Abstract

Across East Asian cultures, Confucian values have long shaped the language of family, education, and social belonging. They can offer structure and protection, yet they can also harden into expectations that leave little room for vulnerability or dissent. Abyss is a research-creation project that uses a fictional narrative rooted in my lived experience to investigate how inherited norms of hierarchy, silence, and merit-based definitions of goodness intersect with school violence and parent-child miscommunication in contemporary Chinese society. Through the film and its critical reflection, I argue that the tragedy is not only personal but also produced through everyday cultural habits that discipline emotions, reward compliance, and normalize silence. Cinema, in turn, can make these mechanisms visible and open a space for reflection and resistance.