1、Analysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub密 级学 号 111671毕 业 设 计（论 文）2015年6月26日北京Analysis oftheCulturalDifferencesBetween ChinaandAmerica asReflected inThe Joy Luck Club院（系、部）： 外语系姓 名： 弭依彤年 级： 11级专 业： 英语（国际商务）指导教师： 刘丽华教师职称： 副教授Analysis oftheCultural Differ
2、ences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub北京石油化工学院学位论文电子版授权使用协议论文 电影喜福会中反映的中美文化差异探究 系本人在北京石油化工学院学习期间创作完成的作品，并已通过论文答辩。本人系作品的唯一作者，即著作权人。现本人同意将本作品收录于“北京石油化工学院学位论文全文数据库”。本人承诺：已提交的学位论文电子版与印刷版论文的内容一致，如因不同而引起学术声誉上的损失由本人自负。本人完全同意本作品在校园网上提供论文目录检索、文摘浏览以及全文部分浏览服务。公开级学位论文全文电子版允许读者在校园网上浏览并下载全文。注
3、：本协议书对于“非公开学位论文”在保密期限过后同样适用。院系名称： 外语系作者签名： 弭依彤学 号：51201116712015 年 6 月 25 日Analysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClubIAbstractWith the communication between different countries becoming more and morefrequently, cross-cultural communication has become an
4、unavoidable reality. Peoplefrom different countries and different cultural backgrounds get together. Therefore,there exist barriers during their communication. Differences between Chinese andWestern cultures have always been a main source of conflicts between local people andcitizens of Chinese orig
5、in. The Joy Luck Club is a good case in point. It is written byTan Amy, who is one of the most famous Chinese American women novelists. Thisnovel attracts attention of academic circles both at home and abroad, and lets themthink about the problems emerging gradually in cross-cultural communication.
6、Themothers and daughters in the movie grow upin different countries and receive differentways of education. Thus, there are many disparities in their ways of communicationand thinking modes. This paper aims to study the cultural differences between Chinaand America as reflected in The Joy Luck Club.
7、 The study, based on the movie, whichis adapted from novel The Joy Luck Club, and combined with the traditional culturaldifferences between China and America, analyzes the conflicts between daughters andtheir mothers live in different cultural backgrounds, and the underlying causes of theconflicts,
8、for the purpose of arousing peoples attention to the cultural differences incross-cultural communication.Keywords: cultural conflicts, The Joy Luck Club, cross-cultural communication,mother-daughter relationshipAnalysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClubI
9、I摘要随着国与国之间交流的日益频繁，跨文化交际已成为不可避免的现实。来自不同文化背景的人们走到一起，交际必然会出现障碍。西方的中国移民和当地人的矛盾很大程度上源于东西方文化的差异。喜福会就是一个很好的例子。这篇小说是谭恩美所写，谭恩美也是美国文学史中最重要的美籍华裔作家之一。这篇小说引起了国内外学术界的关注，并且开始意识到逐渐浮现的跨文化交际中存在的文化差异问题。电影中母女两代人由于生长在不同的两个国家，接受不同的教育，因此交流、思维方式的不同必然会产生矛盾。本文以喜福会小说改编成的电影为研究对象，并且结合了中美传统文化的差异，来分析不同文化背景下的母女交流中产生的矛盾冲突及原因，从而引起人们
10、对跨文化交际中文化差异的重视。关键词：文化冲突，喜福会，跨文化交际，母女关系Analysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClubIIIContentsChapter1Introduction11.1Theresearch topic.11.2Significanceof thestudy21.3An overview ofthe thesis.2Chapter2Conflicts between Mothers and Daughters in The Joy Luck
11、Club.42.1SuyuanWooand Junes conflicts42.2An-mei Hsu andRoses conflicts52.3Lindo JongandWaverlys conflicts. 62.4AuntieYingYing and Lenas conflicts.72.5Summary.9Chapter 3 The Differences between China and American Cultures Presented intheMovie.103.1Different educational background103.2Different views
12、onlove and marriage123.2.1Different views onlove123.2.2Different views onmarriage.123.2.2.1Chineses view on marriage.123.2.2.2Americans view on marriage.133.3Different senses ofvalue133.4Different ways oflanguage expression.153.5Summary.16Chapter4Conclusion.174.1Majorfindings174.2Implications174.3Li
13、mitations andsuggestions for future research.18References19Acknowledgments.21Analysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub1Chapter 1 Introduction1.1TheresearchtopicIn the film The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan describes the conflicts between themothers and the dau
14、ghters. This paper is based on the analysis of the movie to studythe cultural conflicts between China and America. Chinese academic circles begin tostudy The Joy Luck Club officially with the publication of the paper by ZhangXianghua (1994). Zhang comments that The Joy Luck Club has achieved the lev
15、el ofan outstanding ethnic literature. Cultural conflicts and fusion are always the importantissues focused by people living in two cultures, including Chinese American writerswho live inAmerican “mainstream” culture and the “edge” of national culture (ChengAimin 2001). Besides, Guan Jing (2005), ad
16、opting the theory of high-context culturesand low-context culture, analyzes the phenomenon of cultural conflicts appearing inThe Joy Luck Club. The people in high-context cultures can have a meaningful andambiguous communication, because they have a strong culture background, but thepeople in low-co
17、ntext culture must talk directly and concisely. In addition, “theconflicts between mother and daughter is a show of generational gap, it is also the twokindsof educational culture.”(Li Jingjing 2011: 71-72).As to exotic research, from the 1970s,American began to pay attention to ChineseAmerican lite
