Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain
The story is set in the American Midwest in the 1970s. At that time, the American movement for same-sex partnership rights had only just begun, and the social power of gay communities was far weaker than that of Black civil rights groups and feminist groups. Several years earlier, Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated and the African American civil rights movement had reached its peak; during the same period, the second wave of feminism was also in full swing.
It was an era of rapid change in social thought. Yet the darkest hour often comes before dawn. Although America's sexual liberation movement had basically ended by then, its influence on sexual minorities was limited, and many conservatives still despised, discriminated against, and even feared homosexuals. In the story, Ennis and Jack love each other, yet they have to submit to enormous worldly pressure and marry women and have children. Under such conservative, feudal social ideas, the victims are not only the two of them, but also their respective families, including their children and their wives.
Overall, Brokeback Mountain did not resonate with me as much as Ang Lee's Father Knows Best trilogy, Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet, and Eat Drink Man Woman, probably because I am a typical straight Chinese man. But as a whole it is beautiful, moving, and worth watching. By the way, only after finishing the film and checking Douban did I realize that Ennis was played by Heath Ledger. Is my face blindness the problem, or was the Joker makeup just that good?
--- Digression ---
Throughout middle school, America was always a labeled and rather blurry image to me: freedom, equality, wealth, advanced technology, high crime rates, racial discrimination... as if it had always been this way for the past one or two hundred years. Only in the last year or two, with the conservative backlash in American society and even across the world, have I begun to feel curious about the social details of the United States.
After looking up some materials, I was shocked and also half skeptical. The United States did not legalize same-sex marriage nationwide until 2015. How was it that late? The latest reports show that the United States ranks only around 40th to 50th globally in gender equality. How is it that far behind?
Perhaps some of this comes from the legal system. For example, state legislation and judicial independence in the United States have relatively high authority, and Massachusetts had already legalized same-sex marriage in 2004. Still, my impression of America at the level of social ideology suddenly retreated to a position of "only slightly more progressive than Asia." Progressive regions in Asia, such as Taiwan, legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, only four years later than the United States, which is hardly much of a gap. Compared with Northern and Western Europe, the United States looks even more behind: the Netherlands legalized same-sex marriage in 2001, becoming the first country in the world to do so.
Thinking about it carefully, 2001 was only a little more than twenty years ago, so that was not very early either. The large-scale global legalization of same-sex marriage arrived alongside the LGBT movement, and this movement is still affecting our generation; we have become its witnesses. China, Japan, and South Korea have long been shaped by Confucian thought and collectivism, placing them in a low-lying area of the world when it comes to the liberation of individual thought. Yet thanks to the internet and information technology, movements of ideological liberation can quickly spread from progressive regions to backward ones, especially among young people who are good at accepting new things. Speaking from personal experience, the proportion of my peers who strongly reject LGBT people is rapidly decreasing, though this is only the charming moment of statistics from around me. In primary school and junior high, mainstream platforms were still full of derogatory words for homosexuals, such as "gay dude" and "doing gay stuff." Because I grew up in that internet environment and absorbed it by osmosis, even now, when no homosexual people are present, I occasionally still have similar verbal habits. But in recent years, many things have made me realize that homosexual communities must be respected. First there is the medical argument: modern research shows that homosexuality has no connection with mental illness or psychological disorder. Second, as I have come to know more and more people, I have begun to encounter homosexual communities, and aside from sexual orientation they are no different from heterosexual communities. Third is the change in the online public-opinion environment. In 2015, comments under gay-related videos such as "two men?" might be rebutted only with joking replies like "what do you know, male-male is true love." In 2025, they may be hit back with sarcasm like "are you living in the Qing dynasty?" This is a very good phenomenon.
Let me add a simple paragraph. I believe everyone should support equal opportunity and freedom from discrimination for minority groups in all social activities, including but not limited to LGBT people, niche-culture enthusiasts, and people with psychological disorders or mental illnesses. The reason is that in long-term social life, no one can be mainstream in every respect. Respecting minority rights does not require mainstream groups to put themselves in minorities' shoes, empathize with them, or understand them, but society must reach a consensus that minority rights should be protected. For example, as a heterosexual person, I do not need to understand how a man can fall in love with another man; I only need to reach, together with society as a whole, the consensus that the rights of minorities, including homosexuals, need protection. Only when the majority of society reaches this consensus will a person who is "mainstream" in most situations have his rights protected when he becomes a "minority" in some particular respect, and only then will he avoid discrimination. Protecting minorities is in fact protecting ourselves.
To connect this with the previous paragraph: after all, this is only statistics from around me. On a larger social scale, LGBT people in China are still accepted by only a minority. In the place closest to me, Hong Kong, the city where I study, the movement for same-sex marriage legalization is also proceeding amid controversy. Quite a lot of public opinion, and even government officials, believe same-sex marriage would undermine the traditional marriage system of "one husband and one wife, one man and one woman." From small circles to broad movements and then to nationwide legislation, every country has gone through long twists and turns. Therefore East Asia is not necessarily only a dozen years behind North America and Europe. To embrace modernization, East Asia still has a long road ahead.
I lived in the United States for a month this summer and chatted with American classmates, which further confirmed my view that America is "not that progressive." Economically, the United States is unquestionably a global leader, far ahead of Europe; institutionally, it has also basically kept pace with Europe's development. Culturally, however, as an immigrant country, the United States is severely divided internally. Progressive regions are no different from Northern Europe, but there are also groups such as Mormons, see Educated, and Chinese immigrants, those who retain the dross of Confucian thought, who remain extremely conservative. If Confucianism is also treated as a kind of religion, one can glimpse some shared features: the ignorant religions of the Middle Ages still exert their remaining feudal authority in the twenty-first century.
