Holy shit. Just saw Shang-Chi and it is IT. Before getting into the Chinese cultural parts of it, I’d like to note that it had a solid plot and wonderfully developed characters. The worldbuilding and CGI and the relationship building was absolutely phenomenal and I was absolutely hooked. The fight choreography was THE best choreography I’ve ever seen in the entirety of the MCU and the cinematography is amazing.
Now, onto the Chinese cultural references.
My god. I’ve never felt so seen. As a Chinese woman living in a western diaspora I’ve genuinely never seen something that so genuinely felt right and that truly felt like it connected to me personally. There were so many little details that I could connect to that made me feel emotional because I’ve never had any media that connected to me this way. It was so well done and it was so obviously done by people who lived through it.
(minor) Spoilers ahead! Just small details about the Chinese Diaspora experience in the movie.
Some little details that stood out to me included:
The food! All the food shown on screen was Chinese food - be it homemade food or dim sum platters - and those were exactly the types of plates that I grew up eating.
When Shang-Chi took off his shoes to go into Katy’s house and she was wearing slippers inside the house
When he was talking through the little Chinatown area and there were the fruit cardboard boxes outside the Chinese CL groceries and the white sketchy dim sum sign with English on top of the Chinese
Katy struggling with her Chinese as a diaspora kid because she’s only a heritage speaker and her first language is english
When Katy was struggling to pronounce Shang-Chi’s Chinese name asldhhdjskala I felt that
Katy sticking to her English name despite also having a Chinese name bc she’s a diaspora kid and is used to using the English name
Every single one of the magical creatures inside Ta Lo were inspired by Chinese mythology.
THE DRAGON IS A PROPER CHINESE DRAGON
Katy’s parents comparing her to others and asking her to “get a better job” with her H. B. from Berkeley (I felt that)
The whole thing about familial expectations and relationships in Chinese families?? Bro. I felt that. Holy shit.
So. Much. Mandarin. I can’t explain how happy I am to hear that language. Many western movies have a tendency to mainly use English with an accent but this movie used a LOT of (accurate!) mando and it makes me so happy
The architecture?? The art?? Phenomenal. Amazing. So accurate.
The shrine to the mother and the other deceased looks EXACTLY like every single Chinese cemetery I’ve been to, down to the photos and the incense and the fruits and all the people paying tribute to it.
The martial arts?? Oh my god. So good. I recognize it. Having trained in it and having watched multiple family members practice varying Chinese martial arts over the years I can’t express how fucking happy I was to see arts such as Tai Chi and Wing Chun and Wushu on screen. I could recognize it. The forms, the movements - I can’t explain how, but it felt right. It felt familiar. It felt so wonderfully connected to me.
There’s probably more but it’s late at night so more to come later, maybe. I’m going to just bask in the fact that this was a fantastic movie for chinese representation and I felt so seen. I went to see it with several other Chinese friends and. We came away so happy. We felt seen. We felt heard. I can’t express how much this meant to us.
shoutout to all my non-european mutuals who keep blogging about their fandoms like their entire dash isn’t weird gay europeans and australia having a very loud themed party
