Memories of Malaya - 12. Chinese Movie Serials

My Dad picks up his pen again for another contribution to the Memories of Malaya series here on Fusion View, this time with a review of some Chinese movie serials that he and my Mum have been addicted to recently.

He writes:

For the last two or three months my wife and I have been watching DVDs of Chinese movie serials. Neither of us is able to read Chinese nor understand the Mandarin Chinese dialogue. Se we rely entirely on the English subtitles. It is interesting to note that they also contain subtitles in the written Chinese script. The reason they have these subtitles is that there are various Chinese dialects and one dialect group can hardly understand the dialect of another group but all are able to read the written script.

We have finished the dics of two serials and are midway through a third serial. The first two that we have finished are produced in Hong Kong and the third in Singapore. The first - “The Silver Chamber of Sorrows” - deals with a large wealthy family whose head has four wives and one of the younger wives became madly in love with one of the male members of the family and the whole series dealt with this relationship and the intrigues and jealousies of the members of this large family. The first wife was a matriarch inside the family and there was some competition amongst the wives to take over her position. The story is fairly straight forward but what kept us engrossed was the manner they carried themselves, the verbal expressions: their reaction to situations and to one another. The decorations of the house, the dresses of the women were beautiful and in the latter case worn with grace and gentleness.

The second series - “When Easterly Showers fall on the Sunny West” - also dealt with a large and wealthy family one of whose sons fell in love with a girl who sold porridge from a rowing boat in the boat market. Although now poor and living with her mother and brother her family had been wealthy once. The main character is the wife of the head of the house who was a strong willed and had, through all the vicissitudes, struggled to keep intact the family’s reputation and honour. Again it dealt with the relationship of the various members of the family and their dealings with outsiders. The part of the matriarch is played by a very talented and famous actress from Hong Kong.

The serial in the third disc - “The Little Nyonya” - was made in Singapore. It tells the story of a few rich baba/nyonya families. The baba (man) and nyonya (women) are the men and women of communities of Chinese origin who had migrated from China to the port cities of Singapore, Malacca and Penang and who, very early on, adopted Malay dresses, some Malay culture and customs and who spoke mainly a simple Malay language (although in this film made for a Chinese audience the characters spoke in Mandarin). The principal story dealt with the dumb and deaf daughter of a second wife and this daughter married a Japanese and then gave birth to a daughter who resembled her.

There are some common features in all the 3 serials. Rich families like those in the films usually have an ancestral room or hall where tablets of dead ancestors are kept and on weddings and birthdays of members of the family and other notable or disgraceful occasions, ceremonies are conducted to report these events to the ancestors and also where members are punished in front of the tablets to show to the ancestors that the present descendant is exercising proper control and discipline over its younger members. The Romans like the Chinese have great reverence for their ancestors, and members of the family must at all time conduct themselves so as not to cause dishonour to the ancestors. Even now, in most families, mothers are careful to teach their children to behave themselves and to have good manners for fear that others seeing their misbehaviour will remark “Your Mother did not teach you properly.” It is a painful thing to have it said to a young person for it shames his or her parent.

Chinese films specialize in making audience cry and one of the common effective way is using the graveyard scenes where usually a poor orphaned boy visits his parent’s graves and bring news to them of his pitiful condition.

Then there are scenes showing how to kneel and carry tea during joyous occasions, like weddings, or to ask for forgiveness. There are many such bits of behaviour and customs which a Chinese anywhere in the world would recognize. Chinese films are not all about sword fighting or kungfu. It is so refreshing to watch stories of how the rich and poor, that is ordinary human beings conduct themselves and endure adversities that suddenly befall them.

Photo credits: The Silver Chamber of Sorrows - from babyfiona on photobucket.com

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