The Role Of Chinese Women In The Joy Luck Club

Set in rural China in the early to mid 1800s, historical context plays a major role in defining the value placed on women by their society. Seen from the beginning, a young girl in a family acts only as a burden on them by being an extra mouth to feed and less valuable than a son. Young women at the time were only given value based on who they married, whether they had sons, and if they followed the conventions set before them. The main character, Lily states that her mother looked at her as “a temporary mouth to feed and a body to dress until I went to my husband’s home” (See 12). By setting the stage of the time period, See defines the role of women as child-bearers first, and servants to her husband’s family second. Despite protests to that idea in contemporary times, women then understood their roles as being miserable so that their children may one day succeed. Pain and convention controlled a woman’s everyday life, such as, “When a girl, obey your father; when a wife, obey your husband; when a widow, obey your son” (See 24). Women held the lowest status in the social

The Joy Luck Club is the first novel by Amy Tan, published in 1989. The Joy Luck Club is about a group of Chinese women that share family stories while they play Mahjong. When the founder of the club, Suyuan Woo, died, her daughter June replaced her place in the meetings. In her first meeting, she finds out that her lost twin sisters were alive in China. Before the death of Suyuan, the other members of the club located the address of June’s half-sisters. After that, they send June to tell her half-sisters about her mother’s life. In our lives there are events, and situations that mark our existence and somehow determine our life. In this novel, it shows how four mothers and their daughters were impacted by their tradition and beliefs. In the traditional Asian family, parents define the law and the children are expected to follow their requests and demands; respect for one’s parents and elders is critically important. Traditions are very important because they allow us to remember the beliefs that marked a whole culture.

An author's cultural background can play a large part in the authors writing. Amy Tan, a Chinese-American woman, uses the cultural values of Chinese women in American culture in her novel, The Joy Luck Club. These cultural values shape the outcome of The Joy Luck Club. The two cultural value systems create conflict between the characters.

All of the woman who migrated from China all have a curtain pride for their own mothers and cultures cultures respectively. Major acts of pride go into what these woman do while raising their daughters, as they want to push their daughters for success. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. . . .” The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes. . . . And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant. . . . They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese . . . who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” The other mothers are flabbergasted that June does not know that much about her mother. The mothers also have their own pride in their daughters, and all the daughters have been together, so this phrase from June scares the other mothers of what their own daughters might think about them. In Chinese tradition, respecting your mother is very important, due to June being raised in America, she does not realise what she has just proclaimed as bad until the other mothers react to it.

The book The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan, who is very famous in writing about mother-daughter relationships. There are four pairs of mothers and daughters whose stories are told in The Joy Luck Club. All of the mothers were born in China and came to America because of some kind of problem, but their daughters were born in the United States. Due to the fact that the daughters were born in the United States, they are extremely Americanized. Consequently, they do not value the Chinese heritage which their mothers valued dearly. As the daughters are growing up, this conflict between them increases. Suyuan Woo and her daughter, June or Jing-mei, two characters from the book, had major conflicts over the Chinese belief system of

Todays society and the society in Joy luck club are very similar because they both involve sexism. In the novel Lindo is forced by her mother in law and husband by making her a slave of some sort. But things get a little out of control when An mei gets raped by her husband but ends up marrying the guy because she has to save her so called honor. But that man that raped her, he can do anything he wants, he will not be pushed around or called names because that is the mans nature. Girls in China can not speak freely for themselves, they are supposed to be listening to the man because supposedly they are so much better and can do anything or everything unlike woman that sits around and does nothing.

In studying Chinese women and American women the research clearly shows that there are some similarities than differences in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, domestic life and health care. Subcultures can add variations to the average women in both cultures, but for the most part American women have fought for women’s right for a longer period of time and now enjoy more cultural freedoms then the Chinese women that are just beginning to fight for them freedoms.

History, Culture and Identity of Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

Mostly, Jing-mei 's fears echo those of her peers, the other daughters of the Joy Luck Club members. They have always identified with Americans (Jing-mei also goes by the English name"June") but are beginning to regret having not paid attention to their Chinese history. Her fears also speak to a two-way fear shared by the mothers, who wonder whether, by giving their daughters American opportunities and (the ability to survive with no outside help), they have abandoned them from their Chinese history.

