Saving Face

The film Saving Face portrays the different gender and age perceptions in the Chinese American community and the difficulty of breaking from discrimination within the Chinese American culture. Ma and Wil, mother and daughter, are similar in many ways, especially in the fact that they are harboring feelings of love for someone that is considered unconventional in the Chinese American society. Both women, in order to remain the filial daughter, chooses to abandon their pursuit for happiness and remain within the Chinese customs and values. When Ma is discovered to be pregnant at age 48, this is seen as unacceptable to the rest of her family and society. She immediately becomes a social outcast, while her father practically disowns her.

Chinese women were expected to marry and have children, and this is seen in the movie. However, the film also provides a counter story in the perspective of the women. As Ma and Wil are watching the Chinese soap operas, Ma explains the characters to Wil. After naming the many "bad men" in the drama, she finally comes to the one "good man," the one the girl was to end up with. Like other Chinese women, Ma has a firm belief in the ideal husband and the ideal marriage. Both Ma and Mr. Chou stated that young women or men were fickle with their feelings, one day they might say they love you, but the next, "who knows?" This ideology is one of the reasons why the Chinese American society disapproved with the relationship Ma had with little Yu.

The relationship between Ma and her father can also be found in the memoir by Shirley Geok-lin Lim Among the White Moon Faces. Her father originally brought Ma to America so that she may live a better life, similar to what the mother in the memoir wishes for her baby son. However, like the mother, Ma's father is unable to suppress his Chinese customs and values. After finding out Ma was pregnant, ashamed, he refuses to see her again even as Ma's mother lies dying in the hospital. Ma eventually also raises Wil with Chinese customs, even though she herself broke those customs many times. This just shows that race is not a biological concept, but a social concept. Although both Ma and Wil were biologically Chinese, their identity was molded by the American society. They began to accept ideas that are considered outrageous and even act in behaviors that may be seen as inappropriate.