Chinese Folk Songs : The Chinese Story And The Human Story Of Women 's Oppression

Both Yellow Earth and Two Stage Sisters use oppressed females as the main characters where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be the solution to provide liberation for them. The main characters are portrayed as strong willed. In Two Stage Sisters, Chunhua has a strong sense of righteousness which is displayed throughout the film. She is insistent on performing the revolutionary operas even though it may be a threat to her life. Her strong nature is shown again in her willingness to stand up to those who tried to ruin her reputation in the courtroom scene. Cuiqiao, from Yellow Earth, also shows strong will to break from oppressive tradition of arranged marriage and seek freedom with the CCP. The films show the character development from both main characters being in the working class to being exposed to these new ideas.

The theme of this story can be expressed as a story of suffering and racism. Though the theme may be thought of as just about a young boy who gets himself in trouble with drugs and tries to redeem himself by his passion of music; it

The poem "A Song of Changgan" is very poignant, as it starts with a bashful girl who does not even smile around her husband and ends with her almost heartbroken, as her husband is far away. The poem shows the different stages of the relationship of the speaker and her husband, and it is an excellent example of long-distance relationships before modern communication systems.

The imagery in song lyrics is important when introducing a message; if one’s goal is to offer reflection to the listener. In “Don’t You Cry For Me”, Cobi achieves this through his mass use of metaphors, the extensive images of the tree and hanging are elements that are key in conveying his messages of fear, redemption, and injustice. This song directs listeners to stand up and not be afraid to fight for what they believe, in a way that can connect to them emotionally. The imagery in songs offers reflection into topics that are personal for each

In the book “A Long Way Gone” music plays a role as a healer and a saviour.

A multitude of people nowadays choose their favorite songs because of how they sound and the attractiveness of the singer. However, some people select their favorite songs because of its appeal by relating to their personalities and feelings. Just as songs can relate to people, they can express countless similarities with stories as well. When it comes to the story, The Diary of Anne Frank, there are a variety of characters and events that songs can relate to. The songs “Chocolate Rain”, “The Last Goodbye”, and “Lost Cities”, verbalize numerous commonalities with The Diary of Anne Frank.

In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)

During the time that The Thousand and One Nights was written, polygamy, a man having multiple wives at the same time, was a very common practice for men. According to “Connor Prairie Interactive History Park,” despite this being such a common practice, women did not always agree with the practice of polygamy and often had horrible disputes with other wives. Because of these sometimes unruly disputes, women were thought of as sinful and promiscuous (Hartman). King Shahryar in The Thousand and One Nights upheld the standard role of men during that time, but Shahrazad rejected the cultural standard placed on her by practically forcing the king to live a monogamous lifestyle.

with people. In order to find her own "voice" in a society that is not

Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a

The peasants in Yellow Earth struggle hard to survive against the hardships of the land. Now the difference in these child brides lives is that Chunhua escapes from her in-laws and finds a better life as an opera singer but we are unsure about whether Cuiqiao escapes or dies trying. Also like Chunhua, Cuiqiao befriends a person (brother Gu) who is a communist who changes her worldview and perspective. There are also men also oppress Chunhua and Cuiqiao. Comparing the two films, we know that they both are child brides, oppressed by men, and meet someone who influences them to

In the film, The Yellow Earth directly addresses a relationship between the nature of the land that underlies the Maoist revolutionary. Peasants in The Yellow Earth struggle hard to survive against the hardships of the land, as they have done throughout their tradition and that tradition is questioned by a soldier that brings them the idea of Communism. Communism was meant to improve the lives of these peasants and create equality for all. In Chinese culture there is the ‘Theory of the Five Elements’ that is represented in the film as each representation of nature in the film is presented in a way to show this theory as that Earth is the color of yellow. Another example, is such as the girl in the opening scene, who spends a lot of time carrying

Wong Kar Wai’s movies often have a particular style of murmuring, the movie “In the Mood for Love” isn’t an exception. Wong focuses on describing the regret and helplessness repeatedly during the movie time. Yet the background of the movie is based on the period of 1960s in Hong Kong, Wong keeps highlighting the city Shanghai and leaves many clues of it: the song singing in Shanghainese in the very beginning of the movie; the Shanghainese land lady, who is willing to sharing her room with the main character Suu, who also moved from Shanghai, and the traditional dress of Shanghai women: Cheongsam, which Suu wears it all the time during the movie. Wong shows his memory of Shanghai in this movie, reflecting his nostalgia by those symbols.

Directed by Chen Kaige, a highly acclaimed fifth-generation Chinese film director, Farewell My Concubine has received many international film awards and nominations; among them are the Best Foreign Film and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993. In the film, Cheng Dieyi, a Peking Opera actor playing the leading female characters, becomes obsessed with his role as the concubine of the King of Chu and blurs his stage role with the real life he leads. The circumstances in which one grows up in are critical factors in shaping his or her sense of self-identity. This paper attempts to explore the gender identity troubles that Cheng Dieyi has undergone in his self-identification and sexuality in the context of the environment of his

The novel Weep Not, Child by Ngugi was Thiongio will be explored in this paper. The novel unfolds a tale of a young boy, Njoronge, growing up in the rime of the Mau Mau insurgency that swept away Kenya in the fifties and early sixties. The novel reveals a metamorphosis of Kenya through political, social and cultural conflict lens in the 1952- 1960. By folding different generations of storytelling with each character of the book, Weep Not, Child becomes alive with vivacity. It gives a certain musical element to the flow of the short subsections; they function as contrasted and counterpoints, moving from scenes of quietness to ones of distress. These paper will fist look upon a boy Njoroge and the love he shared with Mwihaki, daughter of his family’s tormenter, then a discussion on political violence and colonial that took place in Kenya then later unfolds the undying grief that the Mau Mau and Gikuyu suffered.