Zhou Yu’s Train by Sun Zhou is a story about a woman, Zhou Yu, who is torn between her mind and heart. (Havis, 2004) She has to choose to stay either with the poet Chen Qing or the vet Zhang Qiang, but the choice is not easy for her. Therefore she continues her travels with train until she finds the answer of this question in the face of the death. Zhou Yu’s Train sets the question was her love relationship with Zhang Qiang a reality, represents the new status of poets and women in Chinese society in Modern China.
The Zhou Yu’s story is a paradox, which question the reality of existence of her relationship with Chen Qing. Firstly, there is an emotional or physical distance between them that is not typical for couples who are together. For example, when they walk on the street they have couple of meters between them and they do not hold hands. Another example is the distance between the places they live. They do not live together in the same house, but Zhou Yu has to travel to reach her lover. Furthermore, in the scene where Zhou Yu gives the brochures to the people, symbolically Chen Qing escapes from her desire to make him famous and the line wagon brings him further away from her. In addition, Chen Qing sought to have less contact with Zhou Yu in any possible way. He goes in Tibet without to consider taking her with him or he to find a new job and stay in his town. He does not want to have communication with her, by saying that he does not like the pager she bought him as a present, using it only to say her last “Goodbye” and he does not send her letters after he leaves, which indicates the lack of desires to contact this person. Another argument is that Chen Qing does not deepen his relationship with Zhou Yu. He does not call...
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...tiate sexual relationship and that they are majority people who feel satisfaction from such relationship by always kissing Chen Qing and initiating sexual encounters. (Cheryl Renaud, 1996) In conclusion, the women’s status in China has changed dramatically, allowing women more flexibility in their personal and working life.
Finally, Zhou Yu’s train is a story that demonstrates the new social changes in Chinese society which influenced the status of both poets and women. The story also represents Plato’s Dream theory by questioning constantly the existence of the love relationship between Zhou Yu and Chen Qing, which is on the verge between dream and reality. The movie is a sea of symbolism and metaphors which can cause a lack of understanding, but it is a wonderful depiction of modern Chinese society, which make us to question our own existence and relationships.
The phrase “history repeats itself is quite evident in this film. Currently, China’s economy is in a massive industrial revolution, similar to the American industrial revolution of the early 19th century. After three years of following the Zhang family, first time director Lixin Fan released The Last Train Home, attempting to raise awareness to the down side of China’s powerful economy. While the film The Last Train Home seems to just depict the lives of factory workers, it is also making a political statement about how western capitalism exploits factory workers to produce cheap goods. The film makes this exploitation evident by depicting the fracturing of the Zhang family and the harsh working conditions they must endure.
A Pair of Tickets”, by Amy Tan, is a brief narrative about the conscience and reminiscence of a young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei, who is on a trip to China to meet her two half-sisters for the first time in her life. Amy Tan is an author who uses the theme of Chinese-American life, converging primarily on mother-daughter relationships, where the mother is an emigrant from China and the daughter is fully Americanized --yellow on the surface and white underneath. In this story, the mother tries to communicate rich Chinese history and legacy to her daughter, but she is completely ignorant of their heritage. At the opening of the story "A Pair of Tickets" Jandale Woo and her father are on a train, the are destined for China. Their first stop will be Guangzhou, China where father will reunite with his long lost aunt. After visiting with her for a day they plan to take a plane to Shanghai, China where Jandale meets her two half-sisters for the first time. It is both a joyful time and yet a time of contrition, Jandale has come to China to find her Chinese roots that her mother told ...
The novel 'Mao's Last Dancer', is a gripping story about the author, Li Cunxin and his story to success as a professional ballet dancer in communist China. The story shows how hard work, determination and hardships lead to the achievement of goals. Throughout the book, Li suffers from a number of physically and mentally challenging struggles that test him and push him to become stronger and more determined. Both mental and physical struggles are equally as difficult to overcome and both play a big part in different stages of Li's life.
Chen, Jo-shui. "Empress Wu and Proto-feminist Sentiments in T'ang China." In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, edited by Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. 77-116. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
The fact that the fictional mothers and daughters of the story have unhappy marriages creates a common ground on which they can relate. However, marriage has different meanings for each generation in this book. In the mothers’ perspective, marriage is permanent and not always based on love. Especially with their marriages in China, which was a social necessity that they must secretly endure in order to be happ...
