在美国的中国人是美国人吗??(三):Vincent Who 的放映和反响 7点20分,电影开始放了,很快就吸引了观众的注意力。电影并不长,只有40分钟,采访的几十个普通亚裔年轻人竟没有一个人知道谁是Vincent Chin的,27年前一个27岁的华裔的生命在一个快餐店外面就这样被摧毁,在四天后静静地走向终结;25年后,美国变了,但是还有什么是没有变的?可以变得更好的?看来这部电影的确拍得是时候。 片子有几处对我有震撼的力量,一个是一位华裔领袖人物说:在Vincent Chin事件之前,是没有Asian American 这个词的。我一惊,一个人的生命才唤起了一个内在本身就是多元化的群体(亚裔)的意识!这不能不说是悲哀的。 还有Helen Zia,我极为钦佩的一位对亚裔美国人运动起到关键作用的记者,片子出现27年她接受采访的镜头,那时候的她有一张特别生动而秀丽的脸庞,剪着台湾80年代很流行的那种“三级头”,特别有职业气息,她表达能力很强,很冷静,现在的她老了,岁月呀,对谁都那么不留情。片子出现她27年前说的话: “I don’t think any civil rights movement will be there unless there is pressure.” 这的确是真理。 每一次给学生放Who killed Vincent Chin?,我都会在班上强忍眼泪,心里的火总被烧起来,但是职业要求我不能由着性子地说话,看这部Vincent Who?,因为暴力和压抑的镜头少多了,就没有那么激动了,但是我能感受整部片子想表达的“让历史告诉未来”的那种青春而血性的格调,特别是最后,导演有一个手法很高明,就是把这个who后面的问号去掉了,就是说从今天起让我们都来知道这是谁吧。这是美国司法史上一件著名的案子,从那以后,才有了对hate crime的正式惩罚条例。 放完电影,观众的掌声响起来,我走到一束灯光下,心情颇有些百感交集,也第一次面对电影院的一百七十多位观众,说不紧张是假的,但是有什么好怕的呢?今夜此刻正是亚裔的舞台,我要让大家踊跃提问,好好地认识我们面前这位了不起的华裔民权运动的领袖!我问:有多少人知道Vincent Chin? 观众中有三只手举起来,我说:“只有三个人,可是不要紧,今天来看电影的人,从今夜起你们都知道谁是Vincent Chin了,你们可以成为种子,把Vincent的故事讲给你们的朋友和家人听,让我们都来思考,我们可以怎么做,使得社会公正、平等能更多地成为现实而不只是梦想。”接着,我介绍了Curtis的简历,然后让大家提问。 大家提问还是很踊跃的。也有几个问题是提的很好的。比如,你拍片子时有没有觉得很沮丧,因为这样的事情几乎就是人的本性,是无法消除的。还有,如果美国可以学澳大利亚,那里每年有一天,全国一起收看介绍澳洲本土人文化的节目,如果美国每一年也可以有一天放美国少数民族的电视,全国一起收看,会是什么情形? 还有一个问题很不友好,说你这样做的目的是什么?是让大家仇恨法律或政府吗?Curtis说绝不是这样的,我只是想让大家记住历史,不要重复历史,我可以在散会后和你探讨这个。 我们学校工作做得真到家,在这次影展中的每一部电影都做调查,从收回来的学生调查知道,学生对这部片子评价极高,在5分为最高分的情形下,片子得到4.6分的平均分,这是很高的,仅次于我写过影评的《The Live Of The Others》那部德语片。我的学生去看的,都写了一份感想,我要给他们extra credit的,许多感想,非常朴实,深深地感动了我。 有两篇观后感是这样的: “Vincent Who?” Before watching the documentary of Vincent Chin’s murder, I had no idea that it had even occurred. I was extremely offended to find out that the justice system failed to convict the two men of a brutal murder. The man was beat to death just because a couple men thought Chin was Japanese. During the film I encountered that there was a large amount of ethnocentrism with the men and the justice system. Just because he was an immigrant he was not treated the same, he did not have the same rights. One thing that I did not understand is the fact that the United States is made up by immigrants. They are the people who made this land what it is today. So why did they have the right to kill an innocent man and get away with it. Our four fathers and all of their ancestors created a place for everyone to live equally. This was unfair to Vincent and his family and friends. On the other hand I found that there was some good that came out of this case. For example, we now have a minimum sentence for certain crimes including hate crimes. Those of the Asian background with the alliance of other backgrounds spoke up and made a change. It was a horrible thing that happened, but in the end we got some results. 