Considering most Asian-Americans seemed to have immediately gotten the message, I'm not saying it's a race thing but, there's a lot of white people that didn't get it.
Polygon: The polarized reactions to Pixar’s Bao are rooted in culture
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Considering most Asian-Americans seemed to have immediately gotten the message, I'm not saying it's a race thing but, there's a lot of white people that didn't get it.
Implying what? That white people don't understand moms? Lol
I saw it yesterday with my daughter and spent the whole time on the verge of tears and then wept openly for the last few minutes.
I thought it was fantastic and moving.
I thought it was fantastic and moving.
Idk how else to describe why it's getting the response it's getting. Empty nest syndrome isn't a new thing. So, was it the Bao kid? Was the metaphor really confusing?
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I haven't seen any mixed reactions to the animated short.
Universal praise on my social media timelines. My wife and daughter cried after it.
Universal praise on my social media timelines. My wife and daughter cried after it.
What response, though? Some dude just found 5 white people who just said they were confused, and didn't even say it was bad. One of the people who was confused isn't even white and a white person was explaining to them the metaphor.
This is one of those articles where someone finds 2 tweets and makes it seem like there's a "controversy".
Except it happened in mine and apparently other people's theaters. People got a weird reaction to the short.
I loved the side eye/shock on the mother's face when
.
Either you get the significance of that moment or you don't.
the fiancée was folding dumplings like a champ.
Either you get the significance of that moment or you don't.
It's one big metaphor told in an odd way, it went over some people's heads. That's not really a controversy, especially when the people who didn't get aren't, I dunno, pissed about it? It's such a non-story.
Yeah, about that,
she gives the fiancee a chance, especially as the fiancee is willing to respect the culture and learn from it (taking off the shoes too).
There's also significant pressures within the Asian community about losing their culture, so the Caucasian fiancee coming in and participating in the very non-Cauasian ritual of making bao is extremely important
There's also significant pressures within the Asian community about losing their culture, so the Caucasian fiancee coming in and participating in the very non-Cauasian ritual of making bao is extremely important
Yeah for me it was just weird. Not in a good way. A weird way. I think the short would have been better if they went with a different idea for that moment. Once it became a sentient conscious being THAT should have been off the table. Maybe she makes a fresh dumpling, goes to eat it, then runs away crying. Something else.
God forbid some white people be taken out of their comfort zone for like 3 minutes.
A character is shot and killed in Incredibles 2. It has complex themes just like this short. Kids can handle it.
The person who tweeted that is a moron. Any dumbass like that can find other dumbass tweeting nonsense on Twitter.
Bao was made for general audiences. It just had an Asian angle to the story.
This whole thing is a non-story.
I guess we need to stop humanizing food to get the message across.
I'm an Asian, and I teared up at the short... but would the story really not work in other cultures? Surely mothers missing their children and not wanting them to leave is not exclusive to Asian cultures.
The moment when she eats the dumpling is shocking and confusing for sure, but the reveal of the actual human son makes it pretty clear that the living dumpling was just a metaphor, and I don't think you gotta be Asian to get that.
The moment when she eats the dumpling is shocking and confusing for sure, but the reveal of the actual human son makes it pretty clear that the living dumpling was just a metaphor, and I don't think you gotta be Asian to get that.
I was in fucking tears.
I didn't expect it at all.
It does.
Call your mom.
I didn't expect it at all.
It does.
Call your mom.
Of course it's not. Empty nest syndrome is a very common experience, as is the desire to hold on to children, culture or tradition.
It sounds like people were expecting a cutesy joke and got something else, and some were confused. It happens.
as a Chinese-Canadian, which is the exact culture being portrayed in the short, I found it to be very moving and relatable. What I'd give to have stories that deal with these kinds of topics and represent my culture being told when I was a kid. Instead of having almost nothing of the like and feeling alienated and uncool throughout my childhood lmao
I really hope these reactions don't discourage them from making more stories in this vein, because just from looking ITT and at my own reaction, it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.
I really hope these reactions don't discourage them from making more stories in this vein, because just from looking ITT and at my own reaction, it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.
Just watched it on vimeo. Im not sure why it would be confusing, its not even an asian thing. Most asian moms are busy trying to get their sons married not keep them home.
Im surprised they went with an asian male white female couple though. That tends to ruffle a few feathers from white guys, even more so than white girls dating black guys.
Im surprised they went with an asian male white female couple though. That tends to ruffle a few feathers from white guys, even more so than white girls dating black guys.
I didn't like the short, but that was because I found a lot of the concept of an animated dumpling doing human stuff really disturbing visually. It got under my skin a way a good horror film does, which is so not the effect it should have had on me, especially when it clearly has such good intentions by the end with its messaging. Maybe they could have tried for a less stylized art direction? I dunno, but it did not sit well with me at all for that reason.
