伦敦大学亚非学院(SOAS)暑期国际课程研修报告--申书豪--2018.07

卓越学院国际课程研修报告

研修报告正文：

①研修报告正文请按照以下内容撰写：a.课程学习情况及学习成果（500字左右）；b.针对某一课程内容或相关课题的论文、调研或专题性学习报告（2000字以上）；c.学习期间的心得体会，遇到的问题和困难，建议和意见等（500字左右）。

②纸张不足，可另附页。

③鼓励多附照片，照片要求清晰，并在下方注明照片内容。

审视一段时光的作为，更好的是待此段时间逝去，距离感给反思带来了一种无法言说的神圣感。回忆伦敦的夏天，一幅幅蒙太奇刷过眼帘，不只是看到的历史，听到的文化，触碰到的礼貌，更多的是那一份份情谊传递的人生观和瞭望于时代潮流之前的社会思潮。

2017的初春似乎没有前年那么寒冷了，暑期去伦敦游学的期盼像脚底下若隐若现的棉花，不经意间给奔波在校园间的我一丝暖暖的希望。转眼间，一行9人夜幕之下拖着箱子，从国王十字车站慢慢走向了宿舍，拉开了序幕。

第一个session的课程是NGOs and Social Movements: the Politics of Protest and Change。教授的专攻方向是尼泊尔的社会学，授课方式casual而不随意，时而来回踱步，时而脱下拖鞋舒适的坐在电脑后面。课程强度是不小的，每天早晨都是lecture，下午seminar，由一位PhD学生James带领着我们对上午课程进行小组讨论。课堂的学习材料也十分丰富，音乐、电影、新闻等等都反映着那段时间中非政府组织同社会运动的千丝万缕的关系。虽然每天都会有2到3份的Pre-reading，虽然课堂节奏确实很快。但从教授们的讲座和与他们探讨的过程中，可以感受到他们对于社会和时代的深切关怀，好像历史书上看到的为国家为人民的5.4青年一样。深度学习了万恶的新自由主义，它的来源和影响，看到了资本主义不可避免的丑恶嘴脸，感到了身为公民的职责。

如果说第一个session中所学大多是来自professors，第二个session的Migration and Diaspora就更多是向其他8位出身多样的同学们学习的。教授是一位和蔼可亲的英国印度移民，尽管在英国以生活多年，但仍以自己的印度护照为荣。同学中有在加拿大和土耳其都生活了12年的PhD姐姐，有7岁从叙利亚移民到德国的姐姐，有印度裔的新加坡阿姨，有2位腼腆的日本同学和一位台湾省的小姐姐。Seminar和lecture的学习拓宽了我的眼界，到底什么是国家？什么是国界？谁来界定的？而我也开始思考着“什么是中国人？”

（“了不起的盖茨比”浸入式戏剧）

（“LGBTQ Pride Parade”）

（公园里picnic，随歌舞蹈的大妈们）

Abstracts

  Literature is embodies within many forms, among which films are one of the most direct and meaningful forms. Educated both in Taiwan and US, Ang Lee is non-controversially one of the best director when it comes to discuss about the culture impact and cultural conflicts with West and China. Looking into 2 of his earliest works (“ Pushing hands” and “The Wedding Banquet”), conflicts caused by the differences between western and Chinese culture are well-illustrated. Moreover, through storytelling Ang Lee also shone his light on how to solve these problems.

Key words: Migration, Cultural conflicts, Ang Lee , Intercultural Communication

When we think of life of migrants, especially from a perspective of Chinese people, glamour and prosperity usually enter our minds. People tend to have the typical images of middle class migrants who leave their homeland for a better life in a foreign country, which is on the global north, in most cases. Those migrants usually have some expertise to qualify their migration. They’d live by the Oxford Street with casual walk to countless luxurious stores where shop assistants stick around them with happy yet fake smiles. They’d live in a comfortable loft just like where Sherlock resides in the BBC TV series. And to brag about their happiness of migration life, often would they comment on a “cleaner” water, a “bluer” sky or “more diligent” passengers who read in underground mainly because of the lack of cellphone signal.Nevertheless, occasionally sentiment holds the better of them as they begin to grasp the true meaning of homesick poems, which seemed boring when they lived on homeland, longing for a new life abroad. Such are capricious and aristocratic images we have about migrants. People in China tend to magnify the beautiful and ideal “cover”, which they add to the “book” of migrants’ life. However, what people leave out are some inevitable hardship and struggle inside the “book”, which is tough or even unpleasant to hear but real and essential to their stories.

