A Brief Introduction to Four Stories of The Joy Luck Club [Comment on the Conflict between Mother and Daughter in The Joy Luck Club]

The film The Joy Luck Club is based on the novel of the same name by Amy Tan, a famous American Chinese woman writer. This film, which is deeply loved by Chinese and Western audiences, focuses on the psychological estrangement and emotional conflict between the first generation of China immigrants and their American children due to their living environment and cultural differences, and finally reaches the process of mutual understanding and recognition. Movies reflect the social and historical reality of cultural collision and compatibility between China and the United States, and cultural differences and conflicts will eventually merge with the efforts of several generations. This paper analyzes the conflict, difference and integration of Chinese and western cultures from the perspective of mother-daughter relationship.

[Keywords:] Cultural differences; Contradictions and conflicts; Cultural integration; The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan is a "native" American with China's blood in her veins. In the movie The Joy Luck Club, there are four immigrant mothers and daughters. These mothers came from old China in the 1940s and suffered humiliation and suffering. In order to get rid of their sufferings, they went through hardships to come to America. Although they are in a foreign country, they have never forgotten their traditional culture in China and tried to educate their daughters with the traditional culture in China. Daughters who can be born and raised in the United States know little about the traditional culture of China. It is difficult for them to understand their mother's China culture and her way of thinking, and they often have conflicts with her. This paper analyzes the conflict, understanding and tolerance between mother and daughter in The Joy Luck Club to see the differences between western cultures.

First, the contradiction between mother and daughter

(A) the conflict of educational concepts

China is a country that attaches great importance to education. "There is a golden house in the book" is an educational concept that has been passed down to this day. This concept is fully reflected in the mother in The Joy Luck Club. On the way to the United States, mothers secretly vowed: "when I arrive in the United States, I will have a daughter, and my daughter will be very much like me;" But in America, she doesn't have to live by her husband's snorting; In America, no one will discriminate against her, because I hope she can speak fluent and beautiful American English; She will have everything, without worry and sadness; She will understand my painstaking efforts, and I will definitely turn her into a beautiful swan 100 times better than expected! "So when I arrived in the United States, my mother had high hopes for her daughter and pinned her hopes on her daughter in comparison. For example, in order to let her learn piano, Jingmei's mother is willing to be a cleaner for the retired piano teacher downstairs for free, and she also saved money to buy an old piano for Jingmei. This reflects the Chinese mother's belief that her daughter will be born in phoenix: for the sake of her daughter's future, she will be willing to work hard and tired again. And many sacrifices made to the mother are beyond the understanding of the daughter who advocates freedom and individuality. On the contrary, the daughter felt that her personality was suppressed and she lost her personal freedom, so she resisted through various methods. Therefore, in the face of their mother's criticism, the daughters fiercely countered: "Blindly criticizing means that what you want is failure."

(B) the conflict of views on marriage

In the movie, mother and daughter also show different views on marriage. In the daughter's eyes: marriage is purely a personal matter, and no one can interfere, including parents; In the traditional concept of Chinese mothers, the marriage of children has always been the fate of parents. According to the words of matchmakers, individuals have no right to choose at all. Therefore, when waverley brought her first boyfriend home, Linda, with the unique observation of a Chinese mother, found that he lacked the necessary sense of family responsibility and he didn't care about his wife. So Linda went to extremes and chased waverley and her boyfriend with her shoes. But waverley didn't understand his mother's love, and even thought that the failure of his first marriage was his mother's witchcraft! Waverley was worried that her mother would destroy her marriage again, so she got rid of her mother's interference, fell in love with Ricky freely, and lived with her boyfriend without telling her.

(C) the conflict of values

China advocates collectivism, while the United States believes in individualism. Family harmony plays an important role in China families, and family gatherings are essential. Chatting, eating and playing mahjong are important means to strengthen family feelings, so mothers organize "Joy Luck Club" activities every year. However, it is difficult for daughters to understand the deep metaphor behind this Chinese mahjong, and even compare the Joy Luck Club to a Klan rally or an Indian expedition ceremony. Deeply influenced by China's collectivist values, mothers always interfere in their daughters' private lives and disapprove. Therefore, during her daughter waverley's first marriage, her mother often called at any time without saying hello. This thing that my mother took for granted was strongly protested by my daughter. After winning the national chess championship, Chinese mothers flaunted their daughters everywhere. But her daughter waverley doesn't understand her mother's behavior. She thinks that glory has nothing to do with her mother, but her own, and protests loudly: "Why do you want to show me off?" If you want to be famous, just learn to play chess yourself. "

In the film, Gong Linda has been trying to teach the tradition of China people in waverley: obey their parents and listen to their elders. This is a typical Confucian thought: obey parents. But growing up in a society that values individualism, waverley has a strong sense of self and attaches importance to independence, so it is difficult to understand China's "filial piety". Therefore, when her mother Gong Linda used the traditional "loyalty and filial piety" in China to ask her daughter to obey unconditionally, waverley thought it was unreasonable and complained that her mother was "bossing her around". When her daughter Jingmei refused to listen to her mother's arrangement to play the piano, her mother said, "There are only two kinds of daughters: those who listen to their parents and those who don't. But there is only one kind of daughter who can live in this home-an obedient daughter. " Wu Jingmei retorted: "I don't want to be your daughter! You are not my mother, and I am not your slave. This is not China. "

Second, the root of the conflict between mother and daughter-cultural differences between China and the West

(A) differences in educational concepts

The idea of "parental authority" in China's traditional Confucian education makes the mothers in The Joy Luck Club blindly design their daughters' future from their own wishes. Western education believes that children are independent individuals from the day they are born, with their own independent will and personality. Their family education is based on cultivating children's pioneering spirit and becoming an independent person. Therefore, when the mothers in the Joy Luck Club carefully designed the future for their daughters, the children did not show any gratitude. On the contrary, they find mothers' behavior very distressing. Gong Linda found that her daughter played chess very well. Even though she knew nothing about chess, she stood behind waverley and became a "teacher". But since I was a child, I advocated individualism, liked my independent daughter, and was extremely disgusted with my mother's practice. This antipathy finally made her lose her talent and could not play chess.

(B) differences in the concept of marriage

1. Selection criteria

China's traditional mate selection criteria, the most important thing is the right match. At the Joy Luck Club, Ross's mother objected to her marrying Ted, a white boyfriend, because Ted was an American. Although Rose has always stressed that she is an American, in her mother's eyes, it is not appropriate for an American-born China to marry a white man. Besides, Ted is a rich boy, while Rose is just a child of an ordinary China family, and their wealth gap is also very large. Therefore, the mother thinks that it is difficult for her daughter to get rid of social prejudice and gain the recognition of her husband's family. But "the most important criterion for westerners to choose a spouse is the tacit understanding between two people, and other factors such as family background and education level can be ignored." The four daughters in The Joy Luck Club, except Wu Jingmei, all married white people. Under the pressure of American mainstream culture, their combination may be as simple as a tacit understanding between them.