Amy Tan's Growing Experience

Amy Tan lived in the United States since she was a child, and was educated by mainstream American culture, which gave her a sense of psychological superiority. She always looks down on China traditional culture and has many misunderstandings about China traditional culture. At the same time, Amy Tan also showed the excellent side of China traditional culture to the western society.

From1981-1987, Amy Tan worked as a journalist, editor of medical journals and freelance writer of business science and technology writing. From 65438 to 0985, he became interested in novel creation. Participated in the writers' training camp. Started publishing short stories and essays.

Many of Amy Tan's novels are autobiographical, and they are good at describing the subtle feelings between mother and daughter, often featuring American-born China women. These China women not only have to face the problem of ethnic identity, but also face the gap with their parents in cultural identity. All these are inseparable from Amy Tan's growing environment.

Amy Tan's novels show the positive side of China's traditional culture and describe China's Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and other traditional festivals. For example, Ruth in The Bonesetter's Daughter thinks: "The Mid-Autumn Festival in China is the Thanksgiving Day in the United States. She hopes to get together with family and friends in the Mid-Autumn Festival and build closer friendship. " The Joy Luck Club depicts the joyful and warm scene of the Mid-Autumn Festival. "On this day, people prepare all kinds of utensils and food, and there are four moon cakes in each box." People must also visit Taihu Lake and worship the goddess of the moon. These descriptions are full of exotic feelings, expressing the importance that China people attach to national traditions. Kitchen God's wife described the customs and habits of the New Year. For example, before the arrival of the New Year, people should clean the house, dress neatly, eat jiaozi on New Year's Day, and there will be various folk activities during the New Year, such as setting off firecrackers, putting up Spring Festival couplets, fighting cocks and social dramas. In The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan described in detail the details of Jiang Weili-Winnie's wedding dowry, including dressing table, wardrobe, mahogany sofa, embroidered bedding, phonograph, tableware and porcelain. When getting married, the couple will receive many gifts, including gold necklaces, gold bracelets, jade rings and so on. The description of China's traditional festivals and customs expresses Amy Tan's recognition of China's traditional culture. The novel The Kitchen God's Wife describes the magical curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine. In The Bonesetter's Daughter, Ru Ling was born in a family of ink makers, and she described the ink making process in detail.

The image of China in Amy Tan's novels is a typical image in China literature. The formation of this image of China has profound social and cultural reasons. Her mother told her many stories about China, and Amy Tan's understanding of China mostly came from her mother, family and Chinese community, which inevitably led to her misunderstanding of China society.

Amy Tan is a second-generation immigrant of Chinese descent. Although she is of China descent, she is deeply influenced by American mainstream culture. It can be said that Amy Tan is a typical "American-born China native", which makes Amy Tan often look at China with American way of thinking and values. The perception of China people in mainstream American society will inevitably affect Amy Tan's view. When Amy Tan examines China with American psychology, she will misunderstand China. At the same time, as an American minority, Amy Tan is deeply dissatisfied with racial discrimination in the United States. She often portrays China as an ancient cultural country or a utopian fantasy, so as to win the recognition of mainstream American society. Amy Tan integrated the image of China and shaped the image of China according to her own needs.

Amy Tan's novels reproduce the image of China with her unique cultural identity and life experience. Although there are many distortions in this image of China, it conforms to the psychological expectation of westerners and promotes the cultural exchange and communication between China and the United States.