An Interpretation of the Cultural Conflicts in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Their Solutions

Abstract: Chinese American female writers live in the gap between American racial discrimination and China traditional male chauvinism. The theme of mother-daughter relationship is an important means for female writers to resist two kinds of pressures and improve the social status of Chinese women. At the same time, it also shows the firmness of national culture in the mainstream culture. By analyzing the mother-daughter relationship in Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club, we can clearly see the cultural differences between China and America. The contradiction between Chinese mother and Americanized daughter in the novel is the expression of the conflict between the two cultures, which reflects the differences, collisions, exchanges and integration between the Middle East and the West in a global perspective, thus making readers realize that the communication between different cultures needs more respect and understanding.

Keywords: Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club: Conflict Resolution between Mother and Daughter

The theme of mother-daughter relationship is the favorite theme of countless female writers, especially in the literary works of American minorities, there are a lot of themes of mother-daughter conflict and integration. In the American society where white culture is the mainstream, China women writers are in a very special social position. Living between racial discrimination in the United States and traditional male chauvinism in China, they have to endure the influence of white supremacy for many years. Secondly, influenced by China's traditional culture that men are superior to women and misogyny, the status of women is even worse. The theme of mother-daughter relationship is an important means for them to resist two kinds of pressures, survive in the cracks and expect to improve the social status of women in China.

Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, jade snow wong's Five China Girls and Amy Tan's three novels The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Bonesetter's Daughter all use the theme of mother-daughter relationship to express their feelings. In their works, the front of the story is the profound contradiction between mother and daughter, and they don't understand each other. In the eyes of her daughter, mother is the carrier of China traditional culture and the memory of history, so she is backward, ignorant and China's. In the eyes of the mother, the daughter is the representative of modern American culture. "She can only speak English, and she swallowed more Coca-Cola than she was sad." "The original China identity has dried up on American soil, and the yellow skin is full of white values ... completely divorced from eastern culture, and she feels that absorption and assimilation are the prerequisite for integration into the mainstream of the United States." Later, by listening to her mother's stories and reading her letters or diaries, her daughter gradually got to know her mother and accepted her China cultural blood. On the one hand, China women writers protect China culture from being erased and melted in the melting pot of the United States through their mother's China complex, thus achieving the firmness of China culture in foreign countries; On the other hand, through her daughter's resistance, she expressed China women's disgust and resistance to being enslaved in the traditional concept that men are superior to women. The new image of daughters' ultimate independence and integration with the East and the West in American society is the ideal pursued by writers, and it also reflects the exchange and integration of Eastern and Western cultures.

First, the main embodiment of mother-daughter contradiction

Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club tells the story of the first generation of China immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters, as well as the contradiction between mother and daughter. Four mothers have experienced hardships in marriage or life in China. When they come to the United States with good wishes, they are faced with difficulties in survival, language barriers, cultural differences and so on. They are excluded from the mainstream society. Disappointed, they pinned all their dreams on their daughters, hoping that their daughters would "always think like China people and always speak fluent English to make use of the environment". However, their daily life with their daughter is full of contradictions and conflicts.

1. Differences in ethical concepts

China culture advocates respecting the old and loving the young, and it is natural for children to be filial to their parents and obey their instructions. Deeply influenced by this culture, mothers hope that their daughters can obey the wishes of their elders as they did in China. However, in the cultural background of the United States, these daughters believe in independent consciousness, do not live for anyone, only live for themselves, and do not support their mothers' guidance and demonstration. They resent and misinterpret their mother's "weird" behavior and beliefs in China, which leads to contradictions. In the novel, Wu Su designs a bright future for her daughter, hoping to become a pianist, and believes that she has this talent. Wu Su is willing to help people clean rooms and do housework in exchange for a beautiful piano lesson every week and a piano that can be practiced every day. I can grow up beautifully in the United States, deeply influenced by American culture, and advocate freedom, equality and democracy. "I never believe that I can be anyone I want to be, I can only be myself." In her opinion, the paternalistic style of mother is an infringement and can never be tolerated. In order to defeat her mother's "stupid pride", she deliberately slacked off in practice and made a fool of herself in the performance. "She made up her mind not to listen to her." ..... I'm not her slave, this is not China ". Of course, mother will not give in easily. She held her daughter to the piano and said in China's words, "There are only two kinds of daughters in the world: obedient and disobedient. My family only allows obedient daughters to live. " The daughter is desperate to fight back: "well, I hope it's not your daughter and you're not my mother!" ""It's no use. I even took out the twins my mother lost in China and gave her a cruel and fatal blow: "If only I had not been born, if only I had died, just like the twins in Guilin!" The daughter's answer fully expressed her strong sense of independence and the ubiquitous concept of independence.

2. Language differences

Language is the carrier of culture. Different languages convey different cultural information and have different cultural identities. In the novel The Joy Luck Club, language is an insurmountable obstacle between two generations, which hinders the mutual understanding between mother and daughter. Mothers either speak broken English, Chinese English or a combination of Chinese and English. Although their daughters can speak some Chinese, they all grew up in the United States, received education in the United States, and spoke fluent American English, which led to conflicts between mother and daughter.

Linglong pointed out more than once that she and her mother could not communicate in the same language. I talked to my mother exquisitely in English, but my mother answered in Chinese. Language is the most important way to express feelings. Different languages express different cultures. Because they can't have the same cultural language, mother and daughter are locked out of smooth communication. Living in America makes my mother feel that she is surrounded by the invisible power of English, and it is difficult to communicate with her family. They know that speaking in Chinese will make their daughters impatient; They speak things in fragmented language, and their daughters will think they are stupid. In this case, mother and daughter entered two completely different worlds, and contradictions inevitably came.

3. Thinking differences

My daughter Vivian has shown a talent for playing chess since she was a child. She won many awards in the competition and appeared as a cover figure in the magazine. Violet's mother, Gong Linda, was so proud of it that she even took a magazine with a photo of her daughter on the cover and asked every stranger who looked at her casually, "Do you know? This is my daughter Vivian. Hearing other people's praise, Gong Linda was even more elated. But her practice made her daughter very disgusted and even felt embarrassed and humiliated. She said to her mother, "As your daughter, I feel a little ... a little ashamed. Since you want to show off so much, why don't you learn chess yourself? " Gong Linda could hardly believe her ears when she heard her daughter's words. She was very angry. What readers see here is not only the generation gap between Gong Linda and her daughter Vivian, but also the cultural differences between China and the United States.

China culture attaches importance to the strength of the collective and the strength of the family. A family should share weal and woe. When one person wins honor, so does the whole family. American culture, on the other hand, pays more attention to personal struggle and the realization of personal value. They believe that their success is entirely the result of their own efforts, which has nothing to do with their families, and their families have no right to show off their success.