no more than 300 years. The earliest immigration from Europe came to the American continent for the purpose of breaking the shackles of feudalistic autocracy and establishing an ideal society of their own. Due to the characteristics which had been shaping from the initial stage of American history, Americans view themselves as highly individualistic in their thoughts and actions. They value the individual freedom as one of the most indispensable rights that everybody is born with. They have been trained since very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situation in life and their own destinies. In film Mulan, Mulan is anything but a conservative Chinese girl. She knows little