Author: zhao.3150

Text Review Assignment-Duanyang Zhao

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Crazy Rich Asians is a movie released in 2018, and it is a romantic comedy. In this movie, a native American girl, Rachel, first encounters her boyfriend’s family which is an extremely rich Asian family in Singapore. During her trip, other than the cultural shock and the unbelievable fact that her boyfriend is extremely rich and popular in his home country, Rachel has to deal with the jealous people around her, her boyfriends’ picky relatives, as well as the disapproval of her boyfriends’ mother.

This movie is a classic example that showcases the encounter between people with different cultures, nationalities, and socio-economic backgrounds. In the movie, Rachel is a normal working middle-class, but her boyfriend’s family is one of the richest families in Asia. This huge difference in their socio-economic statuses is vividly depicted in the movie by the shock experienced by Rachel as well as the view from other people that Rachel does not deserve to be together with her boyfriend.

Moreover, Rachel is a native New Yorker that grows up with Western culture; however, her boyfriend’s family and mother are of Asian root and live in Singapore. Therefore, her boyfriend’s family is a lot more traditional and disapproves of Rachel in many ways. The differences and clashes in their identities and cultural backgrounds are most remarkably depicted by how the mother of Rachel’s boyfriend disapproves of her and is not willing to accept her. This is because the mother thinks that Rachel and her boyfriend are different in too many ways and therefore are not suitable to be together. The separation in their cultures, national backgrounds, and socio-economic statuses make her not willing to accept people different from her family.

(A scene from the movie that depicts the richness of the family of Rachel’s boyfriend)

The huge disparity in their cultures, national backgrounds, and socio-economic statuses poses many challenges for Rachel; due to these differences, she is also unfairly treated and judged by other people during her visit. However, Rachel is able to overcome these differences and challenges in the end by her own effort. Therefore, this movie highlights the huge disparity between Rachel and her boyfriend’s family; it also brings the issue of cultural and socioeconomic disparity to the spotlight. At the same time, this movie is trying to convey the idea that gaps in cultures, nationalities, and socio-economic statuses are possible to be overcome as long as there are enough efforts.

Works cited

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Firm), Chu, J. M. 1., Awkwafina, Chan, G., Lu, L., & Wu, C. (2018). Crazy Rich Asians.

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase-Duanyang Zhao

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This was my experience at the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. One day, I was moving something from my house to my friend’s house. I carried a huge suitcase since there were a lot of things that needed to be moved. The suitcase I used was huge, and it was the one I brought from China. I did not remove the tag that the airport staff put on it when I was using it to move my things. Thus, everyone who saw me with this suitcase believed that I just came from China, the ground zero of the pandemic. From their eyes. I could see that I was considered the walking “virus” who would infect them immediately. I felt extremely insulted by seeing what they had done. No one sat or stood close to me on the bus station. While they were walking away from me, the only thing they left was the worry-filled eyes. My identity as Chinese played an important role in this. Without any evidence that I just came from China, they began to show their attitude of exclusion. Personally speaking, it was not fair and I did not receive any reasonable justice since what people were looking at me was wrong. Besides, during my short trip with a suitcase, not a few of them, but many of them whom I encountered used an inappropriate way to judge me. Thus, I believed it was an experience of systemic injustice.

As above mentioned, many people were not willing to judge me appropriately since I am Chinese. They did that due to my identity as an “outsider”. The concept of “otherness” is common in every society, as de Beauvoir says, “no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other…against itself” (de Beauvoir, 1). Personally speaking, it is the concept of “otherness” that facilitates the creation of systemic injustice in society.

I am not alone since many Asians around the world are experiencing systemic injustice (especially when they are considered Chinese who spread the virus to the world). This news story with photos clearly illustrates how the Chinese are mistreated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52714804

Another link is the news that illustrates how the Chinese community fight against discrimination against them in the United States. Their slogan is “fight the virus, not the people”.

Link:https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-18/fear-and-stigma-around-coronavirus-deliver-harm-and-control

Week 5 Context Research Presentation – Duanyang Zhao

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Duanyang Zhao

COMPSTD 1100

September 19, 2020

Hi, I am going to present some contexts of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Specifically, I will look into the Igbo society in Nigeria before and after the colonization, as well as the cultural impacts of colonialism on Nigeria.

Things Fall Apart can be regarded as a post-colonial literary classic that reproduces the environment, nature, land, and home space of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. In the novel, Achebe pays attention to both natural and humanistic landscapes, both natural geographical space and social spiritual space. Before the arrival of the Western colonists, the natural and social ecology of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria showed a rather organic harmony: from the sun, the moon and the stars, wind, rain and thunder, mountains and rivers to forest land, fish, snakes and insects, birds and beasts, all living and inanimate things “naturally” coexist in an interconnected “ecological network”.

Before the Western colonists invaded Africa, the African tribes respected nature and believed in animism. The tribal nature and society presented a harmonious relationship. But this kind of ecological harmony ceased to exist after the colonists invaded, and the colonialists’ “ecological imperialism” eventually led to the collapse of the local natural ecology, social ecology, and spiritual ecology. It is not difficult for readers to see that the British colonists in Things Fall Apart mainly implemented their “ecological imperialism” through colonial violence, Christianity, school education, technology, and commodities.

Under the coercion of “ecological imperialism” violence by Western colonists and the penetration of Christian culture, the natural, social, and spiritual ecology of African tribes has inevitably fallen into a crisis. A modern society alienated from the nature of the countryside has emerged, and people’s words and thoughts cannot be separated from the religion, education, technology, and commodities of the Western colonists. With such a huge change, the author Achebe’s mood seems to be mixed. On the one hand, those anti-ecological backward customs and ideas in African traditional culture were gradually destroyed; on the other hand, the natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology of the ancient African tribes also eventually collapsed, leading to a rootless social culture in Nigeria.

Works Cited

Aparna, Banik and Dawar Shobharam. “The Impact of Colonization and Cultural Change on the Igbo People: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Novel Things Fall Apart.” International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR). https://ijsr.net/archive/v6i5/ART20173216.pdf

Kenalemang, Lame Maatla. “Things fall apart: an analysis of pre and post-colonial Igbo society.” (2013). https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:648320/FULLTEXT01.pdf