The movie is full of fun characters and their mundane problems: the old men and their cricket-fighting squabbles, the middle-aged husband using the bathhouse to hide from his wife, the wannabe primadonna with debilitating stage fright who uses the public shower as his personal practice room…

The bathhouse in the movie looks like a slightly fancier version of the one I visited in Tianjin’s Nanshi hutongs, which has since been bulldozed.

My only (very picky) squabble with this movie is that it seems to unnecessarily over-romanticize the way of life that’s rapidly disappearing from China’s major urban centres. Some scenes, like the evening neighbourhood park scenes, are just a little too colourful, tidy, and well-mannered compared to what I’ve seen here. If the director had allowed a few more ragged edges, it would feel just that much more authentic.

There’s plenty of dialogue that intermediate language students could pick up no problem, and the accents aren’t too thick.

Aside from the occasional mooning (mostly old-man butts) and some offensive language during a humourous yelling match between a married couple, this movie is pretty much family-safe.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.

The movie is full of fun characters and their mundane problems: the old men and their cricket-fighting squabbles, the middle-aged husband using the bathhouse to hide from his wife, the wannabe primadonna with debilitating stage fright who uses the public shower as his personal practice room…

The bathhouse in the movie looks like a slightly fancier version of the one I visited in Tianjin’s Nanshi hutongs, which has since been bulldozed.

My only (very picky) squabble with this movie is that it seems to unnecessarily over-romanticize the way of life that’s rapidly disappearing from China’s major urban centres. Some scenes, like the evening neighbourhood park scenes, are just a little too colourful, tidy, and well-mannered compared to what I’ve seen here. If the director had allowed a few more ragged edges, it would feel just that much more authentic.

There’s plenty of dialogue that intermediate language students could pick up no problem, and the accents aren’t too thick.

Aside from the occasional mooning (mostly old-man butts) and some offensive language during a humourous yelling match between a married couple, this movie is pretty much family-safe.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.

Pushing Hands / 推手 / tuī shǒu
Pushing Hands is a family drama in which a successful Chinese immigrant, along with his American wife and their young ABC son, bring the grandfather from Beijing to live with them in their New York suburb. This sparks family cross-cultural tensions as the main character struggles to balance his roles as husband, father, and son simultaneously across two different cultures. The viewer gets an introduction to the issues faced by Chinese-American cross-cultural households, imported Chinese grandparents, and the struggle of Chinese Americans to uphold Chinese family values (filial piety) in American society. There’s quite a bit of English dialogue, as the wife only speaks English, but you’ll still need subtitles.

The Gua Sha Treatment / 刮痧 / guā shā
Gua Sha is a family/courtroom drama about a successful, well-adjusted, Chinese immigrant couple in St. Louis with an ABC 5-year-old boy. One day the grandfather, who doesn’t speak any English, etc., gives the boy a harmless traditional Chinese medicine treatment that leaves terrible-looking red marks on his back. When a Western doctor in the hospital discovers the welts the couple loses custody of their son and ends up in a legal battle. The story highlights cultural differences, particularly where Americans misunderstand the Chinese.

About half the dialogue is in English, but you’ll still want subtitles.

Aside from one scene where, in their grief, the couple gets plastered and calls themselves obscene names in English, there’s not much offensive in the movie, if you don’t count some occasional over-the-top writing and acting.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.

Pushing Hands / 推手 / tuī shǒu
Pushing Hands is a family drama in which a successful Chinese immigrant, along with his American wife and their young ABC son, bring the grandfather from Beijing to live with them in their New York suburb. This sparks family cross-cultural tensions as the main character struggles to balance his roles as husband, father, and son simultaneously across two different cultures. The viewer gets an introduction to the issues faced by Chinese-American cross-cultural households, imported Chinese grandparents, and the struggle of Chinese Americans to uphold Chinese family values (filial piety) in American society. There’s quite a bit of English dialogue, as the wife only speaks English, but you’ll still need subtitles.

The Gua Sha Treatment / 刮痧 / guā shā
Gua Sha is a family/courtroom drama about a successful, well-adjusted, Chinese immigrant couple in St. Louis with an ABC 5-year-old boy. One day the grandfather, who doesn’t speak any English, etc., gives the boy a harmless traditional Chinese medicine treatment that leaves terrible-looking red marks on his back. When a Western doctor in the hospital discovers the welts the couple loses custody of their son and ends up in a legal battle. The story highlights cultural differences, particularly where Americans misunderstand the Chinese.

About half the dialogue is in English, but you’ll still want subtitles.

Aside from one scene where, in their grief, the couple gets plastered and calls themselves obscene names in English, there’s not much offensive in the movie, if you don’t count some occasional over-the-top writing and acting.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.

Pushing Hands / 推手 / tuī shǒu
Pushing Hands is a family drama in which a successful Chinese immigrant, along with his American wife and their young ABC son, bring the grandfather from Beijing to live with them in their New York suburb. This sparks family cross-cultural tensions as the main character struggles to balance his roles as husband, father, and son simultaneously across two different cultures. The viewer gets an introduction to the issues faced by Chinese-American cross-cultural households, imported Chinese grandparents, and the struggle of Chinese Americans to uphold Chinese family values (filial piety) in American society. There’s quite a bit of English dialogue, as the wife only speaks English, but you’ll still need subtitles.

The Gua Sha Treatment / 刮痧 / guā shā
Gua Sha is a family/courtroom drama about a successful, well-adjusted, Chinese immigrant couple in St. Louis with an ABC 5-year-old boy. One day the grandfather, who doesn’t speak any English, etc., gives the boy a harmless traditional Chinese medicine treatment that leaves terrible-looking red marks on his back. When a Western doctor in the hospital discovers the welts the couple loses custody of their son and ends up in a legal battle. The story highlights cultural differences, particularly where Americans misunderstand the Chinese.

About half the dialogue is in English, but you’ll still want subtitles.

Aside from one scene where, in their grief, the couple gets plastered and calls themselves obscene names in English, there’s not much offensive in the movie, if you don’t count some occasional over-the-top writing and acting.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.

Iron & Silk is an effortless, PG-rated read that a junior high student could finish in just a couple hours. It’s really a collection of short stories that highlight various cultural differences the author experienced in the two years he spent teaching English in China in the early 1980′s, and this keeps the content varied and interesting. Iron & Silk doesn’t explain anything about Chinese culture, but it’s a clear window into entertaining and unique experiences among everyday Chinese people of that particular time and place. It’s also rather unique among the “I taught English in China” travel books.

Author Mark Salzman‘s experiences were pretty unique for a few reasons. First, Salzman could speak an exceptional amount of Chinese before he arrived, which he learned while completing an Ivy League degree in Chinese literature and doing some serious martial arts training. This means that, unlike the rest of us, he could hear and see what was going on around him starting the first day, and this opens up a whole new world of possibilities among locals that most of us only dream of. Second, he was already rather accomplished in 武术 by the time he arrived, and his experiences of training with some famous Chinese wǔshù masters certainly makes for unique reading material. Third, he taught in China for two years starting in 1982; he experienced a China that may not exist anymore (at least I hope it doesn’t… I don’t know if I could stand having to listen to and negotiate that much political-ese every day, never mind imagining masses forced to endure it). And forth, he sticks to narrating and almost completely refrains from commentary; aside from relating how he may have felt at a particular moment, he allows the people to speak for themselves and leaves the reader to decide what to think. Several reviews describe it as unpretentious.

As of today, this book can be delivered to your door for under $5. And in the movie, Salzman and his most famous wǔshù instructor play themselves.

©2010 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved.