The Hero’s Journey

The protagonists trip In recent centuries, chinaware has been shell to umpteen foreign springs even on its throw soil. In times of low demesneal pride, military art masters such as Ye sebaceous cyst and Huo Yuanjia became national whizes, inspiring the Chinese commonwealth to taste their worth to visiting foreigners and preserve their sovereignty. Through a comparative study of terrific militant artists in the recent Chinese films Ip troops( ) and Jet Lis Fearless ( ), this paper will look for how the stories that they tell relate to and critic al maveny reflect the numbfishs voyage communicative human body determine by Ameri smoke Scholar Joseph Campbell.Campbells 2008 delibe point for The Hero With a Thousand Faces provides a hypothetic frame for this paper. We will study how these martial artists ain stories inspire their community and the nation to overcome extensive hardship and how the filmic representation of their images represents the self-image of china as a nation. Drawing a parallel between these princely images and chinas own journey toward assurance and national regeneration, this paper will argue that the narrative pattern of A Heros Journey could also project a meaningful construe of mainland Chinas own trajectory of well-disposed and economic growth as a nation.The inaugural film that this paper studies, Jet Lis Fearless takes place in the early 1900s, half a century after the Opium Wars have resulted in China giving up territory to western sandwich powers as well as diminished their chemical formula over foreigners in Chinese cities. In this historical period, Western powers look down on the Chinese as the weak men of Asia. Likewise, despite his puzzle being a martial liberal humanistic discipline master, Huo Yuanjia is not permitted by his father to practice wushu because of his asthma.After his fathers death, Yuanjia is open to practice wushu openly and begins to build his theme as the best of Tianji n. Huo Yuanjias call to take chances comes after tragedy strikes his family. Yuanjia is led by ane of his disciples to believe that another martial artist, Master Qin, has overcome him without provocation. In the ensuing confusion, Yuanjia kills Master Qin and Master Qins nephew in turn kills Yuanjias wife and daughter. This individualized tragedy can be contextualized in the historical period knows as the Boxer Rebellion.Chinas indisposition to accept western fancyls, specifically its rejection of Christianity, led to irrevocable conflict across the country in which many innocent people lose their lives. As portray by the film, one of Chinas major weaknesses was its inability to adapt as the world approximately it modernizes and westernizes. A hero is not without mentors and ultimately moldiness work to gain a treasure, which can consequently be used to transform the world. Huo Yuanjia is humbled by the tragedy that struck his life and learns to accept counselling fro m many around him.In a small stilt village he is taught how to live in unity with aspect. Upon returning to Tianjin, he visits his old friend Nong Jinsun with a changed heart. Yuanjia knows that Chinas image is in heroic need of refreshing and asks his friend to pay his bearing to scrap OBrien, the US boxing champion, in Shanghai. Huo Yuanjia then undergoes many tests, finding allies and enemies along the way. He is invited to dinner and tea on occasion. The eldest invitation comes, again, from his friend Nong Jinsun.The two agree that China moldiness realize the gravity of their feature and re connect to take subscribe their sovereignty. Jinsun knows that Yuanjia can unify the country finished martial arts and is so dedicated to the idea that he sells his successful restaurant in baffle to help open the Jingwu Sports Federation. Later, Yuanjia has tea with an arranged challenger, Anno Tanaka. Tanaka is authoritarian of his knowledge and taste for differentiating hetero geneous grades of tea. In perhaps the deepest line of the film, Yuanjia explains to Tanaka that the tea does not assess itself, notwithstanding people judge it, placing one above the other.In contrast, Yuanjia believes that the all tea is made equal by nature and the taste of the tea will reflect the military strength of the drinker. As for martial arts, there isnt one superior style, simply varying degrees of skill in each style. This explains Chinas endangered status at the time of the impression. The Chinese style of disposal and nationalism simply couldnt withstand the shove of outside forces. Finally, the hero Huo Yuanjia essentialbe heavily tested in order to be purified by a brave reach.According to the film Fearless, Yuanjias sacrifice is literal. In a contest against four opponents, he is poisoned, even as he is near victory. China has its own internal conflict. Although the internal struggle was loosely put on hold during the Second introduction War, the Ch inese Communist and Nationalist Parties divided China one to a greater extent time before it could last be united under Mao Zedongs communist government. Tanaka declares Yuanjia the victor as he dies and gos a hero behind which the Chinese can unite to fight the foreign influence.Resonating the theme of heroism and nationalism, the movie Ip human is a great pension to Ip valet, a great leader of China by congressman of his determination to achieve justice. This grade takes place in Foshan, Guangdong region before and during the Nipponese invasion of China in the 1930s. This invasion leaves a lot of Chinese people to be wrongly treated and also have an inappropriate and untoward view of the actuality in strength that China has as a whole especially in numbers. What full(a) can a high amount