Group 2

 

Life in a Salt Pan

 

Download Group 2's PPS presentation, click here

 

 

Analysis

 

YE4A

Name Job distribution

Julia Wang Introduction and summary

Nicole Juan Comparison and Contrast of Value and ideology

Freda Lee Gender Roles in Films

Cassidy Huang Conclusion and PPT

Trisha Hsiao Value and Ideology

Rachel Lin Comparison and Contrast of Gender Roles.

鹽田兒女The Story in Salt Pan

 

Summary

 

Min-Yue，who grew up in a big family with many children, had to help her family with salt pan business. At the young age like she did, she already began taking care of the whole family chores. For all these hardworking she did not find it hard to bear because she knew Da-Fang, her companion since childhood, would always be there for her. She even believed that someday she and Da-Fangwould get married eventually. However, her mother forced her to married to Chin-Shen, another man who could become son-in-law in their family (Since the parents had no son, they had to find someone to inherit their salt pan). Their marriage was a disaster, Chin-Shen did not act as what he had promised to Min-Yue, and he even used violence against her.

 

Because of her husband’s laziness, Min-Yue had to work as a cleaning lady. Ironically enough the company that Min-Yue works for belonged to Da-Fang’s. They finally met each other one day. Although it has been so many years, butDa-Fang told Min-Yue he was still in love with her. Being in the position of dilemma, would Min-Yueonce again let her happiness slip through her fingers this time? Or would she seize this chance and pursued something she had been waited for so long?

 

Characters

 

Min-Yue：She is the leading role of the whole story. She is an epitome of a typical traditional Taiwanese woman. She is industrious, bears all the hardship without complaining, but she hardly expressed her real feelings toward others except to Da-Fang. When it comes to make a choice between what she wanted and what she needed, she gave in and accepted the consequences set by her mother. We can see her whole life was lived for someone else but herself.

Da-Fang：Min-Yue’s companion since childhood. He had been supportive with Min-Yuethrough all the difficult times. He wanted to married to Min-Yuebut was turned out because he was the only son of his family. He then left the hometown to work and eventually became a successful businessman. When later they met again, Da-Fang could not help telling her about his feelings.

 

Chin-Shen：Min-Yue’s husband, who is so addicted to gambling. He first married to Min-Yue in order to be the son-in-law in the family. When time had passed he started showing what he really was like toward Min-Yue. He acted chauvinistic in order to hide the fact that he is inferior to his wife’s capability.

A-Sher：Min-Yue’s mother, a shortsighted woman. She asked Min-Yue to marry to Chin-Shen despite she knew that Min-Yuehad been in love with Chin-Shen. She is so snobbish that she only cares what benefits she could have after her daughter’s marriage but neglect what really important is her daughter’s willingness.

 

Analysis

I. Introduction

 

Revised from an awarded novel into a 20-episode screenplay, The Story in Salt Pan profoundly described how a Taiwanese traditional woman behaved in a male-oriented society. Either in the book or in the television episode, The Story in Salt Panhad explained that during the old agricultural times, Taiwanese women were often forced to obey what their parents had asked, and to make decisions they did not want to. Just like the character in the story, Min-Yue. Simply by accepting what comes to her, the choices she had made did not fit with her own willingness. She had rather give in than fought for her happiness since her mother had taken control overall. She believed that the word “destiny” could explain all. However, her obedience then not only made her lost her freedom but also affect her life afterwards.

 

Media and culture has always been a chicken and egg relationship, for the culture and value are always being portrayed through media, and media affects the culture in a certain community. Yet, from time to time there are incidents that media, for dramatizing the plots, pitches wrong knowledge or false ideology, eventually will lead the culture into these incorrect ways of thinking, for instance violence, eroticism…etc. In other words, media goes deep into your everyday life, it includes TV programs, advertising, radio broadcasting, movie industry and internet entertainment. Above all, local soap operas represent one particular culture the most, and that is also what we will learn through this analysis of TV drama, not to criticize the media, but to learn to appreciate our culture.

