4/25 Monkey Dance

            The film the “Monkey Dance” is about how three Cambodian American child, Linda, Sam, and Sochenda grew up and tried to redefine social stigmas that constituted them by the society. Linda was raised in a conservative household, and was subjected community shaming because her sister committed murder and stained the family name. She revolts against her family by accessing social medium and hanging out with friends whenever she can to stray away from conservatism. She rebels against her community by trying to succeed in getting into a college which no one believes she could. Sam was an athletic and intelligent individual, who unfortunately have relatives that are quite the opposite. He was considered the brain of the family, and resisted the same shame his brothers had by getting their girlfriends pregnant before marriage. He also rebels against social standards by attending gymnastics which was highly dominated by Caucasians, who looked down on Asian athletes; Sam also introduced his own authenticity in revolt against authority by inserting break dancing into his gymnastic choreography. Finally, Sochenda, is a rebellious child who is desperate in making a difference in his life that he revolts against his mother’s will and boss’s demands. He’d rather stay in the streets till 1 or 2 instead of coming home to enjoy dinner with his mother, because his mother wants him to study well in school, but clearly, he does not want that for himself. When his retail store boss asked him to rearrange the items in a rack, he’d rather do things his own way and rearrange the racks entirely instead. If James Scott had a say to these kids, he’d be proud that they have demonstrated his concept of everyday resistances so well. These kids, in fact, have not been able to be stopped, as seem, Linda goes on to succeeding in her dancing, Sam continues to perform his own style of gymnastics and do well in school, and Sochenda was not fired for talking back to his boss about his own methods. These are all forms of subtle resistances that like Scott mentioned, very hard to fight against.