Why there are so many conflicts between mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club？The following four differences matter and can explain the question。 

3。1 China’s high-context culture and American low-context culture

Edward Hall, the founder of American Anthropology, found that cultures in the world differ from each other in thousands of ways, but they are not out of order。 In accordance with “semantics dependent more on conversational context or conversational language to convey messages” , he pided cultures into two categories: high-context culture and low-context culture。 Owing to living in different cultural backgrounds, people gradually form different ways of thinking and values, which to a certain extent, bring people barrier and conflicts。 Hall believes that in the high-context culture, people have similar life experiences and information channels。 Long-term and stable exchange makes people form a relatively consistent response to the surrounding environment。 Therefore, when dealing with daily affairs, people do not need too much background information。 And when communicating, people can send messages through language, gesture, or even silence。 High-context culture usually has a deep historical origin。 It changes slowly, and has strong stability and cohesion。 As a matter of fact, Chinese culture belongs to high-context culture。 In the low-context culture, people’s personal experience and information channels are different。 Therefore, when communicating with each other, people always need detailed background information。 Information mainly transfers through dialogue, but rarely implies in the context。 American culture belongs to low -context culture。文献综述

In The Joy Luck Club, mothers grew up in china and were affected by the high-context culture。 Their daughters, despite receiving Chinese-style education, were  affected by American mainstream culture and tended to identify with low-context culture。 Therefore, estrangement, misunderstanding and conflicts arose when mothers of Chinese origin communicated with their American-raised daughters。 Conflicts between mothers and daughters reflected their different living criteria caused by perse cultural atmosphere。 Grown up in China, the mothers stuck to Chinese rule of life。 They inclined to shape their daughters’ character according to Chinese traditional values。 They hoped their daughters achieve success and attempted to control their fate。 On the contrary, born in the United States, the daughters spoke fluent American English and were deeply influenced by American ways of life and values。 The daughters could hardly understand their mothers’ suffering and were puzzled by Chinese custom and convention。 As a result, gap and clash emerged between mothers and daughters。 Take the conflicts between Waverly and her mother Linda Gong as an example。 First of all, Waverly had little knowledge of China。 She always mixed up Taiyuan, the birthplace of her mother with Taiwan。 Third, she insisted that her mother should respect her private life, calling her is a must before visiting her house。 Third, Waverly was influenced by the American way of life and values。 She tried her best to get rid of her mother’s interference in her marriage。 When Linda Gong knew that Waverly was older than her boyfriend, she strongly opposed to their marriage because there was an old Chinese saying that would rather find a male ten years older to a female ine year older。 Waverly believed that it was her mother who ruined her first marriage and that she could not forgive her mother。     

3。2 “Three cardinal guides and five constant virtues” in China and “freedom and equality” in America 

Due to special geographical factors and the influence of Confucian ethics, the ancient Chinese civilization system is a relatively closed and introverted cultural circle。 It is characterized with strong family values and ethics。 In The Joy Luck Club, the mothers were fond of gathering together and had a strong sense of family。 They enclosed themselves in the Chinese circle of life, were afraid of the outside world and rejected the mainstream American culture instinctively。 Chinese people incline to believe that parents give their children life, thus children should obey their parents unconditionally。 On the contrary, the western "maritime civilization" and "nomadic civilization" have a profound influence on the Westerners that when the children grow up, they ought to leave their parents and assume their own responsibilities and obligations。 American pay little attention to the concept of extended family, but lay great emphasis on the spirit of independent struggle, inpidual development and personal success。 The westerners hold the idea that all men are created equal, and that each family member, regardless of his seniority, enjoys an inviolable right to his own personal affairs, and other members have no right to interfere。