摘 要

李安是享誉国际影坛的著名导演，人们认为他的电影架起了中西方文化的桥梁，所以在他的电影中不难发现中国的传统文化与西方的现代文化。生于书香门第的李安幼时便深受中华传统文化的影响.毕业后留美深造并致力于对电影的研究，因而西方文化也在潜移默化地改变着李安的思想。本文以中华传统孝文化为切入点，通过赡养父母、婚姻和父权三个层面来分析李安家庭三部曲中（《推手》、《喜宴》及《饮食男女》）中华孝文化的传承及其与西方文化的冲突。

本文共分三章，第一章介绍李安的教育经历；第二章介绍中华文化中孝文化的定义及其三个主要层面：赡养父母、婚姻和父权；第三章以跨文化视角具体分析家庭三部曲中孝文化在西方文化背景下的冲击与妥协。

关键词：家庭三部曲；《推手》；《喜宴》；《饮食男女》

Abstract

Ang Lee is a world renowned director. It is well acknowledged that his movies build up a bridge between Chinese and Western culture, so his movies are the combined results of Chinese traditional culture and Western modern culture. Ang Lee was born in a family of scholars, and he was affected deeply by Chinese traditional culture when he was young. After graduation, he went to America to study film for further education, so Western culture also had a subtle influence on his mind. From the perspectives of the three aspects entailed in Chinese traditional filial piety: supporting parents, marriage and paternity, this paper analyzes the inheritances of Chinese filial piety and its conflicts with Western culture in Ang Lee’s Family Trilogy (Pushing Hands, Wedding Banquet, and Eat Drink Man Woman).

This paper is divided into three chapters, the first chapter introduces Ang Lee’s educational experiences. The second chapter gives the definition of filial piety in Chinese culture and its main three aspects: supporting parents, marriage and paternity; The third chapter analyzes the conflicts and compromises of filial piety with the cross-cultural angle in family trilogy under the background of Western culture.

Key words：Family Trilogy; Pushing Hands; Wedding Banquet; Eat Drink Man Woman

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The Influences of Chinese and Western Education 2

3 Connotations of Filial Piety 3

3.1 Supporting parents 3

3.2 Paternity 4

3.3 Marriage 4

4 Inheritances of Filial Piety and Its Conflicts with Western Culture in Family Trilogy

6

4.1 Pushing Hands 6

4.1.1 Plot of Pushing Hands 6

4.1.2 The conflicts of supporting parents 6

4.1.3 Inheritances: conflicts and compromises 8

4.2 Wedding Banquet 9

4.2.1 Plot of Wedding Banquet 9

4.2.2 The conflicts of marriage 9

4.2.3 Inheritances: conflicts and compromises 11

4.3 Eat Drink Man Woman 12

4.3.1 Plot of Eat Drink Man Woman 12

4.3.2 The conflicts of paternity 12

4.3.3 Inheritances: conflicts and compromises 14

5 Conclusions 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 19

Inheritance of Filial Piety and Its Conflicts with Western Culture

–—A Case Study of Ang Lee’s Family Trilogy

1 Introduction

When Lee was young, he was inspired by Chinese culture. In adulthood, he was affected by Western culture. Because of the special education and growing environment, Lee always feels deeper than others about the Western and Chinese cultures, and the modern and traditional cultures. It is he that stands on the cultural junction, he can use the cosmopolitan view to make films. His tolerant attitude becomes the only way to solve the cultural dilemmas and conflicts.

As Chinese cultural foundation is deeply rooted in Ang Lee’s mind, he got many unique and new ideas when facing with Western culture. And Lee put these special thoughts in his movies, especially in Chinese movies. Pushing Hands (1991) is Lee’s first feature film, together with two following films, Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), which forms his Family Trilogy, this is also known as the “Father Knows Best”, each movie deals with conflicts between an older and more traditional generation and their children as they confront a world of change. The three movies not only show the Chinese traditional culture which covers the traditional family thoughts, such as the upper position of paternity, the concept of supporting parents and marriage, but also introduce the Western culture.

To analyze the three movies can understand the conflicts between traditional and modern culture, Western and eastern culture, and help people to inherit their own culture and absorb other cultures’ essence.

2 The Influences of Chinese and Western Education

Ang lee was born in a so scholarly family and well-read that he was deeply affected by the Chinese traditional culture. His father who devoted his whole to engaging in education followed the traditional way to rule the family and educate Ang Lee. He said he always kept the feeling of awe to his father, and should kneel before elders during traditional festival in a very long time. The education Ang Lee received in his childhood was definitely strict and traditional.

In primary school, Ang Lee experienced two educational systems (two schools) which stand for the Taiwan culture, one is Central Plains Culture the other is Japanese culture. Even though he met lots of troubles, he still learned how to adapt to new cultural environment under the culture shocks.

In university, his major was film and play. In the 1970s, the Taiwan society was so conservative and closed, people would take a disgusting attitude towards this filed which couldn’t be respected and valued. Even so, Ang Lee’s soul first time achieved liberation and he found a way to express his feeling and emotion, and this is the beginning of Ang lee’s film career.

With the needs of study and work, he went to America after graduation. It was at that time that the Western culture began to give an impact to his mind. In the first year, he got two super culture shocks: sex in play and banned books. He obtained different point of views to look at his identity at the first time. The situation he studied in America was similar to that he studied in his second primary school. Ang Lee, as a foreign, needed to adapt himself to the new environment, but this time he was not a young boy again, he could find a suitable way to deal with his interpersonal relationship.

Studying and living in abroad let Ang Lee know and experience the dilemma of eastern culture which makes the classic family trilogy.

3 Connotations of Filial Piety

The ancient says: filial piety is the foundation of all virtues. Filial piety, the cornerstone of Chinese traditional ethics, is the important moral criterion to maintain the family relationship. Alfred and Sheung-Tak says:

The family has been central to the social organization of Chinese societies for thousands of years. There is a long history in which the Chinese family functions as a close-knit social unit from which its members draw on each other's resources for meeting psychological, social, and physical needs. (p. 262)