Left-Handed Girl
Synopsis: A woman and her two daughters scrape by in Taipei. The kindergartener is admonished by her grandfather for using her left hand; she begins to find fault in herself while trying to understand the world around her.
You won’t be comfortable watching Left-Handed Girl if you have sinistrophobia: fear of left-handedness. It’s estimated that 10 -12% of the population is left-handed, with brain-wiring accounting for the differences.
Historically, humans promote group standard behavior; even punishing those who do not conform to standard behavior or appearance. Can you believe that boys are still being thrown out of school for having long hair? And that’s the least of it.
People in some cultures associate left-handedness with sinister behavior, even persecuting people for predominate use of the left hand. In medieval times in Britain, left-handedness could lead to charges of witchcraft. Watch out if you were a leftie with a black cat! Even in modern times, prejudices persist with some cultures making all students use their right had to write and do maths.
In Left-Handed Girl, bright and sensitive I-Jing, a Taiwanese kindergartner, finds herself shamed by a relative for her left-handedness.
I-Jing (Nina Ye) and her older sister I-Ann (Ma Shih-Yuan) move to Taipei with their mom Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai). As the mom, looking determined, drives them into the city, I-Ann looks out the window with a scowl on her face. She looks likes a teen, but we learn she is about twenty-one years old. In contrast, I-Jing gazes out at the city, smiling.
Their first stop is a visit with the mom’s parents. From the family’s interactions it’s apparent that they haven’t seen each other for a while. The grandmother (Xin-Yan Chao) makes over how I-Jing has grown, while the grandfather (Akio Chen) holds himself aloof.
Later, Shu-Fen brings her girls along with her to a night market where outdoor stalls sell food and merchandise. She’s putting a deposit down on a stall where she plans to sell noodles. The older sister scoffs to her little sister than she can make more money than the mother.
There’s this enterprise in Taiwan that I’d never heard of: betel nut stands. They’re newsagent-sized stores, festooned with neon signs that illuminate their merch: drinks, cigarettes and betel quid. Quid refers to the finished product. Personally, betel and/or quid are not something I’d be willing to try.
Betel nuts aka areca nuts contain natural properties that have a stimulant and hallucinogenic effect. The betel nuts are sliced open by shop workers who add flavorings and slacked lime. Slacked lime? Had to look this up… slacked lime acts as a catalyst to release the arecoline, a nicotine-like substance. The nuts are popular among people, mostly men, who have to stay awake for long hours into the night, like truck,cab, and motorcycle delivery drivers. Daytime users include day labors who have physically demanding jobs.
So, these businesses with the same products had to lure customers from competitors, hence the binlang girls or betel nut beauties. The workers are young women who wear skimpy outfits. When customers make a quick pick-up, the smiling women hand-off the purchase and keep smiles plastered on their faces while the guys make suggestive remarks.
I don’t know if any of the women actually make a lot of money, but I-Ann thinks she can and without slinging noodles by her mother’s side.
The next stall over is rented by Johnny (Brando Huang), a friendly and optimistic guy around Shu-Fen’s age. He sells cheap handbags, and lots of plastic doohickeys. He hawks his wares, like a brush that can clean up any surface, including toilets. I’m telling you right now that there should be one brush designated for the toilet and it should never do cross-over work.
I-Ann picks up I-Jing from school on her scooter. In spite of I-Ann’s general surliness, she makes sure that her little sister’s helmet is fastened correctly before zipping her off to the night market. Her mom is too busy getting the food ready to entertain the girl, but I-Jing delights in exploring the stores with their trinkets. She pals around with another girls whose parents also work at the night market.
As the night drags on, the little girl finds a spot to rest in the back of her mom’s kiosk. During the day she enjoys kindergarten, but after listening in on her family’s conversations–only partially understood– she ponders ways to help. One day she evens slips out at recess to execute a plan.
I hoped that Taiwan is as safe as Japan is for kids out running errands. There was a popular reality show in Japan that showed little kids out on their first errands around town. Unlike many countries in the world, motorists were actually careful at crosswalks, and no creeps approached the children. Still, I wished I-Jing was back at school with the other children instead of taking on boss responsibilities.