另一篇是这样的,其中赞美了Vincent Chin 的母亲Lily Chin 非凡的勇气,的确这位母亲是很伟大的,她的作用与黑人民权领袖之一Rosa Parks可以相提并论了。 I was enraged to hear such a horrible story. I was even more enraged to learn that both of these ruthless killers got off without serving any jail time. The judge who sentenced them charged them only with unintentional manslaughter. The judge did not look at it as a hate crime. Although this is such a tragic story, this case helped change the laws and helped broaden the definition of a hate crime. I was very impressed with how the Asian community came together to fight for justice. They raised worldwide awareness. I thought that Vincent’s mother was extremely brave for speaking publicly about her son’s death. Before this case, black and white crimes against each other were considered hate crimes. Now, any racial discrimination with violence is considered a hate crime. I was so mad after I saw this film because of what happened to Vincent. I will never forget this story. I now realize that we can change the ideology of hate crimes by speaking out and not tolerating such ideas. We must fight for justice and raise awareness by keeping an open mind and to tell this tragic story to everyone. We must embrace our differences and not let our differences get in the way of helping each other. Curtis Chin那天晚上讲的一段话我印象很深,这些天总在思考,他说: “当我们说亚洲美国人的时候,很少有人意识到这是一种把这个种族分化开去的说法。这就像我们平时总说this is so gay,在这里gay就是一个贬义词,当你把一个群体孤立开来时,和负面的东西连在一起时,你就会觉得若有什么坏事发生在这个群体身上好像就不是什么特别坏的事了,好像他们低人一等似的,所以把一个同性恋的人打死,把一个Asian打死,都不像把‘normal’的人打死那么严重。” 的确,我们说亚洲美国人,黑人,Hispanics(Hispanics 本身就带有贬义,说西班牙语的拉丁人对这一称呼是反感的)这些指称时,当我们把欧洲美国人直接称呼为美国人的时候,就是在重复一种人有等级的观念。这一说法我相信很多华人并未意识到,也许很多人会对我这种说法嗤之以鼻,认为:有那么严重吗?别神经过敏了,事实是我们有多少时候能真的逃脱一种众人的习惯性思维呢?当我们习惯性地只把白人叫做美国人的时候,就是贬低了自己的天赋地位和权利,为自己可能遭受的不公正待遇找一个心理安慰。 学生们为见到导演的真人而激动,也为看到这部亚洲人在美国遭遇歧视的案子而震惊,在很多人心目中,亚洲人是活得很好的,还有人歧视他们?他们以为种族歧视只是黑白歧视。事情远没有这么简单! Vincent不仅仅是中国美国人的一员,他更是美国社会的一员。我看到那么多学生都发出了正义的呼声,我深深相信:正义就在人们心中,只有各种族之间多进行平等的交流,才能一点点地消除彼此之间的不了解和误会,而美国真正的美丽的地方,正是多元化的种族都能和平共处,而不仅仅是各种肤色的集合,因为肤色再多,如果还是分出统治民族和少数民族,那又有多大的意义?随着奥巴马政体登上政治舞台,我的确看到一个人员来源上倾向于多元化的政治、司法班子,我想Curtis是对的,他说美国在朝正确的方向而去。 在美国的中国人是美国人吗?这个问题,经过这场电影播放而带来的思考,已经有了答案。 |