Chapter 8 - American and Taiwanese Conceptions of Suicide in Emily X. R. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After

Summary

The psychoanalytical theories of suicide prove, perhaps, only what was already obvious: that the processes which lead a man to take his own life are at least as complex and difficult as those by which he continues to live […] Suicide is a closed world with its own irresistible logic.

I remember watching a Chinese period drama with my mother when I was very young and seeing a beautiful actress with flawless makeup and sleek black hair plunge a dagger to her heart in one show. When I asked why they were killing themselves, my mom would wave her hand and say that they had gone crazy. I asked a few more times after that, but the answer was never more than that. Years later, as a youth leader at my church, I was chatting with a 13-year-old girl in the group who claimed that many of the girls said they were depressed, but dismissed it as attention-seeking. In the first instance, I was growing up as a child in Taiwan, and in the second, I was an adult in Idaho: 7,619 miles apart, the attitude toward mental health was eerily similar, leading me to conclude that we do not talk about suicide.

Suicide awareness has grown in recent years with organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Hope Squad. For better or worse, suicide is also being increasingly covered in the media, like Netflix's show 13 Reasons Why, the hit Japanese anime movie A Silent Voice or the popular Steam game Doki Doki Literature Club. These have sparked more talk about the subject of suicide and how various cultures view the act of suicide, which, consequently, changes the way we view suicide prevention and awareness. However, while promoting suicide awareness is important, it ought to be done in a way that considers the effect it may have upon those who struggle with suicidal ideation. In other words, any media that covers the topic of suicide ought to be aware of the balance between suicide awareness and prevention, because the way the media portrays suicide matters as much as the ability to speak about it.

While the awareness of suicide has slowly been growing in the United States, little attention is given to a study of the cultural ideas behind American views of suicide.