Saving Face (Jacob Butler)

The film “Saving Face” reminded me of the Model Minority myth.  In the start of the film, we learn Wilhelmina (Wil) is a surgeon.  She  is very Americanized with her “boyish clothes” and the ways she speaks is very American.  As the film progresses, however it is illustrated that the Model Minority is truly a myth.  We see the dreamy eyes being made between Vivian and Wil, and later learn about Hwei-Lan Go (Ma) getting pregnant out of wedlock.  Vivian was a contemporary dancer, to which her parents disapproved.  Finally, Ma had left Mr. Cho at the alter.  Throughout the movie, it shows that Chinese Americans don’t always follow one route to success.  The Model Minority Myth is just that, a myth.  This is very remnant of the piece we read in Bold Words “Monkey King”.  In this piece, we learn about Sally, she also challenges the Model Minority Myth.  Sally got divorced from her husband, and quit her job.  Her plan was to do art when she quit, but she never ended up seriously pursuing this passion.  As the story goes on, we learn about her resentment of her father.  We see signs of depression and self harm.  She doesn’t fit the idea or mold of the perfect minority, like the people seen in “Saving Face”.  

This film exemplifies that everyone has a compound and complex identity.  Vivian is a lesbian dancer who grew up in a very driven household.   Her grandma had immigrated to America and fought in the Chinese Revolution.   Wil is an amazing surgeon, in fact her boss says she will be chief surgeon by the time she turns forty. She is dating Vivian, and living with her mother.  There is a lot of aspects that goes into these characters to make them both unique and composites of their environments.  

The mother is very traditional when she doesn’t accept that Wil is a lesbian and then Wil says “Then maybe I shouldn’t be your daughter”.  There is also a clash of tradition at the end of the movie when her father is watching the dancing, her pregnant mother is dancing with a younger man, and the two girls are dancing.  His friend says, “it’s getting harder to predict the future” then puts his hand on the father's shoulder.  The father then acts surprised and even slightly repulsed by that action.  It demonstrates the tension of the traditional ways, like the father prefers, and the way things are going with the people that were on the dance floor.  When the father first learned that Ma was pregnant, he disowned her, but later he accepts her, breaking  tradition.  He was worried about his reputation.  This tradition is also seen in “Eat a Bowl of Tea” when Mei Oi has an affair, and Ben’s father fears what his reputation will become.  

This film reminds me of the piece “Kim” that we read.   We learned in the story that Kim, who the men at first thought was a girl, turns out to be a guy.  The men’s homophobia is clearly present when Kim reveals this fact.  In the film, Ma refuses to accept that Wil is a lesbian.  She clearly tells her “you are not a lesbian”.  Later however,  Ma sets up Wil with Vivian in the final scene of the movie, accepting her daughter for who she is.