On The Chinese Traditional Cultural Components In Amy Tan's Novels

Amy Tan is a very successful Chinese American writer. She and her works are a hottopic for discussion and study both in the western countries and in China. The presentthesis will analyze the Chinese traditional cultural components embedded in her threenovels, The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses tosee how she creates a new cultural identity for Chinese Americans and expresses thehope to build a harmonious and equal society for the co-existence of various cultures.Besides the Contents, Notes and Bibliography, etc., this thesis includes Introduction,Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Conclusion. The Introduction makes abrief summary of Chinese American literature and gives a brief introduction on AmyTan and her works. In addition, there is the explanation for choosing these threenovels as the subject of this study. Chapter One, by briefly looking into thoseimportant studies on Amy Tan and her novels made in China and abroad, argues thatdue critical attention has never been given to the different strategies she adopts inusing Chinese cultural components in her works—some of which she accepts for whatthey are in their original shape and meaning while some bear the marks of rewriting tovarious degrees for different purposes. To classify these different strategies andanalyze their effect will help us understand the opinions of Amy Tan on Chinesetraditional culture and the function of it in Chinese Americans' life. Chapter Twoclassifies the Chinese traditional cultural components in these three novels, includingChinese myth, Fengshui, Mahjong and so on, analyzing in detail to what degrees theyundergo changes in her novels. Through this analysis, we can see how Tan makesuse of those components to depict the characters, and why she makes such changes.Chapter Three illustrates the effect of Tan's unique strategy in using Chinesetraditional culture. Those elements born of her share of inheritance of the Chineseway and tradition comprised in the novels, are not employed simply to meet thereaders' desire for things exotic, but for much profounder purposes. The Conclusion is:in these three novels, Amy Tan has creatively used Chinese traditional culturalcomponents to help the Chinese Americans build their own identities, and strengthenthe voice for Chinese Americans and Chinese culture in American society.