062Y54A00 30/04 Mrs. Henderson Presents...

It's a shame we were delayed in starting the movie on Thursday because, in a way, you missed out on learning the whole reason Mrs. Henderson was so determined to continue with her theatre!

I'm sure a few of you are wondering why I chose to show that movie? We have discussed it at length[a lot] in other classes but those are different classes - not "Oral English" - so they know that, when I show a movie, it is not just for entertainment, but to get some point across.

In other classes, therefore, I showed this movie for several different reasons, and to follow up on discussions we had already had. One of the reasons I showed Mrs. Henderson Presents to you was to maybe get you thinking on the differences and similarities between Western and Chinese cultures.

At first glance you will agree that this movie highlighted some differences, but are probably puzzled about the word "similarities".

You see, I saw that, at the beginning, some of you were a little shocked, and even more embarrassed, to see half naked women on the screen in your classroom. While I don't deliberately try to embarrass students, or make them feel uncomfortable, its the people who DID have these feelings who can most easily understand what I meant by "similarities".

One of the most repeated opinions I hear about "The West" is that people from there are so much more open than Chinese people. Along with this goes the idea that Chinese people are very shy...as if these were things that were built into our different natures.

But these differences are NOT national characteristics: they are attitudes that are simply a result of where we are at different points in our societies development.

To begin with, let's take the "shyness". It is true that many Chinese people get embarrassed by talking about sex. However, when we read Chinese history, or see some of the decoration on ancient things, we see this was not always so. Attitudes have changed at different times in history.

So it has been in other countries as well. Why, 150 years ago in England, the idea of legs was considered so immodest that the word was not allowed to be said, and even the legs of stools and chairs used to be covered!

But to get back to to-day, you would probably be surprised to learn that visitors to China from other countries are shocked at what they see as too much openess!

For you, the bodily functions of sex are embarrassing. For us, the bodily functions of getting rid of waste (i.e. going to the toilet, vomiting, spitting, cleaning our noses etc.) are embarrassing. One of the things that every Foreign woman finds almost unbearable is toilets (such as those in the University) where everyone else can see you and talk to you while you are performing what, to us, is the most private of all functions.

For us as teachers, the idea of using the same toilets as students is something many cannot do. I guess it feels like it would feel if you had to appear naked in front of your teacher!!

Seeing men and children pee (or, in the case of children, pooh) in the streets quite openly shocks many foreigners who find it impossible to think of Chinese people as being shy.

So, by showing this film, which took place during the time of many of our grandparents, I hoped to show how even foreigners have changed a lot in the last 60 or 70 years. When Mrs. Henderson first put this idea to the Government official, even though he was her friend, she had to fight very hard to get permission. It was an idea that had never been heard of in England at that time. For the English, it was something that only Foreigners did. Not them.

If you remember, the first time the show was presented to all the Government officials and their wives, no-one knew how to react. There was a complete silence until Mrs. Henderson's friend, who was the Government Censor, finally started to clap. And even he was embarrassed afterward, when he went to the girls dressing room and could see some of them reflected in the mirror.

The other thing the movie showed, which you might not have realised, was the very large differences between the Upper classes and the rest of society. In those days it was a huge gap that had not been bridged.[ closed; able to be overcome]

Mrs. Henderson and her friends had had good educations and travelled a lot and so were familiar with naked bodies in Greek sculpture, or Classical paintings. Some of the greatest Art works in the world (Like the statue of David by Michelangelo) are of naked men and women and, not only were these people familiar with them but had such art and statues in their houses.

If the Government was going to allow naked women on the public stage, however, the lower classes would be able to see them. Things had started to change after the First World War though, and society was becoming more equal, so it would not be possible to allow only the Upper classes to go to the Theatre.

That's why the idea of presenting the girls as living works of Art was finally considered. By doing this it was hoped that the lower classes would learn to appreciate great works of Art and to realise that Art wasn't something only to be enjoyed by rich, educated people, but was in fact a part of our every day lives. That we should not find anything as natural and beautiful as our bodies shameful or disgusting.

In the last part of the movie the show is going to be closed down because of the war but Mrs. Henderson explains her reasons:- her own son had been only 21 when he had died fighting for his country in the First World War. After his death she had found, in his room, some pictures of naked women hidden under his mattress. She thought it was terrible that a person could be considered old enough to go and see all the horrors of war and be killed in terrible ways, and yet was not considered old enough to see the beauty of what a women's naked body looked like. She did not want any other young men to die thinking that such natural beauty was shameful and ugly and only connected with sex.

She won her fight and The Windmill was the only theatre to stay open all during the six years of World War Two, even through the worst of the Blitz -the period when London was attacked by bombs almost every single night and thousands and thousands of homes, businesses and people were blown up.