7. MEDIDAS PREVENTIVAS Y CORRECTORAS
7.1. FASE DE CONSTRUCCIÓN
I showed the clip, Shop for gun from the film Crash (2004), to a group-of-four CCSs. I asked them whether the clip helped them learn anything about Americans, one of the female CCS said:
42 Zhen means ‘I’ in ancient Chinese. This word was only used by Chinese Emperors.
(Q.6.3.3.1) S1: 我觉得美国人自身，他可能自己不觉得，但是做为外国人会可能对这个比较 在意吧，就想我也是，上海人和美国人有点像，因为上海人，不是说上海人看 不起外地人嘛，然后象我这种上海人根本不觉得上海人怎么样，大家都是中国 人，都一样，但是我来到北京以后，来北京之前，我姐姐在北京上大学，说你 到了外地千万别说你是上海人，要说你就说你是南方人。不然人家会不喜欢。 我们宿舍还可以吧，后来有一次和别人聚餐，和上海男同学，他带了一个外地 的同学，他说，中国一共有良种人，一个是上海人，一个是外地人。然后就感 觉有点像，本事自己是没有认识到这个问题，但是别人会知道这件事情就很敏 感。 English translation:
S1: Racial discrimination. I think Americans themselves, they probably are not aware, but, as foreign people, probably care very much. For example, me too…I think, there’s a bit similarities between American and people from Shanghai. People say that people from Shanghai look down upon people from other cities. Actually, people from Shanghai, like myself, absolutely do not think anything special about us (people from Shanghai), we are all Chinese, all the same. But after I came to Beijing…before I came to Beijing, my older sister who was in Beijing University, told me that: “You must NOT tell others that you are from Shanghai, tell them that you are from the South, otherwise, others will not like you.” Things are ok in my dorm. But, there was one time at a gathering, with a course-mate who’s also from Shanghai. He came with bunch of students who are not from Shanghai. They said: “there are two types of people in China. One is people who are from Shanghai. The other is people who are not from Shanghai.”
S1 identified similarities between not only characters but also peoples represented by the characters, Americans and foreigners, with Shang Hai Ren44
I showed the clip, The noble right
(people from Shang Hai) and the rest of Chinese population. S1’s view on Americans and foreigners, as well as their attitudes towards each other, seems to be affected by her understanding of what happens among the characters in the film. Second, as a person from Shang Hai, S1’s knowledge gained from her sister, as well as experience in the college social life, played an important role in forming her view on Chinese people, in particular, Shang Hai Ren and other non-Shang Hai Ren; as well as her interpretation of the characters and peoples represented by the characters.
45, from the film Brave Heart46
44 Shang Hai is the largest city and most metropolitan city in China. Ren, in Chinese 人, refers to person and people.
Therefore, Shang Hai Ren refers to person/people from Shang Hai, China.
, to two students JT and TXH who both had watched the film before. After viewing the clip, JT said:
45 The noble right: The clip was chosen from the film Braveheart (1995). In the clip, on the day when William Wallace
returns his hometown in Scotland, there happens to be a wedding. Including Wallance, while everyone is dancing happily, musicians stop playing as a group of armed horseman with banners ride into the midst of the festivities. An English nobleman stops in front of the bride and announces that he has come to claim ‘prima noctes’, which is the English noble’s right to take Scottish bride’s first night. The bride’s father and husband tried to stop but couldn’t because the horsemen point their lances at the villagers. In the end, the bride was taken away.
46 Braveheart (1995): A fictionalized account of William Wallace’s fighting against the English for the “freedom” of
occupied Scotland, Braveheart traces Wallace’s exploits from the revenge-killing of a sheriff and the storming of a castle to the sacking of York and his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. After a period in hiding, Wallace is captured and taken to
(Q.6.3.3.2) JT：我觉得太野蛮了。 Interviewer: 谁野蛮？ JT: 就是那个抢新娘的那个人。给人的感觉就有点像，政治经济学书上写的那个， 当时资本主义发家的时候，强占劳动人民的土地啊什么的，有那种感觉 （笑）... 然后，就是，我不太了解英国这方面的历史，也不知道，因为现在，英国分成 几部分，不太了解它的历史，可能就是因为当时民族，他们是不同民族的吧？ Interviewer: 对。
JT: 就是 Scotland 和 England，就是这种民族，好象是 England 先发展起来后，就
侵占原始民族他们的领土啊什么的，就觉得,当时在想英国的一个历史问题，他 在历史上如何形成现在的规模。而且,英国不是一段时间和爱尔兰有矛盾，就是 因为北爱尔兰的问题 ... 就是大概能看出来英国的一些，就是有点象中国历史上 的三国啊，那些历史, 最后又融合成一个中国。大概就是觉得有点像这个。 Interviewer: 就是通过战争？ JT: 就是野蛮的掠夺 (笑)。 English translation:
JT: I think this is so cruel.
