Depiction Analysis

 The Purpose of Depiction Analysis Within The Film, The Farewell

By: Nina Borja

            The Farewell, a film directed by Lulu Wang, depicts an Asian American family from New York who must travel back to China because their grandmother is dying. However, the film is "based on an actual lie", where many Eastern Asian countries, including China, hide the truth of their relative dying. This poses the cultural value of "taking on the emotional burden" in order to allow family members to enjoy the last portion of their life happily. With that being said, actress, Awkwafina, playing as the main character, Billi, struggles to balance her cultural identities, as her family prepares a fake wedding as an excuse to get the entire family together for saying goodbye to her grandmother, Nai Nai. Throughout the film, Billi questions the Chinese and American sides of her identity, where she constantly battles herself and her family members on whether or not Nai Nai should know that she is dying of cancer. However, director, Lulu Wang, reveals that it is not a question of which identity to side with, but a question of how to acknowledge both cultural sides.

        Like many other Asian Americans, including myself, the journey of finding acceptance in two separate cultures is a lifelong process.

This NPR interview article with Lulu Wang specifically describes her own experiences dealing with lying to her own grandmother due to the differences that exist between Chinese and Western cultures.

        As the film demonstrates, Wang constantly questioned her ethics and moral in the situation her and her family found themselves in. Second and third-generation Asian Americans often feel estranged from their mother countries’ cultural differences. This is something that I can personally contest as a young Filipino woman who moved from the Philippines to New Jersey with my parents when I was three.

This specific recollection of Wang's experience gave way for the creation of The Farewell itself. Since Wang directs this film based on her first-hand experience, this makes The Farewell an authentic and genuine representation of the emotional process many Asian Americans relate to. At a pivotal point of the film, Billi's uncle, Haibin (Jiang Yongbo) says The West lives for the individual, whereas in the East, you live as a unit part of a bigger whole; family.