The following article is from Blue Oak Study Abroad, the author Jing Si
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Image courtesy of Gemma Chan Facebook
As a new-age parent, if someone asks me what I want to raise my daughter to look like in the future, I wouldn't hesitate to throw out the word "independent woman."
I have a more detailed portrayal of independent women: they can be sweet or "black", good or "poisonous"; they can both win people's hearts and "pain and fierce hands" when needed; they also like to spend the moon before, but never love the brain, they will hope to form a family with the people they love, but they will not lose themselves for marriage and family; they understand that careers are indispensable for independent women, because this is the capital for women to settle down.
In a word: independent women have a firm core and know how to go under their feet. The protagonist I want to introduce today is one of the images of an independent woman in my mind - Chen Jiama.
Author: Jing Si, an independent writer, has a son, and has published works such as "Key Breakthroughs: 25 Sharp Tools to Solve the Essence of The Problem" and "A Long Life, To Live a Sense of Luxury" and so on
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Gemma Chan ,Originally had a good hand in life, can live easily and comfortably, but has the road she wants to take and the ideal she wants to achieve, she will not hesitate to overthrow everything and start over, with a not-so-popular Asian face at the age of 25, she bravely entered the British film and television circle and Hollywood at the age of 25.
After 15 years of hard work, finally at the age of nearly 40, he finally became a frontline in the White-skinned Hollywood world and became one of the few yellow-skinned Marvel heroines.
In fifteen years,
Chinese actresses who have descended from ordinary immigrants to the front line of Hollywood
In May this year, Marvel's new film "Eternals" released Chinese trailer. Eternals is about an exciting new team of superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who are ancient aliens who have lived secretly on Earth for thousands of years. After the events of Avengers 4: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them to come out and unite against the story of humanity's oldest enemy, the Mutants.
Stills from The Eternals
The Eternal Cast is very strong, with Kit Harrington, the actor of Snow in Game of Thrones,
The famous Angelina. Jolie,
There is also Ma Dong-seok, who is known as the "strongest uncle on the surface" in "Busan Trip".
Among the superstars, Gemma Chan's name ranked first.
As one of the heroines, she starred in Sersi in "The Eternals". In the comics, Sersi has superpowers such as manipulating cosmic energy, releasing high-temperature rays, teleportation, and creating illusions in both eyes.
Not only is Camma one of the few Chinese faces in Marvel, she has also achieved a new achievement: becoming the first actor in Marvel film history to play two roles. Her last Marvel character was Captain Marvel's Legionnaire Sniper Doctor Minera. Wearing tight armor, combing half of the braided head, and neat fighting techniques, the audience was deeply impressed.
The name Chen Jiama may be quite unfamiliar to audiences who don't like comic book movies, but mention some of the roles she has played.
In "Mysterious Symbols" in the second episode of the first season of "Sherlock", Yao Sulin, a pottery expert who demonstrates tea art to tourists at the museum, is played by Gemma.
When I watched this episode, I was deeply impressed by the introverted, quiet but unconcealed complex temperament of this young lady.
In the dark horse "Picking Gold" three years ago, the male protagonist's white fumei cousin Liang Asi was also played by Jiama. In the play, Liang Asi speaks fluently in British accent, tall and temperamental, and is unforgettable as soon as she appears.
From the descendants of ordinary immigrants to the first-line Chinese actresses in Hollywood, Chen Jiama has walked this path for fifteen years.
Honored students who are "chickens",
On the road to chasing dreams, he almost broke with his family
Born in Kent, England, Gemma is the descendant of an immigrant family, the son of an engineer from Hong Kong, China, and the mother of a Chinese who had earlier followed her parents to immigrate to Suge.
Family photo
Her father was an engineer and her mother was a pharmacist, and Gemma and her sister were born into a typical middle-class British family, so they had a relatively favorable living environment.
But as a descendant of immigrants, insecurity is deeply rooted in the bones of parents. They found a well-paid and respected job with excellent academic performance, and took root in a foreign country, so they also wanted their daughter to copy this model, go to a prestigious school, and become a doctor, a financial practitioner, and a lawyer are the few life choices left by their parents to Chen Jiama.
Chinese parents are good at chicken babies, and Chen Jiama has been a bully with excellent character and learning since he was a child. Not only that, in terms of talent, she began to learn ballet, piano and violin from an early age, with the level of violin level eight; in sports, she received national swimming training, and the real morality, intellect, body and beauty blossomed.
At the age of 18, as her parents wished, Gemma was admitted to Worcester College, Oxford University to study law, and became the proud son of the famous school. After graduating with a law degree, she successfully obtained a job offer from Silida Law Firm, one of the "Five Major Law Firms in London".
The firm was once named to the '£2 million a year club', and even newcomers can earn £500,000 a year.
It can be said that as long as you follow the path under your feet, Gemma will become the standard British upper middle class. But at this moment, she hesitated.
In a later interview with the media, she confessed: "I knew from the beginning that I was not a lawyer, and every day when I started working, I stared at the alarm clock and looked forward to the 5 o'clock off time." ”
So what does she want to do?
During her university years, Gemma worked part-time as a model at a small modeling agency in London. At 1.75 meters tall, she has been practicing ballet and swimming since she was a child, which makes her tall, slender and slender. As a part-time model in the entertainment industry, Gemma's real dream is to learn acting and become an actor. But few Chinese immigrant families will support their children on this extremely risky and promising path.
