Saving Face

Sunday, 19 September 2010

About Me

I’m a sucker for the emotional roller coaster that movies can put your mind on. The endorphin rush and other chemical changes that a simple movie can induce is one of the reasons I like them so much. I’m easy, as they would say. Most movies can make me laugh, cry, and in general will tug at my heart and soul with ease. When I was younger, and had more time, I would read lots of books, and after some time I would not see the words on the page anymore, but see pictures, moving pictures of what was being written on the page. My imagination would take off, and I could feel, see, smell, and hear everything. It was like being part of the story.

Today I watched a very good movie (one of several). It’s called “Saving Face”. The bulk is in mandarin with english sub-titles. The gist of it is basically a story about acceptance and about being able to live in this world the way you are. The main character of the movie is a young lesbian chinese woman, who through the movie comes out of the closet. The story tellers make you wish that she would come out earlier, live life as her love intends, and just embrace herself and her own being. I understand this struggle very well. It is something that I’ve struggled with for a good part of my life, yet I struggle to understand the same struggle in other people. I have a hard time being able to understand the reluctance of the world to simply accept people with different viewpoints, with different souls than ourselves. Why would you let your culture threaten someone else’s soul? Is culture not here because of our souls and what they are passionate about? Does not having a diversity in souls make our culture stronger and richer? And in the end, does not a diverse, richer, and deeper culture make us all stronger?