When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
叶小析 180124 Xiaoxi Ye
“Van Gogh…… refused to conform his ideals to the popular taste, and refused to compromise his integrity.”said Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), the heroine in Mona Lisa Smile. It’s such an inspiring feministic manifesto about how to be yourself and accepted by many people. But if you were Cailing Wang(Wenli Jiang) in And The Spring Comes, would it be still easy for you to practice such a kind of thought and even to make people understand it? I suppose not.
Recently, I have watched two films. One is a 2003 American drama film called Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, and the other one is a Chinese one whose name is And The Spring Comes filmed by Changwei Gu.
From my perspective, between these two films there is a similarity in their themes —— Independent women remain steadfast in their destinations to overcome the hindrance and chase their own dreams. Both of them believed, or had believed before, that everyone shouldn’t be limited by the social stereotypes on women’s marriage and backgrounds about who they are. I was really moved by their optimism and fearlessness towards their dreams. For instance, in Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Wat-son took “Van Gulf in the box” as a bad example of painting in order to encourage the outstanding female students to chase what they really wanted instead of being what others thought they should be. However in And the Spring Comes, Cailing Wang, who refused to marry someone who didn’t understand her, would like to spend a large amount of money changing her residence into Beijing so she could make a living as a famous opera singer in Beijing, though many people believed her dream just a wildest dream. However, Joan Brandwyn(Julia Stiles), as a student of Katherine, eventually refused to go further study and went back to home. Yu Zhou (Guohua Wu) asked Cailing to become his wife instead of chasing her wildest dream. Unfortunately, both in the 50s in America and in China, it seems that it is obligatory for every single woman to be a full-time housewife instead of taking responsibility for choosing a more colorful future. So actually I think it is a fate that Katherine and Cailing were fighting against.
Both of the films have used “art” to express their themes. In Mona Lisa Smile, varied kinds of paintings are spiritual bridges for Katherine connecting with students. In And The Spring Comes, opera as a metaphor represents the pure dream of Cailing. I reckon why the director would choose “art” as an image of dream is that art is not only emotional and sensitive enough to represent human’s beautiful dreams, but also one of distinctive ways for human to express the feeling and wise thought which represent the human noble spirit. “Art is expressing the author's imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.”
However, Katherine successfully gained her students’ acceptance and appreciation for her feminism at the end of Mona Lisa Smile, while in And the Spring Comes Cailing unavoidably became the victim of destiny, who gave up her dream and came back to her common life. In my opinion, the reason why they, though they are very similar in the personality, get different endings is that they are under different circumstances. It is apparent that Katherine Watson is in the upper class whereas Cailing Wang is in the lower class. As a well-educated elite who graduated from University of California Berkeley, there was no doubt that Katherine got more opportunities and platforms to release her “feministic manifesto” than that of Cailing. We had to acknowledge that as a low-class citizen, Cailing needed to devote her whole life gaining a high social status which however Katherine had al-ready been granted naturally in her early age. Because Cailing came from the lower class without any background, she even couldn’t find a proper way to show her professional singing skill to the opera company. In sum, they didn’t share the same status at all, so it would be much more difficult for Cailing to achieve her own dream than for Katherine to spread her feministic theory.
What’s more, the difference in culture backgrounds also provides different endings to the two films. Though I have mentioned that both of the heroines were in a kind of conservative society, actually in the 60s America rose up the Sexual Liberation which was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships. I think it was a kind of trigger for everyone like Katherine Watson to express the feministic theory successfully at last, as the public gradually could accept and even propaganda kinds of radical theories. While looking back to And the Spring Comes, what about the culture where Cailing Wang stayed? During that period, the conservative thought still dominated many places of China, especially the rural area. What's more, it was also a hard period for Chinese Art to come through as Chinese people paid less attention on art than on the business. There were too many artists who received the support from the government instead of making money by themselves. What’s more, people even would think art ridiculous and made fun of the artists such as what Jinquan Hu(Gang Jiao) had experienced. There are many negative effects and eventually the reality failed Cailing.
