The Chinese and Western Cultural Conflicts and Blending in Guasha

劉洋

1. The Introduction to Film Guasha

The story takes place in St. Louis， Missouri， USA. The Chinese Datong and Ken have moved to the United States for 8 years， and finally realized their American dream. They have a happy family， a lovely child and enviable social status .Datong is a game designer online， and has made certain achievements. In the annual industry awards ceremony Datong is excited to tell people that he loves America and his American dream has come true. But finally Datong was roused from dream after an accident .His five-year-old son Dennis has a stomachache， the grandfather who is at home does not understand the English instructions on the bottle of drugs， so he uses the Chinese traditional folklore “scraping therapy” treatment to her grandchildren. But later Dennis accidentally hurts his forehead with the blood bleeding， In the process of treatment the medical personnel find the ministry of scratches on the childs back， which is thought to be caused by domestic violence abuse .The couple then are not allowed to take their child home and the child is handed over to the orphanage to take care of.

2. The Conflicts Reflected in Guasha.

2.1 Guasha in America

Scraping， the Chinese traditional therapy， which is very common in China has caused so much conflict and disaster in the United States， because it can not be told clearly.Denniss scratches on his back are naturally viewed as the evidence of child abuse. No matter how Datong explain it in English and Chinese， he can not make the Americans understand what scraping is. The author think that film “scraping” is telling the embarrassing and frustrating situation of Chinese culture in the United States due to not understanding and recognition rather than telling the family experience of Datong Xu in America. In the film Datong is requested by the judge to find an official doctor to illustrate the scraping with the English words which are concise and can be understood by the old judge. But just as the defense lawyer of Datong said， there are no records of scraping at all in any American medical textbooks. It is unscientific， and no one will testify to that.

2.2 The Chinese Emotion and American Law

The Chinese viewers who have watched the film are all moved by the thick love between father and son， husband and wife， grandfather and grandson .Datong replacing his father admits that it is he who has done scraping to the child without hesitation. Datong steals his son to the airport from the welfare home to meet with the grandfather who is about to go back to China and on Christmas Eve in order to get together with his family Datong climbs a water pipe on the ninth floor with risking being arrested .All of these can reflect that Chinese people attach great importance to family. The Chinese audiences are all moved to tears， but Datongs behavior is not allowed in the American law. Living in a society which only emphasize on law， although Datong loves his son very much， he can not hand out evidence to prove that Guasha is a traditional Chinese therapy. No matter how he uses words to express his love to the son， it can not move the judge， because the law only requires evidence.The United States is a legal system country with laws existing in every corner， and every kind of disputes are resolved through legal channels， .They value the fact and evidence most . In the end Datong is sentenced to isolate with his son， which seems to lack human touch， but from the view of law， the judgment of the Court is correct. Only the majority Chinese audiences can not accept absolutely. They still stand on the side of Datong from emotion， although Datong is illegal.

2.3 Face or Tort？

In the film when Datongs son and the son of the boss have a dispute， Datong just asks his son to apologize to Paul without asking the reason. After his son refuses the apology， Datong just gives a slap on the face of his son .Because in Datongs view， this is just the best way to give his boss face who just does not agree with him and says it is incomprehensible Chinese-style logic. For Americans who emphasize on free individual action and human-centered philosophy they can not understand the Chinese concept of face .In their eyes hitting the child is shameful behavior of the parents and it is even illegal. Because it has violated the personal rights of children and old doctrine of the equality.

3. Conclusion

In this paper， I have described the conflicts between Chinese and Western culture with Guasha as the starting point. The conflicts involve the medicine aspect-scraping， the Chinese emotion and American law， the different view on the Chinese concept “face” as well as the different thinking ways .Although the conflicts are inevitable we should also know the different cultures now tend to blend. Maybe the process from conflicts to blending is not so easy but we should respect the alien cultures and try to understand each other.

References：

[1]黃鳴.從電影《刮痧》看中西文化沖突與融合[D].綿陽師范.