In China, the understanding of this book tends to be the cultural differences between the two countries, the analysis of mother-daughter relationship and the comparison of feminism in the East and the West. At abroad the interpretation of this novel is mainly reflected on the reviews. On March 1989, a lot of praise for book reviews appeared on some important media in the United States, such as Tiger Female by Join Skow in the Times, the Show of Unknown by Doroth Wang in Newsweek, Love Deeply Bone Marrow by Orville Schell in New York Times Book Review. After the 1990s, many American critics have commented that The Joy Luck Club belongs to the marginal culture in an objective and favorable way. They think that Amy Tan inherits and carries forward the exotic rites, family relationship and culture conflict of American-Chinese traditional literature. At the same time, she also rejects Chinese women’s square image to promote the culture blending between Chinese and Western culture.
Being based on the above-mentioned reviews, this paper intends to conduct a research of the different family values between the East and the West reflected in The Joy Luck Club. This paper mainly consists of five chapters. Chapter one starts with the general introduction of this thesis. Chapter two is about the status of traditional families in the two countries, which will present a conclusion on the differences and conflicts about mother-daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club from different angles and make a comparison and analysis on them. Chapter three discusses different marriage views of the two countries which are embodied in the novel The Joy Luck Club. Chapter four is about family education between the East and the West reflected in The Joy Luck Club. Chapter five presents a conclusion about the whole thesis and analyzes the effective factors to our next generation and national future.

II. Status of Family Members in The Joy Luck Club

Families are the most basic social cells of human society. What’s more they are also fundamental to social stability and development. Therefore, every culture has formed a unique family values in his long-term precipitation history (Luo 69).
In Confucian thought, family values, familial relationships, ancestor worship, and filial piety are the primary basis of the philosophical system, and these concepts are seen as virtues to be cultivated. (Wikipedia, “Family Values,” par. 11)
Filial piety is considered the first virtue in Chinese culture. While China has always had a persity of religious beliefs, filial piety has been common to almost all of them; These traditions were sometimes enforced by law; during parts of the Han Dynasty, for example, those who neglected ancestor worship could even be subjected to corporal punishment. (Wikipedia, “Family Values,” par. 12)
The term “filial”, meaning “of a child”, denotes the respect and obedience that a child, originally a son, should show to his parents, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five relationships or five cardinal relationships:
ruler and subject,
father and son,
husband and wife,
elder and younger brother,
friend and friend     (Wikipedia, “Family Values,” par. 13)
Specific duties were prescribe to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Such duties also extended to the dead, where the living stood as sons to their deceased family. This led to the veneration of ancestors. In time, filial piety was also built into the Chinese legal system: a criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children. Much the same was true of other unequal relationships. In this novel, the conflicts and misunderstandings between the four pairs of mother and daughter caused by different cultural background are illustrated explicitly. From the cultural point of view, in fact, the conflicts between mother and daughter reflect the cultural conflicts between China and America, especially the different beliefs of family values in this novel (Li 35).
上一篇:清教主义在《红字》中的反映
下一篇:从《飘》中解读女性主义

《嘉莉妹妹》中报纸的象征意义

《魔山》特殊的疗养院时代差异性分析

从电影学角度解析《彗星...

德语论文从社会心理学的...

德语论文论《美狄亚声音...

德语论文电影《浪潮》中...

从李连杰好莱坞电影看中国形象的对外传播

社会工作视野下医患关系的冲突与协调

论好莱坞电影中的中国文化元素

谈人机工程学在公共电话亭设计中的应用

原位离子交换法合成AgBrAg3PO4复合光催化材料

稀土伴生放射性冶炼厂环境放射性水平调查

浅谈芭蕾舞外开与中国古典舞外旋的区别

中学地理生活化教学研究

18岁可以學什么技术,18岁...

结肠透析机治疗慢性肾功...

沉箱码头设计国内外研究现状和参考文献