In spite of the recent events in the HK, it reminded me of how close HK culture is to the film “Searching For Bobby Fischer”. I believe that the film has both similarities and differences with our culture such as the pressure our parents put on us, the different techniques to raise our children, and the last of all how my life connects with the film.

First of all, the film has a similarity with our culture as it portrayed the amount of pressure our parents put on us. In the film, Josh Watzkin, the main character, was a child chess prodigy. When his parents discovered this, they found a teacher for him to take in-depth chess lessons and brought him to numerous tournaments. Even when Josh was having a bad time in his tournaments, his parents never backed down and continuously made him study the game even harder. This relates to our culture as parents in HK take their children’s academic success very importantly, many of the times when people were not able to fulfill their parents’ expectations, they are being punished and left to think about how they can do better next time. This is similar to when Josh lost the tournament in seven moves, and his dad made him think about his mistakes in the rain. This not only portrays the similarities in both of our cultures – pushing their children too hard because they want them to succeed too much – but also explains the victims in these situations, the children, and asking for a change.

Not only are there similarities, but they are also differences. One of them is the method the parents use to raise their children. While Josh’s parents wanted him to succeed and forced him to get better, his mom still insists on keeping his character through this process. To do so, his mom encouraged him to do other activities such as baseball, fishing, and more. This not only allowed Josh to experience the world outside but also helps build up the character in Josh. At the end of the movie we can see Josh giving a chance to his opponent to take the draw, this shows the kindness in his heart and the willingness to give others a way out. Comparing this to the HK culture and how they try to raise their children, we can see that even both kinds of parents are trying to achieve the same goal – allow their children to be successful at areas – but they utilize a different method. Parents in HK try to raise their children the way their parents raised them. Thinking that pushing their children to their limits enables them to succeed is the right way, this ignores the childhood memories their kids are going to have – nothing but studying and co-curricular. Ultimately this is going to lead to a child that is excellent at academics while they have no experience in the society and their characters were not tailored for the society.

Last, of all, I feel like the film accurately depicts different stages of my life. At the start of the film, Josh and his dad were bonding in many ways, such as going to a baseball game together or watching basketball on the bed together. This is similar to my childhood life as I am allowed to enjoy activities I am fond of. However, as I grew older I spent more and more time in soccer, and my parents took this as a sign and pushed me to join more soccer teams and take more time to train. This stage is similar to when Josh started to take lessons from Bruce, even though it might not be what he wants, but he still enjoyed the game. As timed passed Josh was forced to go to different tournaments, and there were high expectations that he would always win, which slowly caused Josh to hate the way he played. This is similar to my situation where I am spending my whole Sunday at a pitch playing matches, even though I still find it enjoying, but my passion is dying down quick. Overall, I find my childhood similar to Josh’s in different aspects.

To conclude, there are both similarities and differences between what the parents in the film and the parents in HK want for their children, including their goals and expectations, their system of educating their children, and also how I connect with the story of Josh. The film “Searching For Bobby Fischer” allows us to understand the society and culture we are in and how we can change to educate the children.

Review: Compared to the other assignments, this was one of the easier ones as it allows us to watch a movie and think about it. To me comparison essays where always extremely easy or hard depending on the topic. Understanding the main message throughout the movie, allows us as students to learn from it as well as applying into real life. Though the assignment might be easy, something that was hard was putting it into comparison with my real life as I do not life comparing myself to others too much.

Rough Draft:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AAFjx-0bEdOeKYNVliWJ6iEJiW7DCstK2hBoEsGHncY/edit?usp=sharing