From Conflict To Integration

Film, as an important form of mass media, plays a significant role in cultural transmission. The significance of Ang Lee's films in intercultural communication has got more and more attention. His films are very popular in western society and his audiences are not only from Asian areas but from the whole world.In this dissertation, the theory of managing conflict and negotiating face and the intercultural adaptation theory are used to analyze Ang Lee's five representative films, which are Pushing Hands, Wedding Banquet, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution. According to culture conflicts and cultural integrations reflected in Ang Lee's different periods of films, the author hopes to investigate the formation process of his intercultural personhood. Intercultural personhood, which is proposed by Young Yun Kim, is a concept in intercultural communication. It projects a kind of human development that is open to growth---a growth beyond the perimeters of one's own cultural upbringing. Because of long-term intercultural life experience, Ang Lee, who has deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture in his early years, has experienced the culture shock which is caused by differences of eastern and western cultures. He has also gone through the process of intercultural adaptation and eventually has formed the unique culture identity as a film director. Ang Lee's films reflect the formation process of his intercultural personhood, which enables him to discern humanity.Pushing Hands and Wedding Banquet, his early films, emphasize conflicts between eastern and western culture, which include the differences of conflict styles between collectivists and individualists, different family values in eastern and western cultures especially reflected in the father's status, and differences on face-concern. The ends of these two films indicate that the director Ang Lee is thinking about the culture conflicts. In Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee begins to focus on the integration of eastern and western cultures. Eastern and western view of love and value of family are integrated, which evokes resonance from eastern and western audiences. In Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution, Ang Lee states his understanding of humanity in his special story-telling way. At this time, he successfully interprets these controversial topics in his films with a perspective beyond culture boundaries.Forming intercultural personhood is a long process. It needs deep understanding of different cultures. From Ang Lee's films, we can see that he has formed intercultural personhood: taking root in upbringing culture and absorbing the advanced parts of western culture so as to promote the positive development of humanity. With the development of globalization, intercultural personhood has become more and more important in eliminating estrangement caused by cultural differences and enhancing all-round exchange among people. It could not only lessen culture conflicts but also advance intercultural communication as well as promote our native culture.