The Farewell is a film based on a real story that happened on the director. It’s Chinese name is Don’t Tell Her. The movie showed the different ideas of Asian Americans and Asians about family and death. The Farewell is a story about a Chinese American family whose grandmother had terminal cancer, but she did not know that she got the disease. The family members came back to Changchun to live with grandma form Japan and America, though they did not tell this thing to the main character Billi, she flied back to China by herself and found it out. The whole family chose to hide the truth and lie to the grandmother, they planned a wedding for the grandson as the reason they all game back to the hometown and live with grandmother. But Billi, a Chinese American spent most of her time in USA but grew up with grandmother in China when she was young, thinks that the family should tell the truth to the grandmother.
The movie talks about the cultural differences between the East and the West. Western countries usually have an individualistic cultural orientation, and Eastern countries usually have a collectivistic cultural orientation. Which also made the cultural identity and belongingless a hard thing for Billi. For example, in the movie, Billi is a very independent person. Since she lived in America for many years, her views are influenced by American culture, she thinks grandma has the right to know her illness. But since she also grew up in China, she is not entirely American thinking. When she first came back to China, she may feel many differences from what she experienced many years in Ameriba, but she still familiar with many things. In some aspects, she is still used to the Chinese culture. Therefore, she did a lot to help the family finish the lie and understand their thoughts at the end. Also, there are many plots and ideas in the filmto representing the cultural differences. Also, at the dinner table, family members argue about whether it is worth emigrating to the United States, whether the American dream is true, and whether they want to send their children to the United States to study.
The whole movie tried to express the cultural conflicts for Billi, and the problem of cultural identities for Chinese Americans. It also reflects the identity barriers of Asian Americans. Chinese Americans may feel lonely since they cannot integrate into the American society. For the young Chinese Americans, they still face the problem of cultural identity and cultural belongingness. This movie do showed a fact that Asian Americans cannot 100% westernization. They still have puzzle about cultural identity since behind them there is a background of long history and blurred definition and expressions about hometown.