Interviewer: Who is cruel?
JT: That person who seized the bride. It feels a bit like what’s described in the Politics and Economics textbooks at the time when the Capitalism was building up the fortune, occupying working people’s land etc, that kind of feeling (laugh) … then, it’s, I don’t quite know this aspect of the history of Britain, I also don’t know, because now, how many parts in the U.K., (I) don’t quite know it’s history, probably it’s because of the peoples at that time – they are different nations, are they?
Interviewer: Yes.
JY: It’s Scotland and England, is this kind of nation, it seems English developed first, then invaded primitive people’s land etc, feels like, at that moment (when I was watching the clip, I was) thinking about Britain’s history, how it became its current scale. Plus, there’s time when England had a problem with Ireland, it’s because of the issue of Northern Ireland … (I can) generally notice some, it feels like the Three Kingdoms in the Chinese history, that history, in the end (they became) one China. Generally it feels like this.
Interviewer: Through wars?
JT: It’s brutal plunder (laugh).
JT sees the union of the kingdoms of the U.K. as similar to the Three Kingdoms47
Braveheart, set at the turn of the 14th century in Scotland, is about a Scottish hero, William
Wallace, who leads his people in a rebellion against the tyranny of the English King. Both England and Scotland, during the time from 13th to 14th centuries, were still in feudalism. Capitalism did
not start until two centuries later. JT’s view that the cruelty of the character that seizes the bride of China. This view is developed from her understanding of the character and her knowledge of three nations in the U.K. and the history of China. Lacking detailed knowledge of the specific historical context of the film, JT used more general historical information, such as the U.K. being made of three different nations, and the conflict with Ireland, to help assist her understanding.
47Three Kingdoms (三国): is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties. It refers
to the period between the foundation of the Wei in 220 and the conquest of the Wu by the Jin Dynasty in 280. The three kingdoms were Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吴).
is related to early capitalism, and in particular the idea of ‘seizure of land’, as taught in her textbooks, is interesting.
What the above exemplary interview extract illustrates is that, whether or not CCSs apply the correct relevant knowledge, making sense of foreign films depends on their existing framework of knowledge of foreign people and countries, as well as Chinese people and China.
Let’s look at another example from GW when she was talking about an American film, Brokeback
Mountain. (Q.6.3.3.3) GW: 其实, 同性恋在美国好象也挺不能被接受，不然 Brokeback Mountain 怎么会 里面写那两个男的在一起也挺遭家里人反对的? 特别是他们那种，一开始结婚了， 然后又变成同行恋，感觉有双性恋倾向那种。象他们肯定不会太接受。但是我 觉得，这方面我觉得，中西方还是有点共同的吧。其实我觉得美国这个社会， 不一定所有的人都能接受这种现象吧，中国也是。就是老一辈的人吧。就象我 们大学生身边的人，这些我就觉得可以接受。他们说，都是爱，只是爱的对象 不一样。 English translation:
GW: Actually, homosexuals in the Unites States do not quite seem to be accepted, otherwise, in Brokeback Mountain, how come those two guys’ families against them being together? Especially when they, they got married at the beginning, then became gay, then, feels like bisexual. They (people around two guys) definitely cannot accept this. But I think, in this aspect I think, China and the west shares similarities. Actually I think, American society, not necessarily everyone can accept this phenomenon, so is China. For example, old generation (cannot accept). For example, us, university students, I can accept this. People say, it’s the same love, it’s just the person whom (you) love is different.
GW’s comments indicate that she most probably developed the idea of to what extent homosexuals are accepted in the U.S.A. from viewing the film. Based on what she ‘learned’ about Americans from the film as well as what she already knew about Chinese people’s attitudes towards homosexuals, GW saw similarities between people from two countries, the U.S.A. and China.
