"The King's Hologram": the sad and entangled Chinese with a clear destiny
Text: Empty words are clear
"The King's Hologram" ("Hologram for the King") tells the story of an American man who was roughly in the year of his fate, overcoming the sadness brought by the accompanying Chinese. The plot of the story can be roughly summarized as follows: the Chinese imitated my technology, the Chinese robbed my business, the Chinese performed operations on me, and the Chinese allowed me to stay in Saudi Arabia to gain a new life. Although there is a perception that it has the shadow of "Waiting for Godot" and "Death of a Salesman", "Godot" does not seem to matter. For the salesmen here, what is important is the sadness brought by the Chinese. However, if Godot represents hope, then the Chinese here are not completely passive. Even so, it will still make people feel surprised: How can the sorrow of the manifest destiny depend on the Chinese?
In this film, the bicycle company where the male protagonist originally worked has built a factory in China in order to reduce costs and obtain higher profits. As a result, the Chinese learned their technology, produced more competitive products, and squeezed out American companies. The actor's father was very angry about this incident, thinking that the practice of letting the Chinese learn skills for profit is a beast. This kind of view should be quite common in the United States. If there are documentaries, they will condemn manufacturing in China and condemn the practice of American companies building factories in China to make Americans unemployed. Trump became the President of the United States and promoted "America First", which may also reflect this attitude.
However, the male protagonist does not seem to rely entirely on the Chinese people for the root cause of the evil consequences. When an Arab asked him whether he regretted it, and if he could change it, would he not make such a decision in the first place. The actor didn't think he would make a different choice. As the actor’s father accused it, it is the nature of capitalists to pursue high profits. Also in pursuit of high profits, the hero came to Saudi Arabia to promote holographic products. But this time, the male protagonist fell into the hands of the Chinese again, because the Chinese sold the same holographic product to the king at a lower price. In this way, are the Chinese totally hateful to Americans in this year of destiny? If the male protagonist is influenced by narrow emotions, he is likely to think like his old father, and he may curse: Chinese are all liars, cheating away our technology, but to earn our money. It's as if all Americans are of high moral character. However, the male protagonist is not that narrow. The Chinese are not representatives of despair, because the Chinese will also rescue him and perform operations on him.
Here, "A Hologram for the King" is not like some American documentaries to incite hatred towards China. This hatred is realistic, but it is paranoid and narrow. The rise of Chinese technology can only be regarded as a secondary reason for the male protagonist’s dilemma in the Year of Destiny, and the main reason is that the male protagonist follows the rational choice of the bourgeoisie. Here, the experience of the male protagonist is a metaphor for the experience of the United States. From the perspective of the larger historical atmosphere, the Americans urged the rise of China while expanding their own interests. The Americans, with their sense of superiority of the "manifestation of destiny," promote their ideology and technology to the world and to China, trying to universalize themselves. In the film, the Chinese build bridges with American characteristics; the heroine can also see the influence of American technology everywhere when he arrives in Saudi Arabia: the new city that the king wants to build depends mostly on Western technology, and the Arabs in the elevator are addicted to Smart devices invented by Americans; not only Saudi business elites, but even taxi drivers may have received an American university education. Nowadays, China has been immersed in American ideology and technology. This is exactly what the beautified "manifest destiny" strives for!
If "Zhao Zhao Destiny" is a belief with anticipation, then the current situation is precisely the "Godot" waiting for the American ideology. It's just that the "Godot" that this reality has arrived is so unfamiliar compared with the dreamy "Godot" that has come to beautify it, so that some Americans exclaimed: This is heresy and this is a sinister visitor. Actually speaking about heresy, China that enthusiastically learns from the United States does not count. Anti-secularization, anti-Western beliefs are considered heretics. The reason why China makes America’s “manifest destiny” so hateful is only because China is so easy to learn that it makes America feel that it has been copied.
This is the irony of survival. The irony as a concept of survivalism was elaborated by the famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In "A Hologram for the King", when the protagonist goes to a secret party of the Danes, Sauron Kierkegaard is the signal to get started. This is not an unimportant coincidence. Compared with the absurdity and meaninglessness of "Waiting for Godot", the irony of survival is closer to the spirit of the film "A Hologram for the King". What seemed to be a rational expectation turned into an irrational wait in retrospect. The original expressions obscured the reality. The latter is reflected in the plot of the encounter between the male protagonist and the female front desk. The promises made by the female receptionist in words are always inconsistent with the actual situation. When she said that the male protagonist can see the person he should meet, the male protagonist can't always see him; but if the male protagonist ignores the female front desk, he can do as he wants. The female receptionist is like the gatekeeper of the castle, except that she does not speak riddles, but she does not speak bluntly, but shelters. To solve this irony of existence, it is better to explore instead of listening to the promises of others, and explore in a world full of aliens.
Exploration is not to exclude, but to follow the concept of "holographic" to integrate. For the simple and rude and narrow "rationality", the irony of survival is to solve its uncertainty, that is, to exclude dissidents. However, this can only still fall into the irony of survival, just as Zhao Zhaoming and the male protagonist in the film have encountered. Perhaps this can be used to understand the behavior of the male protagonist putting down the shotgun. If the hero's experience can be a metaphor for the American experience, then it can be viewed from a macro level. In "A Hologram for the King", the United States, China, and Arab (Muslims) are ideologically different from each other. However, they have come together because of (holographic) technology, so they have a universal element between them. Holography here can metaphorize this universal connection: a completely independent and confronting light source cannot form a hologram; the world is holographic, and all parties are related to each other to form a more vital scene. The irony of survival is not like the stone of Sisyphus, which always hits the survivors in existence.
Of course, this view ignores the narrowness and irrationality of the survivors, and appears to be optimistic. The ending of "A Hologram for the King" is also optimistic. Although the protagonist loses again in business, he has gained new emotions. The irony of survival is still there, but it is also accompanied by hope.
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