East Is East and West Is West

In the film “East is East” written by Ayub Khan-Din, the clash between west and east cultures is displayed on the basis of an inner familiar conflict in Manchester in the Mid 70s. The family patriarch George Khan whose origin is Pakistan, is married to an british women, Ella. Nothing could better show the clash between the cultures than this family, because George is absolutely considered from the Pakistani traditions and forces his 7 children to live after the rules of the Islam and arranges marriages for 2 of his sons. His children respect him and   carry out some of his instructions to avoid conflicts. Ella, Georges wife, tries to secure them from Georges treatment by helping them in several ways behind Georges back. This works out until George reveals Ellas behavior and his anger turns first of all in hatred and then to aggression which leads to injuries of some family members.
This family is the perfect example for the statement which R.Kipling mentioned about 100 years ago. In his opinion the east cultures would always be the same and the west also, and therefore both of them should never meet. “East is East” displays, what happens if both cultures meet: it does not work and violent conflicts are preprogrammed. Although Ella and George are married since 25 years, it does not seem as those conflicts are the first. Moreover the movie displays, that if those two sides meet and try to close the clash, always one wants to take over the control and intends to change the others. In this example it is George who wants his family to accept the Pakistani culture. But if you take a look back to the British Empire and its treatment in his colonies, history underlines the statement that always one culture wants to suppress the other.   The community where the Khans live in, also shows the racist attitudes of the native citizens towards immigrants and further in “East is East” the Enoch Powells racist politic campaign is shown.   Another Example for rising racism, when East...