abstract
the joy luck club is written by amy tan，a famous chinese american writer. in the novel, she presents the stories of four chinese-immigrant women and their american-born daughters. each of the four chinese women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in china and wants to share her experiences with her daughter, and they never cease to try to build a bridge over the cultural differences and conflicts between them and their daughters with their maternal love of various forms. at first the daughters don’t understand their mothers and the chinese culture that their mothers represent, but as time elapses, the daughters begin to understand and appreciate their mothers' past and accept their mothers in the end. in fact, it is the maternal love the joy luck club mothers extend to their daughters that finally makes their daughters understand them and the chinese culture that they represent. in this sense, the maternal love not only symbolizes chinese culture, but more importantly serves as a bridge over the mothers and daughters, and over chinese culture and american culture.
key words
the joy luck club; conflicts; understanding; culture; maternal love
摘 要
《喜福会》是美国著名的华裔女作家谭恩美的代表作品。wwW.11665.COM在小说中,她呈现给读者的是四位中国移民母亲与她们女儿之间的故事。这四位母亲都有着自己的世界观，她们的世界观又是立足于她们的中国生活经历。她们想把自己的经历一一讲述给女儿,并努力通过母爱的表达在她们与女儿的文化差异和冲突之间建立起沟通的桥梁。起初女儿们不能理解她们的母亲及其代表的中国文化,但随着时间的流逝,女儿们开始理解她们的母亲,同情她们母亲的悲惨过去并最终接受了她们的母亲。事实上，正是《喜福会》中母亲给予女儿们无微不至的母爱才最终使得女儿们理解了她们的母亲及其代表的中国文化。因而, 《喜福会》中的母爱不仅是中国文化的象征,更重要的是母女理解与沟通的桥梁，也是中美文化交流的桥梁。
关键词
《喜福会》；冲突；理解；文化；母爱
introduction
amy tan’s the joy luck club is a masterpiece in chinese-american literature. the joy luck club mothers and their daughters have been the focus of research ever since the publication of this book. some researchers put the emphasis on the relationship between the mothers and daughters while some others believe that it is the writing style that makes amy tan’s the joy luck club a success. for there are conflicts that have been vividly described in this book, some researchers make the conflicts in the joy luck club the theme of their thesis. however, in this thesis, maternal love will be the theme, and it will be interpreted from a cultural point of view.
through the stories of the joy luck club, the secret-laden lives of four chinese immigrant mothers and their american-born daughters are shown in front of the readers. the daughters reject their mothers’ seemingly constant criticism of everything they choose, from husbands to hairdos. they view their mothers’ warnings as irrelevant, and their advice as intrusive. the daughters do not know what has inspired their warnings and advice: the hardships their mothers suffered in china before coming to the united states. thus, as the mothers see it, their daughters are flailing in their modern american circumstances, unable to use what is “in their bones,” the family’s inheritance of pain that led to their determined strength for survival, which their mothers try to bequeath them. the mothers, meanwhile, watch with heartache as their daughters’ marriages fail, as they expect less and less and so accept less and less. conflicts have become something that prevents the understanding and communication between mothers and daughters. in fact, all the conflicts are caused by cultural differences. the joy luck club mothers have accepted and been deeply influenced by chinese culture, while their daughters are born and grow up in the united states and know little about chinese culture. what they have accepted is the american mainstream culture which is somehow contradictory with chinese culture.
however, due to the maternal love of the joy luck club mothers, the mothers and daughters finally understand each other. the maternal love in the joy luck club helps the daughters understand their mothers; furthermore, its significance lies in that it serves as a bridge of cultural understanding between chinese culture and american culture.
