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2.Concrete Expressions of Cross-culture in the Conciliation of the Two Generations.....4
2.1 Manifestations of the Conflicts between the Two Generations4
2.1.1 Collisions and Disagreements on Self-Development....4
2.1.2 Different Family Concepts in China and America5
2.2 Fusion of the Mother-daughter Relationship.7
Chapter II Conflicts and Causes.......9
1.Historical Reasons Affecting the Formation of Cultures..9
1.1 National Concepts and Spirit Embodied Through its History..9
1.2 Conflicts between Chinese Traditional Ideologies and American Religious Belief....9
2.Different Social Customs between Chinese and Americans.....10
3.Barrier of Languages and Different Ways of Emotional Expressions........11
3.1 Barrier of Language.11
3.2 Different Ways of Emotional Expressions: Chinese-way Indirectness VS American-way Directness.12
Chapter III Fusion of the Two Different Cultures......14
1. The Necessity of the Existence of Cross-cultural Differences.14
2. Awareness of One’s Cultural Identity...14
3. Blood Relationship and Deep Affection Between the Mothers and Daughters..15
Conclusion..16
References..17
Introduction
Born in 1952 in California, Amy Tan is the second generation of a Chinese immigrant family. She spends most of her life in America and is educated and influenced by American mainstream cultures. Living in a Chinese family in America, Amy Tan inevitably experienced a lot unhappiness and arguments with her parents, who tried to educate her in a way most Chinese parents would adapt. But Amy Tan could not bare and understand her parents due to the cultural differences, and she even felt ashamed of being a Chinese. Though Amy Tan’s mother lived in America for most of her lifetime, she insisted traditional Chinese cultures and ideas instead of accepting new cultures and merging into American society. Born and grown up in America, Amy Tan received education emphasizing freedom, equality and creativity, not obeying. The two totally different cultures led to a gap between Amy Tan and her mother, which caused a lot of contradictions between them. Amy Tan could not understand her mother until she came to China at her middle age. The moment she stepped onto the land of China, she found something familiar to her, as if she was a pure Chinese and she belonged to here. The sense of belonging made she realize that the immigrant identity could never change the reality that she was an interconnected part of China, with Chinese blood inside her vessel and typical Chinese characteristics. The strong feeling in Amy Tan’s heart promoted her to consider the reasons leading to the gap between she and her mother. Then she started to think about the cultural differences and try to learn more about Chinese cultures.
Amy Tan’s immigrant identity and her complex feeling of being a Chinese American were well presented in her first novel The Joy Luck Club. The fours mothers, Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, Ying-Ying St. Clair are just like Amy Tan’s parents, who spend years in China and then immigrate to America to start a new life. And their daughters, Jing-Mei Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong and Lena St. Clair are born and grow up in America, like Amy Tan herself, and the education they receive is to be creative and self-independent. They think highly of freedom, rights and equality. All of these are completely different from Chinese cultures. Chinese children are educated to get high grades and find a good job with decent reputation and satisfying salary. What’s more, Chinese people deeply preserve the Chinese traditional ideology, especially the conception of family. So these differences inevitably lead to conflicts and contradictions between the mothers and daughters. The four mothers’ deep ideology of Chinese tradition and the daughters’ persistence in American mainstream culture collide with each other, and Amy Tan investigates the change of relationship between the mothers and daughters, to further imply the change of relationship between Chinese and American cultures.