Shu-Fen has fallen behind on her shop’s rent and the landlord comes by to yell at her. The noodles looked good to me and the customers seemed pleased. I wished she could get help from a restaurant makeover show. What’s going on?
There’s an insinuation that Shu-Fen is paying off someone else’s debts and that’s why she’s owing back rent. Interesting. Anway, she’s left in tears. Johnny approaches her and sympathizes with her, even offering to loan her money. (Thankfully, he doesn’t seem like he expects sexual favors in return.) But she says no.
The next day Shu-Fen brings I-Jing along to her parents’ apartment to ask for a loan. The mom, vain and flighty, waves her off with ‘Your sisters say not to give you money.’ Meanwhile, the matriarch boasts about the one son, “a big success in Shanghai.” We meet him later and he’s preening and smug. It seems that the grandparents put their resources into the son over any of the daughters. Smash the patriarchy!
While Shu-Fen remonstrates with her mother, the grandfather unhelpfully sits in the next room reading his paper. When he sees I-Jing coloring to pass the time, he notices her left-handedness and yells at her to use her right hand, not ‘the devil’s hand.’ It’s too bad that the old fool doesn’t live by the superstition (created by me) that says yelling at your grandchild will cause you to be afflicted with ear mites. Take that grandpa!
Meanwhile, the older sister stalks from her betel beauty job to the noodle shop where she grudgingly helps her mother. I felt for her because she clearly wants her own life, but is too broke to get her own place. I also had the inkling that she felt responsible to keep the family afloat.
Anyway, big sis is checking her phone at one of the little tables pushed near to the noodle shop, when a young couple recognize her. I won’t say how they know her, but she’s pleased when they invite her to a party. Maybe now she will be in a better mood! Well, it’s possible.
Back at the apartment I-Jing is left to her own devices while her tired mom and sister reproach each other.
I-Jing colors at the desk-sized kitchen table. She’s trying to use her right instead of her left hand. She takes a break to play with her meerkat. Do you think I meant to write Manx cat? Do you think the girl has a tailless sturdy cat from the Isle of Man? No, it is the wild animal from Africa. In Thailand, they are allowed as pets. Very sad. The ‘actor’ meerkat nervously skittles around and looks about ready to lose its mind in the cage they are placed in. So now I feel sorry for the little girl character and the captive meerkat.
I promise you that the poor girl does not get trafficked, but her dilemma is real. How, she wonders can she help her family? Even when she’s at school and you hoped she’d be happy playing and learning with friends, she’s preparing to solve her family’s troubles. Maybe being left-handed could help somehow?
While I-Jing tries to figure out what’s going on with her family, I wished someone from a left-handed association could’ve let her know some good facts about lefties… most kangaroos favor their left paw-hand for eating and grooming; lefties have larger corpus callosum in their brains which facilitates communication between the brain’s two hemispheres allowing multitasking advantages; strategic advantage in sports like tennis and baseball; a lower rate of error in spatial orientation test and; south paw clubbies include mother monster Lady Gaga, former U.S. President Barack Obama and Ned Flanders (who famously opened The Leftorium, a store that sold scissors and other tools for left-hand use… in The Simpsons).
So, yeah, nothing wrong with left-handedness. Right-footedness is another story, though.
P.S. Taiwan (the Republic of China) is a multi-party representative democracy with a population of approx. 23 million people, with the capital Taipei having a population of 2.4 million people. The primary language is Mandarin, with many people speaking Taiwanese Hokkien.
P.P.S. The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Index (GIWPS) ranks 181 countries on women’s wellbeing using indicators of inclusion, justice and security. Taiwan ranks #27. Top ranking countries are Denmark, Iceland and Norway. Examples of Asian countries: Singapore #17, Japan #22, South Korea #37, Thailand #57, Viet Nam #73, China #89 and India #131.
Among English-speaking countries: New Zealand #9, Australia #11, Ireland #13, Canada #16, United Kingdom #23, and the United States #31.
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