Sunday, July 1, 2012

Rudyard Kipling's "If"

I keep a booklet of poems that I carry from time to time,
verses of inspiration, words of ignitement and intelligence of the famous poets that once existed.
It makes me feel that I carry a piece of their mind with me,
an act I assume, subconciously responding to the saying
" Great minds think alike"
(although, I was reminded this year that
 " Dumb minds also think alike " OS: but of course that does not prone me to filter nor aloof from dumb or narcissismic people because this enhances your awareness, a reminder to distinguish the difference between both)




one of my favorite, among all poems, is Rudyard Kipling's " If "
I went through this poem again today, with a recently incident coming to mind...
There are noble pursuits in life, fighting for a living is only a necessity, the basic of basics of human needs.


It's the good cause that you transfer out of the outcomes of necessity, that turns into greatness,
and that takes a man's belief and conviction...
A man without belief, faith and conviction, goes without direction in "time and tide", a substance that is said to wait for no men. Hence, Money, Romantic love, Fame came be taken away anytime.
only Conviction stays unwaverly.


So of course, fighting for a conviction to turn into reality is not as easy a job as fighting for merely an earning to satisfy humanly desires. Fighting takes aquaintance of conflict, it takes blood to shed truth, but truth stays firm once light is revealed. I salute to those that are fighting right now, admist slander and accusation, I belive in Gods righteous and justice, and time will give it's answer.
Since there is only one truth in life.


If - by Rudyard Kipling


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken


Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose,
and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;


If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run
- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Joy Luck Club


 In the stride of Globalization, amidst the tide of cosmopolitanization. Acculturation and Enculturation has become non unfamiliar, but actually a necessity, a social phenomenon that is slowly penetrating the present state of social communication structure, in terms of business communication, social education, nonetheless- the family relationship. In this film, The Joy Luck Club, based on the novel by Amy Tan. The author uses her personal experience as the keel of the storyline, giving life to the characters and plot of the scene, vividly interpreting the lives of a pioneer generation of Chinese immigrants and their second generation. Here their second generations, children that have never had a glance of their home China, but nourished with American milk and school books after their birth, have no sense of Chinese culture. Thus after their detachment from the mother bodies umbilical cord, the only infiltration of cultural blood in their heritage, comes only from their mom. Although these Chinese Asian American girls conflict with their mothers up-bring, even after they have matured as mothers of their own children, this continuous strangle of conflict still remains.... Culture itself, is a continuous development and state of learning, understanding the culture schema will take a lifelong learning process. A process that never stops, till the day we depart from this world. And till that day, the world will keep coming to us, therefore there is no stopping in cultural learning and acculturation.

  This novel written in 1989, following the movie in 1993, was a phenomenon, since it was an era of immigration, and immigration was only beginning to prosper due to the reviving economics of the United States. But until today, after, with evidence to Amy Chou’s “Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mom” (published in 2011), a confession of Chua, as an autobiographic way of illustrating her  experiences and efforts of applying what she describes as a traditional, strict “Chinese” upbringing educating her own girls. 

  Personally,  I enjoyed Amy Chou's novel very much, due to it's  bald honesty and truthfulness,
and how she vividly displays her mind-set, while some still traditional Chinese parents, feel guilt of confessing of.


      

In the joy luck club, the plot focuses on 4 sets of family, each of the  Chinese mothers come from a tragic past in China. Suyuan Wu a refugee from the Japanese invasion in China, is forced to leave behind her twin babies in China, after escaping to the USA, she lives in uncertainty of unknowing the babies dealth or well-being. Lindo Jong, a women that has married at an young age to an unmature man, by the words of a matchmaker, determined to escape this unfortunate situation, managed a clever plan releasing herself from this marriage, later fledding to America. Ying-Ying, one of the four women, marries a charismatic man named Lin Xiao at an young age, just to find out her husband is revealed to be a womanizer and has an abusive characteristic. In an extreme mental state, she accidentally drown her baby, and is heart-broken. In anguish she leaves the country later marrying another man in America. These 4 women all finding hope in this new destination, leaving their past behind. Opening the psychological effects of the a person’s Johari window, we learned that when a person finds hope in a whole new country or environment. Entering a new country makes the self- healing process begin, allowing those hidden parts and Open parts rearrange. Thus later, these four women created “the Joy Luck Club ”, which is a act of triumph and rejoice, celebrating their bondage of rebirth in this new country.     