 

II. Values and Ideology

 

By manipulating different scenes or discourse, Taiwanese soap opera shows the unique culture and ideology in Taiwanese society. The story setting is in the early 50s, it displays the economic changes from the 50s to the 70s. Life in the 50s was harsh, and it was an agricultural society. People of that generation had always held the passion for their lands and they had strong identities of their community, they would stick to the same place and sacrifice themselves for it. In the 60s, increasing interests were put into fishery. Fisherman is often respected, and whenever the fishing boat is about to leave or harbor the port, there would be a huge ceremony holding near the port, every one in the village would gather at the port and deliver their deepest thankfulness. It is not until the 70s, the economic boom made the young leave their hometown, move to cities, and look for the chance to “Make a fortune.” The old and the children were left alone in the village, witnessing the influence that industrialization had brought to this once beautiful land. Only those who become rich will be respected. “Money talks” ruined all the former virtue in the community, money became the priority of their lives. The society has changed in order to accommodate the new social structure, in good ways and in bad ways.

 

Somehow some ideology still remains the same. It is handed down for generations even until now, it is still believed as the identity of most Taiwanese. “Always submit to your destiny”, or we say “Jen-Min” in Chinese, or “Lin-Mia” in Taiwanese is the common ideology in Taiwanese society and also in this film. From the selected scenes we could see the harsh working environment in salt pans and they still had to work as much as they could for it. Of course, one would feel extremely disappointed when the weather went bad at harvest season. They could only surrender to what they were inherited which is to do their job, to produce salt. Min-Yue said “We should always obey what comes to us, our destiny is decided by God and you can only take it without complaints.” No matter how hard the life is, it would be better if you follow god’s will; no matter how unwilling you are, you still have to endure the unwillingness and surrender to your fate.

 

Despite economic difficulties, the main character Min-Yue in this film still bears the responsibility of this family, for her big sister died, father always works outside home, mother is ill and all the other younger sisters need her support. She needs to take care of the whole family and to take all the unreasonable orders from her overwhelming mother. Even under this circumstance, she thinks no resistance; she only wants to do as what her mother says in order to gain her agreement; she only considered to maintain the integrity of this family. Though she didn’t want to face to her fate of marrying someone she didn’t like, at the end, she could only take what came to her and stayed as the most gung-ho person in her family. She gave in fighting against fate because she wanted to maintain the fullness of her family, for her mother and father had a big fight for her. After marriage, she comforted herself by a Taiwanese slang, “When you marry to chickens, follow chickens; marry to dogs, follow dogs, meaning, always loyal to your husband. She can’t and didn’t want to think anything else but making a living. She always said, “Even though life’s a struggle, we still have to keep going.” This ideology controls not only her whole life but also others’. It is carefully described throughout this 20-series film.

 

In addition, the temple in the village is a symbol of belief. Religion takes a great part in their life. Constantly, they deliver their prayers of people they care, mostly family members, hoping God will bless them. It became the sanctuary of their anxious heart. The whole community is centered around the temple; people assemble at the temple when they need to seek for comfort and pray for harvest; annual ceremony such as Chinese New Year, and the Lantern Festival…etc always took place in front of the temple. People have the faith that they would be protecting by God if they do things according to God’s will, and “As one sows, so will one reap” thinking. As the result, religion affects their culture, affects people’s belief, and their ideology which is the obedience to fate.

 

It’s under this abstract values in the society do people interact with each other. The interaction between men and women is influenced by this ideology and value. By depicting the story happened to the main characters Min-Yue and Da-Fang, the embedded cultural identity is evidently seen in this story.

 

Comparison and Contrast

 

The Taiwanese society changed from agriculture to industrialization between the 50s to the 70s. In the past, people had more respect for the lands, for the things and for Gods even though life was harsher. They were thankful for the lands that grow food to prevent them from being hungry. People liked to stay in their villages because it was where their families were. Their connection with the family was close. They had very strong identity of community. The social value was simple. They were satisfied with what they had. However after the industrialization, people stopped living in the villages. They moved to the city to make their big fortune. Then their life got better and they were richer. People started to want more. Simple life was not enough. Now we are in the service industry. People love buying luxury things. The virtues that ancient people had are gradually disappearing. Such as people nowadays do not have much feeling for the lands. The lands do not mean anything anymore. The bond with the family is losing. The young generation do not like to live with their parents. They have their own lives which does not involve their parents. Chinese New Year is a big event, but sometimes young people do not even go home due to work because they get higher payment during this time. The older generation might find it quite difficult to adjust because it was not the same as it used to be.

