Catfish In Black Bean Sauce Analysis

Catfish in Black Bean Sauce:
A Look at the Bicultural Struggle and the Different Approaches Toward It
A melting pot, a metaphor for a mix of multi-ethnical and/or multi-cultural people who come together to make one harmonious society and culture, is a common term to refer to the United States of America. Many people from numerous places all over the world pour into this land. However, the transition from one country and culture to another does not come easily to all. Some struggle to conciliate the new culture into their own, while others assimilate so well into the new environment that they near forget, and sometimes, reject, their roots. In the movie Catfish in Black Bean Sauce, excellent examples of both of the mentioned approaches
are provided through the characterizations of a pair of brother and sister.
The movie Catfish in Black Bean Sauce features two siblings who, thanks to their personalities and circumstances, develop different attitudes toward the situation they find themselves in.
Dwayne and Mai, the latter being ten, were Vietnamese refugee children. Mai, the older sister, fought hard to keep them together, and succeeded when a kindly African American couple, Harold and Dolores Williams, adopted them both and reared them into adulthood. Twenty-two years later, Mai is already married to an Asian man named Vinh, while Dwayne is preparing to propose to his girlfriend Nina, an independent, attractive African American young woman. Their choices of romantic partner are an example of their responses to the new culture. Mai clings steadfastly to her original Vietnamese heritage. Dwayne, on the other hand, takes to his second culture fully, occasionally slipping into Ebonics in his speech, and working as a manager at a mainly black-employed
bank.
In family relationships, the differences between the pair of siblings are ever more pronounced. While they both live away from their adoptive parents’ home, Dwayne is very close with them, coming to visit and playing games with them often. Mai often keeps to her own home instead, and she is much closer to Harold than Dolores. Perhaps one reason for Mai and Dwayne’s different feelings regarding their second culture and family is because when they and their biological parents separated, Mai had to take care of her little brother, taking on the role of the absent mother. This burden was heavy on the ten-year-old girl, not knowing what else to do other than trying her best to keep them both from separation. Being older, she had more time to absorb the Vietnamese culture, unlike her brother, who was younger and so had an easier time in adapting to his new environment in America. The extra time Mai had also allowed her to feel a stronger connection to her birth mother, which attributes to her distance toward Dolores, her American mother. Mai clings to the idea of her birth mother, perhaps with a sense of idealized loyalty, and so is reluctant to accept the many maternal gestures Dolores extends. A clear example of this adversity is in a flashback to Mai’s childhood. Harold and Dolores came to pick her up from school, but she stayed sullenly in her seat. When Dolores tried to coax her into leaving, Mai exploded with, “You are not my mother,” in Vietnamese, after which she ran to Harold and held his hand, ignoring her adoptive mother.
The tension between the family relationships starts to coil when Mai excitedly announces one day that she had located the siblings’ birth mother, Thanh, and is arranging for her arrival to America.
This news, declared right after Dwayne’s proposal to his girlfriend Nina, throws the family into chaos. Dolores is hurt at Mai’s abrupt decision without any prior warning, and bitterly tells her daughter that she thought Mai had already given up on locating her biological mother a long time ago. Mai just stares back defiantly. Harold, on the other hand, shows delight and congratulates her, and Mai responds favorably, showing a clear contrast in her attitude toward the two parents. Nina also gives her congratulations to Mai. Dwayne, conversely, seems frozen, not knowing how to take the news. Whereas his sister has always expressed a wish to be with their birth mother, Dwayne is fine with his life the way it is. He has a more or less good job, a beautiful fiancée, and a loving family; this news does nothing but careens him into a path of confusion and conflicts. In a comedic fantasy about what his mother would be like when she arrives, he imagines her as a stout, elderly Vietnamese woman who is clinging to the arm of an Southern American gentleman whom she met on the plane. After a few exuberant words to Dwayne about how happy she is to see him, she goes off on a date with the man, and there the fantasy ends. Obviously, his hazy image of the forgotten mother is not in a
very positive light.
