Datong Xu＇s Atypical Midlife Crisis
BY Zhang Chi (2008030418)
_“Where are we going wrong?”
_“I don’t know.”
After so many shouts of anger and despair, Datong Xu uttered these three words ,almost with no emotion. He had kept asking himself the same question since the day Daniel was taken away from him.Obviously ,he didn’t figure out the answer.With all efforts and cries proved to be useless,all he could figure out about his terrible situation was just thoese three words “I don’t know.”
Like many middle -aged men , Datong Xu finally came to this troublesome point of life,which is usually called _ “Midlife Crisis”. From some kind of a view from our oriental philosophy , once the balance of life was broken ,your life was in danger of a crisis. When a tierd middle- aged man or woman comes home with so many exhausting trivial affairs still waiting to be handled with and so many complicated relationships to be managed, he or she just cant help to cry about this embarrassing state of living . “What s the meaning of life ? ” The question linger .And then those three words pop out in his or her mind _Midlife Crisis .Anyhow, Datong Xu＇s crisis was so special that we can hardly find any identical case with his. So lets just hit the nail on the head, his crisis was a atypical midlife crisis._duing to culture difference or we should say culture conflict.
Suppose ,you are a successful middle -aged Chinese computer engineer who had lived in America for 8 years .Through thick and thin and even hardships beyond imagination, you finally won yourself an identity which is recognized by American society. You know , your time is coming. One day it really came ,with unspeakable shock .Your adorable little son had a Guasha ,an ancient Chinese way of acuring diseases, which surprisingly brought you a charge of the crime of child abuse .And then you have to embrace this ,a crisis ,or even disaster.
This is Datong Xus story in the movie Guasha , We expierenced the anger and sorrow with the characters all along the one and half an hour. All of us may ask questions like “How come our great Chinese medicine become a tool of abusing child?”“How come our fabulous Chinese culture have to face with so deep misunderstanding in America ?” Well ,may be we should calm down first . If we look into this atypical crisis a little closer ,we may find what we can learn is more than the shallow impression like “Wow, there are so many differences between Chinese culture and American culture .”
Let＇s ignore the old themes of great moralities and ethics stressed by Confusianism .Let＇s discuss how can we avoid this kind of crisis to give thousands of Datong Xu more time to enjoy the happiness of success .
Actually ,I don’t think there is a perfect master plan or solution about that. Because the diversities of culture will be a eternal theme and will always exist. To some extent ,we can even say ,human civilization is so fabulous because of the diversities among nations and peoples .
Anyhow, if we express our culture more clearly and bring the beauty and wisdom of our Chinese culture to the rest of the world ,we should have less anxiety when facing the conflict of cultures. Because we have great confidence of our culture and in ourselves ,for we can make ourselves well understood by others.
At the same time , we should open our mind to accept the beauties and wisdoms of other cultures. By doing so ,can the world be a better place for our living.
