Ang Lee Essay

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Ang Lee – The pride of Asian movies The relationship between the West and the East has been a complicated issue and a cause of conflict in some areas for a long time. There are many reasons leading to this issue; however, the main reason comes from ideology. According to Chang & Holt (1991) and Wang (1997), culturally, politically and economically, the West is a center of the world while the East is undeniably positioned at the periphery. Furthermore, Echtner & Prasad (2003) and Said (1978) state that ‘the West is civilized masculine, advanced, normative and rational while the East is cruel sly, backward, mysterious, exotic and irrational’. Therefore, Western people have a bad view on Asian countries as well as on Asian people. Additionally, the Globalization flow is one the factors that minimize the Asian values. This effect of globalization on culture is not simple but complicated and unpredictable. In this flow, some Asian values and culture have been lost and forgotten. Fortunately, Ang Lee is one of the pioneers to revise the Asian values throughout his films. This essay will evaluate how Ang Lee revises the Asian values and changes the image of Asia in the world throughout his life and the way he puts martial arts in movies. Ang Lee was born in 1954 in Taiwan; he is known not only as a famous director but also as a screenwriter. He studied at the National Taiwan College of Arts (1975), and then went to the USA, to receive a B.F.A Degree in Theatre Direction where he studied at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and obtained a master Degree in film Production at New York University (IMDB). His first film, ‘Pushing Hands’, which debuted in 1992, won an Academy Award nomination. His greatest successes Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Mountain are two remarkable films in the world movie industry as well as in Asian movie
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