Comments On Other In The Marginal Culture

Among all the Chinese American writers, Amy Tan undoubtedly occupies a representative position. Her novel The Joy Luck Club wins several prestigious awards.Based on the concept of the Other encompassed in Orientalism, this thesis makes an attempt at analyzing the Chinese mothers' image and traditional Chinese culture in American mainstream culture. Amy Tan writes in great detail how different the Chinese mothers and Chinese culture are, designating them as the Other.The first chapter is studies on The Joy Luck Club and Said's Orientalism. The second chapter mainly analyzes the Chinese mothers under patriarchy and racism. They are regarded as the silenced, obedient and ethnic Other. The third chapter concerns the traditional culture including Chinese food culture and Chinese mystic beliefs. On one hand, the Chinese are considered to be a primitive, queer and savage Other by offering the accounts of Chinese foodstuffs, food preparation process in China. On the other hand, Chinese mystic beliefs like astrology and Wuhusing prove the label of "heathen Chinese." The four chapter mainly discusses the Chinese mothers as the Other before American-born daughters from three aspects. Under Confucianism, the Chinese mothers often see their American daughters as subordinates and expect absolute authority over them. And their style of communication is evasive enough to be misleading. In addition, they all speak their Chinese dialects and a kind of broken English. All of these mark them as the inassimilable Other in the eyes of their American-born daughters.To conclude, these depictions of Chinese by Amy Tan participate in the dominant American discourse of Orientalizing Chinese. It is easy to see that her heavy painting on the above-mentioned aspects, to some extent, reinforces the Chinese mothers and Chinese culture as the image of Other in the marginal culture.