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Popular Culture Review
(Wang 17). In order to be a chim-tzu, one must possess jen (benevolence) which
refers to good-naturedness, cooperativeness, parental love, filial piety, brotherly
care, and brotherly respect. Thus, a family “with a good husband, a good wife,
good parents, and good children, who measure up to the jeti standards, may be
rightly called a jen family” (Chang 184).
Originally, the three families in the three TV dramas were jen families.
In To Live a Good Family Life, the architect was a good husband, a good son,
and a good father. His wife thought that she was a lucky woman who had such a
loving husband, and that her life was happier than one of her former classmates,
who was a successful lawyer but a single woman. His mother felt very proud to
have a filial son, a filial daughter-in-law, a lovely granddaughter, and a happy
family at an old age. His daughter lived a princely life in the harmonious family,
enjoying love and care from the three adults. Zhong Rui in Holding Hands used
to be a devoted husband and a loving father. He worked hard to provide both his
wife and his son with a prosperous life. Xiao-Xue, on the other hand, took a very
good care of her husband, her son, and the house. Zhong Rui was so spoiled by
his wife that he even couldn’t find a roll of toilet paper when Xiao-Xue was not
at home. Needless to say, their son was the happy prince of the family. Although
Kang Wei-Ye and Duan Li-Na in Coming and Going didn’t have romantic
dating or a romantic marriage, their family life was stable and harmonious. They
cared about each other and loved their daughter tremendously. Then, in each
story, with the intrusion of the third-party individuals, the three originally
devoted husbands lost their fidelity, and the families were immediately on crisis.
In all three TV dramas, the husbands’ infidelity was the sole bane of
the family tragedy, and the husbands were the target of all the blame. The
architect’s mother in To Live a Good Family Life refuses to recognize him as her
only son. His, and also his wife’s, former high school classmates have even
planned to beat him up. Zhong Rui in Holding Hands felt that he was in an
awkward position when facing his family and friends. Kang Wei-Ye in Coming
and Going was constantly under pressure from the city’s Women’s Federation
and his angry parents-in-law. For all three, extramarital life was not as happy as
they had expected. Although they enjoyed sex and love with the younger
women, their excitement faded quickly with a feeling of emptiness and a sense
of guilt. They couldn’t avoid missing their past life, especially relations with
their children.
Chinese parents’ relationships with their children are something more
than love and care. To Chinese, family is the most important unit in a society.
Each member should do his or her best to protect, prosper, and continue the
family. Sociologist Hugh D.R. Baker finds that while Americans see the family
as an institution that exists to support the individual, Chinese believe that the
individual should exist in order to continue the family (26). So, a Chinese
individual has certain responsibilities to the family, and one of the obligations of
a filial son is to continue the family line. Mencius said, “There are three things