The Hero’s Journey

The poor boys Journey In recent centuries, mainland china has been egress to umteen abroad powers even on its own soil. In clock of low countryal pride, warrior desire art masters such(prenominal) as Ye Wen and Huo Yuanjia became national heroes, inspiring the Chinese state to prove their cost to visiting foreigners and preserve their sovereignty. Through a comparative examine of sublime soldierly artists in the recent Chinese cinemas Ip human( ) and Jet Lis Fearless ( ), this reputation will explore how the stories that they tell have-to doe with to and critic entirelyy reflect the Heros Journey account exercise identified by Ameri nominate Scholar Joseph Campbell.Campbells 2008 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces provides a theoretical frame for this paper. We will study how these martial artists personal stories inspire their comm superstar and the nation to overcome huge hardship and how the filmic representation of their images represents the self-image of m ainland China as a nation. Drawing a parallel in the midst of these undaunted images and Chinas own tour toward self-reliance and national regeneration, this paper will argue that the narrative sample of A Heros Journey could as well project a meaningful reading of Chinas own trajectory of mixer and economic growth as a nation.The first film that this paper studies, Jet Lis Fearless takes place in the earliest 1900s, half a century after the Opium Wars have resulted in China giving up territory to Western powers as well as diminished their rule over foreigners in Chinese cities. In this diachronic level, Western powers look down on the Chinese as the imperfect men of Asia. Likewise, despite his father being a martial humanistic discipline master, Huo Yuanjia is not permitted by his father to practice wushu because of his asthma.After his fathers death, Yuanjia is able to practice wushu openly and begins to build his reputation as the best of Tianjin. Huo Yuanjias call t o adventure comes after tragedy strikes his family. Yuanjia is led by i of his disciples to believe that another martial artist, Master Qin, has beaten him without provocation. In the result confusion, Yuanjia kills Master Qin and Master Qins nephew in turn kills Yuanjias wife and daughter. This personal tragedy john be contextualized in the historical period knows as the Boxer Rebellion.Chinas reluctance to accept western ideals, specifically its rejection of Christianity, led to irrevocable conflict across the country in which more innocent people lose their jazzs. As portrayed by the film, wizard of Chinas major weaknesses was its in world power to adapt as the terra firma around it modernizes and westernizes. A hero is not without mentors and ultimately mustiness process to gain a take account, which can then be used to alter the world. Huo Yuanjia is humbled by the tragedy that struck his life and learns to accept counselling from m all around him.In a small mounta in village he is taught how to live in harmony with nature. Upon returning to Tianjin, he visits his old patron Nong Jinsun with a changed heart. Yuanjia knows that Chinas image is in desperate get of refreshing and asks his friend to pay his way to challenge OBrien, the US boxing champion, in Shanghai. Huo Yuanjia then beneathgoes many tests, finding allies and enemies on the way. He is invited to dinner and tea beat on occasion. The first invitation comes, again, from his friend Nong Jinsun.The 2 agree that China must realize the gravity of their situation and get together to take back their sovereignty. Jinsun knows that Yuanjia can unify the country through martial arts and is so dedicated to the idea that he sells his successful eatery in order to help open the Jingwu Sports Federation. Later, Yuanjia has tea with an arranged challenger, Anno Tanaka. Tanaka is haughty of his knowledge and render for differentiating various grades of tea. In perhaps the deepest line of t he film, Yuanjia explains to Tanaka that the tea does not judge itself, but people judge it, placing star higher up the other.In contrast, Yuanjia believes that the all tea is made equal by nature and the taste of the tea will reflect the attitude of the drinker. As for martial arts, thither isnt one superior style, but varying degrees of skill in each style. This explains Chinas endangered situation at the m of the movie. The Chinese style of government and nationalism simply couldnt book the pressure of outside forces. Finally, the hero Huo Yuanjia mustbe severely tried in order to be purified by a populate sacrifice.According to the film Fearless, Yuanjias sacrifice is literal. In a contest against four opponents, he is poisoned, even as he is near victory. China has its own inside conflict. Although the internal struggle was largely put on hold during the routine World War, the Chinese Communist and Nationalist Parties divided China one more time before it could finally be united under Mao Zedongs communist government. Tanaka declares Yuanjia the victor as he dies and becomes a hero behind which the Chinese can unite to fight the foreign influence.Resonating the theme of heroism and nationalism, the movie Ip Man is a great(p) tribute to Ip Man, a great leader of China by example of his determination to achieve justice. This story takes place in Foshan, Guangdong sphere before and during the Nipponese invasion of China in the 1930s. This invasion leaves a lot of Chinese people to be wrongly treated and too have an inappropriate and improper view of the actuality in strength that China has as a whole especially in numbers. What good can a high amount