We see these four independent women, and their daughters going through the process of acculturation and enculturation, facing conflict in Values and attitudes . As Jandt,F.E (2004) has said, No immigration, as long as livelihood needs are to be met in a new country, can escape acculturation.

“Acculturation has four dimensions: integration, Separation, assimilation and deculturation. When a minority moves into a majority culture, he or she will chose one of these modes either consciously or subconsciously”

  Though the movie has not illustrated too much personal inner-depth-voices of the mother’s philosophy and life reflections. In the novel, Lindo confesses of regret over losing some of her Chinese identity by living so long in America (she is treated like a tourist on a visit to China), as evidence to integration ; however, she expresses concern that Waverly's American upbringing has formed a barrier between them, destruction the mother-daughter relationship. Revealing how an Integration and assimilation acculturation can conflict in communication.


These mother bring forth their old fashion values from China, yet their daughters, enculturated in the western surroundings, possess American souls and mindsets inside. Thus the conflict in communication cannot be avoided, simulating the mode of intercultural communication. Since culture is a code we learn and share, and learning and sharing requires communication, Alfred G Smith (1966) says, this conflict is inevitable for relationship development in intimate family relationships.

  There are several traces in the movie, where we can see the mother’s evidence of integration in forming acculturation, such as one scene where

An-Mei Hsu questions her daughter about buying grocery:

An-Mei: Who’s coming to dinner?

Daughter (Rose): well, Ted is coming over, we’re having sort of a meeting…

An-Mei Hsu: meeting? Flour, egg, bitter sweet Hersey bar, Skippy chunky,

Sounds like Chocolate peanut butter pie!

An-Mei is integrated in western logic of cuisines, and knows that a chocolate peanut butter pie is not linked to a meeting taboo dish, but something more..



Although acculturation increases the interconnectedness of cultures, differences are sources of potential problems (Chaney L.H, Martin ,2007) Harvey (1985) said that Family and personal issues can be disruptive to acculturation. In the Joy Luck Club however, we can see the opposite, how acculturation affects and disrupts the mother-daughter relationship. Since the childhood of their daughters, Suyuan Wu and Lindo Jong, though good friend, compete on their daughters behalf, turning June and Waverly into childhood rivals, the 2 women each consider their daughter June (daughter of Suyan Wu) & Waverly (Daughter of Lindo) as being more superior than the other in their talents, Therefore, dominantly forcing traditional, strict child-rearing on their daughters. But unlike traditional Chinese children who are obedient in everything the parents say. June who decides not to take up piano playing anymore after an embarrassing recital scene, is forced by her mother physically to sit in front of the piano to practice again, leading to her explode of rebel. Here June expresses her individualistic statement of feeling and choice. We see the western individualism spirit in her words of rebel, as oppose to her mother’s traditional collectivism notion, that “only an obedient daughter stays under this roof”.

The same situation of how acculturation disrupts the mother-daughter relationship, in terms of education, happens also in Lindo Jong’s household. Her daughter Waverly is a gifted child chess champion.

After a champion quest, Waverly’s photo is featured on the cover of Life magazine. Feeling proud of her daughter, Lindo holds the magazine high upon her chest and tells everyone she meets on the street that, her daughter is the covergirl, Waverly is embarrassed as she walks by her mother’s side. Annoyed at her mother’s action, Waverly angrily fights back, expressing how she doesn’t like her mother using her accomplishments to show off. Her mother assumes her daughter is ashamed of her. They have a fight on the street, where later when Waverly comes home , her mother does not say much and remains silent against her fight in a high-context communication.  

There are distinctive cultural differences in the eastern and western component. Western cultures such as Americans mostly communicate in a more low-context dialogue, while Asians especially the Chinese communicate in a high-context communication. Such as a period of silence, not revealing their thoughts, allowing imagination and assumption of the counterpart, thus leaving space for conflict in the process of encoding and decoding messages.

