The film "Gua Sha" is directed by Zheng Xiaolong and starred Liang Jiahui, Jiang Wenli and Zhu Xu. The film tells a touching story of a misunderstanding caused by gua sha and then eliminated.
The story is described by Gua Sha as the main line, which reflects the differences in Chinese and Western cultural concepts, and also allows us to see the strong family affection between the Datong family.
Watching the movie "Gua Sha", we can't help but think that although the difference in cultural concepts is inevitable, it can be eliminated as much as possible.
In addition, we need to be aware of this difference and respect each other's cultural concepts in the process of cultural exchanges, so that we can reduce cultural conflicts and promote cultural exchanges between China and the West.
01
The movie "Gua Sha" tells the story of Xu Datong from China who lived in the United States for eight years and had a successful career and a happy family, but then all the happiness and achievements, because his father could not read the English instruction manual, used the traditional Chinese medical treatment - Gua Sha to treat his son Dennis.
Because the scratches on Dennis's body were not understood by foreigners, Xu Datong was mistaken for child abuse, which led to a lawsuit that broke Datong's original happy and happy life. A small scratch can cause such a big misunderstanding.
Why? In-depth exploration, the movie "Gua Sha" actually contains a difference in Chinese and Western cultural concepts, and this difference happens to be the main contradiction that causes misunderstanding and conflict.
Differences between Chinese and Western medicine
The cause of the misunderstanding stems from Gua Sha, from the Lack of Understanding of Gua Sha in the West. In China, gua sha is a traditional medical method, has a history of more than 2,000 years, gua sha it is based on the meridians of traditional Chinese medicine, through special gua sha instruments and techniques, repeated scraping and rubbing on the human surface, so that the skin appears red.
Gua Sha itself is not harmful to the human body, but is conducive to people's blood circulation, helps people to rebuild natural physiological circulation, and has the effect of regulating blood gas, relaxing muscles, exorcising evil spirits and detoxification. In Western medicine, there is no record of gua sha.
The diagnosis of Western medicine is mostly to diagnose the disease with the help of advanced medical equipment and equipment in the West, and for a small stomachache like Dennis, they often choose to eat Western medicine to treat Dennis.
In the movie "Gua Sha", Westerners do not understand Gua Sha, a traditional Chinese medical method, and regard Xu Datong as a grumpy and child abusive villain, which is essentially the embodiment of the difference between Chinese and Western medicine.
At the first hearing, Datong originally asked his lawyer friend John Quinlan to defend himself, and John Quinlan also believed in Datong's personality, but he gave up defending Datong after seeing the photo of the scratch marks on Dennis's back.
Datong explained to the judge and to John: "Gua Sha is a traditional Chinese medicine method that can treat various diseases, and for thousands of years Chinese medicine believed that people have seven meridians and eight networks. ”
Datong saw that the people did not understand their own explanations, and figuratively compared: "Just like countless streams flowing to rivers, and rivers rushing to the sea, the human body is like a very complex and invisible network of life, just like a computer network, and people's qi originates from Dantian and returns to Dantian...."..."
But no matter how hard Daejeon tries to explain, the judges, as well as other Westerners, still can't understand the principle of Gua Sha, and they still feel that Datong is a child-abusing, grumpy father.
This kind of Western people's difficulty in understanding Gua Sha actually reflects the difficulty of integrating Chinese and Western medicine, and Gua Sha is actually a difference in Chinese and Western culture. The dispute caused by Gua Sha actually symbolizes the clash of cultures.
02
Differences in the concept of filial piety
In the movie "Gua Sha", when the American boss learned that it was Datong's father who gave Dennis Gua Sha not Datong, he was very puzzled about this, originally Datong only needed to tell the truth, saying that it was his father who shaved Dennis, Datong did not have to rack his brains to find a way to solve his own lawsuit problems, but he lied that it was his own scratching sha.
Why does Datong have to admit that it is his own scraping? Why complicate simple problems? Was it that he didn't love his son Dennis? Did he find it more exciting? A quote from Jennings: "Because he is Chinese." "Simple but meaningful, gives all the answers.
It is precisely because Datong is Chinese, his thoughts, his consciousness, are deeply influenced by Chinese culture. Even if Datong bears more, he will not let his father worry, even if he faces great pressure and pain, he will not let his father suffer.
After Datong's career was successful, he brought his father to the United States in order to make his father happy, that is, out of his filial piety to his father, how could such a filial piety let his elderly father face the pressure of the Gua Sha lawsuit?
China has Chinese filial piety, the West has Western filial piety, different environments make Datong and his American boss have different understanding of filial piety, naturally the American boss can not understand Datong lying to admit gua sha such behavior. This actually reflects the difference in the understanding of filial piety between China and the West.
03
The difference in the concept of superiority and inferiority between the elderly and the young
At the second hearing, The American boss of Cosmos testified that Cosmos had beaten Dennis at his award-winning banquet. Datong lost the case and felt that the American boss had betrayed him, and all he had to resign.
Datong couldn't listen to the apology of the American boss, and he said angrily: "I don't have time or interest in listening to your nonsense, I regard you as a friend, but you betrayed me, how can I still expect me to work with you." And he thinks he beats the kids out of respect for the American boss.
His American boss, on the other hand, does not understand Datong's Chinese mindset, believing that hitting a child is not right, he just tells the truth. There is a conflict here, and this conflict is mainly due to the two people's different understandings of the act of hitting a child.
As a Chinese the act of hitting a child is more common. Children are disobedient, adults beat children is a kind of education for children, Dennis offended the American boss of Datong, and Datong beats children is a respect for the American boss.
In China, it is a matter of course for parents to beat their children, and any Chinese will not feel that this is a wrong behavior when they see it, let alone feel that this is child abuse, they will think: "Hitting is kissing, scolding is love, not hitting and not scolding is not successful." "It is precisely because I love children that all will hit children."
In the eyes of Westerners who advocate democracy, this is incomprehensible. They believe that children have the same equal rights as adults, and adults should not criticize children at will, let alone scold children, but should give them respect.
The Chinese side feels that beating children is a respect for the elderly, while the West feels that beating children is an inequality between children and adults. The difference between the two concepts of respect and inferiority between the elderly and the young has caused contradictions and conflicts between them.
04
Differences in Chinese and Western cultural concepts
We cannot avoid the differences in Chinese and Western cultural concepts reflected in the movie "Gua Sha", and what we can do is to face this difference with a healthy and positive attitude and eliminate this cultural barrier as much as possible.
Today's society is an economic development society, economic globalization inevitably brings about exchanges and conflicts between cultures, and in the face of such exchanges and conflicts, how should we take our own cultural traditions as an acceptance field to test and absorb Western modern culture?
In the movie "Gua Sha", Xu Datong's boss took the initiative to experience Gua Sha and explained to the jury the treatment of Gua Sha in Chinese medicine, which actually implies that the gap between Chinese and Western cultural concepts is not insurmountable, the key lies in whether we are willing to take the initiative to recognize and accept.