of people be if they arent all governed by the same organized and directive laws?The importance of effective and self-sustaining leadership is great and can be shown through the life of heroes like the martial artist Ip Man, a visionary leader of the Chinese people, who was able to bring hope, dire ction and most authorizedly greater consistency to the local Chinese community Ip Man was a precise important and influential master of Kong Fu in the history of China. Taking his heroic life and comparing it with the Heros Journey will entrust readers to perceive what affects a Heroic figure had on a historical nation such as China.According to Joseph Campbell, there are various stages in the narrative pattern of A Heros Journey. The most important are one, The Ordinary World two, The Call To Adventure three, Refusal of The Call four, coming upon with the mentor five, Tests, associate and Enemies six The Ordeal seven, The Road Back and lastly, eight, number With The Elixir. In Ip Man, the first stage, The Ordinary World, is presented as the earlier life of Ip Man. He is extremely accomplished in traditional Chinese martial arts and lives a quite life.As an cut-and-dry person, he has no desire to become a master and drill others. Corresponding to gunpoint two, The Call To Adventure, Ip Man is brought to pass as the Japanese are introduced as invading China, which caused numerous Chinese to live in perilous conditions. Ip Man, as well, lost his home and many personal belongings. In a scene of the film, a Japanese general invites Chinese locals to challenge Japanese martial artists using their own styles of Kong Fu to judge which national martial arts are more powerful.The intersection between personal and national crisis is escalated in the third stage, corresponding to Campbells narrative pattern Refusal of the Call, when Ip Man chooses to fight against 10 Japanese fighters at once due to the very recent murder of his near friend. He triumphs at last, conquering his challengers. When he reviews this experience with his wife, he comments that his Kong Fu has no use in this current unfortunate situation for his country-men and friends since the whole nation is in a larger, much more dangerous and critical condition.Later a Chinese ships officer who afterwards works as the interpreter for the Japanese brings the Japanese military to find Ip Man. This is when the fifth stage is visible, Tests, Allies and Enemies. Ip Man could see the apparent intentions that one Japanese officer had towards his wife. To save himself and his family from danger, Ip Man fights against all the soldiers and finally manages to flee. The story later progresses into stage six The Ordeal, when Ip Man dares to face the Japanese General in a fight to see whose Kong Fu can prevail.At this time Ip Man understands that whether he wins or loses, he is doomed to be unfairly killed. However, he knows that the dignity and glory of his nation rests on him and is bloodsucking on his victory. Ip man then greatly triumphed in this match up, and the large crowd mostly consisting of Chinese locals cheered and chanted, Ip Man, Ip Man but then out of nowhere a Japanese Colonel beam Ip Man, and seemed to have killed him, but luckily he lived on.Finally, corresponding t o Stage seven, The Road Back, the film shows Ip Man willingly sacrificing himself to foster the workers in the cotton factory, when revealing his genuine care for them, his countrymen. Lastly, stage eight, overstep with the elixir is that Ip Man finally establishes his belief that Chinese martial arts is reared in Confucian spirit, the essence of which is benevolence. This corresponds to the eighth stage in the Campbell narrative pattern, the return with the elixir, which to Ip Man, is this spirit of benevolence. This, the elixir is a treasure that the Hero brings back from his journey.It can be physical or an idea. In most wushu films, the elixir can best be compared to attaining a zen-like bow where the hero gains internal peace and harmony with the world around him. To conclude, as a part of the Heros Journey, the hero must amaze some form of treasure or elixir. For Huo Yuanjia, the treasure was discovering the essence of wushu. to begin with his journey, Yuanjia was certai nly a strong martial artist, but through his journey, he realized that the true power in martial arts is the ability to avert conflict and better oneself.For Ip Man, the true lesson that he obtained was that you must cherish your abilities using them for good and that even one person can accomplish great things as an example to others, causing many people to unite and become great. As a nation with dramatic changes in the recent decades, China has recently learned this lesson power in unity and good leadership as well. In 1971, The Peoples majority rule of China gained a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Since then, China has worked peacefully to become a world power, with an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of nearly 10 percent in the last 20 years.And finally, Beijing had the honor of hosting the worlds athletes in the 2008 summertime Olympic Games. China has grown into a world power, and as any hero knows, with great power comes great responsibility. Th rough this process that is found through a heros journey, the audience are also invited to explore the importance of these heroes and their entire process of becoming real heroes and chicken out lessons from them. The same is true for China as a nation that whitethorn grow and progress by learning from the empowering examples of heroes on screen such as Ip Man and Huo Yuanjia. .