Chinese Americans' Paradise Lost And Regained

In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, the two generations of Chinese American women live as minority people in the United States, where neither the immigrant mothers nor the daughters can eschew dealing with the implications of their bicultural heritage. Both the mother and daughter are confronted with the issue of identity."Paradise Lost"explores the identity issues of individuals caught between two, often contradictory cultures: immigrant mothers'loss of their original identity and American-born daughters'resistance to their ethnic identity. Many conflicts exist between them. They struggle between the Oriental beliefs and the Western values, the traditional culture and the modern civilization. In the process of the conflict, they constantly search for their own identity and position in society and try hard to inherit their cultural values."Paradise Regained"focuses on the second-generation Chinese American women's embracing their ethnic identity. It is the power of the mother-daughter bond that finally helps the daughters to learn to appreciate their mothers and in fact their own heritage. Eventually they get connected with their ethnic cultures and realize that Chinese culture is an integral part of their identity. Only the national is the universal. If one discards his home culture, he will lose the sense of belonging.The happy ending of understanding in the novel reflects the correct attitude in regard to culture: inherit home culture, absorb new culture, find a balance in the cultural conflicts, and link up and blend different cultures of multicultural context in an open-minded way.