Characterization is a widely-used literary tool in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. Specifically, each mother and daughter is a round character that undergoes change throughout the novel. Characterization is important in the novel because it directly supports the central theme of the mother-daughter relationship, which was relevant in Tan’s life. Tan grew up with an immigrant mother, and Tan expresses the difficulties in communication and culture in the stories in her book. All mothers in the book are immigrants to America, and all daughters grew up living the American lifestyle, creating conflict between the mothers and daughters due to miscommunication. Characterization of the mothers and daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Club creates and

Many women find that their mothers have the greatest influence on their lives and the way their strengths and weaknesses come together. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the lives of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters are followed through vignettes about their upbringings and interactions. One of the mothers, An-Mei Hsu, grows up away from her mother who has become the 4th wife of a rich man; An-Mei is forced to live with her grandmother once her mother is banned from the house, but eventually reunites and goes to live in the man’s house with her mother. Her daughter, Rose, has married an American man, Ted, but their marriage begins to end as he files for divorce; Rose becomes depressed and unsure what to do, despite

Before the death of her mother, Jing-Mei Woo’s life is saturated with American culture and livelihood due to her upbringing. When she is first asked to replace her mother as “the fourth corner at the Joy Luck Club,” she is not sure if she will be up to the task or not (19). Instead, she is overwhelmed by the responsibilities she has to take up, “with the unfinished business [her mother] left behind.” Jing-Mei’s bleeds American blood, so the job of carrying on her mother’s legacy is daunting. Often cultural translation, from the rich Chinese history to the new and foreign American culture, it was hard for Jing-Mei and her mother to communicate effectively. Instead, the two of them “translated each other’s meanings” (37). The two communicated either in fractured English or Chinese, often gaining more or less meaning than the other intended. This inability to communicate impaired their relationship, as it’s hard to have a relationship with someone who barely speaks the same language. Along with having a smaller grasp on her Chinese background, Jing-Mei Woo became more of an American day by day, as her home was in San Francisco, and her life was one of convenience. Despite searching for a sort of way for her to be a prodigy at something, she eventually gave it up, even faking her mother out on the piano until one day it all fell apart. Rather than truly practicing, she “played some nonsense that sounded like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans” (137). Eventually, she decides enough is enough and

   In Amy Tan's novel, Joy Luck Club, the mother of Jing-mei recognizes only two kinds of daughters: those that are obedient and those that follow their own mind. Perhaps the reader of this novel may recognize only two types of mothers: pushy mothers and patient mothers.  The two songs, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented," which the daughter plays, reinforce the underlying tension in the novel. These songs represent the feelings that the daughter, Jing-mei, has had throughout her life.

Because America is such a diverse country, there are many differences between cultures of various immigrant groups. Members of each culture, have their own beliefs and values regarding what they think is right. The cultural diversity allows for each person to have a different view of things. Amy Chua’s essay “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” she describes her way of parenting her two daughters following Chinese values about education. She explains how Western parents are much more lenient than Chinese parents with their children and education. Chua gives examples of how she raised her daughter Lulu and Sophia which lead them to achieve success. She makes comparisons between Western and Chinese parenting styles throughout the essay and concludes that both types of parents want the best for their children, but just approach parenting it in different ways. In the article, “Chinese vs Western Mothers: Q&A with Amy Chua,” Amy Chua is interviewed by Belinda Luscombe where she clarifies how her Chinese method of parenting did not hurt her children the way many readers thought it did. Chua explains that her relationship with her two daughters is very strong and believes there are many effective ways of parenting in addition to the Chinese approach. Chua’s essay shows the Chinese immigrant approach to parenting and gives insight into why so many children of Chinese parents are so successful. Discussing the cultural differences shows the risk of stereotyping groups where feelings

Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English.  And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!  She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for.”  (Tan 1)  The culture in China the mothers of Joy Luck dealt with was unlike anything their daughters could ever imagine or appreciate. Between the mothers Lindo, Suyuan, An-mei and Ying-ying, the Chinese culture forced them into being married by a matchmaker, giving up babies, witness desperate attempts to save loved ones, and having an abortion.  In many ways the Chinese culture scared each woman, although they were proud of their heritage, their daughters deserved better.  These four mothers had very high hopes for the better lives that they wanted to give their daughters by raising them in America.  They didn’t like or want to have their daughters looked down upon, just because they were Chinese women.  From each of their own experiences, they learned that they wanted to improve the lives of their following generation.