Art comes from life yet art is the best manifestation of life. There are plenty of outstanding works focusing on topic of migrants and their life. Among all these works, 2 films, “Pushing Hands” and “ Wedding Banquet”, are symbolic. Both of the 2 films are directed by the famous Chinese director Ang Lee. Best known for his wonderful works, such as “The Life of Pi” and “Brokeback Mountain”, Ang Lee is a brilliant director who has a deep understanding of traditional Chinese culture. He’s born in Taiwan, where traditional Chinese culture is highly celebrated and appreciated. It was his time in US studying films that gave him the experience of how much impact there was when a migrant from oriental world went to a land with an entire different culture.

“Pushing hands” tells a story of Zhu, an old Chinese man, who lived under the same roof with his American daughter-in-law, Susan. Normally, his son, Xiaosheng, would head to work at the beginning of the day, leaving these 2 who understood almost zero of each other at home. Zhu was a typical Chinese senior citizen and Susan was a typical American writer who worked at home. Therefore, scenes at home can be quite interesting sometimes. When Susan’s sitting in front of computer, grinding for something to write, Zhu was practicing Taiji upstairs beside a piece of beautiful Chinese calligraphy hanging on the wall. When Zhu sang along with Peking opera, Susan would impatiently come up to him with head-phone. Zhu would watch Chinese old-fashioned martial arts films as entertainment while Susan dealt with her stress by jogging. When Zhu used a pan to cook scrambled egg with tomato, Susan used an oven to do some bakery. This was one house with 2 homes where Zhu’s traditional Chinese way of living and Susan’s American life style co-existed “harmoniously”. At dinner, Xiaosheng went back home and did his best to talk with Zhu and Susan in turn in 2 languages. Knowing his presence at home disturbs Susan’s work, Zhu went to teach Taiji in a local Chinese school, where he met an old refined Chinese lady, Chen. As time went by, their relation became somehow romantic. Later on, discovering that it was his son who asked Chen to go out with him on purpose, Zhu turned furious and ran away from home. Xiaosheng tried his best to search for his father yet in vain. Later on, Zhu was caught up in some fight and went on the news. Xiaosheng picked him up and rejected his request of living alone. In the end, the family reunited.

One of the hardest migration problems would certainly be how to balance your original cultural identity with your “new” cultural identity. In the “Pushing Hands”, Xiaosheng, as the first generation of migrants from China to US,had a hard time trying to solve problems between his father and his wife. Required by his traditional cultural identity, he, as a son, has the responsibility to look after his father, Zhu, and take care of him. However, in US he was also entitled to enjoy his own life and to have a happy family, which meant he also needed to make his wife happy. His struggling and powerlessness was manifested best when he freaked out and smashed everything in the house after he couldn’t find his missing father. Moreover, Zhu represented typical Chinese senior citizen who went to a foreign land unwillingly just to spend time with his son. He stuck to traditional Chinese life style, doing what old refined men do in China, Taiji, Chinese calligraphy, Peking opera and etc. When people get as much old as Zhu, it can be quite hard to adopt oneself to an entire new environment. However, it seems that things always get in the way when Zhu tries to continue his familiar life style in this unfamiliar world. Singing Peking opera disturbed Susan’s work. Loneliness struck him every time he practiced Taiji alone at home and when he went out for shopping, no one else spoke his tongue, unfortunately. As matter of fact, serious mental problems can be developed if he still preferred to his rigid life without any attempt to make some positive changes. Therefore, problems are evidently presented in the film of “Pushing Hands”. It is crystal-clear that not every part of migrants’ story is glamorous and full of happiness. They would face if not less but way much more problems, especially the ones dealing with cultural identity and values. However, what are solutions if you may say? Are there any way out of this? “Pushing Hands” doesn’t really offer a perfect solution, unfortunately. Nevertheless, in Ang Lee’s next film “Wedding Banquet”, a solution brought the film to a happy ending.

