电影《喜福会》中反映的中美文化差异探究

级学号

111671

毕业设计（论文）

2015年6月26日·北京

Analysis of the Cultural

Differences Between China

and America as Reflected in

The 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

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院系名称：外语系

作者签名：弭依彤

学号：5120111671

2015年6月25日Abstract

With the communication between different countries becoming more and more frequently,cross-cultural communication has become an unavoidable reality.People from different countries and different cultural backgrounds get together.Therefore, there exist barriers during their communication.Differences between Chinese and Western cultures have always been a main source of conflicts between local people and citizens of Chinese origin.The Joy Luck Club is a good case in point.It is written by Tan Amy,who is one of the most famous Chinese American women novelists.This novel attracts attention of academic circles both at home and abroad,and lets them think about the problems emerging gradually in cross-cultural communication.The mothers and daughters in the movie grow up in different countries and receive different ways of education.Thus,there are many disparities in their ways of communication and thinking modes.This paper aims to study the cultural differences between China and America as reflected in The Joy Luck Clu b.The study,based on the movie,which is adapted from novel The Joy Luck Club,a nd combined with the traditional cultural differences between China and America,analyzes the conflicts between daughters and their mothers live in different cultural backgrounds,and the underlying causes of the conflicts,for the purpose of arousing people’s attention to the cultural differences in cross-cultural communication.

Keywords:cultural conflicts,The Joy Luck Club,cross-cultural communication, mother-daughter relationship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Contents

Chapter1Introduction (1)

1.1The research topic (1)

1.2Significance of the study (2)

1.3An overview of the thesis (2)

Chapter2Conflicts between Mothers and Daughters in The Joy Luck Club (4)

2.1Suyuan Woo and June’s conflicts (4)

2.2An-mei Hsu and Rose’s conflicts (5)

2.3Lindo Jong and Waverly’s conflicts (6)

2.4Auntie Ying Ying and Lena’s conflicts (7)

2.5Summary (9)

Chapter3The Differences between China and American Cultures Presented in the Movie (10)

3.1Different educational background (10)

3.2Different views on love and marriage (12)

3.2.1Different views on love (12)

3.2.2Different views on marriage (12)

3.2.2.1Chinese’s view on marriage (12)

3.2.2.2American’s view on marriage (13)

3.3Different senses of value (13)

3.4Different ways of language expression (15)

3.5Summary (16)

Chapter4Conclusion (17)

4.1Major findings (17)

4.2Implications (17)

4.3Limitations and suggestions for future research (18)

References (19)

Acknowledgments (21)Chapter1Introduction

1.1The research topic

In the film The Joy Luck Club,Amy Tan describes the conflicts between the mothers and the daughters.This paper is based on the analysis of the movie to study the cultural conflicts between China and America.Chinese academic circles begin to study The Joy Luck Club officially with the publication of the paper by Zhang Xianghua(1994).Zhang comments that The Joy Luck Club has achieved the level of an outstanding ethnic literature.Cultural conflicts and fusion are always the important issues focused by people living in two cultures,including Chinese American writers who live in American“mainstream”culture and the“edge”of national culture(Cheng Aimin2001).Besides,Guan Jing(2005),adopting the theory of high-context cultures and low-context culture,analyzes the phenomenon of cultural conflicts appearing in The Joy Luck Club.The people in high-context cultures can have a meaningful and ambiguous communication,because they have a strong culture background,but the people in low-context culture must talk directly and concisely.In addition,“the conflicts between mother and daughter is a show of generational gap,it is also the two kinds of educational culture.”(Li Jingjing2011:71-72).

As to exotic research,from the1970s,American began to pay attention to Chinese American literature.For example,the American“MLA”publishes many books about minority literature,and established the“MELUS”academic journals.In19,many book reviews show up in some famous medium,such as News Week,Dorothy Wang’s “Wei ming zhi xiu sai”,and Orville Schell’s book review—“Mu ai Shen ru gu sui”, published in The New York Times.Since the1990s,critics at home and abroad, including Amy Ling(1990),Marina Heung(1993),Walter Shear(1993),Stephen Souris(1994),Zenobin Mistri(1998),Patricia L.Hamilton(1999),Alison Gee(2001), Zeng Li(2002),Zhang Ziqing(1996),LiuXiaohong(1998),Lu Wei(2000),Cheng Aimin and Zhang Ruihua(2001),Lin Xiaowen(2005),Chen Tingting(2006),Wang Heping(2007),and Zhu Shuzhen(2008),study the movie from different aspects and

all comment on The Joy Luck Club objectively,and think highly of it..