i. conflicts between mothers and daughters
in the joy luck club
conflict is the main plot in the joy luck club. because the two generations are born and grow up in different cultural environments, the joy luck club mothers and their daughters have many conflicts. the mothers are deeply influenced by the traditional chinese culture, while their daughters are born and get educated in the united states, whose culture is a completely different one. thus the joy luck club mothers and daughter can never understand each other. the daughters at first have a strong prejudice against their mothers and the chinese culture. born in the united states and brought up in american mainstream culture, they inevitably hold a prejudice against their mothers and the chinese culture. they believe that american culture is superior to chinese culture. in their eyes, their mothers symbolize backwardness and ignorance. they are dissatisfied with their mothers who use toothpick in public. they are ashamed of their mothers who open jars to smell the insides in grocery stores and they are angry with their mothers who like to use them to show off. naturally the four daughters try to identify themselves with american mainstream culture. both rose and lena marry americans or what their mothers call waiguoren. they admire the americans and their culture so much that they are willing to make sacrifice for their american husbands. waverly thinks that her mother’s chinese outlook would make her lose face when she attends her wedding, so she conspires with her beauty parlor to dress up her mother in an american style. the joy luck club mothers intervene so much in their daughters’ life that the daughters feel their mothers’ love is not embracing but suffocating. waverly, a chess prodigy thinks she has grown cleverer than her mother who gives her “invisible strength.” lena fears being drawn into her mother’s madness and consoles herself by imagining others who have a life worse than hers. rose, whose mother cannot let go of the memory of her son who drowned, now believes that by hoping for less, one isn’t vulnerable to loss. and june believes it is her mother’s impossibly high expectations that make her feel that even today, she is a failure.
on the other hand, for the joy luck club mothers, they also cannot understand some behaviors of their american-born daughters. their behaviors are so different from their mothers’ culture that their mothers even feel distain about the american culture. ying-ying can’t bear the go-dutch rule between lena and her husband. under the rule, the couple only pays for their common life expenditures that both of them have to use in their daily life. if they want to buy some personal commodities, they must pay for themselves. this is no surprise in the western countries, especially in the u.s. but according to the chinese culture in which their mothers were born and grew up, it’s unacceptable. a married chinese couple cannot calculate the family financial expenditure so clearly; they must share the burden together. when (jing-mei) woo quarrels with her mother suyuan, suyuan says in chinese, “only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! only one kind of daughter can live in this house. obedient daughter! ” (tan 124). because in chinese culture, children must obey their parents without any excuse. so when june makes her mother angry, suyuan bursts out these chinese characters. due to the cultural differences, the joy luck club mothers and daughters have many barriers in communication and understanding, and these barriers cannot be elated in a short period. for quite a long time, the joy luck club mothers, who live in the united states as minority groups, are overwhelmed by american mainstream society, but they make great efforts to make their daughters understand them and the chinese culture. they chat with their daughters about their past experiences and impart maternal love to their daughters, patiently waiting for the moment when their daughters can understand and respect them and the chinese culture. finally thanks to their maternal love they imparted to their daughters and the same blood that flows in their bodies, the joy luck club mothers are able to make their daughters know and understand them and the chinese culture.
ii. maternal love in the joy luck club
every mother loves her child or children. although the joy luck club mothers are very strict with their daughters, they still love their daughters. and the maternal love the four mothers impart to their daughters is just a typical chinese one. the maternal love of chinese mothers is not as direct as that of american mothers. chinese mothers do not kiss and hug their daughters and say “i love you” to them like their american counterparts. (yu longyu 173).the joy luck club mothers all love their daughters in a chinese way.
first, just as the woman in the preface of the feathers from a thousand li away cooes to her swan,
in america i will have a daughter just like me. but over there nobody will measured by
the loudness of her husband's belch. over there nobody will look down on her, because
i will make her speak only perfect american english. and over there she will always be
too full to swallow any sorrow! she will know my meaning, because i will give her this
swan—a creature that became more than what was hoped for. (tan 3 ).
