Flame

In the short reading, “Flame,” in the beginning Nimei’s mother kept pushing her to marry this one man. However, Nimei was in love with another man named Hsu Peng, her mother explained she couldn’t marry that man and begged her to marry the man her mother picked (arranged marriage). Plus, her mother added how she never knew her husband before she married him. Moreover, when I read how her mother kept telling her she can’t marry the other man made me think of the old Shakespeare novel, “Romeo and Juliet.” Everyone knows the story of forbidden and this made me think of that. Nimei and Hsu Peng were so in love but Nimei’s mother declined saying she had to be with another man named Jiang Bing. Even though, no one died in “Flame,” made me think of this similar conflict of two people pursuing their love. Furthermore, this relates to today’s society, there is still arranged marriages, and disapproval of desired love partners from parents taking place in numerous countries. This made me think of a movie I watched recently called “Crazy Rich Asians,” the main characters, Rachel Chu, Chinese-American, is dating Nick Young, who happens to be in the richest family in Singapore, China. When Nick had to bring Rachel to meet his family, Nick’s mother disapproved of Rachel because she wasn’t rich or 100% Chinese. Nick’s mother kept pushing Nick to marry his ex-girlfriend who was rich, Chinese, and a woman she approved of. The parental disapproval in this film connects to Nimei’s Mother on how she didn’t see the love they had and that her daughter would be better off with someone she chose. Also, is her mother making her marry a man she chose, because it happened to her? It’s honestly crazy to think that this still happens today! How could you marry someone you have never met AND that your parents chose out of list? All because your parents like them based on what they look like or how much money they have…