In group today, my group discussed chapter 4 of East Main Street, and I felt it had a great deal to do with the film. The film was largely about how race and gender fit into the every day lives of people, as well as a great deal of amazing food. And, naturally, sexuality. It’s why it was such an excellent correlation to the reading, which was all about these things, as well as many others. The over sexualization of Padma Lakshmi is a good example of this, but also an antithesis of sorts. While the movie was very genuine, Padma was very staged. She had difficulty in the kitchen with comedic laughter in the background, most ingredients or spices were pre-measured, and most of her fanbase were largely horny men, with no one really interested in the cooking. From the sounds of it the entire thing was very fake – it lacked in anything truly cultural.

The Wedding Banquet, on the other hand, was really refreshing to see. While it was full of standard traditions, it also had a good balance. It was life for Chinese people in America, as well as their families back home, without explicitly being about these things. There was no struggle with race or ethnicity, or any real judgment outside of the typical family judgment. It was about a man, his gay lover, his very traditional parents, and a woman willing to do a number of things in order to get a green card.

I wouldn’t say that the film had a happy ending, because it didn’t. The ending was a relief for all involved I think, but to say that it was happy is overlooking a great deal. Even as she was leaving, Wai Tung’s mother did not accept him, thinking right until her several minutes on the screen that it might ¨be a phase¨ or that she ¨went wrong¨ in raising him. His father was considerably more accepting, even if he didn’t actually want his son to be aware of that fact. It was a wonderful fusion of tradition and modern struggle.

On different note, does anyone know if there was some symbolism about red in the movie? At least two of Wei Wei’s dresses at the start of the film were red if I recall correctly, and all the gifts she was given by Wai Tung’s family were red as well. I wasn’t sure if that was correlation/director’s choice or tradition.

During this mornings seminar, I came away thinking about the word “resistance”. Typically when I think about resistance in music, I think about folk songs and protest songs over the years, but I guess I never really thought of lyrical resistance against stereotyping and cultural identities. Exploring Cibo Matto will obviously bring this notion to the forefront as they are a group who are constantly defying stereotypes. They are a group who exist on the fringe, not really fitting into any category. You have two women who are venturing into hip-hop and utilizing technology as their instrument – already you’re breaking boundaries. They defy the notions of stereotypes typically associated with the words female, Asian, Japanese, hip-hop and others, creating a sound and voice unique to themselves. Because of this resistance,  Cibo Matto give us a reason to celebrate how things in society have changed in the past 40 years or so, and I think help us embrace new points of view as well.

In the Wedding Banquet, Wei-Wei is a woman who is a product of her time – independent, artistic, and open minded. There is a scene between Wei Wei and Mrs. Gao later on in the film in which Mrs. Gao comments on how older women sometimes grow envious of younger generations because of that independence and spirit, which speaks volumes about the differences between generations and the times we live in. Wei Wei is definitely a form of resistance against the traditional gender roles and routes women have taken in the past. It is Wei Wei who makes the choice to keep her baby, and I love how she embraces Wai-Tung and Simon’s relationship (another form of resistance) and asks them to the be the fathers of her children.The shot of the three of them together as they watch the Gaos leave is touching and almost marks the new family as the new nuclear family – one that embraces new ideals and individualism.