But chinese, viatnamese, singaporeans or many asian countries tend to have some similarities in term of parent and children connection. As an asian myself, I could feel it that way as my singaporean and taiwan friends also experience similar stuff
Polygon: The polarized reactions to Pixar’s Bao are rooted in culture
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When I watched it I was under the impression that the dumpling never actually came to life and it was all wish fulfillment/a daydream on the mother's part.
Then when the "thing" happens, that was representative of the mom's fears that she pushed her kid away. So I wasn't horrified or confused by it at all.
I laughed when the mom ate the Bao because of the heel-turn shock of her murdering her son which the short had established she loved until that point. The reason she ate him out of wanting him to stay with her didn't click with me at first.
Once the real son showed up though the metaphor clicked and contexualized for me what happened.
Once the real son showed up though the metaphor clicked and contexualized for me what happened.
Hmmm.. but it means you have to get the title changed since the title bao comes from the word 抱 which means dumpling (and also i think it is a pun to 宝贝 bao pei which means darling)
You read both of them like pao, not bao
From the reactions to the short either they don't or apparently can't reognize it.
I don't understand why people didn't get it... I thought it made sense by the end of it.
However...
However...
When she ate him and was crying in the bedroom, I thought this was going to be about a miscarriage or something and partially wondered if this was a loss.jpg thing. A few seconds later I was obviously wrong about that, but I was definitely thinking it was about a miscarriage at first.
I was watching this next to my mom in the theater. I'm about to go abroad for college in 2 months so we both cried (though I didn't turn around to see her face).
Fundamentally disagree. I was raised in a very traditional household, and there's strong pressure for the son to stay at home until marriage and to help take care of the family. In Bao, the son grows up in Western society and wants to live in the other culture he so desires.
That, in a nutshell, is what a lot of first-generation Chinese immigrants face.
At the end, it's also implied that the son and fiancee move in with the parents too.
Hey
my fingers are nice and pointed from years of piano ;P
The "this wasn't made for you" mentality is weird anyway. If Bao "wasn't made" for people of different cultures yhan Asian ones, why did they decide to show it worldwide before one of the most anticipated films this year?
Eh, I'd argue this is not the case. Bao and Coco are heavily representing those cultures, but they aren't made "for" those cultures. These are not some sort of indie films that are released in specialized markets, these are major Disney films (or in case of Bao, a film that's attached to a major Disney film), the goal of these companies is to create films that are able to be widely loved with people from all cultures and all races.
For instance, Coco is a film based around the Dia de los Muertos, a very Mexican thing obviously, but the main themes of the movie are not uniquely Mexican things. Same with Bao, the main themes are not uniquely Asian, everybody should be able to recognize and identify with these themes.
How can you possibly make this claim? Are you following all the asian-americans on Twitter or something?
Every single Asian person I know who has seen this short including me has related heavily to it. I'm not even American.
This is the case in tons of other non-American cultures as well. Most Latino/Hispanic cultures, Indian culture, etc. I think it's more or less universal in first-generation immigrant families that come to the US. I would say American culture with respect to kids not living at home before marriage is kind of in the minority when comparing it to how most cultures around the world work.
This is true, but you've also described 25% of news articles over the past few years.
These all can be enjoyed by everyone but there's a special feeling when something is specifically made to represent you and your culture. Yeah, every single person can relate to empty nest syndrome but it's cool to see how it's viewed from an Asian perspective.
i loves this but hated the people in front of me who obnoxiously yelled Awwwwwww at every remotely cute thing in the short and film. Just maddening.
I don't disagree with that, but it feels disingenuous to say to critics that 'it wasn't made for them' so their opinion doesn't count. If it turns out that this short is misunderstood or disliked by a lot of people not from a specific culture (which I'm not saying it is, because this article is biased as shit) Pixar has failed on some level.
I know a lot of films that are clearly only made with a specific audience and cultures in mind where the argument 'Well, you're not from that culture' would actually be a valid retort to people not fully getting it, but big budget Pixar features and shorts are not those films.
Wtf is this?
Dude...it's not a metaphor that is cultural specific. That doesn't mean solely white people didn't get it....any individual of any race, culture, etc might have not gotten it if they were dense enough.
Well, imo, I think this short fit well within Pixar's quality. Maybe some people wanting to feel good going into an Incredibles sequel and not sad.
There were quite a few gasps when she ate him, I'm sure at least most of the people I saw Incredibles 2 with got it the dumpling being a metaphor for her actual son. People are dumb.
Oh, man, now I'm disappointed this wasn't the first professional loss.gif parody lol
I don't get it. Isn't it made for any mother who had to let a child go, and every child who had to leave? I.e. almost everyone?
Welcome to modern journalism. Clickbait bullshit and manufactured news is how things works these days.
you mean the handful of people on twitter? does that constitute newsworthy reaction? this is manufactured outrage, stop falling for it.
My biggest issue that I didn't know the main character was supposed to be a mother, so I had no idea what was going on.
Yeah, it's a strange sentiment.
How would people react if a white guy said "I'm not going to watch this short movie because it was made for Asians and not me"?
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If it's any consolation, you're not the only one. Saw it yesterday with my niece and she didn't realize that either.
She's 9 years old.
I have no idea why people are acting like race was an integral part of this. You could replace the Asian family with a white one and the dumpling with a hamburger, and people still would have been confused because we don't typically anticipate mothers consuming their children in parenthood metaphors.
The confusion has nothing to do with culture, but with common narrative expectations. The "this is not for you!" stuff makes absolutely no sense, and I seriously wonder if those people even saw the short.
The confusion has nothing to do with culture, but with common narrative expectations. The "this is not for you!" stuff makes absolutely no sense, and I seriously wonder if those people even saw the short.