Is putting a clap emoji between every word when you're trying to make a point the most annoying thing ever? Yes it is.
Actually i kinda agree with that tweet. He wants to convey that to judge the story, you have to see the whole context. Besides, i think that short is created with asian culture in mind. So, i think it is not appropriate to judge another culture with another culture. Believe me, it is not going to work
If you were a bao I would eat you. And not feel bad.
Edit: we need emoji on the forum, so I can hate your post the way it was meant to be hated
This may be why I didn't like it. I'm also not the type to get super sentimental about family stuff like this. It blows me away that people cried over/during it.
I find it incredibly ironic that white people get shit for using the blanket statement "Asian Culture" (instead of Chinese, Vietnamese etc.) and yet some of those tweets and responses in here are using it quite freely to explain why some viewers "didn't get it" because they're white.
There is no consistency with this shit at all.
There is no consistency with this shit at all.
I loved the short, thought it was better than the movie tbh.
Edit: Uninformed white people, pretendstobeshocked.gif.
Yeah I'd say that a large portion of them don't given how #metoo is going.
Edit: Uninformed white people, pretendstobeshocked.gif.
Yeah I'd say that a large portion of them don't given how #metoo is going.
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Agreed.
I could tweet back neither was that clap stay in your lane. Go check yourself....You ain't bout that life...
But for what? A short was played in front of millions. Who was it for then? I mean with that mindset Incredibles was for White American families with that one Black friend.
I understand what the tweet is trying to get at but it's a bit outta wack. Sometimes I just don't know...
I thought it was fine. We've had the gingerbread man before so it isn't a new concept.
I actually really liked the nuance. It was refreshing to not be beaten over the head with the message. I like media that doesn't treat it's audience like idiots. Unfortunately idiots don't appreciate media that doesn't treat them like idiots because we get this situation.
I also really liked the smaller touches/details on this one. The daughter in law at the end making the baos really well and surprising the mom and son was a really great moment.
There was a lot of nervous laugher in my theater because it was unexpected. It was then people realized that this story wasn't going to have the ending we expect and was actually going to be about something completely different.
Not gonna lie: like the son, all the men in my family trees suck at folding :D It's a genuine WTF moment for all of us, from the moment we are little to when we are grown up.
Once it showed the real kid I took the eating thing to be the mom maybe saying something she wishes she didn't while in the moment. Like an "I never want to see you again!" type deal. Makes sense in my head, but reading these posts maybe I misunderstood it.
I got an audience who laughed about it. Me, I was just in shock. It was such a visceral reaction that my jaw hung for awhile, and having the son be revealed to contextualize the whole thing as a metaphor left me contemplative about what that conflict really meant. It was probably the gut-punchiest Pixar short we've gotten so far.
Mmhmm. You see it.
Not saying they don't get moms.
Just saying they'd probably get the short more if it'd been about a potato salad coming to life and yelling at its mother.
Is that how generalizations work?
I got it, and I liked it, though I'm not sure what the fantastical element actually added to the short. Like, I think it would have been just as good--and perhaps more coherent to some audience members--if the son had just been the actual son the whole time.
I guess her eating the dumpling son strongly conveys the feeling of hurting someone you love in a way you can't take back, perhaps more strongly than if they had just had some kind of wordless spat.
I guess her eating the dumpling son strongly conveys the feeling of hurting someone you love in a way you can't take back, perhaps more strongly than if they had just had some kind of wordless spat.
You can tell who's a Western raised White person and who's not a parent. Bao isn't about keeping your child at home. its about a parents fear of losing touch with their child as they grow up.
Let's see how to word this. The theme of a mother missing her son is not specific to any culture. But certain cultures (Chinese, Indian, Mexican are what I can personally think of) do have a certain level of 'enmeshment' which feels higher than what is usually reflected in American culture (or media - maybe I shouldn't conflate the two). It feels a little more difficult for the kids to make their parents think of them as another adult/as a separate entity. There are expectations to have the parents involved in major life decisions even when the child is much older. The status quo is still of 'one family unit'. This struggle is exacerbated when there is the 1st/2nd generation immigrant struggle brought in too.
So maybe that's why the short speaks a little more to certain cultures.
It's similar in my family too. I think it has something to do with dexterity being a lesser priority for most men over strength.
Or we just all have fat fingertips.
Yeah, the tweets brought up in the article and this thread are the first of it that I'm seeing. Theatre that I was in seemed to love it too. Heard at least one older woman start breaking down a couple rows behind me during part of it... so it clearly had an impact.
There was nothing subtle about the message and I'm genuinely having trouble finding examples of it not being clear enough for people who watched it... that said, yeah, definitely going to fly over a lot of younger kids heads and just scare them when the mom eats the dumpling baby and then starts crying.
the short was directed by an asian american woman who probably understands your last point and probably purposefully chose to subvert expectations and help normalize something that isn't usually seen but does exist
more feathers we ruffle the better