From Cultural Conflicts To Cultural Fusion

The study of intercultural or cross-cultural communication is a discipline which focuses on conflicts between people of different backgrounds coming to communicate and on the solutions for these conflicts. In China, it is developing rapidly and more and more importance and emphasis have been placed on it. Nowadays the increasing conflicts of people from different cultural backgrounds inevitably call for appropriate and efficient communication. By comparatively analyzing the differences between two cultures, we may enhance the understanding of our own culture and also make it easier for us to grasp the characteristics of each culture.From an intercultural communication approach, I will contrastively analyze the conflicts experienced by Chinese mothers and Americanized daughters in The Joy Luck Club. The conflicts between them are just conflicts between two cultures. The focus of this thesis lays on the studies of first generation immigrants and their offsprings' attitude toward Chinese tradition as well as the solutions they employ to resolve the problems. The Joy Luck Club reveals that two cultures have been developing from conflicts to compromise.The thesis first of all concisely introduces the history of intercultural communication in China and then points out an overlooked area which is about minority groups' ways of dealing with cultural conflicts between the Chinese traditional culture their mothers are trying to pass on to the daughters and American mainstream culture in which they grow up. Then it makes a brief review of the novel The Joy Luck Club and the conflicts between the two cultures.