Their studies are mainly about the mother-daughter conflicts,and the education background.As to the cultural factors underlying the conflicts,there is not much concern.This paper will focus on the cultural differences between China and America reflected in The Joy Luck Club.By comparing the differences in cultural backgrounds between them,combined with the mother-daughter relationship in the movie,this paper emphasizes the role played by cultural elements in cross-cultural communication.

1.2Significance of the study

This paper puts emphasis on the cultural conflicts between China and America reflected in The Joy Luck Club,through comparing the different cultural backgrounds and histories.This paper combined with the conflicts between mother and daughter in the film to emphasis the importance of cultural differences.In this era of rapid development,more and more people from different places and with different cultural backgrounds get together.During the communication they must pay attention to the cultural backgrounds.Otherwise,conflicts will appear like mothers and daughters in the movie.According to the latest figure release of the“2011American Study of Population Dynamics”,the Chinese Americans become the largest Asian American ethnic groups.And in the past10years,Chinese-American population has increased by one third.So this thesis has a realistic significance when more and more Chinese come across culture shocks in the foreign countries.Besides,through the study of the paper we can clearly know the cultural differences between China and America,and can be more aware of the importance of cultural fusion.

1.3An overview of the thesis

The paper mainly consists of four parts.The first part is an introduction of the thesis.Chapter1shows a general survey of relevant studies.Chapter2introduces the conflicts between the four pairs of mothers and daughters.As a mother,each of themhas a lot of problems with their daughters.Obviously,the conflicts are caused by mothers’and daughters’generation gaps and growing backgrounds.Chapter3 discusses the main reason why these conflicts occur.The different education backgrounds,different value systems,different ways of language expression, altogether cause these problems.The author analyzes these aspects combined with the examples in the movie.Then,in Chapter4,the paper concludes major findings,and points out the limitations for further discussion,and implications of this thesis.

Chapter2Conflicts between Mothers and Daughters in The

Joy Luck Club

2.1Suyuan Woo and June’s conflicts

The main conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter lies in that the mother has too much expectation for her daughter,while the daughter is not appreciated.The following example can illustrate it:

“You could be anything you wanted to be in America.You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement.You could buy a house with almost no money down.You could become rich.You could become instantly famous.”(The Joy Luck Club19:132)“Of course you can be prodigy.You can be best anything.”(The Joy Luck Club19:132)

Suyuan Woo has high hopes on her daughter,and she hopes that her daughter could live up to her expectations.Her daughter becoming a Chinese Shirley Temple is her first dream.She takes her daughter to the image design salon,but unfortunately,it dosen’t work.Later she begins to find a new thing for her daughter to study.When these failed,Suyuan wants to let her daughter become a famous pianist,although she is too poor to afford a piano.Finally she manages to do some cleaning for a retired piano teacher and gets the opportunity for her daughter.But her daughter doesn not want to live that way;she wanted to be herself,to be an ordinary person.She goes against her mother many times.We could see her dissatisfaction to her mother from the following paragraph:“Why don’t you like me the way I am?I am not a genius!I can’t play the piano.And even if I could,I wouldn’t go on TV if you pay me a million dollars!”(ibid: 136)

From the example we can see that Suyuan Woo truly has the high expectation on her daughter.It reminds me of most Chinese mother.Most mothers in Chinese want their daughters have a better future,and force them to learn many things when they were children.Even though they don’t like it at all.The mother Suyuan in the movie isa traditional Chinese mother.After the Piano conflicts,their fight have lasted for twenty years.They live with their own values,until Jing-mei comes back to China. Then she begins to understand her mother.

2.2An-mei Hsu and Rose’s conflicts

The main conflict between An-mei Hsu and her daughter lies in confidence.The mother tends to be more confident and self-esteemed as a Chinese.The daughter, however,suffers a sense of inferiority being a Chinese.She looks down on the Chinese wisdom and always neglects her mother’s opinions.

