Chloe Knuth To Live Zhang Yimou May 18, 1994 Film China
How does this music, film, or art connect to your culture as well as other cultures?
The culture of this film is China’s culture, which is also my culture as well. I was born in China but grew up in America. My culture is the same as this film’s culture. China’s culture also is also similar to many other Asian cultures and influences these cultures as well.
2. What is the central theme or message of the piece(s)? How was that evoked by the piece? The central theme was that even though people experience horrifying hardships, they still have a will to live and believe that in the end, their lives will get better. This is shown in the piece by the last words of the main character, Fugui. He says, “life will get better and better” to his grandson. Fugui and his wife have lost both of their children, a daughter and a son. In this tragic time, they both find the strength to keep living. After each war they lived through, they still had faith that their lives would improve.
3. What does the piece indicate about the culture of the country where the piece is from? Consider such things as family structure, gender roles, politics, economic status, education,poverty, sports, customs, foods, war, etc. China’s culture is very different from American culture. The film took place in a poverty stricken city with dirty people and dirty streets. Fugui loses his family and his house when he gambles one night, which would not happen in America. In the film, it was legal in China to let people gamble on whatever they wanted to and the government didn’t care. Also, this film took place over many decades and showed The War of Liberation, The Great Leap Forward, and The Cultural Revolution. These all took place in China and resulted in war, protests, and unrest. In China, the government is communist, which means that the government owns and controls the people. This makes China’s culture opposite of America’s culture.
4. Describe the mood or thoughts (affect) evoked by the piece. Describe the devices used by the artist(s) to create this effect (i.e. compositional technique, media, use of elements and principles, etc.) The mood was heartbreaking, depressing, and somber most of the time. These two main characters, Fugui and his wife, had copious amounts of death and life altering events thrown at them. The film used the actors’ genuine emotion to evoke empathy from the audience. It also used up close shots of food at certain points to symbolize the simplicity of everyday life that is essential to the story. The film showed vivid features of each character to develop an emotional attachment to these people which captured the audience’s attention. 5. Research the historical context/significance of the piece. How does the piece “fit” into this larger/global context? This film crams three different very important historical events into its storyline. The first is the War of Liberation. This was the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalists and the Communists. The people didn’t want to be suppressed by a communist government anymore and decided to fight back. Fugui was captured by the Communists and forced to play puppet shows for the entertainment of the soldiers. He returned after the war ended and came home to find his wife barely surviving and his daughter a mute. With the Civil War over and the Communists now in power, there were radically new social arrangements. Then they experienced the Great Leap Forward, launched by Mao, the Chinese leader. This included collecting iron-made tools from everyone in the attempt to push forward Chinese industrialization. At this point, the family is living as workers for the Communist party and cannot speak against them. Fugui’s son dies when working in a smelter in a freak accident and sparks more depression for the family. Then the Cultural Revolution happened, which was a sociopolitical revolution that tried to purge the China of Western influence. It was a negative movement that paralyzed China’s politically and negatively affected the country's economy and society to a significant degree. This historical background to the film fits into a global context because all of these downfalls of China affected other countries, especially economically.
6. How did this experience change your world view? This story changed my views on the people of China. I now realize that China’s people are simply, hardworking people that do not deserve the treatment that the government has given them. It was a very hard film to watch because of how much death and hardships the main characters had to endure. These characters made me understand that life is worth living and because they never gave up and kept a positive mindset, it made all the difference.