he film The Wedding Banquet talks about a homosexual Gao Tongwei from Taiwan who lived in the USA and had an American boyfriend Simon had to marry a girl from China to disguise the fact that he was an homosexual and enabled his parents to feel easy and less worried. The marriage was not real and it was just a play or a cheating in exchange that the girl would get the green card. The film has shown the cultural conflicts between different races especially the conflicts between Simon and Gao’s Chinese parents and Gao.
The first conflict is conflicts between individualism and collectivism. It is known that China is under the strong influence of Confucianism and collectivism while the American culture stresses collectivism. In the film, the reason why Gao chose to get married was because his whole family wanted him to inherit the family tradition by having a grandson. Even though Gao loved Simon, he chose to get married. However, when Simon argued with him and considered marriage as personal thing and it should be nothing to do with family.
The other conflicts between Chinese and western culture is shown in the aspects of gifts. It seems that Americans might seldom offer gifts and they might give gifts to their parents on holidays, but in China, the custom of giving gifts is quite common. Usually Chinese will take gifts and give gifts even when they visit others. However, Simon knew and understand Chinese culture, he still offered gifts to Gao’s parents. But he stressed the use of gifts and giving blood pressure which made Gao’s parents unhappy. But after knowing the relationship between Gao and Simon. Gao’s parents still gave a red paper to Simon, which means that they recognize the relationship between Gao and Simon.
Though the film showed a lot about cultural conflicts, they were shown in a funny way and the fake marriage also became comedy in the end.
Research Blog on Regarding the Pain of Others
The work Regarding the Pain of Others by Sontag has explored how the war is perceived and lots of factors including sex, culture, and status have been considered. The visual representation of war and violence has been considered from Goya’s The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War and some contemporary wars such as Palestine and Israel wars were considered. The documentary and the photography of the pictures of wars were quite impressive. It is quite interesting that instead of using pictures to criticize the cruelty of wars from visual representation, Sontag tried to discuss how photographs of wars influenced the perception of people towards violence.
In fact, I found that photographs have strong power in impacting the perception of people towards wars and many other issues. One of the most impressive events for me is the use of pictures to arouse the sympathy of people is a drowned boy by the sea, which shows the cruelty of the Syrian war. The picture was so striking that it aroused the great sympathy of lots of people. When the picture was shown online, it stole the attention of the netizens online and arouse a heated discussion. In fact, I think it might be the catalyst for the EU to determine receiving refugees from Syria.
At its best, the book Regarding the Pain of Others offers an intriguing history of some war photos and it started from the innocent times to the unbearable battlefield realities such as the Vietnam War about the combats of photos. I used to visit Vietnam and the Vietnam museum about the Vietnam wars. I was quite struck by the photos about how those people were destructed by the Vietnam War. For instance, lots of people got sick after the war because of the use of different weapons. For me, photos might speak a thousand words. Even though we are exposed to television and online violence a lot, we are still impressed by photos in real life. Sontag first problematize how people read photos and proposed that an image would reveal a captured moment of reality, and the interpretation of photos are quite subjective and to some extent, they reaffirm our beliefs and understandings by stating that “mages of dead civilians and smashed houses may serve to quicken hatred of the foe” (p. 10).
In general, Regarding the Pain of Others could be considered as a persuasive investigation of the complexities of how to look at the suffering of others. Sontag has offered enough data and facts that persuade readers that photography depicting pain and suffering might change a person’s perspective on history. For instance, Sontag mentions that by means of photography depicting cancerous lungs, strokes of clotted brains or damaged hearts to produce the “shock” image to persuade smokers to quit smoking. It is true that photography might persuade people to do something to some extent. For instance, I remember that when I was a primary school student, my school always encouraged students to watch videos or the actual photos of those taking drugs and it left a deep impression on me. It is a root that developed in my heart that taking drugs is horrible and would destroy our life. But some people might still be not touched by those photos that might only leave a temporary impression in the minds of some viewers.
However, since photography is so powerful, Sontag also worried that it might be misused and misguided, with which I completely agree. For instance, lots of politicians or some social media might use photos to touch people and displayed completely different facts. Hence, we need to consider a fact that did the photos we see really demonstrate the fact?
References
Ariella, A. (2005). The Ethic of the Spectator: The Citizenry of Photography.
Afterimage. 33(2), 38 – 44
Balken, D. (2019). Alfredo Jaar: Lament of the Images’ essay in Lament of the Images,exh. cat. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT List Visual Arts Center.