However, although Gemma has been an obedient and well-behaved girl since childhood, she is actually rebellious enough in her bones. Despite her parents' discouragement and even anger, she gave up her high-paying job at the law firm and planned to study acting to become an actress.
photographed for V.F. in Los Angeles
This is nothing less than a thunderbolt on a sunny day for a well-behaved Chinese middle-class family. It's hard for parents to understand why their daughter, who has always been proud, should give up a great future. The rational father asked his daughter, "Have you ever seen someone on British television who looks like you?" ”
Whether it was or is now, there are only a few Asian faces in the European and American film and television circles, and then spread this share to the head of the Chinese, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is rare, and it is normal for conservative Chinese parents to oppose. Her parents refused to provide her with living expenses and tuition fees for the examination, and her father even "broke off relations" with her at one point, refusing to speak to her for months.
Determined, Gemma used her savings from working part-time as a model in college to apply for the London Academy of Drama, so oxford law students gave up everything to study acting from scratch. Her courage (even stupidity) made the teachers at the drama school who taught her voice pour out their hearts and tell her the truth: "I hope you are mentally prepared, because many of the films produced in the UK are historical dramas, and you will not get any chances." 」 ”
The teacher was right that the yellow skin was indeed a hindrance to Gemma, and in the first few years she did not even have the opportunity to meet the audition director. Giving up the good cards in her hand and overthrowing the life of the middle-class elite that was once within reach was not the most difficult moment of her life, and after entering the film and television circle, Gemma really experienced how difficult it was for the yellow-skinned, black-haired Asian face to mix in this circle.
With no drama to play, she initially appeared on the screen only through a contestant in the real talent show, and later British filmmaker Damian. Jones discovered her and thought that in the British film and television industry dominated by blonde hair and blue eyes, her unique temperament and appearance might be an opportunity, so he signed a brokerage contract with her.
Since then, Chen Jiama has finally stepped into the door of the show business circle.
The breakthrough of "yellow skin"
But after signing the contract, she didn't have any chance to show her face at first. Occasionally, the directors want her to hide her pure British accent and accentuate some oriental accents; she always runs dragon suits in small-scale films and becomes a good friend of mainstream Western heroines with Asian faces around them. These "stereotypes" and career thresholds for Asians are commonplace for her.
It wasn't until 2007, after years of running the dragon suit, that Gemma finally had a slightly longer appearance. She was selected as a regular in the series for the fourth installment of The Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
In 2009, she starred in the science fiction drama Doctor Who Martian Water, playing the surviving crew member Mia Bennett on Mars.
Although there was no chance to appear on the poster and publish his name, he participated in a well-known work.
In 2010, she starred in two popular British dramas, IT Maniac (Season 4) and Sherlock Sherlock (Season 1), but it was only a glimpse of her face.
In 2015, at the age of 33, Gemma, who kept "brushing her face" in various dramas, finally took over the first British drama "Humans" at the age of 33, in which she played the robots Mia and Anita in two roles.
The IMDB rating of "Real Humans" is above 8 points for three seasons, and the word-of-mouth ratings are win-win. This made Chen Jiama begin to be known to more people, and it also became an opportunity for her to go from a very small number of Asian actors in the British showbiz to Hollywood. Sure enough, since then, Chen Jiama's career has ushered in a wave of peak periods.
In 2016, she starred in a cast by J. Thompson. Written by K. Rowling and produced by Warner, the fantasy adventure film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In the film, she plays the witch Ya Zhou.
In the 2017 release of "Transformers 5: The Last Knight", the Quintasha that appeared in the Easter egg at the end of the film was also played by Chen Jiama, although it was the last, but the appearance was amazing.
In 2018, she starred in the sister of the male protagonist in "Picking Gold", a woman who grew from Bai Fumei to an independent and self-reliant woman, which made the international film industry remember this Asian face.
Then in 2019, Chen Jiama ushered in the second peak of her career. She participated in the big IP of the Marvel movie "Captain Marvel" and played the role of a villain spy who mixed into human society as a doctor in the play with superb acting skills.
This drama helped her harvest a large number of Hollywood fans, and also let her finally occupy a place among the famous Chinese actresses in Hollywood.
More than a decade ago, when she was planning to become an actress, on screen dominated by "white skin," her father questioned her Asian face.
More than a decade later, at the premiere of Captain Marvel, she took her parents with her and told them, "I know how tough the road is and I might fail." But I want to witness my own change, and I'm now happy to finally have a little bit of success. ”
Adopted daughters should be like Chen Jiama
Even with social progress, the way out for women today has made great progress compared with the past few eras, but the dilemmas and limitations we face are still layered. Gender discrimination encountered on the road to growth, gender discrimination in school and job search, the "ceiling" that cannot be broken at work, the dilemma of reproductive autonomy, the workplace that is difficult to return to, the inequality in the division of labor in housework and childcare... Piles and pieces make women feel tired of living in this world.
Chen Jiama's experience has given us some enlightenment: as women, we need help and leverage to gain a foothold in this society, but in the end, what we can rely on is not our parents' past experience and family background (for ordinary people), but our own strength, even if this force is not enough at the beginning to be concerned, not favored by outsiders and relatives.
Moreover, if you want to be strong, women must dare to break through traditional labels and settings - for example, women have a safe and stable life. If Chen Jiama had not been able to "give up his body" and let go of the elite road that he was familiar with, the world might have had one more ordinary lawyer, but he was absent from a female inspirational model.
The heroine on the screen is always waiting, waiting for the prince and the hero to help and rescue herself; Chen Jiama tells us: Women do not have to wait for the arrival of the prince, you can live to become your own hero