On September 29, 2024, the USC U.S.-China Institute hosted a workshop at the Huntington’s Chinese garden, offering K-12 educators hands-on insights into using the garden as a teaching tool. With expert presentations, a guided tour, and new resources, the event explored how Chinese gardens' rich history and cultural significance can be integrated into classrooms. Interested in learning more? Click below for details on the workshop and upcoming programs for educators.
Lust, Caution
The Smithsonian Freer/Sackler Museums present a screening of Lust, Caution by Ang Lee.
Where
Sexual passion and political intrigue prove to be a combustible mix in this powerful espionage thriller that won Lee the coveted Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the years leading up to World War II, it stars Tang Wei as a college student who is drawn into a daring plot to seduce and assassinate brutal intelligence agent Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). The couple’s notoriously explicit sex scenes earned the film an NC-17 rating, but they are necessary to maintain the ambiguity of each character’s motives: Do they truly desire each other, or is it only a sadomasochistic game echoing the violent political turmoil around them? “A brooding meditation on the unnerving power and terrible cost of emotional and political masquerades … Lust, Caution gets under your skin with its examination of what qualifies as love and what does not” (Ken Turan, Los Angeles Times). Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Ang Lee, United States/China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, 2007, 157 min., Mandarin with English subtitles)
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