America Night in Beijing

Miracle of miracles, I was actually able to see the celebrated Toy Story 3 in all of its 3D glory right here in Beijing, and it was even in ENGLISH! I was ecstatic, especially since I thought I was going to have to wait until August, or even (gasp!) December to see "Pixar's best movie yet."

You see, even all the way over here in Beijing, we heard all the hype. Among my classmates, one of the most conversation-generating topics was the fact that everyone's 脸书 lianshu (lit. "face-book") News Feed was covered with comments from home about how Toy Story 3 was the most incredible movie ever. So it came as no surprise that, after our program organizer announced a voluntary excursion to see the movie in English, we nearly overwhelmed her with numbers.

Since it was an evening of us very obviously breaking from our Chinese cultural immersion, we decided to take our American night all the way. Dinner at McDonalds, dessert at Haagen Dazs, followed by a very conspicuous celebration of our American-ness while watching the movie. You see, our little 20-odd contingent of American students took up a solid 1/3 of the small theater, so we felt comfortable laughing, ooohing, awwwing, and crying at all the right moments, even if the rest of the (Chinese) audience didn't quite understand why we would react a particular way at a particular scene.

It was those circumstances, seeing the movie simultaneously with a group of my contemporaries and an even larger group of culturally-distanced moviegoers, that really defined my Toy Story 3 experience. My classmates around me felt what I felt as I watched the story, because it was Our Story as much as it was a Toy Story. The rising sophomores in the group are barely a year removed from being exactly in Andy's shoes. Back home, my sister in his position right now. The fact is, the Toy Story trilogy is a very real yardstick measuring how we've grown up. It illuminates the time and distance between who we were at age 5 and who we've now become. The final scene of the movie had me bawling like a baby, because it made me face that, as much as I wish otherwise, I am no longer a child. To paraphrase the New York Times review, it's the authenticity of a story about plastic playthings that gives Toy Story 3 its magic. All of us, my classmates and I, felt the story of our lives being told on that screen.

The entire time we were watching the movie, though, I couldn't help but be aware of the two completely different movie experiences that were happening in the theater. To us Americans, the movie was familiar: suburban houses, Disco Ken, cowboys & Potato Heads. But what did the Chinese audience see? Certainly the Beijingers in the crowd never experienced the sibling dynamic, due to Beijing's strict enforcement of the one-child policy. And with too many people all trying to live in one city, a spacious two-story home such as Andy's is unheard of. For the less wealthy in the audience, if they could even afford to come watch the movie, having so many material things that one has to pick and choose what to keep is a foreign concept. Or how about the references to Western gay (or at least metro) culture in the form of Ken's persona and Barbie's bookworm escape? And then finally, there is the language barrier. Cultural puns and dialogue sequences that to us are so hilarious, or so endearing, will never have the same impact on people not intimately familiar with the subtleties of our language.

The experience of watching an English movie with so many Chinese made me realize once again the importance of language in relation to culture. It's the vehicle through which a people's history, emotions, and practices are conveyed. If I want to have any hope of understanding the Chinese people, I need to know the language the was derived from thousands of years of cultural development.

Hmm... from plastic toys to a contemplation of one of my life's pursuits... whoops.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is this: I'm so glad the movie let me briefly connect back to the culture I left at home, as well as motivate me to push even harder to understand the culture I've immersed myself in.