Wedding questions

Wedding Banquet, 1993 dir. Ang Lee

  1. In what ways is the father, Mr. Gao, more than a traditional-minded person as most people would understand him, unwilling and unable to see the value in progress and social change? Examples. 请举例说明高伯伯并不是一个彻头彻尾的保守派,一点都不能接受社会变迁。
  1. A former army general, Mr. Gao is familiar with Julie Caesar’s motto “I came; I saw; I conquered” except when he talks to Simon and his son he changes the last part to “I learned”. What does he learn to do in his sojourn in NYC? 作为一个前军队指挥官,高伯伯熟悉卡撒大帝的“我来了;我看见了;我征服了”这句话。但他对塞门说这句话的时候,把最后一句改成“我学懂了“。他在纽约市短短的几天学懂了什么?
  1. Homosexuality as an alternative life style definitely challenges the orthodox and mainstream values in China (as well as in other modern democratic societies in the West); how is it integrated into or subsumed under conventional, conservative (and “normative”) cultural order in this story? 同性恋作为一种生活方式无疑地要挑战传统中国主流社会的价值观念。但在这个故事里,它是怎样被主流文化传统文化所同化和和谐了?
  1. Without Gao’s parents’ presence, the relationships of Wei-tong, Weiwei and Simon as individuals probably would not have been what they are at the end. How do Mr. and Mrs. Gao contribute the growth and maturity of these young New Yorkers concerned mostly with their own happiness and success? 如果没有高伯伯高伯母的光临,伟同、薇薇,塞门的关系不可能是它们最后的样子。两位台湾老人如何使这几个原来只为自己考虑的美国年轻人变得成熟了一些?
  1. What is Mrs. Gao’s reaction upon hearing Wei-tong’s confession to being gay? 高妈妈对文同的同性恋的第一个反应是什么?伟同一告诉妈妈他是同性恋,她说什么?
  1. Prior to the arrival of the parents from Taiwan, what are the life goals of Wei-tong, Weiwei and Simon, and how are they slightly shifted and changed by the time they see the old couple off at JFK airport? 高家父母从台湾来纽约之前,伟同、薇薇、和塞门的生活目的是什么?等到一对老人离开纽约市的时候,他们的生活有了哪些改变?
  1. How does Ang Lee display and choreograph such cultural differences as attitudes toward happiness, success, marriage, sex, money, generational gap, obedience or revolt? Give examples that strike you as differences between Chinese and Western cultures. 李安怎么烘托大家对幸福、成功、婚姻、性、工作不同的态度?举例说明。
  1. What changes Weiwei’s mind on her way to the hospital to abort her child, which changes the dynamic and outcome of this family crisis? What’s Ang Lee’s message about women’s needs for success and motherhood? 是什么让薇薇不去医院堕胎,从而改变了很多人人之间的关系?李安对现代女人需要事业,需要独立和传统女人需要家庭,需要儿女的不同态度给出了一个什么样的描写?
  1. What’s the director’s impression of American life or, more precisely, the life in NYC where he studied at NYU School of Fine Arts, as reflected through Weiwei, Wei-tong, and Simon? Is his reconstruction of U.S. society culturally accurate, especially American attitudes towards homosexuality? 李安对美国的文化、特别是对纽约的生活的了解和重现你觉得真实不真实?美国人对同性恋的态度跟你在电影里看到的一样吗?
  1. 20 years have passed, has there been change or shift of cultural sensibility in Taiwan and Mainland China with regard to people’s attitude towards sex and sexual freedom that you know or heard of that Ang Lee in 1993 couldn’t have known? 从《喜宴》到今天已有20多年了,中国人对性和性解放的看法有哪些李安当时不可能知道的改变?