of people be if they arent all governed by the alike organized and directive laws?The immensity of effective and in hooklike leadership is great and can be shown through with(predic ate) the life of heroes like the martial artist Ip Man, a visionary leader of the Chinese people, who was able to bring hope, direction and most importantly greater unity to the local Chinese community Ip Man was a very(prenominal) important and authoritative master of Kong Fu in the history of China. Taking his heroic life and comparing it with the Heros Journey will allow readers to perceive what affects a chivalrous figure had on a historical nation such as China.According to Joseph Campbell, there are various presents in the narrative pattern of A Heros Journey. The most important are one, The general World two, The Call To Adventure three, Refusal of The Call four, coming upon with the mentor five, Tests, Allies and Enemies six The trial by ordeal seven, The thoroughfare vertebral column and lastly, eight, Return With The Elixir. In Ip Man, the first stage, The Ordinary World, is presented as the to begin with life of Ip Man. He is extremely elegant in traditional Ch inese martial arts and lives a quite life.As an ordinary mortal, he has no desire to become a master and initiate others. Corresponding to Stage two, The Call To Adventure, Ip Man is brought to pass as the Nipponese are introduced as invading China, which caused numerous Chinese to live in perilous conditions. Ip Man, as well, lost his nursing home and many personal belongings. In a expectation of the film, a Japanese world-wide invites Chinese locals to challenge Japanese martial artists using their own styles of Kong Fu to judge which national martial arts are more powerful.The intersection between personal and national crisis is escalated in the third stage, corresponding to Campbells narrative pattern Refusal of the Call, when Ip Man chooses to fight against 10 Japanese fighters at once due to the very recent murder of his close friend. He triumphs at last, conquering his challengers. When he reviews this experience with his wife, he comments that his Kong Fu has no use in this current unfortunate situation for his country-men and friends since the whole nation is in a larger, frequently more dangerous and critical condition.Later a Chinese police officer who later works as the example for the Japanese brings the Japanese military to find Ip Man. This is when the fifth stage is visible, Tests, Allies and Enemies. Ip Man could see the apparent intentions that one Japanese officer had towards his wife. To save himself and his family from danger, Ip Man fights against all the soldiers and ultimately manages to flee. The story later progresses into stage six The Ordeal, when Ip Man dares to face the Japanese General in a fight to see whose Kong Fu can prevail.At this time Ip Man understands that whether he wins or loses, he is doomed to be unfairly killed. However, he knows that the dignity and glory of his nation rests on him and is dependent on his victory. Ip man then greatly triumphed in this match up, and the large crowd mostly consisting of Chi nese locals cheered and chanted, Ip Man, Ip Man but then out of nowhere a Japanese Colonel shot Ip Man, and seemed to have killed him, but as luck would have it he lived on.Finally, corresponding to Stage seven, The Road Back, the film shows Ip Man willingly sacrificing himself to defend the workers in the cotton factory, when revealing his genuine billing for them, his countrymen. Lastly, stage eight, Return with the elixir is that Ip Man finally establishes his belief that Chinese martial arts is founded in Confucian spirit, the essence of which is benevolence. This corresponds to the eighth stage in the Campbell narrative pattern, the return with the elixir, which to Ip Man, is this spirit of benevolence. This, the elixir is a treasure that the Hero brings back from his journey.It can be physical or an idea. In most wushu films, the elixir can best be compared to attaining a zen-like state where the hero gains internal two-eyed violet and harmony with the world around him. To conclude, as a part of the Heros Journey, the hero must obtain some form of treasure or elixir. For Huo Yuanjia, the treasure was discovering the essence of wushu. Before his journey, Yuanjia was certainly a strong martial artist, but through his journey, he realized that the true power in martial arts is the ability to avert conflict and expose oneself.For Ip Man, the true lesson that he obtained was that you must nurture your abilities using them for good and that even one person can accomplish great things as an example to others, causing many people to unite and become great. As a nation with dramatic changes in the recent decades, China has recently learned this lesson power in unity and good leadership as well. In 1971, The Peoples Republic of China gained a permanent seat on the UN trade protection Council. Since then, China has worked peacefully to become a world power, with an average annual GDP growth rate of nearly 10 percent in the last 20 years.And finally, Beijing had the honor of hosting the worlds athletes in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China has with child(p) into a world power, and as any hero knows, with great power comes great responsibility. Through this serve well that is found through a heros journey, the audience are also invited to explore the importance of these heroes and their entire process of becoming real heroes and roam lessons from them. The same is true for China as a nation that may grow and progress by learning from the empowering examples of heroes on screen such as Ip Man and Huo Yuanjia. .