Eat Drink-Man Woman Essay

Globalization is a process of modernization and integrating ideas from other international cultures, the effects of which can be both profound and damaging. Beginning in its post-world war II society, Taiwan experienced an objective movement toward globalization through the KMT regime and into the post-KMT society. By absorbing many Western values, the forces of globalization and thus modernization brought many changes to peoples’ gender roles and family values. Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet follows a homosexual couple, an immigrant, and two traditional parents in a clash between traditional Eastern and modernized Western cultural values. In a dysfunctional familial setting, Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman demonstrates a shift toward non-traditional behavior in Taiwan, using food as a central theme. Ultimately, both The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman reflect on the globalization of Taiwan as the country shifts from a traditionalized to modernized society. A close analysis of the characters, their relationships, and events of both films reveal Ang Lee’s connection to how Taiwan’s globalization creates

At the turn of the century, Taiwanese women had “moved into virtually all industries and occupations” with an abundance of “young women working as cheap laborers” in addition to women being “more likely than men to be employees rather than employers” (Gold 1102). Furthermore, women “have still not equally reached the top administrative and managerial positions” in comparison to men (Gold 1103). At an economic standpoint in Taiwan, women are not equals with men in power which inevitably leads to women being “especially active in the creation and consolidation of civil society” (Gold 1113) which includes a feminist movement. In essence, men continue to claim much of the power—in “patriarchal families” (White 101) and in economic values—in comparison with