The father and son have differing interests. The father wanted to conserve the tradition of making popiah by hand, like how his father had done to bring him up, whilst the son believes that buying from other makers would be more productive and adapt to the newer ways of doing things.. However, though they had differing interests, the son in the end understood the importance of upholding traditions. In the end, the son grew more understanding of the father

The father wanted to preserve the family tradition, which was making popiah, because his father had done that to keep his siblings and him alive when they were younger, and it was his way of expressing his gratitude to his father. However, the son did not realise this and thought he was wasting his time doing it, and put it across harshly, souring their relationship. After he saw his extended family making popiah together and interacting happily, he remembered a quote saying how the skin was most important to keep ingredients in. This depicts the relationship between him and the family, and how making popiah gels the entire family together. This made the son realise how the traditions were important, to keep the family bonded, and decided to start learning to make popiah too.

 

In the Paper Menagerie, the son did not understand the sacrifices the mother made, to love and care for him, despite being in an unfamiliar environment she did not adapt well to herself. This was because the son felt that the Chinese tradition and arts that his mother introduced to him wasn’t much welcomed in America compared to things like the Star Wars franchise. Hence to fit into the culture in the US, he started to detest Chinese culture, such as forcing his mother to speak English and cook American Food despite knowing she wasn’t familiar with them. Only when he grew up and found out about his mother’s quiet love and dedication to him through the letter written by his mother before death, he realised his mistakes and put down his grudge against his mother and chinese culture.

This is similar to the video in the sense that both portrayed the misunderstandings between parent and son and how it was resolved in the end. In both “The Paper Menagerie” and “Popiah”, the parents wanted to uphold their culture, traditions and way of life from before. They both tried to pass down the tradition to the next generation, in hopes that their crafts and beliefs would not fade once they were gone.  However, both the son in the video and paper menagerie believed that modern way of life was more important and significant as opposed to traditional cultures which were starting to disappear from the general population. They saw how industrialisation changed everything and that their lives would not be the same as before. They felt that traditions were not as important in the future and that they did not have to care about it especially because their peers and those around them would not do it at all. In the end, because of the traditions themselves, the sons from the two stories realise how important it is, especially when it slowly disappears from their lives, and finally understood their parents attachment to the culture they previously did not appreciate.

This is evidenced by how he wanted to spend an entire night making popiah from scratch instead of ordering in. Furthermore, he insisted on staying in the kampong instead of moving into the HDBs in the city where it is more convenient.

This implies that he is a very traditional person who wishes to stay close to his roots and does not feel the need to change his lifestyle for convenience. To the elderly, changing their lifestyle at such an old age is something extremely difficult to do as most of them are already used to how they go about their daily lives. Thus, they may not seem welcoming to a drastic change. 

In conclusion, we feel that although the father in the short film seems stubborn, he may have his beliefs and traditions which he wishes to pass down to his children such as how to make popiah, which was a skill his father had previously passed down to him.

--------------------------------

Similarly, the mother in The Paper Menagerie is conservative.

This is evidenced by how she was unwilling to speak English even after her child persistently asked her to. To her, words had more meaning in Chinese, which is the language she is most familiar with. Furthermore, she did not feel the need to buy toys from stores. Instead, she felt that making homemade toys from paper and giving them life, which was a skill her mother had taught her, was much more meaningful. 

This shows that she is seemingly unwilling to change herself just to suit the needs of her child, as she hopes to inculcate her values and traditions in her son, which she thought he was fairly interested in.

In conclusion, we feel that although the mother may seem uncompromising and unwilling to attend to the needs of her family members, her intentions to instill her roots and culture in her son are good. However, because she did not directly point out her intentions, her son thought that she was uncompromising.  

This is evidenced by how he made popiah for prayers for his father as popiah was a delicacy his father enjoyed very much. As well as how he continued the tradition of making popiah skin. When stated that his quietness was due to him being tired from making popiah skin all day, he answered that his father made popiah for 40 years and never once complained about being tired.

This shows the deep gratitude and respect rooted within the father for his father for taking care and bringing up a family of 7, all the while never complaining about being tired and trying to keep life’s problems as far away as possible from his kids. It is because of this self-sacrifice of his father that moved the father so much to the point where he felt indebted to his father and that it is his responsibility to carry on the tradition of making popiah skin, as he feels it is now his responsibility to be the “popiah skin” and hold everything together. He sees his father as his role model, as shown by him refusing to complain about being tired. He refuses to stop making popiah skin the traditional way as it has a lot of sentimental value to him.

