Cultural Essay

[mts5487]

Hi Max, we’ve read your reply. Thank you for your appreciation and advice on how to strengthen our points and sublimate the last paragraph. We didn’t pay attention to our repeated reference and when we look back, we find that it seems wordy and boring. So we will try our best to solve this problem and make our essay better. Also, actually we don’t know how to really sublimate the theme. In our store of knowledge, sublimation is just like the summary of theme and is also filled with emotional expression. So we end the final paragraph roughly and hurriedly. Can you give us some suggestions on how to expand it well?
Hope hear from you soon
Xu Xinyue
Tang Zirui

Hello again from across the ocean! Don't be too hard on yourselves, I really enjoyed your essay and thought it was a fantastic analysis of the two movies. I didn't find it boring at all. Sure, I think that with a little more elaboration, your final paragraph could be a strong concluding discussion tying together everything you had discussed prior. There's definitely no right or wrong way to craft it, of course, but one suggestion I can potentially offer is to explain how the aspects you had discussed in the previous paragraphs come together to create the larger overall themes that you begin to address. I think your essay is extremely well structured and this would make it complete. Hope this helps and let me know if I've explained clearly!

[2057230076]

Hello, Max. We are so glad to hear from you across the ocean! We think that your suggestions are really helpful for us to revise our last paragraph! Thank you for your clear idea! But some of our classmates think that we didn't do well in aspects connection and we also think that we didn't connect them very logically. We think your essay is very great and locial. Can you give us some suggestions? Enjoy your weekend!
Hope hear from you soon!
Xu Xinyue& Tang Zirui

[2057230076]

Hi Max, we forgot to ask for your email or wechat in order to have deeper communication because we don't have facebook. Our wechat: xxy2057230076 and email: 2057230076@qq.com.
Hope hear from you soon.
Xu Xinyue
Tang Zirui

Sure, I don't have wechat but you can email me at mts5487@psu.edu. It's a pleasure to communicate!

Hi Max! We've received your reply and now we can email you! Welcome to exchange!

[1034873732]

Hello, Max, we are honored to receive your reply again and be able to communicate with you from the other side of the ocean. First of all, we are happy that you can approve our proposal and use it. Then, we think your suggestion is very helpful to us. You think we can point out the feminism in the two films directly in the title, which benefits us a lot. Indeed, this can not only make the theme clearer, but also highlight the focus of our article. We agree that it is very good! Also, do you have any other suggestions to make our article better?
We look forward to your suggestions and wish you good luck.
Xie Ting, Xiao Junqi

[mts5487]

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile are two films that deal with similar subject matter and deal with very similar themes. Each protagonist, Katherine Watson in Mona Lisa Smile, and Wang Cailing in And the Spring Comes, face central conflicts related to issues related to individuality, feminism, and the general challenging of societal norms. By treating each film as a case study in the addressing of such issues, much can be learned about the similarities and differences between eastern and western culture and cinema.

Mona Lisa Smile is a classic depiction of the dominant conservative societal gender roles of America in the 1950s, when women were largely expected to perform as housewives and were strongly discouraged from entering the workforce to fill the same roles as men. Professor Katherine Watson teaches at an all-women’s Wellesley college, characterized by the prominent cultural clash of the time between the school’s prestigious reputation and its students’ conflicting focus on landing a successful husband rather than trying to equip themselves to actually forge success of their own. This provides the basis for Watson’s central act of rebellion, that is, eschewing the pre-approved syllabus in favor of her own and encouraging her students to think and act for themselves. While individuality is absolutely a major motivating factor in Watson’s actions, the story is most directly rooted in feminism. Her enlightened teaching methods coupled with her own personal aversion to marriage creates a story that is thematically a story of classic feminist rebellion against conservative social norms.

In And the Spring Comes, protagonist Wang Cailing embarks on her own personal journey for individual fulfillment, and she too wrestles with incompatible societal expectations. She dreams of becoming an opera singer, but despite her talent, it is accepted that her lack of physical attractiveness is enough to preclude her from achieving her goals. The film details Wang Cailing’s struggle for individuality in a society that instead expects its members, particularly women, to focus on the collective instead. And the Spring Comes differs from Mona Lisa Smile in that it is not designed primarily as a period piece, or a depiction of a certain time period. And the Spring Comes can instead be taken as an artifact of modern Chinese society, as it takes place much more recently. It is painfully apparent throughout the film that Wang Cailing does not adhere to many major norms and expectations of her society, with its dialogue and cinematography making clear that she does not “fit in” as a part of her social environment or her city.

