Mina Shum's Film Double Happiness and the Five Stages of Culture Shock

Test Two
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Test Two
Question 1: Why Director Mina Shum Name Her First Feature-Length Film Double Happiness
For the National Film Board of Canada co-produced Double Happiness, Mina Shum directed this 1994 Canadian drama.  Sandra Oh portrays Jade Li, a Chinese-Canadian actress striving to break free from her family's expectations. Callum Jade's love interest, Mark, is played by Keith Rennie. Jade's parents' goal is to keep Chinese customs alive in the North American melting pot that is Vancouver, where she was raised. They did not even need subtitles for this. Jade (Sandra Oh) is in her early twenties when Double Happiness begins, and she maintains a life that is distinct from her family's daily routine. It is no secret that Dad works as a security guard and follows penny stocks; Mom worries that Jade should find a decent Chinese lad so she can have grandkids, and her sister Pearl is a co-conspirator as well.
Jade gives them what they want to hear despite her parents' expectations. After a rare one-night encounter, her lie crumbles as she returns home to find her parents already awake. A good-looking young lawyer takes Jade sightseeing and finally confesses he is homosexual and takes her on a date. Jade whispers to her parents the one thing they did not want to hear. Jade has aspirations of pursuing a career in acting. Her parents do not understand or support her decision to pursue a career in show business. On the other hand, Hollywood's Chinese-Canadian acting community is not well represented. When the casting director attempts to convey something to her during an audition, she suddenly understands what he means. He wants her to speak in a highly accented version of pidgin English, similar to Chinese movie characters.
On the other hand, Jade meets Mark, a white man, and falls in love. Her parents will have cats, so this is not going to work. The film's title, Double Happiness, refers to how she makes everyone happy by compartmentalizing her life. Jade, of course, is the one who is upset. Finally, all of the ruses come crashing down. Double Happiness does what it sets out to do for all its shortcomings. It begins with a conversational, revealing tone, and it never lets up, like a lengthy letter from a trusted friend. This continent has been populated by people who left their homes and sought to carry their cultures. By the conclusion, she has narrated a narrative that has been repeated for ages on this continent. She contributes sweetness and elegance, while Sandra Oh provides an amicable arrangement. Additionally, Jade's Chinese uncle shows an engaging show that proves he is more adaptable and modern than her parents believe. Many other interpretations might be ascribed to the term Double Happiness. Still, for some reason, it reminded me of the names of many Chinese restaurants, where I suppose it signifies that you'll be satisfied while also being happy.
Question 2: Five stages of culture shock
Experiencing a new culture might cause people to reassess both the new host and their own home culture in moments. As recently as a few years ago, the culture shock was thought of as always wrong, like a sickness or disease. Six negative aspects of culture shock have been identified, including; rejection by the new culture, confusion in the definition of roles, expectations for roles, feelings, and self-identity, and unexpected anxiety or disgust due to cultural differences between the two cultures, psychological strain, a sense of loss or deprivation due to the removal of former friends; rejection by or rejection of the new culture (Wu et al. 2018). Based on the work of Oberg and others, Peter Adler has defined the phases of culture shock.
As a five-stage educational and developmental process with both good and adverse outcomes, culture shock is described in this way. During the honeymoon period, a freshly arrived individual enjoys the thrill and wonder of a traveler but retains their essential identity in the familiar surroundings of home. In the second stage, the individual's old familiar signals start to disintegrate, and they become overwhelmed by the demands of the new society. As a result, individual tends to blame themselves for any troubles that arise. New clues and an improved capacity to operate in the new culture are part of the third stage of cultural reintegration. Angry and resentful feelings against the new culture are expected since they are seen as causing problems and being less sufficient than the old established methods. People at this stage of culture shock are challenging to assist because of their outward-directed rage. The goal in stage four is continued reintegration toward progressive autonomy and the capacity to identify each culture's positive and negative aspects (Wu et al., 2018). The individual develops a broader perspective that allows them to understand better both their old culture and the culture of their new home. A person is considered a bicultural individual after achieving reciprocal interdependence or being equally at home in both the old and new cultures. There is substantial debate about whether this level of diversity is an unattainable goal or whether individuals can genuinely accomplish it.
A collection of thirteen short stories written and translated by Chinese-Canadian authors over the past two decades, Toward the North is the first anthology to show how new Chinese immigrants to Canada see a multicultural country. The anthology's focus is on Chinese people's cross-cultural and transnational experiences. Most writers are concerned about how their characters' cultural identities will be redefined as they travel across time and space. Rather than focusing only on the "yellow/white" dichotomy, these tales demonstrate how the Chinese community interacts with other ethnic groups in Canada (Wu et al., 2018). There are compelling depictions of conflicts between cultural assimilation and resentment. The writers' responses to their characters' lives in cultural limbo are great topics and styles.
Question 3: Cultural Resistance and Assimilation
The editors of Toward the North: Stories by Chinese Canadian Writers, Hua Laura Wu, Xueqing Xu, and Corinne Bieman Davi...