By Zhenyang Shao
The movie that I select is The Gua Sha Treatment. The movie talked about a story that the Protagonist Datong and his Chinese wife moved to the United States and lived there for a long time. When they thought they would almost finish their American dreams, a bad thing happens. One day, his son Dennis got a cold, and Dennis’ grandfather use Gua Sha which is a Chinese traditional medicine to cure his illness. Gua Sha would leave some light petechiae on Dennis’ back which would make people misunderstand as a painful looking mark. Because of culture difference and conflict, his American neighbor accused Datong of bullying child. In the court, the judge also prosecuted that Datong included the Chinese legendary character Sun Wukong in his design of a violent video game. However, he did not know the cultural value of Sun Wukong. Finally, Datong was penalized and cannot meet his son anymore.
In this movie, it shows the interculture relationship and conflict between China and America. The identity of Datong’s family is an immigrant, and his friend, the judge, the policeman and so on are the natives which can be considered as the main power. They spend many years to overcome cultural difference and integrate into the society. The injustice in the movie is that since Americans did not quite understand the culture in China at that time, they misunderstand such a little thing, Gua Sha. They penalized Datong so hard and even deprived his freedom of staying with family. That remind me the question that Gayatri Spivak “Can the Subaltern Speak?”. Datong, and even the immigrant group, is the subaltern. They cannot tell their idea to the society, and the society did not fully understand them. In addition, that reminds me the Story of My Body which is written by Ortiz Cofer. In the reading, when she came to study in the foreign country, she was discriminated because of her skin, her color, and her identity. I think her experiences is very similar to Datong. Both are minority groups and cannot be fully accepted by the society. Finally, that remind me the idea of “the one” and “The other” in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In this movie, Datong and his immigrant family are the Other while the native Americans are the One.
From the movie, it shows the cultural differences and conflict between Chinese family and American society. It also told people the danger of a single story. Communication always a good method to solve problems and conflicts.