And the Spring Comes also generally feels more realistic than Mona Lisa Smile; its characters seem less stylized and exaggerated. The end result is a movie that feels more true to the culture that created it and less like a societal caricature, allowing viewers to connect with the central character on a more personal level. The differing focuses in these two films result in fundamentally different moods and messages throughout each. With its primary focus on Wang Cailing’s individuality, And the Spring Comes comes across as a tale of the struggle for an individual to break free from the traditionally collective-focused mindset prominent in Chinese culture. Mona Lisa Smile, conversely, is less of a character portrait and instead focuses on Katherine Watson’s struggle to influence American culture as a whole to be more accepting of women fulfilling greater roles in society. Each character and each movie in general thus represents the antithesis of the respective cultures they depict.


These two films approach similar topics through substantially different lenses. Each details a female protagonist on her own search to break dominant societal trends for the better. Thematically, the story of Mona Lisa Smile skews its focus more heavily toward feminism, while And the Spring Comes is most purely a story of individuality. However, there is substantial overlap between these films and their themes, and each can be used as a tool to learn about the culture of the place in which it was produced.

[2057230076]

And the Spring Comes and Mona Lisa Smile are two films that deal with similar subject matter and deal with very similar themes. Each protagonist, Katherine Watson in Mona Lisa Smile, and Wang Cailing in And the Spring Comes, face central conflicts related to issues related to individuality, feminism, and the general challenging of societal norms. By treating each film as a case study in the addressing of such issues, much can be learned about the similarities and differences between eastern and western culture and cinema.

Mona Lisa Smile is a classic depiction of the dominant conservative societal gender roles of America in the 1950s, when women were largely expected to perform as housewives and were strongly discouraged from entering the workforce to fill the same roles as men. Professor Katherine Watson teaches at an all-women’s Wellesley college, characterized by the prominent cultural clash of the time between the school’s prestigious reputation and its students’ conflicting focus on landing a successful husband rather than trying to equip themselves to actually forge success of their own. This provides the basis for Watson’s central act of rebellion, that is, eschewing the pre-approved syllabus in favor of her own and encouraging her students to think and act for themselves. While individuality is absolutely a major motivating factor in Watson’s actions, the story is most directly rooted in feminism. Her enlightened teaching methods coupled with her own personal aversion to marriage creates a story that is thematically a story of classic feminist rebellion against conservative social norms.

In And the Spring Comes, protagonist Wang Cailing embarks on her own personal journey for individual fulfillment, and she too wrestles with incompatible societal expectations. She dreams of becoming an opera singer, but despite her talent, it is accepted that her lack of physical attractiveness is enough to preclude her from achieving her goals. The film details Wang Cailing’s struggle for individuality in a society that instead expects its members, particularly women, to focus on the collective instead. And the Spring Comes differs from Mona Lisa Smile in that it is not designed primarily as a period piece, or a depiction of a certain time period. And the Spring Comes can instead be taken as an artifact of modern Chinese society, as it takes place much more recently. It is painfully apparent throughout the film that Wang Cailing does not adhere to many major norms and expectations of her society, with its dialogue and cinematography making clear that she does not “fit in” as a part of her social environment or her city.

And the Spring Comes also generally feels more realistic than Mona Lisa Smile; its characters seem less stylized and exaggerated. The end result is a movie that feels more true to the culture that created it and less like a societal caricature, allowing viewers to connect with the central character on a more personal level. The differing focuses in these two films result in fundamentally different moods and messages throughout each. With its primary focus on Wang Cailing’s individuality, And the Spring Comes comes across as a tale of the struggle for an individual to break free from the traditionally collective-focused mindset prominent in Chinese culture. Mona Lisa Smile, conversely, is less of a character portrait and instead focuses on Katherine Watson’s struggle to influence American culture as a whole to be more accepting of women fulfilling greater roles in society. Each character and each movie in general thus represents the antithesis of the respective cultures they depict.


These two films approach similar topics through substantially different lenses. Each details a female protagonist on her own search to break dominant societal trends for the better. Thematically, the story of Mona Lisa Smile skews its focus more heavily toward feminism, while And the Spring Comes is most purely a story of individuality. However, there is substantial overlap between these films and their themes, and each can be used as a tool to learn about the culture of the place in which it was produced.

Hello Max! We're glad to see your final essay on the forum after two weeks of across-ocean communiaction. We are happy that our suggestions help you make great progress! Your final essay shows your sincere efforts and great improvement. It's the most logical and wonderful article we've never seen before among the peers. It deserves our learning! We feel good about helping you and your helping. This interaction helps both us grow and we very treasure it!
Best wishes!
Xu Xinyue&Tang Zirui