Blog 2- Rush Hour series

For Blog 2 I chose to interpret the differences between African culture and Asian culture in the Rush Hour series.  I also chose these movies because I find these movies very enjoyable.  In the movies James Carter and Inspector Lee attempt and successfully resolve a problem of either Chinese or American orgin, but have different ways of going about each.  The differences I'm going to interpret are the ways they present themselves, work ethic, and way of speech.

In the beginning, these two meet and Lee kind of messes with Carter by not speaking any English even though he is fluent with the language.  As you can see, Carter is the loud mouth guy whom goes through with his job with kind of the show boat attitude.  Lee on the other hand is serious and is there to get the job done quickly and efficiently.  Lees attitude accurately portrays the Chinese work ethic in the aspect of them setting sites on the goal and attacking that goal until it is accomplished.  Although both want to successfully accomplish their goal of retrieving the mans daughter, Lee wants to do it quickly and almost in an old fashioned way.  This particular movie takes place in America showing the American culture.

In the second Rush Hour, Lee and Carter travel to Hong Kong for work.  The first thing you notice is the picture of Hong Kong.  As it is shown in the trailer, you can see that the architecture of Hong Kong differs from the architecture in our iconic cities.  And also as most foreign countries do, they have the steering wheel located on the left side of the vehicle.  You also see the type of market place they have in Hong Kong where everything is wide open with no windows or doors leading into the designated shop or store.  You can also see the difference in fighting technique.  Lee fights with quickness and precision, while Carter fights with power.

You can also see the difference in speech at the end of this trailer.  Lee attempts to communicate with Carter but he cannot get the point across.  Carter just doesn't understand him.  This represents that Americans are not often exposed to their Chinese English way of speaking, making it difficult for Carter to pick up what Lee is saying.

I chose to interpret these movies because I enjoy them throughly.  These movies are obviously meant to entertain but looking deeper, you can see the differences in the American and Chinese cultures.  Even by only viewing the trailers you can see the difference in the ways we present ourselves, our work ethic, and the way of speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPULDr0cn6A - Rush Hour Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TpzHFHUiiA - Rush Hour 2 Trailer

Martin, J.N. & Nakayme, T.K. (2012).  Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw Hill