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The book’s name comes from the club formed in China by one of the mothers, Suyuan Woo, in order to lift her friends’ spirits and distract them from their problems during the Japanese invasion. Suyuan continued the club when she came to the United States, hoping to bring luck to her family and friends and find joy in that hope. Amy Tan wrote The Joy Luck Club trying to understand her own relationship with her mother. Tan’s Chinese parents wanted their Americanized children to think and act like what a Chinese does. Tan found this particularly difficult as an adolescent. While the generational differences were like what those experienced by other mothers and daughters, the cultural distinctions added another dimension. Thus, Tan wrote novels not only to sort out her cultural heritage but to learn to get along better with her mother.
II. The Conflicts Between Mothers and Daughters
2.1 The Conflicts of Different Language
Language is the bridge for communicating; meanwhile, it is also the carrier of different cultures. Different languages convey different cultural messages and have different cultural characteristics. But it can also become the barrier between different generations. Because languages are closely related to cultures. “The role of a language in society is significant as a vehicle for the exchange of information.”(Wang Yu, 12). It will be not convenient for people who live in different environments to understand each other. In The Joy Luck Club, the four mothers came to America, far away from China, for it is a safe, wealthy country which can protect them from wars. In America, they speak Chinese, have Chinese food and educate their children in Chinese style. Though they live in America, they can’t speak good English. They prefer to speak Chinese in daily life, and they are forced to use broken English when they have to. So their English is always mingled with Chinese; sometimes it can’t be understood by others. In contrast with mothers, the four daughters, who were born in America, brought up in America and received American way of education, can speak English in a local and fluent way, but they can’t understand their mother’s language very well because they know little about traditional Chinese culture but integrate themselves into the American mainstream culture. As their mothers said, they are Americans in nature except that their hair and skin is in Chinese style. The four daughters are true Americans.