Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman takes place in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan is an island southeast of mainland China and is north of the Philippines. Taipei is the capital of Taiwan and has the largest population at 2.6 million people. Taipei is a major industrial hub and most of Taiwan's textile factories are found here. In this film we learn about what is different and what we have in common with people of this region. Culturally we see many things that are unique to Taiwan, but we also see that family problems and situations are really universal. We can easy relate to how this family operates. It is just like many families here in the United states. Many families alike may only get together during a dinner maybe once a week and have to deal with issues such as divorces, pregnancies, marriages and death. Usually they all don't happen in such a short period of one another, but this just shows we are very much alike.

As we look at this film and examine the society it is hard to define different social classes. Throughout the film we don't see the poverty that was apparent in Beijing Bicycle. Not to say there is no poverty here but it just wasn't shown. Mostly we see people in the same economic class as Mr. Chu's family. Mr. Chu is a well known chef and his family is well off. They live in a nice house and have nice clothes. Even all of his daughters seem to have a computer in their rooms. Looking at unemployment rankings, Taiwan has a fairly low ranking at 47 compared to the United States 62. Not showing a wide perspective of social classes as a geographic learning tool was probably the only downfall compared with Beijing Bicycle. Though this movie had much more dialogue which gave us a chance to see into their thoughts and understand them better.

I have come up with some advice for anyone that is going to watch this film. Don’t watch on an empty stomach. Food, food and more food. We see many different dishes prepared by Master Chef Chu throughout this movie. Fish, ham, tofu, chicken and crab are just a few of the foods we see. According to a web site I visited, fish is the most popular meat in the country. Of course we see all these foods eaten with the chopstick utensil. The chopstick is believed to be originated in ancient China during the Shang Dynasty in 1600-1100 BC. The chopstick is traditional in use in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. I also discovered on the Internet that Taiwan has a conservation effort and is making a push for reusable chopsticks to limit litter.

Athletic activities were highlighted in the film. It seemed like every day at Jia-Jen’s school they were playing volleyball. Volleyball must be a popular sport in Taiwan. Also we see that Mr. Chu enjoys going jogging. During his run we also see others out exercising. Similar to the Beijing Bicycle we see Mr. Chu getting rough massages.

Transportation in this movie was a little different than that of the Beijing Bicycle. There were not near as many bikes in this movie. There seem to be mopeds in their place. Mopeds were abundant on the streets of Taipei in the film. Mopeds are clearly the choice of transportation in Taiwan. Roads are crowded and mopeds are the easiest and fastest way to get around the city. Driving a car through the cities centers can be difficult. To the left I have attached a picture taken from a street in Taiwan. As you can see Mopeds are highly relied on. Also we notice that public transportation is utilized. Taxi's and buses are shown frequently in the film. Mr. Chu has a well off family yet we never see any of them driving their own car. I have attached a link I enjoyed that gives a short overview of Taiwan trasportaion. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/12547-taiwan-transportation-video.htm