It is apparent that both of the films are about feminism. And there is no doubt that all of us should take responsibility for saving woman’s equal right. But in my opinion in both films, the conflict is not only about the female’s right and the conservative society, but also more importantly about an eternal topic — the ideality and the reality. When we chase our dreams, what about the reality? I believe that it is not enough if we have only the passion on our dreams. Actually we are unable to afford to ignore the reality. Katherine actually took advantage of the cultural background but Cailing had nothing but her zealousness and the professional skills. Therefore I think it is necessary for us to adjust to the condition first and then take action to achieve our dreams.
From my perspective, Mona Lisa Smile and And The Spring Comes both are the remarkable feminist films. They both show the bright side of how women chase their dreams. However the different cultural aspects between these two heroines cause them to get the different endings. In fact both of them discuss the conflict between the dreams and the reality. And I think favorable conditions could bring the dreams come true.
When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Hi! I really enjoyed reading this essay and thought that you made a lot of valid points and had a lot of unique ideas. I especially liked the part where you talked about the different socioeconomic statuses of the women in the movies and how that lead to a different outcome.
One aspect of the paper that I would focus on for revision is to work on adding in some topic sentences or to make clearer at the beginning of the paragraph what will happen in the rest of it. To that same end, I think adding a focus statement at the beginning would also be helpful. The focus of this paper seems to be the difference between the realistic feminism of And the Spring Comes and the more unrealistic feminism of Mona Lisa Smile. I really liked this focus and the ideas you brought into play. You could even lean more heavily into the privilege depicted in Mona Lisa Smile because those women were privileged enough to have the means to avoid their social obligation, which was not a realistic option for other women.
I think the organization of the paper is well-done. Though I think that you make a good point in it, I am wondering how well the paragraph about art fits into your overall argument for the paper. I also think that the two concluding paragraphs at the end might be a bit repetitive, so I would consider combining their ideas into one paragraph.
The paragraph lengths are really manageable, and the paragraphs all seem to be focused. You also rarely make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Overall, on revision, I would work on making clear the focus at the beginning of paragraphs. Good job, and I really loved (and agreed with) where you went with your argument!
One aspect of the paper that I would focus on for revision is to work on adding in some topic sentences or to make clearer at the beginning of the paragraph what will happen in the rest of it. To that same end, I think adding a focus statement at the beginning would also be helpful. The focus of this paper seems to be the difference between the realistic feminism of And the Spring Comes and the more unrealistic feminism of Mona Lisa Smile. I really liked this focus and the ideas you brought into play. You could even lean more heavily into the privilege depicted in Mona Lisa Smile because those women were privileged enough to have the means to avoid their social obligation, which was not a realistic option for other women.
I think the organization of the paper is well-done. Though I think that you make a good point in it, I am wondering how well the paragraph about art fits into your overall argument for the paper. I also think that the two concluding paragraphs at the end might be a bit repetitive, so I would consider combining their ideas into one paragraph.
The paragraph lengths are really manageable, and the paragraphs all seem to be focused. You also rarely make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Overall, on revision, I would work on making clear the focus at the beginning of paragraphs. Good job, and I really loved (and agreed with) where you went with your argument!
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Hi! I really liked reading your comparison of feminism between Mona Lisa Smile and And The Spring Comes. Out of the parts you discussed the movies, I liked the part where you described feminism between an upper class with Katherine and lower class with Wang laoshi.
While reading your comparison, I realized that you set your topic as a reality of woman in the past. I think it was really helpful for myself to understand what you are talking about in the essay, and also a person who has not watched Mona Lisa Smile or And The Spring Comes could easily understand a whole theme of your comparison.
To be honest, I barely see any grammatical errors in your essay; however, I think the essay could be better with adding your thoughts on the characters' personalities as well. I can see you compared art perspective and cultural perspective for the movies, but did not really talk about how one's personality could change the result, too.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your comparison, and thank you for sharing your thought with us!
While reading your comparison, I realized that you set your topic as a reality of woman in the past. I think it was really helpful for myself to understand what you are talking about in the essay, and also a person who has not watched Mona Lisa Smile or And The Spring Comes could easily understand a whole theme of your comparison.