18、rature. For example, the American “MLA” publishes many books aboutminority literature, and established the “MELUS” academic journals. In 1989, manybook reviews show up in some famous medium, such as News Week, Dorothy Wangs“Wei ming zhi xiu sai”, and Orville Schells book review “Mu ai Shen ru gu sui
19、”,published in The New York Times. Since the 1990s, critics at home and abroad,including Amy Ling (1990), Marina Heung (1993), Walter Shear (1993), StephenSouris (1994), Zenobin Mistri (1998), Patricia L. Hamilton (1999),Alison Gee (2001),Zeng Li (2002), Zhang Ziqing (1996), LiuXiaohong (1998), Lu W
20、ei (2000), ChengAimin and Zhang Ruihua (2001), Lin Xiaowen (2005), Chen Tingting (2006), WangHeping (2007), and Zhu Shuzhen (2008), study the movie from different aspects andAnalysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub2allcomment onTheJoyLuckClubobjectivel
21、y,and think highly ofitTheir studies are mainly about the mother-daughter conflicts, and the educationbackground. As to the cultural factors underlying the conflicts, there is not muchconcern. This paper will focus on the cultural differences between China and Americareflected in The Joy Luck Club.
22、By comparing the differences in cultural backgroundsbetween them, combined with the mother-daughter relationship in the movie, thispaper emphasizes the role played by cultural elements in cross-culturalcommunication.1.2SignificanceofthestudyThis paper puts emphasis on the cultural conflicts between
23、China and Americareflected in The Joy Luck Club, through comparing the different cultural backgroundsand histories. This paper combined with the conflicts between mother and daughter inthe film to emphasis the importance of cultural differences. In this era of rapiddevelopment, more and more people
24、from different places and with different culturalbackgrounds get together. During the communication they must pay attention to thecultural backgrounds. Otherwise, conflicts will appear like mothers and daughters inthe movie. According to the latest figure release of the “2011 American Study ofPopula
25、tion Dynamics”, the Chinese Americans become the largest Asian Americanethnic groups.And in the past 10 years, Chinese-American population has increased byone third. So this thesis has a realistic significance when more and more Chinese comeacross culture shocks in the foreign countries. Besides, th
26、rough the study of the paperwe can clearly know the cultural differences between China and America, and can bemoreaware oftheimportance ofcultural fusion.1.3AnoverviewofthethesisThe paper mainly consists of four parts. The first part is an introduction of thethesis. Chapter 1 shows a general survey
27、of relevant studies. Chapter 2 introduces theconflicts between the four pairs of mothers and daughters. As a mother, each of themAnalysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub3has a lot of problems with their daughters. Obviously, the conflicts are caused by
28、mothers and daughters generation gaps and growing backgrounds. Chapter 3discusses the main reason why these conflicts occur. The different educationbackgrounds, different value systems, different ways of language expression,altogether cause these problems. The author analyzes these aspects combined
29、with theexamples in the movie. Then, in Chapter 4, the paper concludes major findings, andpoints out thelimitations for further discussion,and implications ofthis thesis.Analysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub4Chapter 2 Conflicts between Mothers andDa
30、ughters in TheJoy Luck Club2.1 SuyuanWooandJunesconflictsThe main conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter lies in that the motherhas too much expectation for her daughter, while the daughter is not appreciated. Thefollowing examplecan illustrateit:“You could be anything you wanted to be inAmeri
31、ca.You could open a restaurant.You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a housewith almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantlyfamous.” (The Joy Luck Club 1989: 132) “Of course you can be prodigy.You can bebest anything.”(TheJoyLuckClub1989
32、: 132)Suyuan Woo has high hopes on her daughter, and she hopes that her daughtercould live up to her expectations. Her daughter becoming a Chinese Shirley Temple isher first dream. She takes her daughter to the image design salon, but unfortunately, itdosent work. Later she begins to find a new thin
33、g for her daughter to study. Whenthese failed, Suyuan wants to let her daughter become a famous pianist, although she istoo poor to afford a piano. Finally she manages to do some cleaning for a retired pianoteacher and gets the opportunity for her daughter. But her daughter doesn not want tolive tha
