电影《推手》中的跨文化交际(英文).docxVIP

Intercultural Communication in Pushing HandsPushing Hands isa maiden work of Ang Lee, one of the greatest Chinese directors. It is a film about culture shock and adaption. To some extent, the cultural differences between China and America are presented from different angles in the movie. It’s the movie I have watched by chance that impressed me and inspired my interest in intercultural communication. So I will show what I gained from my own perspective. The main plot of the film will be introduced as follow: Mr. Zhu, a retired Chinese Taichi professor went to America to live with his son, a computer doctor. Conflictsbetween the Chinese father and his American daughter-in-law, Marsha, a novelist, appeared and arose in their daily life. Finally, the two sides gradually understood each other’s culture after a painful process.Many comments and opinions about the film focus on culture shock and adaption that brings about the main contradiction in the movie. Nevertheless, I want to show the contrasts in family values between Chinese and Americans and a new analogy for intercultural communication.If it was a movie that describes a Chinese student studying abroad, the contradiction couldn’t be the same. What matters is just the identity of Mr. Zhu. He is an old man rooted in the Chinese traditional culture and the head of the family. In China, a collective country, the old are a social group respected and protected by the whole society. This practice relies on the traditional culture education and moral restraint. The respects we give to the old who are not related with us are cultivated at the basis of the respect and love for our elder. In American culture, they emphasized on individual equality, the symbol of individualism. So people won’t offer extra care and attention to the elder. Relatively, the elder also prefer to choose financial independence and usually live in separate places from their children. So there are some scenes in the film showing the differences.I