To be honest, I barely see any grammatical errors in your essay; however, I think the essay could be better with adding your thoughts on the characters' personalities as well. I can see you compared art perspective and cultural perspective for the movies, but did not really talk about how one's personality could change the result, too.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your comparison, and thank you for sharing your thought with us!
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Sarah S. wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 1:05 pm Hi! I really enjoyed reading this essay and thought that you made a lot of valid points and had a lot of unique ideas. I especially liked the part where you talked about the different socioeconomic statuses of the women in the movies and how that lead to a different outcome.
One aspect of the paper that I would focus on for revision is to work on adding in some topic sentences or to make clearer at the beginning of the paragraph what will happen in the rest of it. To that same end, I think adding a focus statement at the beginning would also be helpful. The focus of this paper seems to be the difference between the realistic feminism of And the Spring Comes and the more unrealistic feminism of Mona Lisa Smile. I really liked this focus and the ideas you brought into play. You could even lean more heavily into the privilege depicted in Mona Lisa Smile because those women were privileged enough to have the means to avoid their social obligation, which was not a realistic option for other women.
I think the organization of the paper is well-done. Though I think that you make a good point in it, I am wondering how well the paragraph about art fits into your overall argument for the paper. I also think that the two concluding paragraphs at the end might be a bit repetitive, so I would consider combining their ideas into one paragraph.
The paragraph lengths are really manageable, and the paragraphs all seem to be focused. You also rarely make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Overall, on revision, I would work on making clear the focus at the beginning of paragraphs. Good job, and I really loved (and agreed with) where you went with your argument!
Hi Sarah!
Thank you for giving me suggestions and comments. I do appreciate them. And it's my pleasure to know that you agree with my focus and ideas.
It is helpful to know that my focus statement is unclear in this revision. It is important for me to make my topic clear because I do agree that revision is a kind of essay for people to directly know what I really want to say instead of laying out ambiguous sentences. Also I would avoid making the content repetitive. I will make my essay better next time!
I also appreciate your comment about the art paragraph. But I think I didn't make my analysis clear so please allow me to make a further explanation for this paragraph. The reason why I would like to mention "art" is that I want to explain that art is one of direct ways to feel what the dream would be like . From my perspective, art is a metaphor of the pure dream and passion in both films. Katherine's art class was eventually accepted by the Wellesley students but Cailing in the end didn't make her the dream of being an opera singer come true. In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic.
Overall, I do appreciate your suggestions and compliments. Next time I will make my focus clearer. Please let me know if you have any further thoughts on my essay and reply！
-Xiaoxi
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Xiaoxi,
I appreciate your further explanation of the art paragraph in your essay. I think that it would be beneficial to add this extra analysis to your paper, particularly the sentence where you said “In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic.” This could even serve as the topic sentence for the paragraph. I definitely understand why it is beneficial to talk about the dreams of the two women, as it directly connects back to the title of your essay.
In this paragraph, you could also talk about the response to art as a dream and why it is often called a dream and not a career choice. A career in the arts or to study the arts is often looked at as a risk. I know many people who might say “it was my dream to study art, but I decided to be practical and study science,” or something along those lines. As you mentioned in your paper, the pursuit of art is courageous. By others, particularly those who do not have the financial security or high socioeconomic status that Katherine has, it can be looked at as a foolish pursuit because of the reality of the financial uncertainty of a career in the field.
I hope my ramblings about this topic were in some way helpful to you. Otherwise, good luck on your revision; I really enjoyed engaging with your paper.
I appreciate your further explanation of the art paragraph in your essay. I think that it would be beneficial to add this extra analysis to your paper, particularly the sentence where you said “In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic.” This could even serve as the topic sentence for the paragraph. I definitely understand why it is beneficial to talk about the dreams of the two women, as it directly connects back to the title of your essay.
In this paragraph, you could also talk about the response to art as a dream and why it is often called a dream and not a career choice. A career in the arts or to study the arts is often looked at as a risk. I know many people who might say “it was my dream to study art, but I decided to be practical and study science,” or something along those lines. As you mentioned in your paper, the pursuit of art is courageous. By others, particularly those who do not have the financial security or high socioeconomic status that Katherine has, it can be looked at as a foolish pursuit because of the reality of the financial uncertainty of a career in the field.
