To Be An American
Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet depicts a Taiwanese man crossing cultural boundaries. He is caught between his parent's traditional belief system and his own experience as an Asian-American man. The movie shows the struggle Wai-Tung undergoes to deal with his life as an assimilated man and the life that his parents in Taiwan have planned for him. This is a situation that many people who come to America have to deal with when trying to fit in. They try hard to retain some of their old cultural values and practices while also trying not to alienate themselves from the new world that they live in. The film illustrates that in order to become fully a part of American culture, one cannot retain all of his or her cultural values and practices. Immigrants must adopt the ways of the new world that they live in. This is true, but by giving up their cultural values to become part of American culture, immigrants realize that the cost to family life and to self outweigh the benefits of assimilation. In the movie, an example of Wai-Tung's assimilation into American culture is that he is in an intimate, interracial relationship. This is the equivalent of intermarriage in heterosexual relationships, which is a key i
For Jewish youth as well, adopting American practices created tension between them and their parents. For example, "when Dora W. took a job requiring her to work on the Sabbath, she recalled, 'My father did not speak to me for one whole year!'"(Weinberg 116). This shows that it is nearly impossible to retain your native beliefs when the new culture does not value the same things that your indigenous culture valued. ndication of assimilation (e.g., Hwang and Saenz 1). Taiwan is a virtually homogenous Another culture marker that Wai-Tung has chosen not to partake in is the traditional wedding. In Asian society, the way one is seen by other members of the community is very important. Wai-Tung chooses not to care what people think about him, which goes back to the idea of American individualism versus the Asian idea of community. By not going along with the wedding ceremony, Wai-Tung's parents are hurt and he too feels bad. So eventually he gives in to the wedding banquet to remedy the problems that he has caused. Jacoby, Tamar. "In Asian America." Commentary 110. Jul/Aug 2000: 21-28.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1433
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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