Box questions

Chinese Box, 1997 dir. Wayne Wang

  1. July 1st 1997 is a historic day for Hong Kong when this British colony for the past century is reverted to China. Yet why is it hard for John to find out how the people of Hong Kong feel about the handover or about their own lives? 1997年7月1日香港回归中国大陆;在这个历史时刻,为什么报社记者约翰觉得了解香港人的想法特别困难?
  1. What is a Chinese box? 中国匣子是一个什么东西?
  1. What are the defining qualities and characteristics of a colonial culture such as Hong Kong? 香港的社会和文化作为一个英属殖民地有哪些特征和特点?
  1. As far as John is concerned, a journalist who writes daily reports for a British publication and a book titled How to Make Money in Hong Kong, what is most frustrating? What is his blind spot? What doesn’t he understand when he investigate local lives? 作为一家英国报刊的记者和《如何在香港发财》一书的作者,约翰觉得什么东西最不容易了解清楚?他的盲点是什么?在调查社会问题时,他不懂什么?
  1. John’s career would soon come to an abrupt end by his diagnosis of leukemia. In the context of the story, this life-threatening disease is an emblem of what? 约翰的记者生涯随着他白血病的突发而告终。他的病情有象征意义吗?
  1. When Jim moves the projector so that Jean’s video clip about herself overlaps John’s face, what is the meaning of the strange effect of two faces mixed together? 当约翰的面孔和简的面孔重叠在一起时,你觉得导演想要说明什么?
  1. On the monitor of his hand-held camera, what do we see when John slips into a coma on a boat circling HK waterways? How do you interpret this last scene? 电影结束时,在约翰手里的摄像机的屏幕上是什么?你怎么解释这最后的一幕?
  1. What’s John’s attitude towards Jean when he asks her for an interview and, when refused, promises to pay her if she videotapes herself telling the story of her life? What does this attitude produce in return? 约翰采访简时,他对她的态度是什么样的?这种态度对简在录像中所做的自我介绍有什么影响?
  1. What is Vivian doing when John comes to the bar where she works to apologize for making a scene about her past as a prostitute? 约翰来到蔚文工作的酒吧道歉时,她正在做什么?怎么分析这一幕?
  1. What does Jean say how she got the scar on her face? 简说她脸上的疤是怎么来的?
  1. How do you understand the fact that Jean finally tells John the “real” story of her life only to be contradicted by Williams, a person she calls her boyfriend but doesn’t remember who she is? 你怎么解释简的前男友威廉姆完全不记得她和她的爱情故事?
  1. Why does Chang have strong reservations about Vivian hoping to marry him? To what extent is his attitude representative of how Mainland Chinese view the people of Hong Kong? Who is purer Chinese, Hong-Kongese or Mainlanders? 为什么从大陆来的张先生不愿意跟蔚文结婚?在更高的文化层面上,张先生的态度跟大陆人对香港人的态度有什么相像之处?