Twelve year old Dre (played by Jaden Smith) is forced to move to China because of his mothers career. Because of this, he is thrown into a whole new culture and way of life that he does not know much about. He quickly encounters the school bullies, and to learn some karate skills to protect himself, he finds a friend and coach in the maintenance man (who also happens to be a karate master) named Mr. Han (played by Jackie Chan). Dre learns so much about Chinese culture from Mr. Han, including the importance of non verbal communication and social norms that are very prevalent in China. Dre is also portrayed as hard headed and stubborn, which prohibits him from originally seeing the beauties and wonders of his new home. Mr. Han even says to Dre at one point, “You only see with your eyes. You are easy to fool”. This can be explained by the fact that Dre never really put much thought into the culture he was now in the middle of; he only judged it based on what he could see while living in America. While learning the practice of patience and open-mindedness from Mr. Han, he eventually opens up to his new culture and begins to appreciate it more. He learns traditional Asian culture and rituals, such as meditation, cupping, and of course, taekwondo. I think this plays into our class because Dre already had preconceived notions about China which prohibited him from seeing another culture without judgement. People always judge from the outside looking in without actually giving a new culture or activity a shot. That is also why so many races and cultures in this world are subject to criticism, stereotypes, and “single stories”.
