violence
The movie Begins in Beijing during China's Communist era. The focus on the lives of the opera singers displayed the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, the strict traditions and the new beliefs and ways of the most recent government revolution. The picture first shows the opera singers in modern time, reuniting in 1977. The film follows the two stars over a period of fifty years. Their names are Chang Dieyl, and Duan Xiaolou. They are in full costume of their characters in the play and they are discussing their past. The history of the drama is presented by flashback of the singers when they are being trained harshly to become actors. Their childhood reveled the brutal treatment of woman and children and how tough life was for one to become successful. Many things that were learned in class were prevalent in the movie. The play within the movie was even focused on Filial Piety, or the wishes of the families interest before the interest of the children. The play also displayed the dedication and loyalty to the emperor by the suicide of the concubine for him. There was a great respect for elders in which all the children excepted beatings if they made a mistake. The teachers of the acting school p
unished the children and made them disciplined by torture. The kids were taught to be independent and talented in their art. Even when the opera singers grew up they excepted lashes from their elderly teacher, Master Guan. The role of woman as we learned in class was that they were inferior to men. Females were valued for their work and the children that they would bare. The movie demonstrated this role precisely because most of the women were whores. Juxalin, a former prostitute, got married to Ziaolou and she was valued when she became pregnant. The respect for ancestors was in the movies plot because tradition in old ways were valued. The correct amount of steps that an actor took on stage was even important to maintain tradition. It was more important to Dieyl because he was an example of the goal of communism in China's old ways. He believed in tradition and conservatism. On the other hand, Xiaolou represented the new China. His life was about the new era or change, by him going in the opposite direction of Dieyl. When Xiaolou got married, he became involved in new ideas and supported the several ways of the Chinese government. Pictures of Mao Zedong were present in every Chinese house in the movie, as we had learned in class. As an American, a few things in the movie despite the time seemed foreign to me. The Peking Opera was a very big deal to the people in China. The play was an important part of China's history and it seemed, as everyone was interested. Even the Japanese enjoyed the arts of China. It was unusual to me that the actors had to maintain their roles even when not on stage. Another aspect seeming foreign was the children being beaten a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Peking Opera, Master Guan, Zedong Chinese, Cultural Revolution, Filial Piety, Duan Xiaolou, China Juxian, Markets China, China's Communist, Communist China, opera singers, learned class, acting school, women whores, lives opera singers, believed tradition, lives opera, peking opera, cultural revolution, xiaolou married, dieyl actually,
Approximate Word count = 1134
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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