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ABSTRACT
Amy Tan is one of the most important contemporary writers in Chinese American literature. In her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, she tells the stories of four mothers who came to the United States as the first generation Chinese immigrants, and those of their American-born daughters. The four mothers were all from mainland China and had a lot of miseries in old China. As a result of the restrictions and suppression of the feudal society and Confucianism, they fled to the United States in an attempt to find their happiness there. Nevertheless, the mothers’ lives in America are still bound to the traditional Chinese culture, which has been deeply rooted in their minds. They educate their daughters according to the Chinese customs and habits. But the daughters can not understand this, for they were born and brought up in America. They often disobey, and thus deeply hurt their mothers. When they grow up, and experience the tortures of life, they come to understand their mothers gradually. As an American-born Chinese, Amy Tan reveals some distinct features of the traditional Chinese culture in the novel.
Confucianism has been the core of the Chinese culture for two thousand years. It emphasizes the relationship between human beings. This thought, however, is in conflict with the mainstream of western ideology, which pays more attention to individualism. Besides, the mysterious beliefs of Taoism are strange to the westerners, most of whom believe in God and Christianity. What’s more, the Chinese have different ways of educating and nurturing their children, and different ways of cooking. They are thought by the Americans as having weird beliefs and a “brutal” way of eating. As a result, the traditional Chinese beliefs are treated as heathen ones, and the Chinese culture is viewed as the “Other” by the westerners. In the novel, the mothers are the representative of the Chinese culture, while the daughters, that of the American culture. The clash and mingling of the two cultures work together as a thread running through the entire novel. Amy Tan, as a member of the second generation Chinese-Americans, reconstructs and represents the traditional Chinese culture to the world, and has gained great fame in Chinese American literature.
This thesis attempts to analyze the Chinese cultural background in The Joy Luck Club from three aspects: Chinese family value, Chinese dietary culture and Chinese religious beliefs.
Key Words: Chinese Culture; Confucianism; Chinese Diet; Religious Beliefs
Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………1 Part One Chinese Family Value……...………………………3
1.1 Confucianism: Doctrine of the Chinese………………………3 1.2 Women’s Status………………………………………………5 1.3 Communication between Parents and Children………………6
Part Two Chinese Dietary Culture...…………………..………8
2.1 Etiquette of Diet………………………..………………………8 2.2 Ways of Cooking……………………………………………......9
Part Three Chinese Beliefs………..……………..……………...11
3.1 Wuxing and Fengshui………………………………………11 3.2 Ancestor Worship ……………………………………………13
Conclusion………………………………………………………...14 Notes………………………………………………………………17 Bibliography……………………………………………………....18 Acknowledgements…………………………….…………………20
Notes
(1) The three cardinal guides: ruler guides subject, father guides son and husband
guides wife. The five constant virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge and sincerity.
(2) Lao Tzu: The founder of Taoism. Born in the State of Zhou in the Spring and
Autumn Period, he worked for some time in the Zhou government. He was searching for a way that would avoid the constant feudal warfare and other conflicts that disrupted society during his lifetime. The result was his book: Tao-te-Ching, which contains about 5,000 words on dao and de, or the way and its functions. Others believe that he was a mythical character.
(3) John King Fairbank: A Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History at Harvard
University and director of the East Asian Research Centre at Harvard.
(4) Wuxing and Fengshui: Wuxing or the Five Elements are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal,
and Water. They are the grounding theory for yin-yang balance. The Five Element theory views the Universe and its functioning as being cyclical and interactive. Accordingly, all of the “ten thousand things” within it are interdependent. Fengshui, or geomantic omen, is closely related to Wuxing. The Fengshui theory holds that the location of a house or tomb has an influence on the fortune of a family. Taoists believe good Fengshui could keep the yin-yang balance and could bring fortune.