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The Farewell is a 2019 narrative memoir film directed by Lulu Wang. The plot follows Asian American, Billi, who must travel back to China from New York City with her family under the guise of a fake wedding in order to say goodbye to Billi's grandmother - the only person who does not know she is dying of terminal cancer.

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The Farewell | Official Trailer HD | A24

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The Gaze Theory describes how audiences and viewers engage with visual media. More specifically, the gaze refers to how people look into visual representations, such as advertisements, films, and television. The main purpose of the film, in this sense, is to offer audiences a glimpse of Asian American experiences.  The Farewell, although a film specifically about Asian American experiences and Chinese family dynamics, Wang, as director, in extension, also created a film about the love one has for their family, and how we all inevitably care for one another.

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Sartre’s Gaze Theory can be summarized as ontological knowledge which, in other terms, means our layered knowledge of how the world works. For instance, when an audience sees an experience on film, such as the Asian American experience, we can acknowledge those narratives in ways we know ourselves due to how we see each other.

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Since Lulu Wang’s message is through her film, The Farewell, Lacan’s Gaze Theory can pertain to the conversation as well since his contribution to theory centers around the ways of seeing in real life and in film theory.

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For non-Asian audiences, the gaze in this way can function like Foucault’s discussion on Las Meninas, the painting. This metaphor describes how Las Meninas, translated as the mirror, forces the audience into a perspective influenced by the painter’s preferred gaze. In other words, viewers of the painting become the painting. In a similar way, Lulu Wang’s film, makes the audience thematically go through Asian American experiences.

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Mulvey, in her discussions of the gaze, states that it is important for film industries to open up “the means of production” (Mulvey,  1989). By this, she means that there needs to be more people of color and black made films to avoid what she calls The Male Gaze.

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How The Farewell Stands Out From Other Asian-American Centered Films

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How The Farewell Stands Out From Other Asian-American Centered Films

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Just like The Farewell, Jon M. Chu’s 2018 film, Crazy Rich Asians focuses its plot on an Asian American woman’s experiences travelling to China. However, what Chu’s film lacks is the sense of genuine realism and narrative which Wang successfully portrays. The Farewell takes the sense of relatability a step further than Crazy Rich Asians because it offers an authentic story of family.

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Understanding Asian American experiences and the dynamics of Asian cultural identity dualism through the centered gaze constructed by Lulu Wang, as an Asian American director, shows this paper’s demonstration in understanding Asian American identities. By extension, it can also help audiences enhance their knowledge in how the visual representations of Asian American immigrants, specifically in The Farewell, affect audiences both outside and inside Asian demographics.

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Saying Goodbye to Your Roots in 'The Farewell' | Video Essay