Saving Face

Saving Face

As I watched the film Saving Face, I observed that the Chinese characters defined love as a relationship between a man and a woman. When Will confessed to her mom, Gao, that she is a lesbian, but first she told her mother that she loves her. When Gao heard this, she refused to accept that Will could love her and be a lesbian at the same time because Gao taught her that being gay is wrong when Will was a child. Gao appears to believe in the Critical Race Term "Gay/Lesbian/Queer Legal Theory", which puts sexual orientation and liberation at the center of analysis. When Will told her mother that she was a lesbian, her mom was shocked and told her that Will's sexuality went against their traditions, putting a wedge between them that almost prevented Will from preventing her mom from marrying a man she did not love.

Will was similarly affected by this belief. When she and Vivian first began their relationship, Will hid the relationship from her mother out of fear of disappointing her. Additionally, Will was hesitant to express her feelings for Vivian in public, hurting Vivian so deeply that she broke up with Will. In a later scene, Will and Vivian were openly expressing their affections for one another in a party that their mothers had invited them to. When the two women began dancing, many of the elderly Chinese men and women left the party because they thought the two women were "disgusting", "disgraceful" and violated their beliefs, intentionally trying to bash the two lesbians with their harsh words. Will's and Vivian's grandfathers were also uncomfortable with their granddaughters' decisions, placing their traditions and reputations above their love for their family.