Kathy, B (2010). Models of thinking: Alfredo Jaar. (Interview). Art Monthly, 342,1-4
Okwui, E. (2018). Alfredo Jaar’s Art of Illumination’ essay in book Alfredo Jaar. The Sound of Silence, Paris: Kamel Mennour, 18-29.
Feinstein, C. (2005). Destruction has no covering: artists and the rwandan genocide.
Journal of Genocide Research, 7 (1), 31-46
Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux
Transacript
Zhang: Hello, I am Nan Zhang and I would like to do the podcast by myself. But I have invited one guest Nini also from China, but Nini was immigrated in the USA for several years. We will conduct the conversation on the topic related with racism via zoom.
Zhang: When talking about systematic injustice and the topic related with racism. First, I would like to talk about my experience in USA or my past experience travelling to Europe to talk about the issue of racism from the perspective of an Asian, especially from China. To be honest, before coming to the USA, I always thought that USA was a melting pot that could tolerate different people. But at that time, I might also have some worry about racism, for I read lots of books about racism in the USA. Hence, I am so worried. Fortunately, in the beginning, everything was all right for me and it seems that I was nothing different from others. But I am not sure if I am too sensitive or not. Sometimes I felt that I suffered from the racism from others who did not show their despise on the face directly but silently.
Zhang: I still remember that when I joined a French course and I was the only student in the class. To be honest, I felt that I might be like an outsider sometimes. All the classmates were white Americans and it seems that I was too shy to involve in the class. Fortunately, I met one nice girl in the class. But every time when the French teacher asked us to answer problems or used words to make sentences, she always did not know how to pronounce my Chinese family name, which makes me really awkward. All the whole class laughed sometimes and I was so so embarrassed at that time. The French teacher also said sometimes oh I could never pronounce your family name. I seldom correct her, but it made me so awkward and I did not continue my French learning because of the experience.
Zhang: For me, racism might not be shown directly, but the indirect racism makes people like me suffer from much harm. I am not that kind of extrovert person and I am quite sensitive to the concept of racism. The other experience about racism was that one time when I travelled to Europe in Germany, one person shouted at me in the street that “going back to China and stopped making Germany dirty”. I was quite surprised and embarrassed, but I did not say anything. But since then, I did not have any mood to travel any more.
Zhang:Ok, that’s my experience about racism in other countries. How about you? Nini, do you have experienced that?
Nini: Wow, definitely. It is so memorable. Especially since the outbreak of the pandemic, I truly under the concept of racism. I remembered last year when the coronavirus was so popular, I sincerely felt that. One time I walked in the street, three kids pointed at me and said virus. Wow, I was also quite embarrassed and angry. What was more surprising is that those kids showed their racism so directly and I think they must be under the influence of their parents. It made me angry at that moment. You know, in fact, it is not the virus that made me scared, but it is the bias and prejudices that made me fear.
Zhang: Wow, I think I also experience that. Since the pandemic, I always cared about how others in the USA or other countries look at others. I did not encounter such condition, but it seems that the look from some whites in fact enables me to feel about racism. But I knew that you have lived in the USA for a long time. Do you think that the problem and anti-sentiments against Asians especially Chinese is only a recent event or a long-time tradition?
Nini: Well, it is quite a complicated issue. I think it is a long-time issue. Asian migration is shaped by both the economic imperatives of our country and the political questions of Asian belonging in the United States. I thought that it might trace back to the 19th century. At that time, China was in Qing Dynasty, but lots of people from China were sold or came to the USA to work for the railroad. As a racialized form of docile and compliant labor, Asian immigrants are welcomed into the workforce. However, when these same immigrants seek the right to citizenship and belonging, their racial difference often rubs against U.S. nationalism that is premised on white dominance. But I think the racism against Asian is always accompanied by xenophobic discourses of Asians as a foreign threat, whether it is economic and biomedical.
Zhang: I also read the story and never thought about the issue of racism. In the past, in fact, it is not so impressive for me. But the pandemic really brought up this kind of personal and vile and very vicious attack. But usually crimes are shown in invisible way. When you talked about the history, I suddenly think of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Japanese internment camps. But you have lived in the USA for a long time, do you think that you are dealing personally with the level of anti-Asian racism that has come to the surface?
