On The Cultural Identity Of The Chinese-American: A Cultural Interpretation Of The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, based on the stories of four mothers and their daughters, reveals the different values and living philosophy, as well as differed identity between the two generations in the Chinese-American families. This paper discusses the cultural significance in the mother-daughter relationship, and the cultural identity of the Chinese-American portrayed in the novel.In Tan's novel, mother is the carrier of Chinese culture and the tradition, the medium of history and memory, and the bridge of the past and present. Tan expresses her China complex and Chinese cultural consciousness through the artistic writing. She tries to mix the two unbalanced cultures, which represent the mother and the daughter separately, and to make them coexist in a harmonious universe. However, the paper points out that, in practice, a united double cultural identity is not vested in any person and that might only be a Utopia dream.