A similar scene of conflict in encoding and decoding messages happens when Waverly has casually promises her mother a trip to the beauty parlor before Waverly’s wedding, while her mother possessing a traditional value of keeping a great extent of respect to a promise made with their mothers, thinks Waverly would remember the trip to the beauty parlor:

Mother(Lindo)(picks up the phone):
   Waverly! You at the beauty parlor already?

Waverly: No Ma. I have a headache.

    Mother: So you can’t keep promise to your own mother?

So you don’t want to go? …


 Her mother encodes the message with her own assumptions, analyzing it in a Chinese logic of value, to value their elders words. While Waverly’s statement of “No Ma, I have a headache” may mean:”So I didn’t remember our date” or “So I’ll be late for the parlor. ” Her mother interprets it into the meaning that her daughter is not going with her, or that she is breaking the promise they made.

There are two plots in the movie, covering the issue of cross-culture marriage. One is the American-Chinese marriage of Waverly and Rich. The dinner scene of Rich coming over to Waverly’s Chinese household for the first time, illustrates the dinning matters between both cultures, differences that if not minded causes impoliteness, such as do not take too much food from the same dish, when everyone has not had their first helping. But Rich does not realize he is conflicting with the cultural invisible rules, and takes an abundant amount for himself. In the western way, it may be a bold way of expressing ”I like this food. ”but it is embarrassing and impolite for Waverly and Waverly’s mother (Lindo). So Lindo sarcastically says to Waverly “He has good appetite”, which is a multilevel message expressed in a high context dialogue, meaning “Rich is healthy, and can eat a lot”(in the Chinese concept), but also ostensibly describing his behavior of helping himself to too much.   

Lindo’s Xenophobic characteristic towards Rich, inclination of an Asian parent to do so, can be seen in scenes such as when Waverly confesses how she married a Chinese guy just to please her mother, though later ending in divorce. And in the scene where she shows Lindo the fur coat gift Rich has given to her as a gift. Lindo harshly criticizes the gift, saying how the gift does not fit to be the best for her, reflection how Lindo wants the best for her daughter, but also slight evidence of xenophobicism towards this white son-in-law.

In Rose and Ted’s case, Rose falls in love with Ted, an American that withholds a prestige social status. Rose meets Ted’s parents for the first time, and has a not so friendly conversation with Ted’s mother, she nurses a racism towards Rose when she tells Rose that she will not be accepted by their families status acquaintances, and describes in stereotype towards Rose how “Vietnam was not so popular”.

In comparison of these two mother-in-laws we can see Ted’s mother, an American, being more aggressive and communicating directly in the low-context style. While Lindo, Waverly’s mother, is more implicit towards expressing towards Rich her true feeling (High context communication), and holding the Chinese concept of “Face” does not want to embarrass Rich in front of the table. Leaving Rich unaware of his mother-in-laws true feelings.

  Cultural synergy is the future competence of enterprises in terms of expanding, therefore, nourishing a more alert sense to culture, and willingness to adjust one’s cultural schema is inevitable. Learning to analyzing different situations of cultural communication,  can later be applied to analyzing organization behaviors. Cultural learning is a not just a scholarly humanistic subject, it's a soft skill competence that can be nourished and applied to Human resource managing.




Monday, April 30, 2012

Last day of April

The reason why April makes the heart grow fonder :)





The Uniqueness of men
- the superiority of men in the world of animals-
lies not in his ability to percieve ideas, but to percieve that he percieves, and to transfer his perceptions to others minds through words

                   - Albert Einstein

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Once in a dream...