Nini: I think every Asian should experience something with it. We’ve seen Asian supermarkets, not just Chinese supermarkets, that are full [of goods] and not getting patronage. My friend had a man point to her on the subway, saying she was the cause of this virus spreading. I feel like we are all being hit by it right now. It’s hard and scary to be out in public. There are a lot of people who moved to America and have never faced this level of racism in their 40 to 50 years of living here.
Zhang: I see. But I think social media or media plays a crucial role in leading to racism against Asians. Take the example of coronavirus as an example. At the point where the epidemic was beginning to spread beyond China, the mainstream media focused on the Chinese government’s failure to contain the Coronavirus. In January 2020, with the appearance of the first cases among Chinese migrants and tourists in mainland France, a flow of racist speech began to be witnessed in news media and on social networks. The words ‘pangolin’ and ‘bat’ are very frequently used and connected with a point of origin in China, insinuating that the Chinese are responsible for the pandemic because of poor hygiene and our exotic culinary habits.
Nini: I agree with you. The main stream press should be responsible for that. I think the media always tend to neglect us or make stereotyped impressions on us. They’ll do stories about Chinatown in places where most people don’t live in Chinatowns. They’ll go to the same spokespersons all the time rather than get real people’s perspectives. The hard thing is talking to people in their language, so they can be more eloquent and more well-spoken. That’s the hard thing—not having enough language access to the community. Not having the reporters, and not even trying to have the reporters try to get access, because the reporters are so rushed and they have to find people who can speak right away. For example, someone asked me, “Can I speak to someone who’s been a victim of anti-Asian violence?”If I said yes. The press will speak again. Well, yeah, but they’re hesitant and they’re scared.
Zhang: Well, do you think that the recent Asian campaign in the USA will make Chinese successful like that of Black Americans?
Nini: To be honest, I am quite pessimistic about that. I think Asians especially Chinese Americans do not have such strong determination like that of African Americans. I think it might be something related with Confucian culture that asked us to tolerate everything. For instance, in China we might tolerate lots of unfair things and lots of Americans come to the USA, we also tolerate everything and never consider striking hard to get freedom with strong determination. It is quite sad but it is true that Chinese people might not have such strong minds of democracy and freedom like other races. We are told to obey the rule and just listen and follow the rules. But in China we are never told to rebel against the unfair things such as systematic injustice. It is really sad but it is true.
Zhang: Wow, your analysis is in-depth and I totally agree with you. Unless one day Chinese people have strong minds on the concept of democracy and freedom. Otherwise, I do not think that Asian Americans work hard for fighting against racism hard. But let’s have hope in the future.
Nini: Sure.I also hope so.
Zhang:Well, thanks so much. Nini. Here is all our pod talk. Goodbye everyone.
The concept systematic injustice is related with structural inequality that has been learned in our course. The case that I choose is related to structural inequality, which means that one group of people might be situated in a status unequal to the other groups of people.
One year ago, two women drove a luxury car to go into the imperial palace in China and took the pictures, which aroused the heated discussion of lots of people. Usually, Chinese average people did not have the right to drive the car inside the imperial palace. Besides, the woman also showed her arrogance and contempt on the social media platforms, which leads to the social antagonism. Later, it was found that she was the wife of one official in China. It was also found that she had three big houses in the USA. The woman did not make any apology and instead she continued her extravagant life. The picture below was the one that the woman took pictures with her friends in imperial palace.
The link of the whole story for the case is as follows.
From the event, it could be seen that the gap between rich and the poor is enlarging and the rich people in China could have special protection. It seems that laws are not designed for the rich or for the upper class; instead, laws are just designed to control the average people. It reminds me of the story that two years ago, a family member of an official killed three women without gaining any punishment. It seems that those who have power and wealth could trample on the law. It is quite unfair for average people. Even though the constitution in China claimed that all people are equal, in fact, it is not. The social classes have formed and the gap between the rich and poor would never be narrowed. The social injustice is caused by the unlimited control of power. In fact, some officials are not elected in China and they have unlimited power and no supervision, which leads to the abuse of power.
The structural inequalities usually refer to a system of privilege. In China, those who have power will have privilege in everything while average people need to obey all the rules and regulations. The one who has the privilege in China is usually the government, or more specifically, those officials working in the government. Besides, unlike western countries, the power of the government is limited and monitored by the mass, no one in China could monitor the government. Hence, those officials including their family members always on the opposite side of people when making decisions. When power is not monitored and controlled, those officials will release different kinds of policies to control average people and strengthened their privilege, which makes it impossible for average people to break through structural inequalities in China.
