Posted: November 26th, 2015

Answer the follow questions: What is the key problem as observed in Pushing Hands? How is the father-son relationship presented in the film? What may have complicated the given relation? How do you see the significance of this issue in the large picture of cultural studies?

The movie I choose is Pushing Hands. Answer the follow questions: What is the key problem as observed in Pushing Hands? How is the father-son relationship presented in the film? What may have complicated the given relation? How do you see the significance of this issue in the large picture of cultural studies?

The emphasis is on probing key issues in cultural studies rather than summaries/descriptions of the plot(s), since everyone in the course has watched the film(s). The goal is to develop your critical thinking through the exercise of interpretive analyses instead of identifying a certain phenomenon. Please keep in mind that you should not repeat your previous work(s) in either this course (e.g. your presentation) or others. The format: double-line space (except quotations), twelve-point font and 4-5 pages in length.
1. It is important for your paper to have a clear thesis indicated in the title of your paper rather than the name of the film, and state your thesis statement in your opening paragraph. Your paper should be analytical in nature, which means you have to address the conflicting issues by going beyond the surface meaning.
2. Make sure you develop your argument on the specific issue through reasons instead of either relying on borrowed powers of ideologies or retelling the plot(s) of the film(s). Your descriptive part of the film(s) should not be over 1/5 of your paper length.
3. You have to connect the dots so that you present a coherent analysis rather than a cluster of unrelated viewpoints. If you choose a topic on the compare and contrast films, you have to probe the meaning of similarity and difference in the given context, such as what the similarity and difference signify in the given context (and why they are important in cultural studies).
4. Substantiate your statement with examples from the film(s) with full documentations. Highlight your analytical exploration with the newly gained knowledge instead of taking stereotypical notions for granted.
5. The quality of a paper is based on
a) In-depth analyses of certain issues of the film(s) in the cultural context
b) Effective expressions of the convincing argument beyond the surface meaning