Saving Face

Racism is ordinary for everyone, no matter who they are. People judge or discriminate others consciously or unconsciously. Racism can happen between 2 groups or within the same group. In Saving Face, the Chinese people judged each other through their perspective and tradition. For instance, Ma’s friends didn’t go to the Mahjong Party at her house or Grandpa made Ma leave the house because she was pregnant without a husband. In Chinese tradition, it was not okay to pregnant without a husband so everyone in the community isolated her and she was considered to be a bad daughter since she didn’t save her dad’s face.

Same-race discrimination is also based upon what things are being accepted of that group at a certain time and through time these things can changed. At the beginning of the film, Ma judged Wil’s African America friend because of his skin color and the way he eats. But living in a mixed race community and as she gets to know him more, she accepted him as a friend and she was mad when she thought Vivian doesn’t like him because of his skin color. Or at the end of the movie when Wil and Vivian, Ma and Little Yu dance together, the other Chinese people didn’t leave the party they instead joined them, this shown that these non-accepted traditions at that time can be accepted as these Chinese Americans assimilating to the new culture. The same message was brought in Takaki’s book through Jade Snow’s experience: “Jade had been told by her parents that she should not pursue a career but just be a wife and a mother”.  She didn’t like this idea so she left home and went to college to pursue a career as an artist, she made accomplishments in her career and at the end her dad was so proud of her achievements and as his daughter. Tradition and perspective can be changed through the culture that we are living in.