I hope my ramblings about this topic were in some way helpful to you. Otherwise, good luck on your revision; I really enjoyed engaging with your paper.
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Doh Y. wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:43 pm Hi! I really liked reading your comparison of feminism between Mona Lisa Smile and And The Spring Comes. Out of the parts you discussed the movies, I liked the part where you described feminism between an upper class with Katherine and lower class with Wang laoshi.
While reading your comparison, I realized that you set your topic as a reality of woman in the past. I think it was really helpful for myself to understand what you are talking about in the essay, and also a person who has not watched Mona Lisa Smile or And The Spring Comes could easily understand a whole theme of your comparison.
To be honest, I barely see any grammatical errors in your essay; however, I think the essay could be better with adding your thoughts on the characters' personalities as well. I can see you compared art perspective and cultural perspective for the movies, but did not really talk about how one's personality could change the result, too.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your comparison, and thank you for sharing your thought with us!
Hi Doh!
Thank you for the feedback on the improvements and the compliments. And I'm really glad to know that you like my focus on the statuses.
I do agree with your opinion about adding more thoughts on the characters' personalities. Thanks to your suggestion, I realize that personality actually plays an important role in both films because it will has a profound effect on characters especially when they are making a choice. I will add the thoughts next time!
Overall, it's my pleasure to receive your feedback. Thank you for noticing me that the character's personality is one of important aspects which could deeply effect the film’s outcome. Looking forward to your reply.
-Xiaoxi
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Sarah,Sarah S. wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:20 pm Xiaoxi,
I appreciate your further explanation of the art paragraph in your essay. I think that it would be beneficial to add this extra analysis to your paper, particularly the sentence where you said “In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic.” This could even serve as the topic sentence for the paragraph. I definitely understand why it is beneficial to talk about the dreams of the two women, as it directly connects back to the title of your essay.
In this paragraph, you could also talk about the response to art as a dream and why it is often called a dream and not a career choice. A career in the arts or to study the arts is often looked at as a risk. I know many people who might say “it was my dream to study art, but I decided to be practical and study science,” or something along those lines. As you mentioned in your paper, the pursuit of art is courageous. By others, particularly those who do not have the financial security or high socioeconomic status that Katherine has, it can be looked at as a foolish pursuit because of the reality of the financial uncertainty of a career in the field.
I hope my ramblings about this topic were in some way helpful to you. Otherwise, good luck on your revision; I really enjoyed engaging with your paper.
Thank you for taking time to reply me!
But at first I want to make an apology because I made a mistake in the meaning of the word "revision" when I was replying to your first feedback. I just thought the meaning was “review”. I'm really sorry for my carelessness.
I'm very graceful to you for helping me make my topic sentence clearer and I'm really delighted to know you have understood my analysis. Thank you so much!
What's more, you really inspire me for you suggested me discussing about the conflict between art and career. Not only could this discussion make this paragraph much fitter for the essay's focus, but also it could allow me and readers to think further about the relationship between art and career. And I think this idea could also make the transition more helpful. I'm extremely glad to receive this brilliant suggestion.
I really appreciate your suggestions on my essay and they are really helpful to you. I really wish I could have more chances to have discussions with you. However I always spend too much time on my English grammar. There are so many thoughts I want to share with you but my poor English prevents me from doing that. Overall, I really like talking with you and good luck on your essay!!
Re: When We Chase Our Dreams, What About the Reality
Revision:
When We Pursue Our Dreams, What About the Reality
叶小析 180124 Xiaoxi Ye
“Van Gogh…… refused to conform his ideals to the popular taste, and refused to compromise his integrity.”said Katherine Watson, the heroine in Mona Lisa Smile. It’s such an inspiring feministic manifesto about how to be yourself and accepted by many people. But if you were Cailing Wang in And The Spring Comes, would it be still easy for you to practice such a dream and even to make people understand it?
I believe the answer is “no". From my point of views, pursuing a dream needs favorable conditions.