To sum up, the father in the short video popiah continues to make popiah skin and carry on the tradition as a way to remember his father as his father is his role model, thus greatly respecting him.

------------------------------------

The mother in Rules of the Game is traditional as she wants to cling onto her culture and heritage.

This is shown by how she takes every opportunity to instill her Chinese values into Waverly Jong, for instance when she and Waverly Jong entered the store, she told Waverly Jong to bite back her tongue and suppress her emotions, and rewarded her when she succeeded in doing so. Another instance is her choice of place to live. She chose to live in ChinaTown as this was the place closest in terms of lifestyle and culture to where she used to live. Another example is how she showed off Waverly Jong to others, saying that “this is my daughter”. This shows her deeply rooted competitiveness as a “tiger mom” and was eager to show off Waverly Jong once she had become a chess champion. 

All of this suggests that she wants to hold on to her culture as long as possible in both her behavior, her choices and what she chooses to pass down to her child. Thus, she is traditional.

This is evidenced by the fact that the father and son are from two completely different generations.

This causes them to be unable to understand each other. The son could not comprehend why his father had to inconvenience the entire family to make popiah from scratch. While his friends were hanging out together and having fun, he was stuck at home doing something he found meaningless, which was making popiah. He told his father to spend his money wisely since he had enough money. However, his father just wanted to continue passing down the tradition of making popiah, which was very significant to him.  As a result, they had a quarrel which strained their relationship further. The son did not know how to appreciate his father’s efforts. He then disrespected his father as he had taken everything he had for granted. 

All in all, the generation gap between them was too big. The son’s father knew how hard it was to make a living whereas the son took many things for granted. This resulted in them having differences in values and a different perception of life, causing their relationship to be strained.

Similarly, the parent-child relationship in The Paper Menagerie is uncomfortable and strained.

This is evidenced during the moment when the son started to reject his mother. The son wanted his mother to speak English, cook American food and to stop imparting her Chinese culture to him.

The main reason he does so is because of the cultural difference with the other people in America. The people around him were racist as well, especially towards his culture. For example, his friend called his paper origami toys trash, which changed his perception of the paper menageries. He then realised that his paper menagerie were just pieces of wrapping paper and paled in comparison to the Obi-Wan toy. To make things worse, he was discriminated against in school. As he was rejected for who he was, the only thing he could do in order to fit in with society was to dissociate himself from his Chinese culture. Eventually, the paper menageries which were once full of life became lifeless as he became ashamed of his own culture. Him rejecting the paper origami is a symbolism of him rejecting his own cultural heritage. This all resulted in him rejecting his mother’s love because she was the physical embodiment of his Chinese cultural heritage, which was everything he did not want to be. In the end, he experiences self-hate and struggles through adolescence with his identity, along with his love for his mother.

In a nutshell, the reason the son and his mother’s relationship became so distant was because the son was not accepted for who he was. In order to be accepted, he rejected his Chinese cultural heritage. Hence, he rejected his mother, who was the root of his Chinese culture.

 This is evidenced by their constant power struggles and arguments. At the start of the video, the Son was complaining about having to help make popiah together with the father. The father then started to get frustrated, which enraged the son. thus, the son expressed his unhappiness in a disgruntled way and talked to his father in a very condescending tone. This caused the relationship between the two of them to become extremely tense and unpleasant. The son seemed to be unwilling to understand the sentimental value of the popiahs, and neither did the father bother to try to explain to his son. 

Thus, we can tell that the relationship between father and son is strained

1 b) Similarly, the parent-child relationship in Rules Of The Game is strained.

The girl in the story felt extremely controlled by her mother and at the end she spoke out of turn defying one of the most important thing her mother taught her. She then ran away from her mother. Even when she came back, her mother refused to talk to her showing how the relationship between them has gotten even worse due to both of them lacking in effort in trying to fix their relationship, the child feels that her mother is using her for fame while the mother feels the child has no respect for her. 

Thus, we could conclude that, just like in the story “popiah”, the relationship of Waverly and her mother in Rules of the game was strained and tense