 

People nowadays are overly chasing their fortune. They only want to reap but do not want to sow. These problems will be like a rolling snowball getting bigger and bigger until they can not be handled. As a matter of fact, a combination between the past and now will be a good mixture.

 

III. Gender Roles in Films

 

Between the 50s to the 70s, agriculture was the main industry in Taiwan. It was the base of all the later industrial development and many cultural situations were influenced or created by it. This industry relies mainly on numbers of labor force because the agricultural industry was then not mature enough to use machinery in order to save human sources and the whole society was not rich enough to hire short-term workers. In this case, the labor force, especially male laborers played such an important role in the agricultural society. The definition of what either sex should be like was pretty clear in the old society. The culture was pretty narrow in that time, especially on the relationship between males and females. Usually, the relationship between males and females was pretty limited. Women needed to keep their chastity and was their lifelong aim. Men were responsible for supporting the finances but usually were loosed judged of moral things. It is understandable for males and females to have different working areas in society but it was hard to accept with double moral standards.

In the early period, young women were seen as useless with helping on farming matters and tasks. We can see several pieces of evidence that supports this from the soap opera. First, the father mentioned that their life would be better if he had a son. Second, his wife’s miscarriage was such a disaster for them because the future baby was going to be a son. The last one was when they chose the husband for their second daughter, they asked if the man could live in their home in order to help their farming needs. These pieces of evidence all illustrate how important men are in the past agricultural society. The parents were eager to see a male baby instead of a female one. Women also have no way to get more relaxation time, they do the majority of the chores from the time they were little girls. Due to the whole society being poor people got little chance to be educated. The goal for learning was for practical use, like signing contracts or counting. It was hard for women to know that they had the right to decide their life or argue for their right and a higher value of self. Like Min-Yue, the oldest sister of the family, accepted her parents’ decision to marry a man she had never met. Even her sister reminded her that women should have the right to make this decision for themselves, Min-Yue complained about nothing and just behaved like a perfect, traditional woman. She obeyed and accepted the marriage without complaint. Most of the women accepted the way they lived, their life and marriages which were arranged by others and their entire destiny. People thought that learning how to accept things was one of the essential virtues of women. They must accept everything from everyone besides themselves. They accepted their husband that was chosen by their parents without deeply knowing him. They adjusted to their new life with the husband/stranger and gave birth year after year. When they became old, they followed their children and felt no worth in recalling any memories. The young women have no right to choose their own husbands because women are deemed mere objects in society. They are seen as worthless members in the family because they will belong to another family after the marriage. Because chastity was used to judge if a woman was valued or not, it would be a shame or dangerous if they fell in love with someone. Not only because the period before marriage is not easy but also the life after marriage is be a big challenge. They marry not for love but for moral obligation. Women were involved in their new chores and business right after they woke up on the second day of marriage. Their other obligation was to give birth and the more male babies she bore the less stress she felt. The way that others wanted them to step in was not all for their good but sometimes just for corresponding to the social expectations and rules. No one considered if the moral regulations had any flaws, people just followed these things without thinking.

 

Comparison and Contrast

 

Compared to women, men are always freer under moral standards. However, they still carried the family burden as a lifelong thing. Young men were always encouraged to be pioneers and develop their own businesses. Men always played an important role in agricultural society because they were more productive. Men were usually judged by his business and whether it was successful or not. They carry this burden from their childhood. If a man has no financial base or working ability, it will be hard for him to marry a woman or he could only marry a woman who is also from a poor family. We can find this clue within the soap opera. The reason that Min-Yue could not marry Da-Fang is that Min-Yue’s mother thought his business was only built on producing salt which did not help their family.

From a very ancient period to the 60s Chinese society was one which had bias in favor of males. Society always gave males more support and rights than women, they were seen as sky and women as ground.

 

The agricultural social background indeed influences the expectation of men and women. It did not matter as men and women were always judged by social need. Either sex would fall into judgment once they deviated from the “way they should be”. We are still living in the society which has the certain stereo type for both genders. Fortunately, more balance is expected in the future while we are stepping into a more cultivated age.Comparing the differences between the two eras, males and females will both have some changes.

