Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman

1. In the film, what are the old relationships, and what are the new relationships? Make sure you give examples. How do the old Confucian values of the proper relationships conflict with the new Western values? Make sure you give examples. (250 words minimum, 50 points possible.)

The Chinese film, which was produced and aired in 1994, is a comedy-drama Taiwanese movie starring Sihung, Yu-wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu, and Kuei-mei Yang. The relationship is one of the fundamental aspects of the films because it elaborates on the relationship between a Chinese master chef and his three daughters. The old relationship is characterized by its incorporation with Confucian values, whereas the new relationships examined in the movie are in line with the western culture. Mr Chu’s firstborn, Jia-Chien, a school teacher, is used to illustrate the difference between old relationships and new relationships as in her past relationship, she is heartbroken by Li Kai that made her give the world the cold shoulder (Hu, 132). Jia-Jen fabricated the story later in the movie to develop a barrier against intimacy, her family included. To illustrate the new relationship, Jia-Jen decides to get married after nine years of abstinence but does not consider the underlying value of the Confucius as her new boyfriend is not a Christian even though Jia-Jen says he will be converted.

Confucius’s values of relationships explain that a person who respects and honours Li leads a perfect relationship. It emphasizes on social and family hierarchy such as the relationship between parents and the child, as illustrated in the film, Jia-Chien demonstrates these values because apart from taking the role of cooking, which manifests the several reasons that bind a family by establishing a mother at the centre of it all (Weaver, 83). This is contradictory to the western values and beliefs that emphasize the widespread utilization of rational argument supporting free thoughts, and democracy. Its value differs from the unity value held in the Eastern culture as Jia-Chien assumes her father’s role trying to stand in the place left by her mother as well as trying to be the son Mr.Chu never had.

1. How does food play a role in the film? Why do all the major announcements occur around the family table? Compare the way of eating and serving, as shown in the movie with the way of eating and serving in America. (100 words minimum, 25 points possible.)

Food plays a critical role in the film, apart from the fact that Mr.Chu’s profession mainly involved food. Also, the western and the eastern have different values and norms towards food and its serving. In the film, Mr.Chu often prepares a glorious banquet every Sunday for his daughters, even though the family forum or the dinner table is not for peaceful family time as presumed in American serving and eating tradition (Hu, 182). The dinner table acts as a torture chamber, where all the daughters have a chance to raise their announcements as well as advocating for a transition from the traditional style known as the father knows best, to a more advanced form but including the traditional values.

1. If you believed that your ageing mother or father needed you, would you give up a promotion/transfer you had wanted in order to become a caregiver and stay at home for the remainder of your parent’s life? (100 words minimum, 25 points possible.)

Yes. Apart from the fact that I am his or her child and it is the best way of showing appreciation for the tremendous efforts and the uncountable sacrifices our parents put in when raising us, it is also one of the core values of Confucianism. Filial piety is one of the primary values in the culture that fosters the respect of one’s parents as it promotes other values of the tradition, such as humaneness. The value acts as a fundamental bond between a child and a parent because as illustrated by the vital trait of xiao, which shows a young man supporting an older man. The same way the parents looked after me during my infancy and nurtured me, so am I supposed to look after my parents when they have attained old age, and they are vulnerable as my sacrifice to them even after their death.

1. Explain Mr Chu’s character arc as it relates to Confucian Values. It will help you to notice that at the beginning of the film, he is repressed and cannot smell or taste, but he can smell and taste at the end of the film. The Confucian idea of Chun Tzu is important to this arc. (500 words minimum, 100 points possible.)

Mr Chu raised his children individually after his wife died 16 years earlier. Today his daughters are obligated to take care of him even when they have various thoughts of what they want to do about their lives. Tao Chu, a chef and a widower with renowned cooking abilities, lives in a state of perpetual warfare with his three grown-up children (Tarja, 112). He prepares lovely meals for the family’s Sunday dinner every week, only to see his daughters having little appreciation for his efforts. Consequently, his daughters are involved in immoral romances that contradict traditional standards. Still, on the other hand, Mr Chu has his own hidden romantic relationship, which makes the film’s exciting, comedic climax. While Jia-Chen first declares her freedom, she is eventually the one who stays behind in the house after everyone else moves away, including Mr Chu.

The passing of Chu’s childhood friend, Old Wen (Jui Wang), persuades Mr Chu to move on and pursue his desires to live as well as going on living his life before it’s too late. Ms Liang expects Mr Chu to ask her to marry him as she chairs the dinner table as if she were the house’s queen. Instead, Mr. moved to her daughter Jin-Rong (Sylvia Chang) and told the stunned family of his romantic intentions. Although food is a common subject, Eat Drink Man Woman stresses the Chinese idea of food as a social feature, which is fundamental to the creation and preservation of relationships. For a family that is gradually less in common with each other, a weekly dinner is a space to come together, and for Mr Chu to reaffirm his position as head of the household. Tao, who puts all his energy into this cooking routine, which is now empty, has no idea how to communicate with his daughters. “I don’t recognize any of them, and I don’t intend to,” he acknowledges (Hu, 195).

One of the teachings of Confucianism is at the heart of Eat Drink Man Woman: filial piety, the obligation of reverence and affection owed to one’s kin. Exasperation with Tao is not restricted to relatives. He even lacks trust in life itself. His work is no longer accorded the esteem that he received in Taiwan (Weaver, 94). Modern ingredients, as far as he is concerned, are blended into a pure, banal taste. He practically loses his appetite for the food he cooks. As per the Chinese Classic Book of Rituals, the primary instinct of man is to “eat, drink, and have sex “— hence the enigmatic title explained by the Wen and Mr Chu ineffectual. Partnerships in marriage have a meaning for life and can be called one of humanity’s necessities.

In reality, the three adult daughters of Chu, Jia-Ning, Jia-Jen, and Jia-Chien, are vivid reminders of what happens when modernity is stuck in a traditional environment. Unhappy, the three women sometimes call their house a dungeon, and the Sunday meal a “torture.” Nonetheless, Old Chu tries to keep his home going by chairing as many household matters as practicable. In a 2000 interview, Ang Lee states, “The core of morality in the East is’ filial piety,’ fidelity to your community, to your kin as it is from where we and our identity comes from” (Tarja, 145).  Like with several other films by Lee, the tension here resides in the struggle between social responsibility and human desire.

Work Cited

Hu, Lung-Lung. “Food and Law in Ang Lee’s Movie Eat Drink Man Woman–The Semiotic Father at the Chinese Dinner Table.” 2019 meeting of the New England Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Nov 1-2, 2019. 2019. P 128-201

Tarja Laine, ‘Family Matters in Eat Drink Man Woman: Food Envy, Family Longing, or Intercultural Knowledge through the Senses’ in Patricia Pisters and Wim Staat (eds) Shooting the Family: Transnational Media and Intercultural Values, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2005, pp. 103–150

Weaver, Kristin. Gender Inequality as Family Drama in Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman. Diss. 2016. P 67-98