Editor’s Note: There are spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in this essay. We encourage you to read this article after watching the film.
Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was released during a significant time for Asian representation. As a second-generation Chinese British psychotherapist, I believe the film gave important space to highlight often-silenced topics—intergenerational pain, burdens, and family dysfunction.
Though Shang-Chi is a mythical story, we can gain much insight from the relational dynamics of the title character Shang-Chi and his family. We can see the theme of redemption and glimpse how we as Christians can have our family and communal stories redeemed. When we bring those unseen and unspoken parts of our stories to God—into His loving and welcoming presence—we allow him to turn our once broken and painful stories into redemption and transformation stories.
Our Inheritance
We all inherit from our families and ancestors. Not only do we inherit physical objects, but we can inherit and pass down traits such as avoiding conflict, dealing poorly with pain and suffering, hiding shameful stories, and suppressing our emotions.
Without intentional awareness, we will continue passing these traits and qualities down, leaving future generations to carry our baggage and burdens.
“Our fathers sinned, and are no more; it is we who have carried their sin” (Lamentations 5:7)
Our Intergenerational Pain and Burdens
When Xu Wenwu, the father of Xu Shang-Chi, obtained the power of the ten rings, he could have used it for good. Instead, he amassed power, leaving a trail of carnage and destruction. Though he attempted to leave his past behind him when he married Shang-Chi’s mother, Ying Li, the consequences of his actions remained. Those whom he had hurt wanted revenge and eventually killed his wife.
But instead of taking responsibility for the consequences of his past, Wenwu blamed Shang-Chi, who had hidden inside the house, for Ying Li’s death. He transferred the burden onto his son and commanded him to avenge his mother’s death—a weight that did not belong to him and that he should never have had to bear.
Wenwu’s daughter, Xialing, carried her own burden. Because she was a girl, she was considered inferior and not allowed to train with the boys. After Ying Li’s death, Wenwu could not even look at Xialing because she reminded him of his wife. In Xialing’s time of grief and loss of her mother, she was abandoned by her father, inflicting a second loss upon her.
Our Inability to Express Emotions
In the Xu family, we see examples of deeply suppressed emotions of pain and grief, which manifested in anger, conflict, and revenge.
Wenwu could not express the deep grief from the loss of his wife. Immense guilt likely overshadowed his grief, as he knew that his past actions led to the attack on his family. But rather than expressing his grief and despair, he displaces his pain into training Shang-Chi to be an assassin and creating an army.
Wenwu’s actions had further consequences. Shang-Chi rebelled against his father’s plans and ran away from the family’s compound. In doing so, he abandoned Xialing, even though he had promised to return after three days. Consequently, Xialing hardened her heart from connection and vulnerability to protect herself from future pain and abandonment.
For Shang-Chi, he felt immensely guilty for not saving his mother. He needed his father to comfort him and be present with him, but instead, he was trained for revenge. So when the time came for Shang-Chi to avenge his mother’s death, he chose to run and hide. Shang-Chi tried to forget his past and changed his name and life. However, though he was physically in a new place, his body, heart, and mind still embodied his family story and trauma. He could not run away from what was inside him.
We see a glimpse of the years of pain that Shang-Chi had carried when he spoke honestly to his father, “Your family needs you.” Those four words summed up the totality of what both children needed from their father after their mother died. But because of the baggage that Wenwu carried, he could not attune to his children in the way that they needed him.
Our Invitation Out of Hiding
Wenwu, Shang-Chi, and Xialing hid from different parts of their stories. Shang-Chi’s acceptance of who he was became a huge part of his growth throughout the film.
The turning point for Shang-Chi was when his mother’s sister, Ying Nan, told him to confront and accept his past:
“You are a product of all who came before you,” she said. “The legacy of your family. The light and the dark. The good and the bad. It is all a part of who you are. Stop hiding. It will only prolong the pain.”
Ying Nan beautifully invited Shang-Chin to turn towards his family’s difficult and painful parts rather than hide from them. As Shang-Chi reconciled who he was—the light and the dark, the good and the bad—he could be himself and chose to use the power of the ten rings for good rather than for power.
Then through Shang-Chi’s interactions with his father in the final battle, Wenwu also showed up for his family in a way that he was unable to initially.
This invitation is a wonderful reminder of the story of the prodigal son. I imagine the younger son felt great guilt and shame when he realized what his life had become. Instead of continuing to hide and run, he returned to face his father, even if he would enter the household as a servant. He did not expect his father to welcome him home warmly. But we see that:
“…while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
The prodigal son reminds us that God welcomes all parts of our stories—the good, the bad, and even the ones that evoke guilt and shame. Our loving Father waits for us. He is filled with compassion and eagerly waits for us to bring our shame and guilt-filled stories to him, to redeem and transform them.
It is understandably counter-intuitive to do this if we have been taught to hide shameful parts of ourselves and our stories and keep them in the dark.
What parts of our story, our family stories, or our communal stories have not been able to experience God’s love, redemption, and transformation? How many are hidden because there is an expectation or burden that those stories are too dark or shameful and must be kept buried?
Shame keeps us in hiding and disconnected. Love beckons us home with open arms, restoring connection with our true identity as God’s beloved children, paving the way for us to be able to bring our pain and burdens to Him for healing and redemption.
Our Call to Healing
Our families and churches may carry many burdens—intergenerational traumas, ruptures, conflicts, and abuse—that may be known but unspoken. There may even be an expectation that the current generation will continue carrying those heavy loads and secrets.
But some of our deepest places of healing, redemption, and transformation in Christ will be the places our families, communities, and ourselves have been avoiding.
Do we know who we really are? Do we know that we are beloved children of our heavenly Father? Have the parts of us that carry the burdens of unspeakable stories for ourselves, our families, and communities experienced the loving-kindness, healing, and redemption of God?
As God’s beloved, He welcomes all parts of ourselves and our stories to Him, and His promise to us is this:
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Let us extend individual and collective courage to one another to face the intergenerational baggage we have been carrying so that our future generations don’t have to inherit and carry our burdens. This responsibility may not have belonged to us in the first place either, but we can still be agents of grace, hope, and healing.
If we don’t know how to do this, the first step is acknowledging our hurts before God, who will give us the courage, confidence, and conviction to seek direction and support. There is no quick fix, but every step is a step towards breaking the cycle, leaving a legacy for future generations of God’s redemption and transformation stories when we bring our unspeakable stories to Him. Let us remember who we are, and the power of the gospel to change lives for His good and His glory.