, the joy luck club mothers put high expectations upon their daughters. they hope their daughters will become successful. they begin to plan for their daughters’ future since they are children. they don’t care whether their daughters like the plan or not, because in traditional chinese culture, sons and daughters must obey their parents, and they cannot rebel against the parents. if they do this, it is filial impiety, and they will be criticized by the family members and the neighbors and the society. although the joy luck club mothers have immigrated to the u.s, a brand-new country, their concept of the chinese culture cannot be left behind in china. both suyuan and lindo put great hope to their adolescent daughters. suyuan hopes that one day her daughter will become famous like shirley temple. in order to turn her dream into reality, she lets jingmei do lots of intelligence test that she has colleted from some magazines. she even trades housecleaning service for weekly piano lessons for her daughter jingmei. lindo wants her daughter waverly to win as many champions as possible in chess games. when waverly is practicing the chess game skills, she always stands behind waverly, although she doesn’t know too much about chess. she arranges timetables for her daughter and she even asks waverly’s brothers to clean the dish after supper, which is what waverly has to do before she becomes a famous chess player in her district.
second, the joy luck club mothers criticize their daughters much more instead of praising them more like the american mothers. in their eyes, if they want their children to have power and skills so that they can survive in the fiercely competitive society, they have to be strict with their offspring. for the joy luck club mothers, in order to make sure that their daughters are powerful enough in the future, they are very strict with their daughters and criticize them much instead of praising them. when ying-ying thinks that lena can go to school by herself, she urges again and again: “you must not walk in any direction but to school and back home” (tan 87). but too much criticism makes the daughters feel dissatisfied and even angry with their mothers. they cannot accept this kind of love because they are strongly influenced by american individualism. they cannot bear their mothers’ arbitrariness and criticism no longer. some of them openly say “no” to their mothers. jingmei, for example, voices her strong protest: “i won’t let her change me, i promised myself. i won’t be what i’m not” (tan 117). she even takes radical actions against her mother. in order to disappoint her mother intentionally, she discontinues her college life. and for waverly, when her mother shows her off in the stores again and again, she can’t help shouting out her anger at her mother: “why do you have to use me to show off? if you want to show off, why don’t you learn to play chess?” (tan 81). the daughters can never understand their mothers on this aspect.
third, they care too much for their daughters’life. the chinese parents hope that their offspring will have a happy life. even if their child or children get married, they will still pay much attention to their marital life, and want to make sure that their offspring have a happy life. for the joy luck club mothers, their care and love can be reflected in the assistance they provide their daughters to solve their marriage problems. they never hesitate to help their daughters when their daughters have marriage problems. they try their best to pull their daughters out of troubles. both rose and lena marry americans. in front of their american husbands, they have a sense of inferiority. rose does not make any decision on anything. instead, she lets her husband decide because she believes her husband’s decision is always better. gradually, she begins to lose charms to her husband who believes that she is shouldering off responsibility. he even proposes a divorce. crisis also exists in lena’s marriage. they fight to solve the problems, but they are too weak to work out a solution. at this critical moment, their mothers do not walk away from them but try their best to help their daughters. an-mei encourages rose to speak up, “why do you not speak up for yourself? why can you not talk to your husband?” (tan 176). when rose takes her mother’s advice and does speak up for herself, she not only astounds her arrogant husband, but also saves her marriage. ying-ying shows her daughter what disastrous consequences would happen if she continues to ignore the imbalance between her and her husband. in this way, she reminds her daughter to take immediate actions to get rid of the imbalance in her marriage. from the assistance that their mothers provide them, the two daughters feel the deep love as well as the powerful strength of their chinese mothers, although sometime they may feel annoyed. rose finally realizes that her mother is more enthusiastic and helpful than an american psychiatrist in pulling her out of psychological troubles. the american psychiatrist only makes her feel “hulihutu”. as for lena, she finds out that her mother loves her better even than her american husband because her mother still clearly remembers that she never eats ice-cream while her husband knows nothing about it even though he has been married to her for many years. from this aspect, the joy luck club mothers give their daughters a lot of help and comfort.
