Children's Films, Role Models, and Broken Bamboo Mats

announcements November 2008 | Vol. VII No. 3 One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads Children’s Films, Role Models, The Center for the Humanities and Broken Bamboo Mats Advisory Board 2008–2009 here is an ancient Chinese par- Flyboys centers upon two twelve-year-olds: Jason, Nancy Berg Associate Professor of Asian and Near able that is still repeated today: from a middle class family, whose grandfather won Eastern Languages and Literatures Once upon a time, there was a numerous medals for bravery during WW II; and Ken Botnick family of a grandfather, a father, Kyle, who just moved into town and lives with Associate Professor of Art Gene Dobbs Bradford and a son. The father neglected his single mother. Their relationship begins when Executive Director the grandfather, and when the Jason and Kyle take on the school bullies and end Jazz St. Louis Lingchei (Letty) Chen old man died, the father was so up hanging around an airstrip. Jason talks Kyle Associate Professor of Modern Chinese stingy that he dragged the body into sneaking onto a small airplane, which takes off Language and Literature T Elizabeth Childs from the house on a broken bamboo mat. When the Associate Professor and Chair of boy saw this, he told his father: “Please don’t forget Department of Art History and At a time when children Archaeology to bring the mat back. It is still useful.” The father, have very little freedom to Mary-Jean Cowell please to hear this, asked his son what he would use Associate Professor of Performing Arts have adventures and explore Phyllis Grossman it for. His son answered: “I will need it when you Retired Financial Executive die.” the world for themselves, it Michael A. Kahn Author and Partner Children learn what they see, and parents are is important that they have Bryan Cave LLP Chris King their first role models. This fact is as old as the alternatives provided by Editorial Director parent–child relationship. If parents express in- children’s films. The St. Louis American Newspaper tolerance, if they lie or are dismissive of their own Olivia Lahs-Gonzales Director parents or children, these lessons will be learned Sheldon Art Galleries by their children. Today, however, there are other Paula Lupkin before they can make their exit. They stow away in Assistant Professor of Architecture models for children, models parents resort to when Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts they do not have sufficient time or energy to be the luggage compartment. Upon emerging, they Erin McGlothlin find that the pilot and passengers have vanished. Associate Professor of German parents: the television set and the DVD player. At a Steven Meyer time when children have very little freedom to have They are on their own at 15,000 feet. The film then Associate Professor of English flashes back to the story of Silvio, the black-sheep Wang Ning adventures and explore the world for themselves, Professor of English, Tsinghua University it is important that they have alternatives provided son of a crime family. Deep in debt, Silvio decides Joe Pollack to rob his brother Angelo, the head of the Vegas Film and Theater Critic for KWMU, by children’s films. We should ask where these Writer film adventures are taking them. Which images of mob. His plan is to be on the family plane when a Anne Posega childhood are being honored, and which are being big shipment of casino profits is being flown out. He Head of Special Collections, Olin Library plans to kill the pilot and passengers, dump their Sarah Rivett unceremoniously pulled out on broken mats? Some Assistant Professor of English of these issues will be explored during the Center bodies, then jump out himself with a parachute and Henry Schvey the cash. This brings us back to the two boys at- Professor of Drama for the Humanities’ fifth annual Children’s Film James Wertsch Festival, November 21–22, 2008. tempting to land the deserted plane with little more Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and than the information they’ve picked up watching a Sciences This year, I was able to preview only one of the Director of International and Area Studies friend pilot his aircraft. Qiu Xiaolong films to be screened at the festival, The Flyboys. The Novelist and Poet Ex Officio Ralph Quatrano Interim Dean, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Zurab Karumidze visit our blog site at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/publications/blog.html Tbilisi, Republic Of Georgia editor’s notes continued The thing that struck me while watch- market economy. Another is Confucius’s resigned his post. Confucius spent the ing this film was that the children’s belief that human beings are perfect- next thirteen years wandering from state families played only a very small role in ible and can be led along the right path to state, advocating and attempting the story. Neverthe- to implement his less, both families political and social are shown sharing reforms. He devoted routines such as eat- the last five years ing dinner together of his life to writ- or sharing evening ing and died in 479 talks. Because Jason’s B.C. His disciples grandfather seldom referred to him as left his room, Jason Kong Fu-tzu, mean- took his dinner to ing “Kong the Mas- him and tried to ter,” a respectful title talk with him. Kyle that was latinized and his mother had into “Confucius.” established a rou- Confucius be- tine of morning and lieved that family evening talks. Such piety was crucial family routines and to a stable society rituals remind us that because it created we are not detached children who would entities but are bound respect, value, and into a web of human Image from the Cultural Revolution: a group of students listened to an Anti-Confucius talk in maintain virtuous relationships that define Confucius’s family yard. Copyright © Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images behavior in themselves who we are and where and in their own off- we fit into the world. This is also the core through education. He emphasized the spring. Although some may think these of Confucius’s writings, where family is power of education to improve society lessons are only of antiquarian interest, everything. and to teach citizenship. Confucius was addressing universal Because the Chinese communist party Although little is verifiable about issues concerning human relationships was once virulently anti-Confucian, I Confucius’s life, the best source avail- that endure through the millennia. At a found it odd that Confucius was quoted able is The Analects (479–221 B.C.), the time in American society when prob- at the start of the Olympic opening collection of his sayings written by his lems surrounding aging boomer parents ceremony in Beijing, as if he was a followers. Much of the biographical and grandparents loom over many natural part of the five thousand years detail about his life surfaced long after people’s lives, the wisdom of Confucius of continuous history being presented his death and most of it is of question- reminds us of our responsibility as role there. In fact, although I was brought up able historical status. However, there are models. The manner in which we treat in a culture where Confucian values are some basic facts that can be accepted. our parents and our children is not so pervasive that people don’t recognize Confucius was born Chiu King about only how they will treat us, it is also an their source, my first introduction to 550 B.C. during a period of constant example for the way their children will Confucius came from the anti-Confucius warfare in China. He was a contem- treat them. If we share our power and campaign during the Cultural Revolu- porary of the Buddha and Lao-tzu and our responsibilities with films and other tion. As a teenager I was taught that lived immediately before Socrates and media, then we should require of them Confucianism was the guiding philoso- Plato. Nothing is known for certain what we expect of ourselves. We can pass phy of a feudal society dominating China concerning his ancestors except that his on our values through for more than two thousand years. But it father died soon after his birth, leaving the generations, or we seems that China is determined to drag his upbringing to his mother. He be- can be dragged out on the bamboo mat and Confucius back came a teacher in his early twenties, and a broken mat to the into the house and try to revive the old that proved to be his calling in life. His dustbin of history. “grandfather” to educate the children. fame spread rapidly, attracting a strong There are a number of reasons China core of disciples. Confucius held minor might want to do this. One is the loss of posts until age fifty, when he became a Chinese Marxism as a legitimizing high official, but he soon had a falling Jian Leng influence in the face of a growing out with his superiors and subsequently Associate Director Center for the Humanities st. louis literary calendar book of the month by Gerald Early Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography the pop hit “Downtown”), and Dusty By Richard Stirling Springfield. St. Martin’s Press, 2008, 376 pages with But the figure who seemed to tower index, bibliography, filmography, and over all of them was singer/actress Julie photos Andrews. The fact that she starred in the single most beloved musical and one It’s like seeing your mother naked. It of the most successful commercial films would be like pissing in the wind to in cinema history (The Sound of Music) try and reinvent her as the bad girl and that she won an Oscar for her lead of Hollywood.

Load more