Recently, I have watched two films. One is a 2003 American drama film called Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, and the other one is a Chinese one whose name is And The Spring Comes filmed by Changwei Gu.
From my perspective, between these two films there is a similarity in their themes —— Independent women remain steadfast in their destinations to overcome the hindrance and chase their own dreams. Both of them believed, or had believed before, that everyone shouldn’t be limited by the social stereotypes on women’s marriage and backgrounds about who they are. I was really moved by their optimism and fearlessness towards their dreams. For instance, in Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Watson took “Van Gulf in the box” as a bad example of painting in order to encourage the outstanding female students to chase what they really wanted instead of being what others thought they should be. However in And the Spring Comes, Cailing Wang, who refused to marry someone who didn’t understand her, would like to spend a large amount of money changing her residence into Beijing so she could make a living as a famous opera singer in Beijing, though many people believed her dream just a wildest dream. However, Joan Brandwyn(Julia Stiles), as a student of Katherine, eventually refused to go further study and went back to home. Yu Zhou (Guohua Wu) asked Cailing to become his wife instead of chasing her wildest dream. Unfortunately, both in the 50s in America and in China, it seems that it is obligatory for every single woman to be a full-time housewife instead of taking responsibility for choosing a more colorful future. So actually I think it is a fate that Katherine and Cailing were fighting against.
In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic. In Mona Lisa Smile, varied kinds of paintings actually are spiritual bridges for Katherine connecting with her students. Katherine successfully gained her students’ appreciation for her feministic spirit at the end of Mona Lisa Smile. However, in And The Spring Comes, opera as a metaphor represents Cailing’s pure but unachievable dream. Cailing unavoidably became the victim of destiny, who gave up her dream and came back to her common life. Art is a metaphor of dream
In my opinion, the spiritual power in arts, in other words, in dreams, can be either powerful or fragile, which depends on the circumstance. It is apparent that Katherine Watson is in the upper class whereas Cailing Wang is in the lower class. As a well-educated elite who graduated from University of California Berkeley, there was no doubt that Katherine could get more opportunities and platforms to release her “feministic manifesto” than that of Cailing. We had to acknowledge that as a low-class citizen, Cailing needed to devote her whole life gaining a high social status which however Katherine had al-ready been granted naturally in her early age. Because Cailing came from the lower class without any background, she even couldn’t find a proper way to show her professional singing skill to the opera company. In sum, they didn’t share the same status at all, so it would be much more difficult for Cailing to achieve her own dream than for Katherine to spread her feministic theory.
What’s more, the difference in culture backgrounds also provides different endings to the two films. Though I have mentioned that both of the heroines were in a kind of conservative society, actually in the 60s America rose up the Sexual Liberation which was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships. I think it was a kind of trigger for everyone like Katherine Watson to express the feministic theory successfully at last, as the public gradually could accept and even propaganda kinds of radical theories. While looking back to And the Spring Comes, what about the culture where Cailing Wang stayed? During that period, the conservative thought still dominated many places of China, especially the rural area. What's more, it was also a hard period for Chinese Art to come through as Chinese people paid less attention on art than on the business. There were too many artists who received the support from the government instead of making money by themselves. What’s more, people even would think art ridiculous and made fun of the artists such as what Jinquan Hu(Gang Jiao) had experienced. There are many negative effects and eventually the reality failed Cailing.
Therefore I think it is necessary for us to adjust to the condition first and then take action to achieve our dreams. In my opinion in both films, the conflict is not only about the females’ rights and the conservative society, but also about an eternal topic — the dream and the reality. When we pursue our dreams, what about the reality? Katherine actually took advantage of her socioeconomic status and the cultural background, but Cailing had nothing but her zealousness and the professional skills. Due to the different outcomes, I believe that we are unable to afford to ignore the reality. Pursuing a dream needs favorable conditions.
When We Pursue Our Dreams, What About the Reality
叶小析 180124 Xiaoxi Ye
“Van Gogh…… refused to conform his ideals to the popular taste, and refused to compromise his integrity.”said Katherine Watson, the heroine in Mona Lisa Smile. It’s such an inspiring feministic manifesto about how to be yourself and accepted by many people. But if you were Cailing Wang in And The Spring Comes, would it be still easy for you to practice such a dream and even to make people understand it?
