I have binge watched the Netflix original series “Emily in Paris” twice by now. What an interesting and attractive show! What appeals to me the most is the female lead character, Emily Cooper from Chicago, played by Lily Collins (daughter of Phil Collins and a beautiful British actress), who has been strikingly “people friendly” with a positive and humorous attitude toward her not always friendly French boss, colleagues and clients.
“Emily” has made it clear from day one that her mission is to bring an American perspective to the recently acquired French marketing subsidiary. This is a job that is bound to be challenging and filled with potential conflicts of values, preferences, customs, behaviors and opinions. Yet Emily handled it well and managed to achieve local successes without offending too many people along the way, except her so far cold by nature, jealousy laden boss, named Sylvie.
On a personal level, Emily also blended in well, but not by entirely following the line that “When you are in Rome, do as the Romans do.” I can see that when the French man told her that he likes “American p****”, she responded quickly without slapping the man in the face. She just said “Excuse me? I’d like to go home — alone!” and then left the man. Very elegant way to defeat the vulgar comment. She has also expressed (1) her doubts to the mistress thing between her boss and one of her married male clients; (2) her surprise when the plumber for fixing the shower water at her apartment told her it cannot be fixed; (3) her reluctance to accept the all naked female model walking on the bridge to be gazed by all males; (4) her gentle rejection of the French way of handling crisis by making love.
All these however have been softened by her sense of humor and the “Half doubt, half expected” mindset. Humor is such a great social lubricant that can solve many problems and even crises!
In my attempt for writing a more balanced blog, I searched online for “Comments on Emily in Paris,” and this one from NYT is particularly interesting, coming from a seasoned writer and journalist from the US. When she interviewed the formal president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and asked how Americans can understand his country. His answer was “You cannot. I have never met an American, never, who has really understood what drives French society.” In the words of the author of the NYT essay, this “was a reminder of the enduring cultural divide between the Old World and the New, the sophisticated Frenchman and the clueless American.”
Comments From The French Side
Unsurprisingly, the responses from native Parisians have been mostly negative. The following words are directly from the report (highlighted originally): “This series is an accumulation of clichés about the French: arrogant, lazy, dirty and mean. Emily is the young American who comes to teach them about life. And the scenario is laughable.”
Maybe Paris has been indeed changed from what is depicted in the show? I guess the only way to the truth is to visit the city myself, someday! A little warning though: Physically there cannot tell you everything due to the size of the city. It does however offer a fake sense of objectivity to comment. The best way to see a big picture is perhaps to send drones to hover over the city to see how many dog feces are left on the streets, how many stores are open by 11AM on a weekday, whether there are nude models under broad sunlight and how many people have smiles on their faces. Of course, drones cannot enter buildings so we cannot see how people interact in a party, or whether they wear perfume.
Cultural Confidence Can Win Audience
Not all is hopeless, however. Although Americans may be clueless when it comes to native French culture, they do have a cultural advantage: Confidence. While Parisians may complain about the show, most, if not all, of them know that the US is the only superpower of the world. This after all is behind Emily’s courage to go to Paris without knowing a single word of French at the very beginning.
It is interesting that many people now think that China’s rise has weakened the American soft power. Not true! In fact that power is ascending because as the global income level is higher, thanks to China’s rise, more people can now afford to shift their attentions to non-material things (the Chinese are exception on that). As we can see from the show, several French actors /actresses in the show can speak very good English, better than mine anyway. The secret, as revealed by Camille the beautiful French actress, is that they grow up watching the American TVs.
The takeaway message is that some things in life do not have immediate solutions, but others do. In this case the cultural (mis)understanding has no easy way out and may last forever, but strengths of countries differ obviously. We can go easy on the less obvious ones but use the obvious ones to get going!