34、t way; she wanted to be herself, to be an ordinary person. She goes against hermother many times. We could see her dissatisfaction to her mother from the followingparagraph: “Why dont you like me the way I am? I am not a genius! I cant play thepiano.And even if I could, I wouldnt go onTVif you pay m
35、e a million dollars!” (ibid:136)From the example we can see that Suyuan Woo truly has the high expectation onher daughter. It reminds me of most Chinese mother. Most mothers in Chinese wanttheir daughters have a better future, and force them to learn many things when theywere children. Even though t
36、hey dont like it at all. The mother Suyuan in the movie isAnalysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub5a traditional Chinese mother. After the Piano conflicts, their fight have lasted fortwenty years. They live with their own values, until Jing-mei comes b
37、ack to China.Thenshe beginsto understand her mother.2.2An-mei HsuandRosesconflictsThe main conflict between An-mei Hsu and her daughter lies in confidence. Themother tends to be more confident and self-esteemed as a Chinese. The daughter,however, suffers a sense of inferiority being a Chinese. She l
38、ooks down on the Chinesewisdomand always neglects her mothersopinions.Rose never believes in her own ideas, so whenever herAmerican husband asks forher opinion, she would reply, “You decide,” or “I dont care,” or “Either way is finewith me.”, with the belief that Chinese people have the views of the
39、 Chinese people,while Americans have those of Americans, and the latter seems to be better than theformer. However, her husband Ted is not happy with this. Ted criticizes that her wifeRose refuses to make decisions firstly, which means she would shoulder none of theresponsibilities to avoid any blam
40、e. Roses life is like this, and then let us see how hermothers lifeis.Her mother An-mei Hsu has experienced a miserable childhood, she hopes toeducate her daughter with her own lesson. When she is young, she is very timid anddependent on her stepfather, and it is her mothers death that awakens her,
41、and then shenotices being independent with great courage counts more and refusing to be dictatedbyothers would win morerespect from others.So An-mei tells Rose that she should stand up bravely and learn to control thedestiny of her own marriage. Besides, being a Chinese was not a shame, and each man
42、is irreplaceable. But Rose turns a deaf ear to her at the beginning. With this prejudiceto Chinese, when Roses marriage comes across difficulties, she prefers to confidethem to her friends, and even a psychiatrist rather than her mother, which makes hermothervery sad anddepressed.And they haveaheate
43、d quarrel onthisissue.Although at first, Rose looks down upon her mothers opinion and would not takeher advice into consideration. But in the end, fortunately, Rose adopts her mothersAnalysis oftheCultural Differences Between China andAmerica as ReflectedinTheJoyLuckClub6advice. She makes the decisi
44、on to defend her marriage and refuses to sign the divorceagreement. It is a big shock to Ted, and he finds Roses personality and confidencefrom herrejection and decides not todivorce her.2.3 LindoJongandWaverlysconflictsThe main conflict between Lindo Jong and her daughter is that she shows off herd
45、aughters achievements to others. An expression of disgust appears on her daughtersface. To get rid of the shadow of old China, Lindo Jong comes to the United States toseek a better material life, and more opportunities for her kids. Lindo Jong hopes herchildren to be a perfect combination and she ne
46、ver expects that blending wasimpossible. Lindo Jong hopes that her daughter could be outstanding, and she tries totrain her daughter to be a chess master. Proud of her daughters achievements, sheoften shows it off to the outsiders, which makes Waverly embarrassed. After a heatedquarrel, their relati
47、onship begin to tense up. Although after the “Chess Conflicts”,Lindo Jongdoes not intervene inher daughters lifedirectly,andeven her marriage.In Chinese tradition, parents have the right to interfere with this matter for thegood of their kids. When Lindo Jong knows that Waverly is older than her boy
48、friend,she feels negative to him because there is a Chinese saying “would rather find a maleten years older to female one year older”(The Joy Luck Club 1989: 146). Besides, herhusband is a white American, so she is instinctively offensive as a Chinese-American,who could not really integrate into the
49、 mainstream culture. She sticks to the ancientChinese customs and ideas, and she prefers tea to coffee. When Waverly takes her firstboyfriend home, with the so-called unique insight her mother finds that he lacks familyresponsibility, fickle in love, talks big, and does not care about his wife, etc. She eventhrows shoes to him to show her dislike. However, Waverly could not understand hermother at all. She believes it is her mother who ruins her first marriage, so this timeshe is afraid that her mother might once again destroy her marriage. For decad