I believe the answer is “no". From my point of views, pursuing a dream needs favorable conditions.
Recently, I have watched two films. One is a 2003 American drama film called Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, and the other one is a Chinese one whose name is And The Spring Comes filmed by Changwei Gu.
From my perspective, between these two films there is a similarity in their themes —— Independent women remain steadfast in their destinations to overcome the hindrance and chase their own dreams. Both of them believed, or had believed before, that everyone shouldn’t be limited by the social stereotypes on women’s marriage and backgrounds about who they are. I was really moved by their optimism and fearlessness towards their dreams. For instance, in Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Watson took “Van Gulf in the box” as a bad example of painting in order to encourage the outstanding female students to chase what they really wanted instead of being what others thought they should be. However in And the Spring Comes, Cailing Wang, who refused to marry someone who didn’t understand her, would like to spend a large amount of money changing her residence into Beijing so she could make a living as a famous opera singer in Beijing, though many people believed her dream just a wildest dream. However, Joan Brandwyn(Julia Stiles), as a student of Katherine, eventually refused to go further study and went back to home. Yu Zhou (Guohua Wu) asked Cailing to become his wife instead of chasing her wildest dream. Unfortunately, both in the 50s in America and in China, it seems that it is obligatory for every single woman to be a full-time housewife instead of taking responsibility for choosing a more colorful future. So actually I think it is a fate that Katherine and Cailing were fighting against.
In both films, art plays an important role to directly show the audience how the dream comes true or fades away, in other words, why the feminism is realistic or unrealistic. In Mona Lisa Smile, varied kinds of paintings actually are spiritual bridges for Katherine connecting with her students. Katherine successfully gained her students’ appreciation for her feministic spirit at the end of Mona Lisa Smile. However, in And The Spring Comes, opera as a metaphor represents Cailing’s pure but unachievable dream. Cailing unavoidably became the victim of destiny, who gave up her dream and came back to her common life. Art is a metaphor of dream
In my opinion, the spiritual power in arts, in other words, in dreams, can be either powerful or fragile, which depends on the circumstance. It is apparent that Katherine Watson is in the upper class whereas Cailing Wang is in the lower class. As a well-educated elite who graduated from University of California Berkeley, there was no doubt that Katherine could get more opportunities and platforms to release her “feministic manifesto” than that of Cailing. We had to acknowledge that as a low-class citizen, Cailing needed to devote her whole life gaining a high social status which however Katherine had al-ready been granted naturally in her early age. Because Cailing came from the lower class without any background, she even couldn’t find a proper way to show her professional singing skill to the opera company. In sum, they didn’t share the same status at all, so it would be much more difficult for Cailing to achieve her own dream than for Katherine to spread her feministic theory.
What’s more, the difference in culture backgrounds also provides different endings to the two films. Though I have mentioned that both of the heroines were in a kind of conservative society, actually in the 60s America rose up the Sexual Liberation which was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships. I think it was a kind of trigger for everyone like Katherine Watson to express the feministic theory successfully at last, as the public gradually could accept and even propaganda kinds of radical theories. While looking back to And the Spring Comes, what about the culture where Cailing Wang stayed? During that period, the conservative thought still dominated many places of China, especially the rural area. What's more, it was also a hard period for Chinese Art to come through as Chinese people paid less attention on art than on the business. There were too many artists who received the support from the government instead of making money by themselves. What’s more, people even would think art ridiculous and made fun of the artists such as what Jinquan Hu(Gang Jiao) had experienced. There are many negative effects and eventually the reality failed Cailing.
Therefore I think it is necessary for us to adjust to the condition first and then take action to achieve our dreams. In my opinion in both films, the conflict is not only about the females’ rights and the conservative society, but also about an eternal topic — the dream and the reality. When we pursue our dreams, what about the reality? Katherine actually took advantage of her socioeconomic status and the cultural background, but Cailing had nothing but her zealousness and the professional skills. Due to the different outcomes, I believe that we are unable to afford to ignore the reality. Pursuing a dream needs favorable conditions.