The Gua Sha Treatment

The Gua Sha Treatment
The Gua Sha Treatment is a film described the differences between American and Chinese culture. Xu Datong is a video games designer in St. Louis, his wife is Jan Ning. They have a child named Dennis. Datong’s father come to visit from China, he performs Gua Sha on his grandson Dennis ,who is sufferring a stomach ache. This treatment leaves bright red marks on the skin of Dennis. But it causes a lawsuit of child abuse. As Americans know nothing about Gua Sha, Datong loses his main idea in court, he finally loses the custody of his son. I think most of the Chinese people was shocked and thought-provoked by this scene. Datong’s friend ,John also couldn’t understand him. Hence, John went to China, had a Gua Sha in person. he finally knew that Gua Sha has a 2000 years history and how it come to play with people’s meridians.John got the reason to explain Datong’s behavior. This movie has a happy ending, the whole family has an very impressive Christmas Eve.
In this film, we can find many differences between Chinese and American. Gua Sha is a traditional treatment in China, but it is considered to abuse to child in America. Datong just tries to analysis other cultures from his own cultures. They will feel tough and upset when people encountered something unexpected, this will causes some obstacles in the intercultural communication.
Another difference is the viewpoint on how to educate the child. Chinese parents show their love to the child by beating their child, if the child had done something wrong. Chinese parents think that can help the children to correct their mistake promptly and make them become a great person. However, in America, people think it is beyond the law that parents beat their child, it is a kind of child abuse and will possibly take the child far away from their parents while Chinese parents think that is an unbelievable thing.
We also can point out the different attitudes towards abortion between China and America. The doctor accuses Datong because Datong thinks that is a commen sense to kill his child in order to save his wife. In Western countries, it has always condemned abortion as a grave evil in the Catholic Church. In contrast, Chinese don’t have such debate about killing human beings, it is a government population-controlling policy and just emphasizes women’s moral virtue.
The relationship between friends in China and America is also very different. In China, a friend is the one that can do almost every thing for his friend. Although it is just a few good friends in their life, a friendship is a
life-long relationship. Two good friends may do every thing together. In America, a person can own a lot of friends in all walks of life. Some friends are for sports clubs; some are for going to pubs; some are for travelin g. They don’t have much responsibility to each other. People can find new friends quickly as the population flowing. So their friends are changing all the time and seldom have life-long friends.
Datong asks “who is my best friend” to John for getting his help in the court though John is copyright lawyers. Datong turns very angry when John tells the truth to the judge that Datong has ever beaten Dennis, he can’t understand why John said so. He thinks John should not tell the truth and should help in every effort. But John just stands on what he sees instead of telling lies to the judge.
What impresses me most is the view about the concept of “face” with China and America. Chinese people pay much attention on giving others face, emphasizes the harmony of individual conduct with the views and judgment of the community. Chinese face encodes a reputable image that individuals can claim for themselves as they interact with others. Datong asks Dennis to apologize w hen Dennis beat John’s son, but Dennis refused to do so, so Datong hit him in order to show respect for John. Of course John can’t understand why Datong does this, he thinks Datong should not beat Dennis and he finds this kind of Chinese logic is very twisty!
In Chinese traditional culture, we emphasize the seniority order. The young should obey the older. But in America, they advocates individual liberty and intergenerational equality. In addition, Chinese people draw attention to the collectivism which teaches us to build the harmonious coexistence between people, so we always try to avoid the conflict in communication and give others face. American people also pay attention to the respect to others, but they care more about the truth. Business is business.
As the world becomes more and more closely linked, the study of intercultural communication become more and more important. Though people from different background have lots of obstacles in communication, the relation is closer. People in this modern world are much more open minded than ever before. And as the study of intercultural communication continues,the world will be a big harmonious family!。