Cultural Essay

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Gabrielle Stewart

The films And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile differ in cultural origin, plot, and language. The Chinese movie, And the Spring Comes, follows a homely but talented voice teacher in rural China on her path toward her dream—singing in the Beijing opera. Mona Lisa Smile, an American film, tells the story of a progressive art history professor struggling to make a difference in her conservative university setting. Using their respective cultural contexts and characters, both films reject the notion that a woman’s worth and happiness must come from her potential to marry.

The protagonist of And the Spring Comes, Wang Cai-ling, refuses to find contentment through marriage per the custom for most Chinese women. In a conversation with her unnamed neighbor, Cai-ling expresses that she is single by choice. Her neighbor responds, “No one chooses to be single,” highlighting the desirability of marriage’s social status benefits. Cai-ling is not convinced by this argument, however, and continues pursuing her own goal for fulfillment: singing. Later, Cai-ling’s belief is supported further when the neighbor’s husband leaves her; the neighbor feels immense sorrow and has little to care for now that her marriage is broken. Though Cai-ling herself cannot meet her ultimate goal—being an opera singer—she still resists the social pressure to marry for maintaining a positive public image. At the film’s conclusion, she finds purpose through another avenue: adopting a child. This practice would be fairly unheard of for a single woman, because children are typically associated with marriage. Cai-ling, however, disregards this social ruling, knowing that she can feel content without a husband.

In Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Watson aims to teach her female students that a woman’s worth is not necessarily associated with her future as a housewife. She embodies this lesson through her own status as an unmarried woman at thirty. A comment from Betty shows that this is not the social norm; when Giselle calls Watson “fabulous,” Betty argues, “No man wanted her,” illustrating the belief at the time that women cannot be anything without a husband. Watson, however, is determined to share her ideology with her students. When bright Joan tells Watson that she would go to law school if she were not to get married, Watson insists that she “can do both.” Joan cannot believe this, because law school would create difficulty for becoming a homemaker. Finally, Joan decides that she chooses not to attend law school despite Watson’s recommendation of schools that would enable her to be a law student and wife. Watson is disappointed until Joan tells her that the choice was her own, and that she is not any less smart for it—Watson, seeing that she has encouraged Joan to make the decision she wanted and not the decision everyone else wanted, is therefore pleased. Joan learned that her worth can stem from her empowerment to choose rather than her expectation to do as she is told.

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile tell the stories of two women teachers in differing cultural contexts. Their messages, however, converge: women should not be expected to perform a social function based on their historical subservience to men. Both Katherine Watson and Wang Cai-ling demonstrate for themselves and for others that a woman’s fulfillment can be found in whatever she chooses—not simply her capacity for making a home.

[2216668684]

Hi，Gabrielle
We are glad to have the opportunity to share our own perspectives of these movies with you. This whole film review takes marriage and social culture as the point of penetration and does well in storytelling. In the narration of the main characters of the film, the plot and details are very excellent. But when you are describing the story of And the Spring Comes, adding some representative characters’ stories to enrich your discussion will be more persuasive. Such as the relationships between Wang and the men around her. The conclusion of the article is perfect and reasonable, especially this sentence：A woman’s fulfillment can be found in whatever she chooses—not simply her capacity for making a home.
To sum up, you’re really doing great in writing this review. If you have any questions or advice, please contact us through this website.
Yours,
Xinyi Yu,Xin Zheng

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Hi Garielle! We are honored to have this opportunity to interact with you. After reading your essay, we find it fabulous not only in form but also in content.
We consider that you focus on the attitude towards marriage from the female perspective. Even though there are so many differences in cultural origin, plot and language between China and America, the two female protagonists all demonstrate their same value that is women are not subservience to men. Your essay takes advantage of deduction and summary as the organization. It makes the whole text clear and coherent. Readers are able to easily catch what you want to express and spread. In this design, comparison and contrast is also apparent. We think our group will learn this from you. And as you are native speakers, words shown in the essay are more fluent and natural. Such as “conservative”, “unnamed”, “converge”, “subservience” and so on. Meanwhile, there are little errors as to language and grammar.
We want to give you a little suggestion to polish your essay. If you add some comments and thoughts of your own in paragraph 2 and 3 rather than just describe the scene and things happening in the films and summary in the last paragraph, it will be better. Wish our advise work. If you have any questions, please reply on the web. And we will in real time to follow up.
Yours,
Miao Lv, Tingxuan Liu

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Hello Tingxuan and Miao,

Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate your compliments about my diction; they were very kind! And thank you for the suggestion about adding my own comments in paragraph 2 and 3--I will do better to assert my thoughts in later revisions.

