A Study On Cultural Factors In The Growth Process Of The Four Women In The Joy Luck Club

Chinese-American literature has gained recognition and received considerable attention in American literature since the1970s. Among them, Amy Tan’s first novel "The Joy Luck Club " was highly praised by the critics and the readers after its publishing. Many critics have done researches on this novel from different perspectives, but few from the Bildungsroman."The Joy Luck Club " focuses on growing-up process of four daughters who lose themselves in conflicts between their mothers and themselves and have a new self-identity in reconciliation with their mothers.This research focuses on the reasons why the daughters conflict with their mothers and thus lose themselves and how they solve the contradictions to achieve growth. Based on hereinbefore problems, the methodology applied in the research is a combination of theoretical analysisand the text interpretation. By reading The Joy Luck Club carefully for six times and based on Bildungsroman and the research achievements of He Zhimin, the author collects38samples from the novel which are based on the material culture, the language, value and belief of the ideological culture and analyzes them in the high-low context theory and individualism-collectivism theory from intercultural communication perspective.The research shows that the female’s growth is the process from conflicts to reconciliations between mothers and daughters, and also is between Chinese and American cultures. The study comes to the conclusion that the novel makes an attempt to analyze the mother-daughter relationship by presenting the conflicts, communication and integration between mothers and their daughters and between two cultures, which reflects the attitudes that different nations, races and cultures should take in the age of globalization—understanding, communication and trust.