Once in the dream of a night I stood..
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
... In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
- Sarojini Naidu


讓詩的榮耀歸於祢

因祢以恩典為年歲冠冕,祢的路徑滴滿脂油,滴在曠野的草場上,小山也歡呼歌唱






Monday, April 9, 2012

The lady 電影翁山蘇姬影評- The most honest love, is nothing else, but the act of sacrifice for others




自由! 它如同空氣一般有它存在的必要。

民主,更是自由的基石。

當我們有了民主的律法,人便得了自由...。


生在具有健全民主體制的國家中,是多麼幸福的一件事。
然而,身為後輩的我們 ,常常忘記這樣的幸福,甚至,視它為所當
然,忘了這曾是多少人犧牲而換取來的。(溯及更早,建立中華民國
是多少革命先烈拋頭顱灑熱血)以至於我們今天,可以隨己之欲,在投
票日那張空白的選票上,張上蓋上一只紅色戳章 !
 別小看我們的這一小小舉動,那曾是祖先多麼辛苦,所跨出的一大步
,票張上那只小小鮮紅的印記,就如同阿姆
斯壯登陸月球,在月球上所留下的腳印一般。
而多少人,卻身在福中不知福,糟蹋這樣一個難能可貴的的權益,漠視
投票日,無論是過於自我中心地過生活也好,或似政治與我如浮雲的情
節也好。今日的台灣,許多人默許雇主霸菱自己的投票權,在投票日加
班,這其實已經違反勞基法:

"若當日原屬於正常工作日,對於具有投票權之勞工應該給假,以便於勞工
行使憲法賦予的投票權,並應依照勞動基準法第39條之規定當日工資仍應
照給。另外,雇主如因業務需要,在不妨礙勞工投票情形下,可徵得勞工
同意於投票日工作,惟應就勞工回戶籍地投票路程遠近給予合理時間使勞
工往返投票,並依法加給一日工資。"

我們都該站出來捍衛自己被賦予的這項公民權益,不只是為了自己的國家
,巨觀來看,猶如蝴蝶效應,是為了世界的經濟與律動。

說的這一切,看似與本片影評沒有關係,卻是這部點影,所要傳達的核心
訊息:

"Use your freedom to promote others"
在你能享受到民主權益時,請珍惜,並用這樣的力量去影響世界,甚至,
更進一步地,為那些尚未有民主的國家發聲。

片中,翁山蘇姬說了一句父親告訴她的話語:
 "You may not think of politics, but politics thinks of you"
你也許未曾想過政治,但政治與你形影不離。

政治所影響的生活層面重要性不言而喻,它可以影響我們每日上市場買
的材米油鹽價格,甚至可以動搖一個安穩的工作。

從各國的歷史都可以看見這樣一個披荊斬棘的時間軸革命。
而現在,正是緬甸爭取自由的時刻!

片中,翁山蘇姬在眾心拱月之下,決心替自己緬甸的同胞,爭取民主,
參選投票,雖然以壓倒性高票當選,卻被集權的政治勢力軟禁在家,
人身迫害。然而,在上帝的恩膏披澤之下,這世界還是有正義的。

翁山蘇姬在囚禁第二年時,榮獲世界諾貝爾和平獎,此舉不單只是表揚他
為民主奮鬥的精神,更是為了要引起世界各地的人們關注,評理。

許多台灣的政治人物,藉此片發聲, 的確!
它是一個千真萬實的政治故事
我卻視這片為一部確切真實的浪漫愛情片。

總是,我們在愛情裡,予取予求,久了,不曉得給予,更晃論了解什麼是
犧牲。犧牲,是捨己,因為心中有愛。犧牲,是由愛所生的一個付出的行
動。

而"The Lady"裡的犧牲,更勝(聖)於達尼電影中,傑克為了換取
羅絲的性命,所做的犧牲。

這犧牲,是因為彼此太相愛,兩人為了共同遠景,願意付上在人肉分
離的代價,獨自嘗盡三秋的相思悲愁。因為兩個人都相信,終有一日,
這樣的愛可以成全共同對於緬甸這塊土地期望的實現。

這樣忠貞不渝的愛情在世界上罕見,卻是最浪漫的故事。

The most honest love, is nothing else, but the act of sacrifice for others

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Descendents--Another kind of descendent- the inheritance of loss

                                         (Hibiscus flower- drawn with Anna Sui eyeliner, Jill Stuart pink blush, Majolica brown eye shadow  )


How many times in life, have we ever appalled in regret
 -"you never know what you've got until it's gone"
the 2012 Oscar winnng best screenplay film  the descendents  shows a dawning light at the end of the tunnel, that loss itself does not  leave you merely with grief, but a chance to fix something else important that had been long neglected in the rough.- Diane Jollique wang


