Mao’s Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford, is driven by Li’s experiences in the clash between American and Chinese culture and the journey to discovering his own identity. Through Li’s eyes this film shows us his search for identity which can sometimes be helped or hindered by the difference in cultures. These themes are shown during the film through the use of Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical conventions (SWAT). Li’s search for identity begins after the opportunity of becoming a ballet dancer is given to Li instead of his dream to serve the revolution and be a red guard to Chairman Mao. This is shown through the guidance Teacher Chan gives Li- that if he kept pushing forward and practised ballet, opportunities to help his family
would come his way. The story of how the archer practised shooting arrows until the most powerful bow was as light as a feather symbolises this message and gives Li the courage to seek his own identity. It is the driving force which encourages Li to improve his ballet so much that he is chosen to go to America. “Once a toad told a frog at the bottom of a well that the world at the top was huge and bright, and ever since then the frog dreamed of jumping out of the well.” Li’s father tells Li this as a child and it foreshadows what happens to him when he arrives in America. Li naturally experiences a shock in the change of culture which the Chinese government takes advantage of. They hinder him from finding his identity by misleading him and saying that no one can be trusted in America. The mise-en-scene of this particular event shows Li with Chairman Mao on the wall behind him, showing almost like he is looking over Li’s shoulder. The Chinese government’s interference with Li’s search for identity by using Li’s confusion when experiencing a clash of cultures is what drives this film into the conflict. Li is happy in America where he can dance ballet most freely and therefore express his identity the most freely. However, using the clash of cultures and ‘being under too much western influence’ as an excuse, the Chinese government doesn’t let Li see his parents again. Li’s indecision if he should have stayed in China after all is evident when the boundless, drumming music is playing while scenes of Li’s parents being shot, lighting and thunder and Swan Lake are all shown in turn. Li’s indecision in his search for identity and the peak in the clash of cultures drive Mao’s Last Dancer to its climax. Unfortunately there is no quick fix to Li’s problems and the film skips to 5 years later where Li is no longer feeling so indecisive about his decision and where problems in clash of cultures has all but disappeared since Li meets his parents again. In the end, the themes that drive this film are resolved by time. Ultimately, the use of SWAT codes and conventions clearly explored and presented the themes of the film. The difference in cultures and the search for identity is what drives Li’s journey in Mao’s Last Dancer.
The purpose of The Last Train Home may seem identical to a typical documentary film, where the director sets out to raise awareness on a certain issue of importance. However, as the film progresses, the political subtext is revealed. The sincere intention of this film is to convey a message regarding the harmful effects that western consumerism has on the Chinese society. By doing so the director Lixin Fan, tries to make American viewers to sympathize with the problems of China’s industrial revolution, and feel partially responsible for supporting it through the products we
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life.
The Lady From Shanghai is a timeless film that captures how a black and white film can be interesting for viewers. The overall film was effective with the help of the mise en scene, cinematography and editing. Each of the three parts put together brought out the complexity and intensity of this film and they made The Lady From Shanghai the classic film that it is today.
The novel 'Mao's Last Dancer', is a gripping story about the author, Li Cunxin and his story to success as a professional ballet dancer in communist China. The story shows how hard work, determination and hardships lead to the achievement of goals. Throughout the book, Li suffers from a number of physically and mentally challenging struggles that test him and push him to become stronger and more determined. Both mental and physical struggles are equally as difficult to overcome and both play a big part in different stages of Li's life.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
In his 1937 film Street Angel, Yuan explores the inequities facing Shanghai’s urban proletariat, an often-overlooked dimension of Chinese society. The popular imagination more readily envisions the agrarian systems that governed China before 1919 and after 1949, but capitalism thrived in Shanghai during that thirty-year buffer between feudalism and Communism. This flirtation with the free market engendered an urban working class, which faced tribulations and injustices that supplied Shanghai’s leftist filmmakers with ample subject matter. Restrained by Kuomintang censorship from directly attacking Chinese capitalism, Yuan employs melodrama to expose Street Angel’s bourgeois audience to the plight of the urban poor.
He knew that he was going to have to leave his home and village, Qingdao to go to Beijing and study ballet. Li knew that he was going to be leaving family and friends behind, but he knows that going to Beijing is a good thing for him, “My dear son, this is your chance to escape the cruel world”. By going there, Li knows he will make his family and him proud and be something more than just a labourer. “Go and do something special with your life! Become someone other than a peasant boy”. Therefore, by Li leaving home, he is becoming stronger and independent and ready to face the real
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who’s born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li got chosen from a poverty-stricken Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. This film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson including the
The Art of War is a treatise written in Ancient China that discusses the most and least effective military strategies for successful warfare according to Sun Tzu, a military general whose existence is still debated to this day. While not every military commander in the history of warfare has read it, the strategies provided can be used as a way to assess said commanders and the effectiveness of their campaigns. In Sun Tzu 's own words, “The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:--let such a one be dismissed!”1 This paper will discuss various iconic battles throughout history and how closely the leading commanders of each army followed the advice of Sun Tzu. Despite the fact that Sun Tzu lived hundreds of years before many of these battles took place, the
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).
Chang portrays the complexity of Henry’s character by showing the conflict that he faces both in his personal and professional life. His confusion towards his own Cultural identity is noticed in his relationships with his co-workers as well as with his family. His personal relationship with his family, especially with his father and his wife exemplifies the clash between the two cultures which seems to tear Henry apart. Leila, Henry’s wife, seems to epitomize the traditional American Culture which Henry tries very hard to be a part of. Her forthright nature along with the independence and individuality contradicts the stereotypical qualities of an Asian wife. However, Henry’s desperation is seen in his forgiving attitude towards Leila’s action and behavior. His deter...
Set in the 1920s and '30s in northern China, Red Sorghum's narrative centres on the fate of a young woman who is forced to marry a rich old leper but who eventually falls in love with a younger man. The motif of female oppression in feudal China is repeated in Zhang's next two films, Ju Dou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991). The films form a loose triptych, linked not only by similar thematic concerns but also stylistic elements. The latter include the luscious use of colour, lighting and bold composition to create the sensuous images and metaphors which have distinguished Zhang as an original auteur. Equally prominent are the silences and spare dialogue; music and sound are used with precision -- nothing extraneous is added.
Lily Gerloff Mao Zedong 6th, Knaupp May 6th, 2014 Mao Zedong’s Impact on the World Today and Today’s Society
Rickery, Carrie. "History And 'The Last Emperor' Parts Of The Film Are Accurate, But Much Is Missing, Says A China Scholar." Http://articles.philly.com. Http://articles.philly.com, 30 Dec. 1987. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
The 1993 movie directed by Kaige Chen, Farewell My Concubine, addresses the Chinese political issues during the war against Japan via interpersonal issues of an opera troupe of young male actors. The movie is as long as it is engaging. With two orphan boys who are raised to act in an Opera for their entire lives, dedication obtains a whole new meaning. Dieyi's training to act as a woman and to reflect femininity in his whole life increases the dissension that is observed within the film as well as its connections to the politics of China. The use of ghastly sound effects, close-up cinematographic techniques, and military involvement combine together in this movie to create a devastatingly dramatic experience.