The arrival of Thanh does not improve the situation any. If anything, it makes things worse. After a tearful reunion at the airport (preceded by a very humorous mistake on Mai’s part where she embraces and cries on an Asian woman, thinking she is her mother, but she is not), marked by Mai’s obvious joy at seeing her birth mother and Dwayne’s uncertainty at her presence, Dolores is determined to show good will to the new person, despite the fear of being replaced present, which erupts later on. The following dinner at the Williams’ home finds Mai’s being attentive to Thanh’s every need, Thanh’s paying attention to Dwayne in turn, and Dwayne’s trying his best to talk as little to his new parent as possible. Dolores’ worst impressions of Thanh are confirmed when the woman introduces Vietnamese fish sauce, which she sprinkles on the catfish in black bean sauce dish Dolores prepared, after which everybody else wants some of it. After the climatic, tense dinner, Mai intends to take Thanh home to live with her and her husband, but Thanh insists on staying with Dwayne, whom does not really want her with him, but does not know how to refuse. Thus begins the trend of the relationship between the three blood-related characters: Mai would chase after her mother, whom ignores her in favor of Dwayne, whom, in turn, puts up with Thanh unwillingly, without any particular affection.
The conflict between the birth mother and her two children continues in parallel to the implicit rivalry between the two mothers. Thanh, after such a long time being separated from her children, wants more than anything to re-establish a connection with them. Mai obviously is more than eager to spend time with her mother, preparing a room in her house ahead of time for Thanh to stay in, despite her husband’s complaints about why they had to be the ones to house her. Knowing Mai’s stance, Thanh opts to put her aside and concentrates on Dwayne only, calling him by his original Vietnamese name, Sap, staying at his place, and trying to talk to him. Dwayne uses terse language—borderline on rude—and one-word comments to answer her, wavering between Vietnamese and English, the latter of which Thanh does not speak. During a picnic with Nina, Dwayne reveals why he is not happy to see his mother: he begrudges her for the fact that she abandoned him when he was a child. Thanh is also a rather shrewd and domineering woman, as well as a little racist. While she admits that Nina is beautiful, she does not approve of her and Dwayne’s engagement, thinking that her son “Sap” would be better off with an Asian woman as his bride. She points out the incompatibilities between the couple to Dwayne, trying to sway his opinion, which is already somewhat shaky in the first place, because he has been having doubts about why a beautiful woman such as Nina would want to be with him. This incident may not be all Thanh’s doing; the influence of the Vietnamese culture, where parents used to, and perhaps still do, pick out marriage partners for their children, has something to do with it. With Thanh in the picture, it turns out that Mai is not all that traditional after all. The portrayal of three different generations of Asian American is manifest here. The mother is the first, with her strong Vietnamese heritage, practices, and way of thinking. Next is Mai, who still preserves some Vietnamese values, but can understand the American culture. The last is Dwayne, the third generation, very much assimilated and Americanized. Compared to her little brother, Mai is more traditional, but after more than twenty years in the United States, logically she would be more adapted than her birth mother, no matter how hard she might have clung to her Vietnamese culture.
As events start to run together, the tension comes to a peak and snaps. Harold has a heart attack on his birthday due to the severe stress of the conflicts around him. Mai, originally excused herself from the birthday party saying that Thanh was sick, rushes to the hospital, but she only has eyes for Harold and not Dolores; the wedge drives deeper between the two women. Confused by both Thanh’s words and his own doubts, Dwayne breaks off his and Nina’s engagement. Dolores arrives at Dwayne’s place to challenge him after hearing that he might be changing his name to the Vietnamese one, right in the midst of a confrontation between him and Nina who demands to know why he breaks the engagement. Unfortunately, Dolores and Thanh meet right in the room and start a physical fight, which ends when they are forced apart. It is after this incident that Mai’s bubble finally bursts. Vinh, her husband, angry at the callous way Thanh treats him and Mai, asking for them only when convenient, points it out to Mai, telling her that it is time for her to stop looking for her mother. Mai realizes that she has had a mother all along, Dolores. She finally makes peace with her adoptive mother, showing great regrets. Dwayne and Nina solve their conflict and resume their relationship. The two mothers establish an uneasy truce. The movie ends happily, especially with Dwayne’s dealing a little better with his Asian heritage, and Mai’s much improved relationship with her adoptive family.
Perhaps the conclusion drawn by the movie over the struggle to adapt one or more cultures into another is somewhat idealistic, but it is nevertheless possible. This challenge is likely continue on for a long time, as things are. Each person involved will have to find their own way to approach the problem, but we have very high hopes for success.