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Hello Xinyi and Xin,

Thanks for responding to my essay. I appreciate your kind words about my argument. Additionally, your critique of my And the Spring Comes paragraph is very helpful. Focusing on more characters would help to strengthen my argument. Thank you for your comments!

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Essay revision:

The films And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile differ in cultural origin, plot, and language. The Chinese movie, And the Spring Comes, follows a homely but talented voice teacher in rural China on her path toward her dream—singing in the Beijing opera. Mona Lisa Smile, an American film, tells the story of a progressive art history professor struggling to make a difference in her conservative university setting. Using their respective cultural contexts and characters, both films reject the notion that a woman’s worth and happiness must come from her potential to marry.

The protagonist of And the Spring Comes, Wang Cai-ling, refuses to find contentment through marriage per the custom for most Chinese women. In a conversation with her unnamed neighbor, Cai-ling expresses that she is single by choice. Her neighbor responds, “No one chooses to be single,” highlighting the desirability of marriage’s social status benefits. Cai-ling is not convinced by this argument, however, and continues pursuing her own goal for fulfillment: singing. Later, Cai-ling’s belief is supported further when the neighbor’s husband leaves her; the neighbor feels immense sorrow and has little to care for now that her marriage is broken. This character, unlike Cai-ling and gay ballet dancer Mr. Hu in their determination to follow their passion for the arts, allowed marriage to serve as her sole means of self-actualization; as a result, she lost her impetus to live when her marriage dissolved. Though Cai-ling herself cannot meet her ultimate goal—being an opera singer—she still resists the social pressure to marry for maintaining a positive public image. At the film’s conclusion, she finds purpose through another avenue: adopting a child. This practice would be fairly unheard of for a single woman, because children are typically associated with marriage. Cai-ling, however, disregards this social ruling, knowing that she can feel content without a husband.

In Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Watson aims to teach her female students that a woman’s worth is not necessarily associated with her future as a housewife. She embodies this lesson through her own status as an unmarried woman at thirty. A comment from Betty shows that this is not the social norm; when Giselle calls Watson “fabulous,” Betty argues, “No man wanted her,” illustrating the belief at the time that women cannot be anything without a husband. Watson possesses considerable intelligence, charisma, and looks, but it does not matter to the young women because these qualities only become worthy when they are identified by a man. Watson, however, is determined to share her ideology with her students. When bright Joan tells Watson that she would go to law school if she were not to get married, Watson insists that she “can do both.” Joan cannot believe this, because law school would create difficulty for becoming a homemaker. Finally, Joan decides that she chooses not to attend law school despite Watson’s recommendation of schools that would enable her to be a law student and wife. Watson is disappointed until Joan tells her that the choice was her own, and that she is not any less smart for it—Watson, seeing that she has encouraged Joan to make the decision she wanted and not the decision everyone else wanted, is therefore pleased. Joan learned that her worth can stem from her empowerment to choose rather than her expectation to do as she is told.

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile tell the stories of two women teachers in differing cultural contexts. Their messages, however, converge: women should not be expected to perform a social function based on their historical subservience to men. Both Katherine Watson and Wang Cai-ling demonstrate for themselves and for others that a woman’s fulfillment can be found in whatever she chooses—not simply her capacity for making a home.

[2216668684]

Hi Gabrielle,
Thank you very much for your revision. We have to admit that we have made many simple grammatical mistakes. This revision is very important to us. In the cross-border interaction, we realize that we should pay more attention to the logic and grammar in writing. In the future, we will continue to work hard to write an excellent English essay. We would appreciate it if you could give us some suggestions for learning in this field. Thank you again for your help！
Sincerely,
Xin Zheng& Xinyi Yu

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Hi, Stewart
We are really happy that you can take our suggestions into consideration. And your revision is commendable which shows your hardworking spirits. That is very important in the study life. What's more, thanks for your long-time interactions with us, especially your valuable advice on our writing. And we really hope we can have communications with you on the email to learn more about our different culture.
Yours,
Miao Lv & Ting Xuan Liu