''The Gua Sha Treatment'' () is a

Chinese movie The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mounta ...

released in 2001 starring

Tony Leung Ka-Fai Tony Leung Ka-fai (; born 1 February 1958) is a Hong Kong actor who is a four-time winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor. As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony," while Tony Leu ...

Zhu Xu Zhu Xu (; 15 April 1930 – 15 September 2018) was a Chinese actor. He was well known for his roles in Zhang Yang's '' Shower'' and Wu Tianming's '' The King of Masks'', the latter film winning him the Best Actor prize at the Tokyo Internationa ...

, and

Jiang Wenli Jiang Wenli (, born 20 June 1969) is a Chinese actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. A native of Tianjin, she graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1992. Li ranked 52nd on ''Forbes'' China Celebrity 100 list in 2014. Early life Ji ...

. It is a story about cultural conflicts experienced by a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

family in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Plot

Grandfather Xu (Zhu Xu) comes from China to visit the family of his son, Datong Xu (Tony Leung), in St. Louis. While there, he gives his grandson, Dennis Xu (Dennis Zhu), a treatment of

Gua Sha ''Gua sha'' (), or ''kerokan'' (in Indonesia), is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice in which a tool is used to scrape people's skin in order to produce light petechiae. Practitioners believe that ''gua sha'' releases unhealthy bodily ...

to treat a slight fever (being unable to read English labels of medicine).

Social workers Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

, however, mistake the traditional Chinese medical treatment for

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

due to the obvious marks left on Dennis' back. The life of the family is sent into turmoil when Dennis is taken away by the

child protection Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways to e ...

agency. In court, the prosecution includes Datong's inclusion of a Chinese legendary character

Sun Wukong The Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...

(Chinese traditional: 孫悟空; simplified: 孙悟空) in his design of a violent video game. The prosecution implies that since Datong includes violence in his game, he values it. A furious Datong insists that the prosecution does not understand the cultural value of Sun Wukong and that the icon's inclusion does not mean he abuses his son. He insists that what he does in his job does not relate to how he runs his home. Meanwhile, Grandfather Xu leaves America because he finds that the living environment is really not suitable for him, as he does not want to live in a place where a simple, harmless treatment like Gua Sha, which is so common in China, is treated as child abuse. Furthermore, he cannot converse in English. Datong's friend and lawyer, John Quilin (Hollis Houston), tries Gua Sha and proves that the treatment leaves painful-looking marks that are not actually painful or harmful at all. Finally, Datong is able to return home and the family is reunited. This movie's story is meant to demonstrate the difference between western and Chinese culture.

References

External links

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''The Gua Sha Treatment''
at the Chinese Movie Database 2001 films 2000s Mandarin-language films 2001 drama films Films set in the United States Chinese drama films 2000s Chinese films {{2000s-drama-film-stub