On The Construction And Deconstruction Of Orientalism In The Joy Luck Club

As one of the most famous Chinese American writers in American literature circle,Amy Tan published her first novel The Joy Luck Club in1989. The novel became a greatsuccess after its publication and aroused much attention of the American readers. Thenovel remained as the bestseller on the New York Times for9months and won manyawards, such as the Bay Area Book Reviews Award and National Book Award for Fiction.The novel also draws the attention of American mainstream culture to the ChineseAmerican literature, which provides for Chinese American writers the access to theAmerican mainstream society.The novel contains4parts. Each part consists of4independent stories. The16interwoven stories are about the conflicts and reconciliation between mothers anddaughters as well as between different cultures. Many previous studies focus theirattention on the researches about the relationship between mothers and daughters and thecross-cultural communication. This thesis tries analyzing and studying the novel from aninnovative way, i.e. from the perspective of Said’s post-colonial theory, Orientalism. Thethesis aims to point out the details in the novel which can illustrate vividly theOrientalism, and carry out a profound analysis on the causes behind these manifestations.The ultimate purpose of this thesis is to appeal to readers around the world to look atChina and Asia as a whole with an objective point of view, and to seek for theharmonious coexistence of different cultures.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which makes a brief introduction to the writer Amy Tanand her special life experiences, and then points out the researches about the novel athome and abroad. At last, it tells the significance and innovation of this thesis.The second part is the main body, which is composed of three chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces Said’s Orientalism and its background. Orientalismis Said’s reference to Foucault’s theory on knowledge, power and discourse. The essenceof Orientalism is the product of westerners’ imagination, which is used to show thesuperiority and advancement of western culture. In recent years, the theory ofOrientalism has been widely discussed in Chinese academic circles. Through the analysis of Said’s Orientalism, Chinese people can regain their right of free discourse.Chapter Two analyzes the details and plots for the construction of Orientalism in thenovel and illustrates the profound social and historical reasons. Due to the lack of nativeChinese culture, Amy Tan depicts a China full of exotic atmosphere and superstition,which distorts severely the Chinese traditional culture and philosophy. People living inChina are numb and cold-blooded. The Chinese women are lack of independence, thusdescend to the appendage of the patriarchy society; the Chinese men are those who areserious and solemn and are endowed with supreme power. The reason why Tan describedChina and Chinese culture in such way is closely connected with her dual culturalidentity. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, it is of many difficulties forthem to earn high social status in such a society full of discrimination and prejudice.Only if one could grasp American curiosity and cater to their discrimination againstChina, would he or she achieve some prestige in American society. Although Amy Tan isa Chinese descendent, she has never lived in China before. All her knowledge aboutChina is from her mother’s narration, so there must be some biases towards China in herperception.Chapter Three discusses how Orientalism is deconstructed in the novel and thereason for the deconstruction. The depiction of confrontation to mutual understandingbetween mothers and daughters is the best way to illustrate the deconstruction ofOrientalism. The American born daughters find themselves nothing similar with theirmothers. Their conflicts with mothers are showed in many aspects, such as in languageand value. Unconsciously, daughters can perceive the influence of their mothers, as wellas the influence of Chinese culture. When they meet the setback and frustration in careerand marriage, they will ask their mother for help. The daughters learn to accept theirmothers’ value and culture, which symbolizes the stereotyped images of China have beenbroken up, and the two cultures step into an new era of communication and mutualunderstanding. There are two reasons for the deconstruction. Firstly, Chinese Americancan not get rid of the deeply rooted Chinese heritage. Though they would not like toadmit, the Chinese culture has exerted great influence on them. Secondly, the frequentcultural communication between East and West after WWⅡprovides a perfect opportunityfor the East to fight for its right of discourse. The exchange of communication contributes to breaking up the stereotyped thinking mode of Westerners to China andChinese culture.The last part is conclusion, which makes a brief summary to the precedingillustration and points out Chinese Americans’ contribution to cultural communicationbetween East and West. This thesis aims to appeal to strengthen the dialogue betweenEast and West and enhance mutual understanding so as to eliminate the influence ofOrientalism. Facing the international situations in new conditions, China should furtherdeepen the reform and open up and show itself to the rest of the world. Meanwhile,China should develop and advance on the basis of their native culture and in the spirit ofseeking common ground while reserving differences, then it will achieve a great successin the communication with other countries and stay enduring and unfailing in the longriver of world history.