Projecting from the Joy Luck Club
I had a chance to watch the 'Joy Luck Club' movie again yesterday. It had been a while since I first saw the movie. I remembered that I really liked it the first time. The second time I could really see myself more and more projected from the movie. And I'm sure that any ABC/CBC watching it would see aspects of themselves, their families and their upbringings through it. 4 main characters (of moms and their daughters) = 4 main themes.
Struggles included:
1) Hopes and Expectations - self doubt, never being good enough
2) Self Worth - forgetting about self and losing identity
3) Respect - loss of self respect, leading to potentially abusive relations
4) Insecurity from Expectations - compensated with fiercity
It was quite amazing to see how each of these struggles played out in each generation and time. The former being in China and the 'life and death' situations faced that forced the moms to grow and find themselves through that; and the latter being in N.America and the 'quality of life' situations the daughters struggled with in searching for their identities being raised as Chinese with very strong Chinese cultural values in the US.
As for the above 4 themes, I could see myself most with 1. Having a lot of hopes and expectations from parents growing up, I would often wonder if I could meet them and if I didn't, am I not good enough? Having 15 A+ marks and 1 B+ is not good enough - what happened? Although I'm sure most of my achievements made my parents proud and I was able to live up to their 'expectations'...but then how much of what I did was for me? Sometimes, it's hard to differentiate.
I do appreciate being Chinese Canadian and am thankful that I can see both sides - learning from both the Western and Chinese cultures and molding them into what can have the best of both worlds. I wonder what the experiences of a Caucasian (Canadian or American) born and raised in China (or Hong Kong or Taiwan)...and being called "CBC" or "CBA" Chinese Born American instead of American Born Chinese.
I had a chance to watch the 'Joy Luck Club' movie again yesterday. It had been a while since I first saw the movie. I remembered that I really liked it the first time. The second time I could really see myself more and more projected from the movie. And I'm sure that any ABC/CBC watching it would see aspects of themselves, their families and their upbringings through it. 4 main characters (of moms and their daughters) = 4 main themes.
Struggles included:
1) Hopes and Expectations - self doubt, never being good enough
2) Self Worth - forgetting about self and losing identity
3) Respect - loss of self respect, leading to potentially abusive relations
4) Insecurity from Expectations - compensated with fiercity
It was quite amazing to see how each of these struggles played out in each generation and time. The former being in China and the 'life and death' situations faced that forced the moms to grow and find themselves through that; and the latter being in N.America and the 'quality of life' situations the daughters struggled with in searching for their identities being raised as Chinese with very strong Chinese cultural values in the US.
As for the above 4 themes, I could see myself most with 1. Having a lot of hopes and expectations from parents growing up, I would often wonder if I could meet them and if I didn't, am I not good enough? Having 15 A+ marks and 1 B+ is not good enough - what happened? Although I'm sure most of my achievements made my parents proud and I was able to live up to their 'expectations'...but then how much of what I did was for me? Sometimes, it's hard to differentiate.
I do appreciate being Chinese Canadian and am thankful that I can see both sides - learning from both the Western and Chinese cultures and molding them into what can have the best of both worlds. I wonder what the experiences of a Caucasian (Canadian or American) born and raised in China (or Hong Kong or Taiwan)...and being called "CBC" or "CBA" Chinese Born American instead of American Born Chinese.
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