Now, let’s look at what GW said about another film, Princess Diaries48
48 Princess Diaries (2001): A fifteen-year-old American schoolgirl, Mia, is visited by her grandmother, the Queen, Clarisse
Renaldi, from the fictional European country Genovia. Mia learns that she is the heir to the Genovian throne and attends “princess lessons” with her grandmother. “So begins a comical transformation towards poise and princess-ness, including a media storm, jealous schoolmates, and a plot to take over her country.” (2001, Official plot summary) After a . In another text extract from GW presented in the first section in current chapter, GW identified similarity between her own grandma and the character, the Queen, who is also a grandma, in the film. In addition, GW said:
(Q.6.3.3.4) GW: 我觉得Princess Diaries 对我挺大的感触就是，因为那个公主,她本来是生活在 美国嘛，可是她的奶奶是一个欧洲那边的一个皇族。他们在 … 其实觉得英美两 个国家还是有很大差异的，英国比较古老传统，结果她们两个在一起发生很多 摩擦碰撞啊，就是感觉古老的思想和现代美国人的文化进行一种冲撞那种感觉。 就是她和奶奶之间经常会发生矛盾啊，她会比较随意吗，不像贵族那样举止幽 雅啊什么的，有点象外国版的 “还珠格格”了。 English translation:
GW: I think Princess Diaries, what stirred my feelings most is that, because that princess, she used to live in America, but her grandma is a royal member over there. They are … actually I think U.K. and U.S.A., two countries share great differences. U.K. is fairly old and traditional, as a result, when both of them were together, there were lots of conflicts and crash, it feels like, old thinking is clashing with modern American culture. Conflicts often happened between her and her grandma. She’s relatively relaxed, unlike the nobles with elegant manners. It’s a bit like foreign version of
Princess Peral49
Two things strike me from GW’s comments. First, GW perceived the U.K. as traditional, whilst she viewed the U.S.A. as comparatively modern. It seems that she most probably got this idea from the characters in the film, the Mia (granddaughter), and the Queen (grandma). Alternatively, even if she might have had this view already before viewing the film, it can be speculated that viewing the film reinforced this view. However, all the characters and the country in the film, Genovia, are fictional. Where did GW get the idea of that the country is the U.K.? This is possibly due to GW’s lack of information about what happens in the film, such as the fact that the country, Genovia, supposedly in Europe, does not actually exist. Even though there are indications in the film that the country is not the U.K., GW did not pick them up. It seems that certain things portrayed in the film matched GW’s existing knowledge and impression of the U.K., such as the Queen, nobles, and being traditional. This example shows that, when making sense of foreign films, CCSs do not always fully comprehend what is happening in the film. Occasionally, unexpected interpretations of foreign films and TV series are made!
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Second, GW noticed some commonality between the film, Princess Diaries, and a Chinese TV series, Princess Pearl. Considering the plots of two shows, it seems that the similarities identified by GW are mainly to do with the characters and things that happen around the characters, such as a common girl becomes a Princess, conflicts between the tradition and modern, etc.
Although GW seems to be simply identifying similarities between two shows, one from the U.S.A. and one from China, the fact that GW developed her views on the U.K. and the U.S.A. based on
49 Princess Pearl (1998) (还珠格格): is one of the most popular TV series in China. It is about street girl, Xiao Yan Zi, who
in a mix-up ends up as a Princess (officially titled Guan Zhu Ge Ge) instead of her sworn sister. The adventures continue as Xiao Yan Zi tries to adjust to palace life, deals with the clashes happens in the palace with Emperor, falls in love with the fifth princess, and all the while trying to give her sworn sister back the title of Princess (IMDB, 2009).
her understanding of the characters makes me wonder. Did GW perceive Americans as the street- girl, Xiao Yan Zi, and the British as members of the royal family?
6.3.4 Summary
The current section has illustrated another main category of sense-making activities, ‘compare: identifying similarities’, which emerged from empirical data, with regard to how Chinese college students (CCSs) make sense of films and TV series produced in the U.K. and the U.S.A.
In a similar way to identifying differences, CCSs identify similarities on three levels. First, sometimes CCSs identify similarities (IS) between fictional characters and themselves, and occasionally with individuals who are closely related with them or play a significant role in their lives, such as grandma, course-mates, flat-mates and friends.
Second, at times CCSs recognize similarities between fictional characters and groups of Chinese people. On this level, ‘groups of Chinese people’ are of two types. One type of group refers to the groups which the CCSs themselves belong to. This usually happens when CCSs identify similarities between characters and themselves and other individuals close to their lives, and then tend to generalize their view from individuals to the larger group which they belong to. The second type of group does not seem to include CCSs themselves in any obvious way, but appears to have things in common with the characters. One special case is GW and her interpretation of the character from Lost in Translation. She identified similarity between the character and East-Asian people in general, which goes beyond the boundary of China.
Finally, occasionally, CCSs identify similarities between groups of people represented by the characters and groups of Chinese people.
Four main variables which affect identification of similarities have been identified. They are interpretation of characters, knowledge, life experience and gender.
As illustrated by examples in the section on ‘comparing: identifying differences’, CCSs’ knowledge and life experience play an essential role in making sense, whether they view a clip or a whole film. CCSs’ process of identifying similarity always involves the application of their interpretation of characters and their behaviour, knowledge of the other peoples and cultures represented by the