GuaSha Treatment

My Views of the Movie GuaSha Treatment

After watching the movie GuaSha Treatment, I was deeply touched by the subtila and depth of the director. The film shows many minor matters but reflects a deep theme about the collision of culture in Chinese and American. The film mainly represents the American life of Datong Xu, a designer of computer games. Chinese traditional GuaSha treatment could not be understood in America, and caused a great uproar. Then the American dream of Datong was broken up. It seems a misunderstanding, a legal dispute on the surface, but in fact the film represents the collision and conflict caused by two different cultures.

1. Is it illegal to leave children under the age of eight stay alone at home?

I think it is the core of the whole event. If there is not the rule in America, then a series of events will not happen. Datong will not come back in a hurry, and he will not spread his uneasy emotion to his child, then the child will not fall over himself in darkness, without the subsequent events. The Americans respect human rights, and consider it is a scorn and crime to leave children without the ability to take care of them stay at home. But we all know, it is different for every child’s intelligence and ability. So rigid rules are not practical. However, the Americans suppose it is the best and most safe way. We cannot use the excuse to interfere many areas of our lives by laws, which violate the most basic freedom spirit of American. In China, it is not too serious to violate the law to leave children alone stay at home. But Chinese will think the parents are not qualified to do so dangerous thing.

2. Is GuaSha treatment a abuse to people?

In fact, this is because the ways of thinking in east and west are different. Chinese emphasize general consciousness, they don’t like accurate and rigorous way of thinking. Traditional Chinese medical science has existed thousands of years, and it can cure many disease, it’s

very reasonable in China. But many westerns cannot accept it. It is very difficult for them to accept that GuaSha treatment is a way to cure disease. People will consider the trace after GuaSha treatment as damage of bodies. Then differences emerged in the film, the grandpa wanted to treat disease for the child, but it is considered as child abuse. It is illegal for GuaSha treatment in America.

3. Different attitudes toward family in eastern and western

In China, family is the basic unit and the carrier of the cultural development. It is closely related to the formation of caring about each other and mutual dependence of Chinese. Family relations are the important content of Chinese traditional culture. It is the thing of perfectly justified to be filial to your parents in China. This is the reason that Datong was willing to admit he did GuaSha treatment for his son instead of his father.

4. Is it reasonable to protect adult when pregnant woman is dystocia? People will face the choice which is to protect the adult or to protect the children when pregnant woman is dystocia. General speaking, people will want to protect the adult. It can be reflected by the words said by the hero, namely, where there is life, there is hope. But American think it is to kill the life and not give children the chance to live. It is so different views in eastern and western.

5. Is it respectful for others to discipline children?

In Americans’ eyes, it is too absurd to beat children in order to respect them. The different background of living will produce different ways of thinking. In China, parents always beat their children if children are wrong, and parents think it is reasonable to beat their children. But in America, it is a serious thing to beat children. Only judges have the right to judge that beating children is to discipline or maltreat to children. It is because American people attach importance to human rights.

6. The spreading of Chinese culture in west

Chinese people are very familiar with western culture, while westerns are not familiar with Chinese culture. The gulf between the Chinese culture in west and the western culture in China is vast. Monkey King is still not widely known in the west. Westerns only know the name of Monkey King, but knows a little of his stories, so they cannot know about him overall, even make some misunderstanding sometimes. In the film, the lawyer picked out some paragraphs to show the Monkey King was an evil monkey.

With the development of society and culture, the communication between American and Chinese is growing. Both American and Chinese people are trying to identify each cultural difference. We will understand ourselves and others to speed up the blending of two cultures by communication and reception. It also can make a Chinese American really blend into the mainstream culture of America.