片頭一剛開始,朵朵扶桑花隨著片名的出現盛開在螢光幕上

極為搶眼    我心想

彷彿像是視覺的時光空間梭,載我們到夏威夷的小島omaha上,隨著男主角麥特

金妻子沐浴在島嶼的豔陽下,迎風馳乘在極速快艇之上,享受迎面的微風。

殊不知,場景緊接著轉到醫院病房中,帶著眼鏡依然忙碌的律師男主角,坐在

醫院病榻床尾,憂心地看著出意外昏迷中的妻子,心中暗自呼喚

,求她睜開眼睛...。

麥特金是一名夏威夷註冊執業律師,祖先因為與當地的夏威夷原住民結為連

理,而繼承了一大塊夏威夷Kaua'i島的土地,然而眼看土地契約七年之內將到

期,家族其他成員覬覦土地變賣後的巨額利潤,正討論和唯一具有合法繼承

人身分的麥特金,商討將土地賣給開發商。


等待妻子從昏迷中甦醒的這段時間,讓麥特金毅然然同意將繼承的土地賣掉

,辭掉律師工作,準備開始將重心放在家庭上,還計畫帶妻子遠赴法國,

買一棟別墅,共享夫妻生活。

而在妻子住院的這段期間,平時沒時間陪孩子的他,開始身兼奶爸的工作

,卻在這時發現,孩子的人生早已出現嚴重的問題,老么姓個偏差,作風

古怪,是師長關切的問題學生。老大在寄宿學校,自我墮落,沉迷於渾沌放縱

的生活中。

而在醫生告訴他妻子回天乏術,必須中斷生命供給系統的晴天霹靂消息之

後,女兒透露母親紅杏出牆的外遇消息,更像是雙重打擊在身。

然而,男主角即便心如刀割,在女兒面前卻是表現萬般堅強與理性,

當他跑到朋友家打聽外遇對象消息時,單獨一個人走在回程的鄉間小道上

,停下來背對鏡頭掩面低泣,為的是不給孩子們看見。

與片尾,當他與妻子最後一次對晤時,向妻子說出他對她的愛時,毫無

遮掩放縱地潸然淚下,兩種不同情境,不同的心情。


任我不覺地由衷傾慕敬佩George Clooney的詮釋,相較於其他Clooney的作品

,這部徹底表現了他淋漓卓越的演技。

相較於他自自導自演的2008片子Leatherhead 中的演技,他的內心戲真的愈

來愈精湛,觸人心弦,引起我心極大共鳴,如同片中場景的背景烏克麗麗音樂

般,樸質,卻真誠地表現一種無矯揉的真誠情觸。

當男主角發現,妻子的外遇對象,是準備承接購買的客戶開發商,受到這一

連串的事件影響,他終於頓悟了。

這片土地是原是夏威夷的天然資產,他們這些繼承的子孫,沒做什麼,卻白

白得到這樣一塊土地,現在卻因為談圖錢財私慾,要將這美麗原始風貌的一

塊處女地,賣給開發商。

麥特金最終拒絕簽字,等著七年後,這塊土地歸還給夏威夷政府保育。

我喜歡片尾的結束方式,麥特金窩在沙發上,陪小女兒看電視教育節目"企鵝

的進行曲"你一口,我一口地,分享著一桶冰淇淋,甚至,

連青春期叛逆的大女兒,也悄悄走來客廳,掀起匹在兩人身上的毯子,窩在一

塊兒,三人你一口我一口的享受一桶冰淇淋,也享受遲來的天倫之樂。

沒有在比導演Alexander Payne,平實卻令人露出溫暖微笑的收尾方式更棒

的結局了。

這部影片讓我哭了,我不曉得大部分的人是否也像我如此。

然而這部小品精彩,就在於它劇情真實,生活化。即便反覆嚴肅感人的內

心戲不斷, 觸人流淚後,卻又馬上地,出現不失詼諧幽默的片段,讓人

流淚後馬上破啼大笑。


強力推薦這部戲。




走出戲院,記得,多愛身旁的家人一些。

我想,這是Alexander Payne想要藉由這部電影,告訴大家這樣的信息 : )


via La times