October 21, 2004

"To Live" and "Morning Sun"

I found both the movie and the documentary very interesting and informative. Not only did the documentary show how there was a political and social change, but it was similar to what I have learned in the past about communism and China. The movie allowed me to see how the change and communism affected the people - how their lives changed either for the good or bad.

Fugui looses all his money, his home, and his family, but slowly gains it back through hard work. When he has to actually work just to keep food on the table and help take care of his family, he appreciates his life and the little that he has even more. I find it interesting that between Fugui and his wife, Jaizhen, it is Fugui who aims to be very obedient and follow the new rules, while it's his wife who seems a little bit of a "rebel". She is very independent and always speaks her mind probably due to the fact she had to make a living for herself and her children without the help from a man. The son seemed to also be a little "rebel", while the daughter is forced to just listen, smile, and be obedient due to her inability to talk. She represents exactly what Mao wanted - the people to be voiceless...without an opinion.

Now since the son has died, I wonder if Fuing will change his views about the revolution....or will the wife's independent thinking and her strong opinions cause problems for the family.

I also want to know more about how women were treated and their status during the revolution. I thought that they were very subservient and obedient, but the movie portrays Jaizhen to be very independent and opinionated.

Posted by shari at October 21, 2004 08:12 AM
Comments

I also found Jaizhen's portrayal very interesting. She has a tremendous strength of will which I was not expecting. With regards to the daughter... I'm not sure Mao wanted people to be voiceless. I think he probably wanted an opinion from everyone just as long as that opinion conformed to his in every possible way. A population with no voice would not lend much power to his revolution, but a population with one unified voice gave it the power to change the social system.

Posted by: Megan at October 22, 2004 12:09 AM

I think the point about Fengxia being a perfect citizen of Mao is pretty interesting. And I think that further, she could be an analogy for Communist China under Mao since, appropriately enough, she bleeds to death due to the lack of experienced aid and because she doesn't have a voice with which to cry out something is wrong. When everything seems good she can smile at her mother but when the life is dripping away from her all she can do is gasp and stare at the ceiling. In a lot of ways she was a good citizen of Mao (and she couldn't have been a citizen of the president since everyone knows he doesn't like deaf-mutes) and seemed pretty dedicated to his cause. Yet, she was still a causality of his "revolutionary thought".

Posted by: Letisha at October 22, 2004 06:26 AM

Your description of the daughter (in To Live) as "obendient" and representative of "what Mao wanted" the society as a whole to be. I definitely agree with that perspective, but also wonder if the daughter's passive nature and her disability was in anyway more specifically related to how women were supposed to be. It may be that I am overanalyzing this, but I have noticed that with many Asian cultures women are told (by society) that they must be "seen but not heard" and thought there may be a connection between this and the daughter's persona.

Posted by: Arielle at October 25, 2004 06:55 PM