 

First of all, economy in Taiwan has improved rapidly. Education does not only belong to the wealthy families, but it is also not equal to know how to form letters either. According to the soap opera the father mentioned that girls who love to read mean nothing, and education could not help the family earn more money. Nevertheless, education becomes more common under 9-year-old children; plentiful knowledge will be regarded as the power of being successful people.

 

Secondly, free love is also one of the most important changes. Within traditional society, love was against the customs and it was forbidden. Reputation was the most precious thing at that time. Parents would decide the husband or the wife for their grown-up daughter or son. Although, it was like a parent gambling all of the child’s happiness on the new person, the parents were not responsible for the child’s future. Besides, the children could not oppose their parents. If the children argued with their parents they would be thought as not having filial piety. The women had to follow the three virtues in order to get a fine reputation. The women needed to be obedient to their father before the marriage, to their husband during wedlock, and to their son after the husband died. Furthermore, the modern women and men do not really accept blind dates. They pursue free love and they will grasp the opportunity to make friends.

 

Thirdly, the women have changed. The old idea of “women belong to men” has been broken. In the 50s or 60s, women were expected to do all the housework. Women would not have their own opinions about their family or their marriage. Women at that time belonged to the voiceless. Moreover, the value of women was usually established on whether they could bear children or not, especially bearing boys. In the old society, as a female, there was no other way to confirm their existence without their daily work, their husband, their son men or their family. On the other hand, nowadays women can find their value from their business career, not from housework. They are independent, and free to chase their desire, even though they are not good at housework. Although society improves unmarried women are still thought as odd. Also, men will share housework. In the old society, men would not do housework and they thought that they needed to work hard for the family. From the story in Salt Pan, although the husband loved to gamble and was not responsible for the family, he did not need to be punished by the public. The wife would take care of the family. But the modern male would love to share the family burden with the female. The modern male would be careful with his attitude towards the female.

 

In short, the relationship between the two genders is no longer in the same situation as before. Both of the genders have found their balance in social status, and try to have more esteem for each other.

 

 

IV. Conclusion

 

To sum up, the culture and ideology in Taiwanese society from the 50s to the 70s are vividly displayed in this TV-series. The swift shifts of life styles mainly came from the changes of economic condition. From the agricultural society in the early 50s, to the increased interests in the fishery business in the 60s, to the industrialized society in the 70s, the society changed as the new social structure was formed. Moreover, the values of land and community were also changed. People became less grateful and respectful towards their land and community. However, the ideology of “Always submit to your destiny” still remained. Throughout this soap opera the portrayal of the main character Min-Yue conforms to this ideology that sometimes seems without alternative yet somehow relieves her tragic life as what she always says, “Even though life’s a struggle, we still have to keep going on.” This ideology played a very important part in early Taiwanese society. On the other hand, religion also takes a great part in Taiwanese society even up to now and is especially accounted for the influence of Taiwanese culture, ideology and values. In this soap opera, the temple in the village is a symbol of their belief. People gather to seek for comfort, pray for harvest and held annual ceremony. People at that time showed their fully obedience towards the Gods in addition to the idea of “no pain, no gain” that made their ideology even much stronger.

 

Under this background of early Taiwanese society, men and women formed a rather “sex inequity” social structure. From the portrayal of the main characters Min-Yue and Da-Fang in the story, the embedded cultural identity is evidently seen. For example, most parents were eager to have male infant for they were the main work force in the future so that female ones were often unwanted. Under the gender biased circumstance, female generally served more of functional purpose to the society for they had to follow the life-long obligation of doing chores and having babies. As tolerance was seen as the virtue of women, women had to learn to accept whatever comes to them including their marriage. However, comparing to the often repressed female, male was less restrained. Male was often freer to have their own free wills to do things even though they bore the burden of financial support. Above all, the ideology and value in the traditional Taiwanese society influenced the culture that created a unique way of living style. Culture, on the other hand, further brought about the change of ideology and values thus formed the tradition. However, as time went by, some would be persisted and some will be forgotten. Through this TV-series, the Story of Salt Pan, the change of Taiwanese culture is delicately displayed that allows the generations in the 90s to know what they have inherited from the older generations, and what they have lost.

 

 

 

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