The story of “Wedding Banquet” begins with a tape sent from Weitong’s parents in Taiwan to Weitong in US. In the tape, Weitong’s mother urged him to find a girl and expressed her eagerness of having a grandchild, which made Weitong somehow quite awkward. Weitong was a gay, who had established some achievement in New York and lived with his partner, Simon. Filial Piety, which was an significant part of Chinese traditional culture, required Weitong not just to look after his old parents but also to have children of his own to continue the family line. In order to put out his parents’ worries, Weitong decided to do a fake marriage with a Shanghai girl, Weiwei, who’s struggling to get a green card and to stay in US. So his parents flew all the way to US,and insisted on a grand and decent wedding banquet, which played a significant role in Chinese marriage culture (The grander wedding banquet one family have, the better and more decent life they live, or so they seem to live). Reluctant as Weitong and Weiwei were, the grand wedding banquet was held. At the night of the wedding banquet, Weitong and Weiwei accidentally had sex. As consequence, Weiwei accidentally got pregnant. Simon freaked out, yelling at Weitong in front of his parent, whom Simon expected to know little English. Later when Weiwei was about to get rid of this kid, Weitong’s father had stroke. In the hospital, Weitong confessed the truth to his mother,who was shocked but still begged for a grandchild. At the same time, they both agreed not to tell Weitong’s father the truth for the sake of his health. After some short time for recovery, Weitong’s father got back home and talked to Simon in English in a casual walk. He said he understood the situation and thanked Simon for taking care of Weitong. However, he insisted that this talk just stay between Simon and him. In the end, Weiwei agreed to have the child. So it’s a happy ending, where the old parents got to have their dream grandchild and Weitong could have happy ever after with Simon.

Interesting things can happen when traditional filial piety comes across homosexuality. In Chinese culture, having a baby and finding a happy family serves as one of most important way to fulfill one’s duty for his parents. Moreover, homosexuality had been a forbidden topic in Chinese culture, which made it even harder for Chinese homosexual people to find a way out of this situation. In the film, Weitong was lucky enough to have both of his parents privately understand him and his partner. Most of young Chinese are afraid of coming out. What make them worried are not just their parent (recently there are more and more understanding parents), but pressure from Chinese society and also somehow haunting sense of guilt for betraying his original cultural identity.

It is sure that LGBTQs in China are having a better life than ever, considering it was only till 2000 that China decriminalized homosexuality. In recent years, thanks to globalization, more and more information about homosexuality poured into China. People began to realize how bad the situation was for LGBTQs before. We started to pay attention to this group of minority and support them. Things are picking up.

One of the best part of “Wedding Banquet” would definitely be the happy ending, where everyone found a way to pursue his own happiness. So here’s the thing. Culture A and Culture B are 2 different cultures, not so compatible with one and another. Problems occur when A and B both want to do things and get to its own goal. So what to do with it?

Bending Culture A and Culture B together, a new Culture C is born. In Culture C, the most essential parts of both Culture A and B are met in different ways. For example, in the end of “Wedding Banquet”, the way to fulfill Weitong’s duty to his parents and to satisfy the old Chinese couple would be to have a kid, whether adaption or other ways. In order to achieve the goal of having a grandchild, Weitong’s father privately recognized the love between Weitong and Simon so that Simon would advocate for having the child. What’s more important in this story was that Weitong’s father decided to pretend to be fooled by the rest of family. Because, at that time still, homosexuality is not a thing to be tagged with a decent family. It is better this way. Parents secretly understood and even supported the gay couple, in return the gay couple would still have a child. And homosexuality would not put some “shame” (sorry, I am saying this) to the family. The honor and decency of this family is protected. Moreover, everyone’s happiness’s satisfied to the most extent. So in a nutshell, in the Culture C, parents’ happiness has been secured by the baby and the honor of the family, which has not been “disdained” by homosexuality. And the gay couple could continue their happy life and even a better life with the secret support from parents. It is a happy ending indeed.

Combination of cultures are nothing new. For hundreds and thousands of years, different cultures have been interweaving with one and another. Forces played on one and another lead to changes. No culture can be isolated. Every one of them is full of dynamic energy, forming, shaping and reforming. So migrants are the pioneers in these processes. In the process, they might suffer from the inevitable pain in cultural integration. However, as time goes by, they are the ones who have done the most to bring mankind together.

在伦敦的夏天收获了许多：看遍了大英博物馆中的罗马展，认真一字一行看完了每一个展品的介绍，还给朱磊老师写了一篇论文；重读一遍《了不起的盖茨比》，满怀期待的去参加人生中第一场浸入式戏剧，享受同演员们一同推动剧情，重新爱上自己最喜爱的小说；误打误撞走入sing-along的电影场，与其他喜爱同一部音乐电影的爱丁堡人一起举声合唱”This is Me”......这些都很可贵，不过不不不，这些也都算不上什么，真正触动我的，还是伦敦认识的每一位带着自己故事来改变世界的人，有humble出身，但凭自己努力成为女权斗士的Doris；有思想独立而前沿，高冷而充满idea的歆熊同学；还有19岁研读《资本论》，致力于团结英国华人，考自己努力改变世界的巧瑜姐姐....我想感谢的人太多，他们可以是街边舞蹈的艺术家，可以是只需要我读一遍中文名就认出我的名字的票务小哥，还是可以是地铁上让我先行的礼貌乞丐......感动太多，触动心灵的最深处。