Pushing Hands (film)

Infobox Film
name = Pushing Hands


image_size = 175
caption = Movie poster
director = Ang Lee
producer =
writer = Ang Lee, James Schamus
narrator =
starring = Sihung Lung, Deb Snyder, Bo Z. Wang
music =
cinematography = Lin Jong
editing =
distributor =
released = 1992
runtime = 105 min
country = Taiwan
language = Mandarin Chinese, English
budget =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0105652

"Pushing Hands" (zh-cp |c=推手 |p=tuī shǒu) is a film directed by Ang Lee. Released in 1992, it was his first feature film.

Plot

The story is about an elderly Chinese tai chi chuan teacher and grandfather who emigrates from Beijing to live with his son, American daughter-in-law, and grandson in a New York City suburb. The grandfather is increasingly distanced from the family as a "fish out of water" in Western culture. The film shows the contrast between traditional Chinese ideas of Confucian relationships within a family and the much more informal Western emphasis on the individual. The friction in the family caused by these differing expectations eventually leads to the grandfather moving out of the family home (something very alien to traditional expectations), and in the process he learns lessons (some comical, some poignant) about how he must adapt to his new surroundings before he comes to terms with his new life.

Title

The title of the film refers to the pushing hands training that is part of the grandfather's tai chi routine. Pushing hands is a two person training which teaches tai chi students to yield in the face of brute force. Tai chi chuan teachers were persecuted in China during the Cultural Revolution, and the grandfather's family was broken up as a result. He sent his son to the West several years earlier and when he could he came to live with his family with the expectation of picking up where they left off, but he was unprepared for the very different atmosphere of the West. "Pushing Hands" thereby alludes to the process of adaptation to culture shock felt by a traditional teacher in moving to the United States.

External links

*imdb title|id=0105652|title=Pushing Hands