The Philosophy of Ang Lee

The Confucian Cowboy Aesthetic

64 the ConfuCIan CoWboy aesthetIC Michael Thompson Depictions of Isolation Early in the nineteenth century, French emissary and political thinker Alexis de Toqueville (1805–1859) observed a tendency among Americans, especially those of the new Western states, toward an isolation and individualism wherein its members had little or no knowledge of the history of their neighbors and little or no social interactions with those nearest them.1 With the Louisiana Purchase and manifest destiny, the character of the settlers in these new territories was one of rugged individualism and was marked by an independence and lack of sociability with the other few inhabitants of the lands.2 Cowboys are presented as the heroes par excellence of this expansion. The West was settled by cowboys and isolated pockets of humanity with little or no interaction with others around them—or that is what we have been taught. Cowboys have long been an object of cinema. Many of our most revered Hollywood heroes, such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, have depicted this very American attitude of individualism. In several films by Ang Lee, we find a similar expression of the isolation and independent spirit that has come to symbolize the West and its inhabitants. In particular, we find literally self-sufficient and isolated cowboys in the characters of Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005). Disconnected from mainstream society because of their sexuality and occupations, both Jack and Ennis find themselves silently suffering in the midst of their cultural epoch, cut off from each other and society at large. As a result of social constraints and their lack of conformity to the social mores deemed proper at the time, these characters remain isolated The Confucian Cowboy Aesthetic 65 throughout the movie. In addition to this remarkably American depiction of cowboy lifestyle, Ang Lee explores similar themes of individualism in the comparable period of the Chinese Qing dynasty (1644–1911; the movie takes place in the late eighteenth century), with its sparsely populated western states and more urban areas in the east. Characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)—Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), Jiao Long/Jen (Zhang Ziyi), Lo/Dark Cloud (Chang Chen), and even Jade Fox (Chen Pei-pei)—seem to parallel the individualism found in Brokeback Mountain. Especially striking is Jen’s desire for the adventurer’s life, a life without family or constraint of the norms and mores of society as she interprets the Giang Hu (Jiānghú, “warrior underworld”) lifestyle of Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien. In these graphic depictions, this rugged individualism often comes into conflict with societal expectations—that is, within the social settings found in both Eastern and Western cultural dynamics. The common understanding is that one must decide whether to act according to social expectations at the cost of personal desire, or whether personal desire outweighs social acceptance. Western audiences often perceive the action in such movies as a development of personal desires regardless of social impact. Our film protagonists are often presented as just such isolated individuals, who carry themselves through their lives and the plots of these movies as disconnected from the rest of the world. These “cowboys” are indicative of a general mind-set of American audiences, one that was practiced in the actual westward expansion of the United States. However, I suggest that Ang Lee promotes neither this lifestyle nor this attitude. Rather, he uses this attitude in his characters while juxtaposing them against society in order to explore the social determinations of our identities and to elaborate an Eastern notion of Confucian social interconnectivity, but one that resonates as remarkable for all notions of society and individuality. Confucian Social Dynamics One possible backdrop for comprehending Lee’s understanding of society is through the lens of traditional Chinese Confucian social dynamics. Of the basic teachings of Confucius (551–479 BCE), the five basic relationships, filial piety, and propriety are of central concern in many of the depictions of Ang Lee’s films. (We can see a similarity in the American Western culture of etiquette, or doing what is proper.) A Confucian society is one wherein 66 Michael Thompson individuals find themselves in constant social interaction, embedded in a web of social relationships.3 In contrast to the cowboy aesthetic, as I call it, a Confucian outlook on social dynamics denies radical...