Snowflower and the Secret Fan" movie review

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

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One never knows how a movie will depict a story. It can range from too dramatized and exaggerated to subtle and sensitive to the richness that the plot details. “Snowflower and the Secret Fan” was a wonderful movie that captured many aspects of the Chinese culture in a universally relatable way.
Throughout the movie such topics as, laotong, foot binding, gender roles, and the modernization of China were creatively depicted. The lives of two young women are followed in both in a pre-modern and post-modern Chinese society. The parallel stories help the audience draw comparisons to the time periods and also the two stories assist in explaining the significance of such cultural staples like laotong. As an English teacher, I saw several ways that I could use the movie in my classroom. The vignettes that illustrated ancient China and modern day China would enable my students to observe the evolution of traditions and thought within a particular culture. Since there are a variety of topics covered, the movie can be used in almost any grade level of English. For instance, in eleventh and twelfth grade one standard focuses on critical theory and this movie could easily be analyzed through a feminist lens. The video can be paired with other texts from a variety of cultures and the visual would assist the students in understanding the, sometime, elusive concept of feminism.
I strongly encourage educators to see this movie and use it in their classrooms as a way of sharing aspects of the Chinese culture that might be unknown to students.

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