in fact, the maternal love of the joy luck club mothers exists almost everywhere. the four daughters come to realize that their mothers are always loving them in every possible situation. they find out that their mothers would express maternal love at any moment. at the crab dinner, suyuan would not let her daughter jingmei pick the crab with a broken leg after every guest has taken away the good ones. in suyuan’ eyes, a crab with a broken leg is a symbol of bad luck. she does not want her daughter to suffer from bad luck. in order to protect jingmei from bad luck, when there are only two crabs in the plate, suyuan picks the one with a broken leg for herself, and gives her daughter the better one. again, the maternal love of a chinese mother is vividly shown here. the mothers would always protect their daughters and make any sacrifice for them at any moment.
in all, the maternal love that the joy luck club mothers show to their daughters is brim with chinese culture. in the beginning, because their daughters don’t know anything about their mothers’ motherland culture, they cannot understand their mothers, but after hearing their mothers’ experiences in china, and sensing their mothers’ sincere love, they begin to understand and accept their mothers. although they have been soaked in the american culture, the same blood of the chinese people in their bodies and their mothers’ love reminds them that they cannot deny their mothers’ culture.
iii. cultural dialogue, communication and understanding
because of the constant maternal love of the joy luck club mothers, the daughters begin to understand and appreciate their mothers and the chinese culture that their mothers represent. they begin to have cultural dialogue and communication with their mothers. although they don’t have any special dialogue or discussion about the chinese culture, the joy luck club mothers try to grasp every chance to tell their daughters the knowledge about china. when waverly and her mother have a dialogue about genghis khan, taiyuan is mentioned. waverly misunderstands it as taiwan, her mother corrects her instantly, “i was born in china, in taiyuan. taiwan is a province of china.” (tan 167). she doesn’t want her daughter misunderstand her motherland. on another occasion when some boys in waverly’s class say chinese people do chinese torture, her mother corrects her daughter, “chinese people do many things. chinese people do business, do medicine, and do painting. not lazy like american people. we do torture. best torture.” (tan 73). lindo says these words because she doesn’t want her daughter feel unconfident in front of her american classmates. in this way, she tells her daughter that chinese people are not inferior to any other people in the world. for them (the joy luck club mothers), the offspring of chinese immigrants are as superb as the americans. thus, through this kind of daily dialogue, the joy luck club mothers instill a sense of chineseness into their daughters’ hearts.
thanks to their great efforts and maternal love, on one hand, the joy luck club mothers gain understanding from their daughters; on the other hand, they impart the chinese culture to their american-born daughters, which is of the most significance. in the process of dialogue and communication, cultural barriers that cause misunderstanding between mothers and daughters are being removed little by little, and in the end the understanding and blending of the two cultures are achieved.
conclusion
due to the disparate cultures they are born in, the joy luck club mothers and daughters at first find it is difficult to have mutual understanding. however, as the joy luck club mothers tell the daughters their experiences in china, their american daughters begin to know why sometimes their mothers’ behaviors are so different, or even backward and superstitious in their eyes. their mothers suffer a lot before they immigrate to the united states, but the maternal love they impart to their daughters is not changing. the love is a typically chinese one and differs from the love their american classmates and friendsreceive from their mothers. however, the maternal love serves as a bridge that links the differences and conflicts between the mothers and daughters.
to sum up, the joy luck club mothers are the carriers of the traditional chinese culture, the media of history and memory and the bridges that link the past and the present. their maternal love to the daughters is laden with chinese culture. it is just because of this maternal love that the chinese culture can be extended; chinese history and memory can be rebuilt for the daughters. through the maternal love of their mothers, the joy luck club daughters finally accept their mothers and the chinese culture their mothers represent. and from a deep level, the maternal love in the joy luck club represents the momentum of the understanding and blending of all the cultures in the world, which is a call of the new century.
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