Faith Yang
Family, which is multifunctional, is a major theme in
both Floating Life and The Concubine¡¦s Children.
For some Chinese diasporas, family, undoubtedly, plays a role that unites
the scattered family members together. However, it could also be a constraint
to its members and that is why conflicts frequently arouse in Chinese diasporic
families. In a sense, a house, the concrete form of family that roots deeply
down to earth creates the sense of belongingness of Chinese people. Family
also has its spiritual function, namely, the interrelations and the mutual
bonds among family members which perform a role as comfort and consolation.
In Floating Life and The Concubine¡¦s
Children, the multiple roles family plays to Chinese diasporas are
explicitly shown. To the grandfather in The Concubines Children,
the concrete form of family, that is to say, a house on his fatherland,
pushes him to invest a great amount of money in building a house in Mainland
China. What family means to him is not the feeling he shares with his family
members but an object that roots firmly into the earth and enables him
to get sense of security and belongingness. To Mai Ying, family, for sure,
that is created by the marriage out of her willingness is a constraint
setting limitation to her. She prefer giving her husband money with which
his is able to go back to China to keeping him aside and enjoys union of
the family. To the eldest daughter in Floating Life family is more
than a place which provides her room to dwell in. Though she has a nice
house in Germany, she is still unable to feel that she is settled down.
Without her mother and father, her house is but an object from which she
fails to receive any comfort and consolation. She rather feels being incomplete
because of her drifting away from her parents who stand for a part of her.
Similar problems happen on the second daughter who lives in Australia.
At the very beginning, Ping, the second daughter seems to be a woman who
quite relies on the support of her family. In this period, she lives in
a house without trees. The house which has no trees symbolizes her being
floating, unable to settle down and bears the sense of losing one¡¦s
root. However, being forced to be independent, she cuts off the relations
with her family members. Transforming her rely on her family, she buys
a house that is bright and clean and asks her parents and brothers to come
over and live with her. Obviously, Pin¡¦s changing comes from
her being unable to get any comfort and consolation when she first comes
to Australia. Since her family fails to console her, she loses her balance
because of the struggling between her Chinese identity and the intention
to assimilate with the host nation.
Family has its respective functions to Chinese diasporas.
Some regard it as the way to unite scattered family members, while some
feel constrained by it. It could be the origin of love and comfort that
help Chinese diasporas to get the sense of belongingness; however, it also
could be where hatred and injury stem from. |
Ruth Wang
The concept of family is very important to Chinese, because
form the ancient time, ¡§ family¡¨ has become Chinese
people¡¦s focus in life. Most Chinese only feel their existence
when they are with their family. In the film Floating Life, this idea is
emphasized. Ping has a house in Canada, but she is not happy there. When
her parents and brother come to Canada to live with her, she controls their
life in many ways. And this make allof them no happy. The house becomes
a house without affection. Therefore, her parents find a house for themselves.
The fatehr wants to plant some trees and flowers in his new house. He wants
to create a feeling of house. Though before moving into this new house,
he missed his old house very much, now he can move his affection to his
new house. This means that the place doesn¡¦t matter for a
family, but the affection. With her family¡¦s help, Ping starts
to re accept the place in a new way. And Gar-Min comes to join his family,
the ending shows that the house with affection cure Chinese diasporas¡¦
wounded hearts. ¡§ Family¡¨ in Concubine¡¦s
children is an obstacle to May-Ying, she suffered a lot for her family,
and it is family that makes be tough in Canadian society. |