October 24th,2019
When I watched the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, some heart-wrenching scenes easily made my heart sink. Though, this feeling was familiar. As I thought about it, I started to connect scenes of the movie to my personal life. As chess was competitive in the movie, academics in Hong Kong are just as (if not more) competitive. Kids often receive tutoring and may feel grades defined how much they were loved, it was like how Josh felt about chess during the middle of the film. The two are quite similar in demand, but the difference is, chess started as a choice for a lot of kids, but in Hong Kong, you can’t choose, because your family will choose for you.
Ask around kids from six to seventeen what was occupying their free time. They would probably answer with either homework or tutoring. This was the same with Josh. Even though Josh was just a seven-year-old little boy, he spent most of his free time studying chess. He made it very obvious he wanted to fish, play soccer, and go to school. But instead, he went to chess competitions, practiced and studied chess. Local seven-year-old kids also share the same pain as Josh, instead of chess, it’s their studies.
Another thing that made touched me was when Josh’s explained how Josh did not want to lose his father’s love. I think this issue springs up in our Asian culture as well. Many kids think that if they don’t obtain the grades their family wants them to have, they will be unloved. Just like how Josh though that if he lost the chess games, he would also lose the love of his dad. What started out as an interest evolved into a painstaking burden. Both Josh and local kids do not want to disappoint the people they value.
Although there are many similarities between chess to Josh and grades to local kids, there are differences as well. One outstanding difference is that chess is an interest to Josh, and grades are not to students in Hong Kong. Josh started playing chess as a lighthearted hobby, but students in Hong Kong know from the beginning that they have to excel in order to satisfy some expectations. Josh could have potentially not chosen to play chess, but to the Hong Kong youth, grades are not a choice at all, it is a must.
Through identifying the similarities of issues for the Hong Kong adolescent and Josh’s struggles, I understand that too much stress has been put under our minors. As Josh had a lot of tutoring, so did kids in Hong Kong. As Josh was afraid of losing his family’s love, so did kids in Hong Kong. As Josh chose the play chess, kids in Hong Kong did not have that privilege in choosing. I think this film highlighted many issues society has been pressing on the youth. Which dehumanizes and forces them to grow up, stripping them of their youth.
Brainstorm: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uww6xRi0sOLthA2LZ-icEo3Elm0ggs-VxGWs9h7JnC4/edit?usp=sharing
Reflection:
After watching the Searching for Bobby Fischer movie, I was very touched because it was comforting to know that Josh’s dad cared about him. Immediately I could draw many parallels from the movie to the culture that I live in. But in the process, I struggled with expressing myself without repeating the same things over and over again. This is a bad habit I have. When I talk, I sometimes repeat things because it helps me organise my thoughts. When I was writing this paper, I could definitely feel myself doing that. Overall, I think this was a good oppertunity to reflect on the stress inflicted on younger people of my culture.
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