pei.119 | Comparative Studies 1100 Autumn 2021

Text Review Assignment: Pushing Hands

December 5, 2021 at 1:23pmDecember 5, 2021 by pei.119

The film Pushing Hands tells a story of an old Chinese man named Mr. Chu living in New York. Mr. Chu has a son called Alex Chu living and working in New York. Alex Chu married an American woman called Martha. The difference between eastern and Western cultures, the difference in age, language and living habits, makes it impossible for Mr. Chu to communicate with Martha and integrate into his son’s life.

In the beginning of the film, director presents the cultural difference between China and America, old and young. Mr. Chu is used to Chinese food while Martha is used to Western food. Mr. Chu likes listening to Beijing Opera and he plays it loudly while Martha listens to her song with headphones. In their free time, Mr. Chu and Martha still do not communicate with each other. Mr. Chu practices calligraphy while Martha uses laptop to work. Soon, they cannot accept each other anymore. Martha thinks Mr. Chu is so traditional and she thinks that playing opera so loudly is impolite while Mr. Chu does not accept Martha’s directness and almost impersonal democracy.

From my perspective, such conflicts between Martha and Mr. Chu are inevitable due to so many different identities. I think of Persepolis when I watched this movie. Marjane in Persepolis also has various identities and she also experienced cultural differences when she went to Austria. By contrast, Mr. Chu is a respected and popular person in China but when he comes to the US, his identity changes a lot. His incompatibility with the environment makes him unable to adapt to new life and rarely communicate with other people. The film skillfully shows this problem and director also tries to tell audiences that it is very hard to solve these conflicts caused by cultural differences. Mr. Chu’s and Martha’s habits have long been ingrained. I think this work inspires a conversation that can be discussed: are conflicts caused by deep-rooted cultural differences really unavoidable, even on such a small scale?

Week 15 Contextual Presentation

December 2, 2021 at 6:16amDecember 2, 2021 by pei.119

The author Susan Sontag created a large number of critical works, involving criticism of photography, art, literature during her lifetime. Her work Regarding the Pain of Others focuses on war photography and explores the relationship between the suffering of the people reflected in the image and the viewer. Although the tragic images can arouse the audience’s compassion, if we believe in images without thinking about them, our moral judgment will only weaken. Sontag wrote her images in pure words, providing the viewer with a space to think about “the pain of others”. For most of us who live in a comfortable life, whether it is people who are suffering from the epidemic nearby or refugees who are displaced in the war in the distance, we are just spectators from beginning to end regarding their suffering.

We usually think that photos reflect the real situation. However, Sontag tells us that the authenticity of photojournalism should be questioned. Photographers do not always show us things as they really are. Even many times, photographers deliberately arrange the elements in a photograph to show what they want to show. At the same time, war photography may also be manipulated by government or commercial interests. The famous photo of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, for example, turned out to be Associated Press reporter Joe Rosenthal’s “reconstruction” of the morning flag-raising ceremony with a larger flag later that day, after the capture of Mount Suribachi. Clearly, this photo is not true, but it satisfies the people’s thirst for victory, boosts morale, and becomes one of the most influential photos of the 20th century. Hence, sometimes authenticity of photograph will be ignored to achieve certain purpose.

When tragic images are arousing people’s compassion, Sontag pointed out that if compassion is not translated into action, it will become exhausted. What we do is to use photos to create sympathy, while at the same time more sympathy becomes withered, and people become numb. Imagine that when you saw the tragic experience of these people for the first time, you might be angry about the cruelty of war, but when you always see this kind of photos, can you still have such a strong feeling like the first time?

Citation:

https://www.supersummary.com/regarding-the-pain-of-others/summary/

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/48970

https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/aug/03/society

Diary of Systematic Injustices Showcase: Gender inequality in workplace

November 6, 2021 at 1:10pmNovember 6, 2021 by pei.119

The injustice I want to talk about is the gender inequality in workplace. We all know that it is not easy for women in career in today’s society. Abrams, a female candidate for the office of Governor said that the workplace has sometimes been referred to as an inhospitable place for women due to the multiple forms of gender inequalities present. Even if they have outstanding abilities, they still have to make greater efforts to obtain the same status and salary as male employees. Married women in career not only need to do a good job in work, but also need to take good care of their family. It is conceivable that they are under great pressure. However, what is more unfair is that they often have to bear the discrimination in workplace. There is ample evidence that women experience biased performance evaluations on male-typed tasks. A meta-analysis of experimental studies reveals that women in leadership positions receive lower performance evaluations than matched men (Eagly et al., 1992).

I read a passage few weeks ago which tells that one reason for company not liking female workers is that once a woman gets married, she will then face a series of family problems, like having baby, so she will not use many energies on her work. These implicit biases against career women made women always in the weak position in career. A report shows that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 85 women were promoted. At the beginning of 2020, women held 38% of manager-level positions, while men held 62% (Brittany, 2021).

Also, a recent news in my home country China triggered fierce discussion. The news is about an impersonal policy of a company on female workers. The company says that the maternity leave for female workers is three months, if they cannot back to company within three months, they will be fired. This unfair treatment for women in workplace is not a special case, but it is a wide phenomenon. A study shows that pregnant women and mothers, who are seen as low in competence, but high in warmth, will be discriminated against because of a perceived lack of deservingness (Fiske et al., 1999, 2002; Cuddy et al., 2004). There are also many companies make unfair rules that bad for women, so I think this is systemic injustice. Clearly, using our course concept, women are regarded as other and more inferior group than men in workplace. I think the government should help women and gives more right to women in workplace to achieve gender equality.