This analysis draws focus on the differences between Hua’s novel and Zhang’s film by juxtaposing two key themes and dual-symbolism that had changed from one format to another. The paper is broken up into two parts and begins with an introduction and analysis of Yu Hua’s novel and Zhang’s film. Finally, the second part analyzes the film and novel’s representations of two themes and symbolism that tie in with the GPCR. This paper posits that while Zhang’s film does contain many adjustments based on its adaptation, those changes were not simply a means by which he would meet the status quo, rather they were a means by which the film could become more realistic and exploits the true nature of the GPCR.
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
The Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu is an autobiography, majorly about Shen Fu’s love life and his marriage to Chen Yun, a smart girl he falls in love with as a child. Throughout the Six Records of a Floating Life, different situations faced by the couple can reflect to the family structure of the peasants at the time. Shen Fu was born in an official family which works for the government. Although his family was not at a very high status, they do care a lot about the reputation of the family, and they also care a lot about manners. Chen Yun, according to Shen Fu, is a very smart and well-mannered woman, she thinks a lot about Shen’s family, and always try to do her best for them. Chen Yun’s father died when she was 4 years old, which
Wang Lung needs a wife so saves up the little money he has and buys a woman who is a slave named O-lan. O-lan is sold to Wang Lung so she can take care of the home, cooking and bear children. Wang Lung is disappointed when he first sees O-lan because she does not have bound feet which was a desirable quality at that time but he does enjoy when O-lan has the food ready when he comes in a night from the land. Wang Lung is very proud when O-lan makes cakes that no one else in the village knows how to makes and when his family comes to feast for the new year at their house.
Zhu Ying was a member of the military’s theatre troupe, and about to be a member of the party, until she refused to sleep with party members. After that, they transferred and then imprisoned her. While her role in the military could have made Zhu Ying an androgynous figure, an emblem of communist gender equality, the party’s expectation that she have sex with party members makes her a sexual object, which is its own form of feminization. Zhu Ying is allowed to retain her femininity only if she consents to being a sexual object; when she does not, she is sent to be a laborer, and later imprisoned. Moreover, by being separated from her boyfriend, her chance at domestic happiness is taken away. After imprisonment, she has no opportunity to fill the traditional female role of marriage and children (which she may or may not have desired). Thus, the party halts the “natural” order of marriage and
Even though the feudal imperial regime has ended years ago, the traditional thoughts and burdens that have ruled Chinese country women for thousands of years remain unchanged. In Young Master Gets His Tonic, Wu Zuxiang presents a first-person narrative story where the young master, guanguan, drinks human milk to get nutrition for making up his previous loss of blood and energy from an accident. Right after the accident, the young master had received shots of blood from a wet nurse’s husband to supplement his loss, and three months later he drinks woman’s milk from the wet nurse. The young master’s description of the wet nurse effectively exhibits the oppressed life of lower class women, that they still lived in poor and unhealthy condition with subordinate status in the society.
...ould learn that their also is something waiting on us after this life that is far greater. If one looks at “The Wife Lament” he or she should learn to appreciate what they have while it is there because it can disappear in an instant. “Cuchulainn's Boyhood Deeds” can be conveyed as a way to always strive to accomplish your dreams. If there is something that you want bad enough in life you should stop at nothing until you accomplish it.
The Chinese people experienced rapid changes, in government and their own culture in the 20th century. In the book, Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, she depicts the experiences of not only oppression and suffering, but the development of the communist revolution, under Mao. Also, to show how the Chinese people, women in particular, fought against impossible odds by interweaving historical and personal stories from the twentieth century China.
The family's personal encounters with the destructive nature of the traditional family have forced them to think in modern ways so they will not follow the same destructive path that they've seen so many before they get lost. In this new age struggle for happiness within the Kao family, a cultural barrier is constructed between the modern youth and the traditional adults, with Chueh-hsin teeter tottering on the edge, lost between them both. While the traditional family seems to be cracking and falling apart much like an iceberg in warm ocean waters, the bond between Chueh-min, Chueh-hui, Chin and their friends becomes as strong as the ocean itself. While traditional Confucianism plays a large role in the problems faced by the Kao family, it is the combination of both Confucianism and modernization that brings the family to its knees. Chueh-hsin is a huge factor in the novel for many reasons.
Furthermore, this couple will get divorced because of their opposite thoughts. Men and women are two different species, and sometimes those differences stand in a way of their relationships. It is obvious that the characters in this poem can not find any equilibrium in their feelings. Every action of these characters showed negativity, which predicted their final separation.