Title
The title of the film refers to the pushing hands training that is part of the grandfather's t'ai chi routine. Pushing hands is a two person training which teaches t'ai chi students to yield in the face of brute force. T'ai chi ch'uan teachers were persecuted in China during the Cultural Revolution, and the grandfather's family was broken up as a result. He sent his son to the West several years earlier and when he could he came to live with his family with the expectation of picking up where they left off, but he was unprepared for the very different atmosphere of the West. "Pushing Hands" thereby alludes to the process of adaptation to culture shock felt by a traditional teacher in moving to the United States.
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