Rose never believes in her own ideas,so whenever her American husband asks for her opinion,she would reply,“You decide,”or“I don’t care,”or“Either way is fine with me.”,with the belief that Chinese people have the views of the Chinese people, while Americans have those of Americans,and the latter seems to be better than the former.However,her husband Ted is not happy with this.Ted criticizes that her wife Rose refuses to make decisions firstly,which means she would shoulder none of the responsibilities to avoid any blame.Rose’s life is like this,and then let us see how her mother’s life is.

Her mother An-mei Hsu has experienced a miserable childhood,she hopes to educate her daughter with her own lesson.When she is young,she is very timid and dependent on her stepfather,and it is her mother’s death that awakens her,and then she notices being independent with great courage counts more and refusing to be dictated by others would win more respect from others.

So An-mei tells Rose that she should stand up bravely and learn to control the destiny of her own marriage.Besides,being a Chinese was not a shame,and each man is irreplaceable.But Rose turns a deaf ear to her at the beginning.With this prejudice to Chinese,when Rose’s marriage comes across difficulties,she prefers to confide them to her friends,and even a psychiatrist rather than her mother,which makes her mother very sad and depressed.And they have a heated quarrel on this issue.

Although at first,Rose looks down upon her mother’s opinion and would not take her advice into consideration.But in the end,fortunately,Rose adopts her mother’sadvice.She makes the decision to defend her marriage and refuses to sign the divorce agreement.It is a big shock to Ted,and he finds Rose’s personality and confidence from her rejection and decides not to divorce her.

2.3Lindo Jong and Waverly’s conflicts

The main conflict between Lindo Jong and her daughter is that she shows off her daughter’s achievements to others.An expression of disgust appears on her daughter’s face.To get rid of the shadow of old China,Lindo Jong comes to the United States to seek a better material life,and more opportunities for her kids.Lindo Jong hopes her children to be a perfect combination and she never expects that blending was impossible.Lindo Jong hopes that her daughter could be outstanding,and she tries to train her daughter to be a chess master.Proud of her daughter’s achievements,she often shows it off to the outsiders,which makes Waverly embarrassed.After a heated quarrel,their relationship begin to tense up.Although after the“Chess Conflicts”, Lindo Jong does not intervene in her daughter’s life directly,and even her marriage.

In Chinese tradition,parents have the right to interfere with this matter for the good of their kids.When Lindo Jong knows that Waverly is older than her boyfriend, she feels negative to him because there is a Chinese saying“would rather find a male ten years older to female one year older”(The Joy Luck Club19:146).Besides,her husband is a white American,so she is instinctively offensive as a Chinese-American, who could not really integrate into the mainstream culture.She sticks to the ancient Chinese customs and ideas,and she prefers tea to coffee.When Waverly takes her first boyfriend home,with the so-called unique insight her mother finds that he lacks family responsibility,fickle in love,talks big,and does not care about his wife,etc.She even throws shoes to him to show her dislike.However,Waverly could not understand her mother at all.She believes it is her mother who ruins her first marriage,so this time she is afraid that her mother might once again destroy her marriage.For decades,she never understood her mother,and she even mixes up Taiyuan,the birthplace of her mother,with Taiwan,because she has very little knowledge of China,and she herself had been completely westernized.There are some typical details to illustrate it:Firstly,she tries her best to get rid of her mother’s interference in free love.Secondly,she has accepted the Western way of life and cohabits with two boys.Thirdly,she askes her parents to respect her private life.Calling her is a must before visiting her house.

2.4Auntie Ying Ying and Lena’s conflicts

The main conflict between Ying Ying Gu and Lena St.Clair is her misunderstanding of Chinese people.On the one hand,Lena knows little about her mother,because her mother always has the horror and shack face,she doesn’t know why her mother always likes this,and looks down upon her with the prejudice that all of the Chinese are poor.For example,in a store,her mother shouted rudely at others, which makes Lena very embarrassed,and she lies to her mother who could not speak English:“Chinese people were not allowed to shop there(Tan19:106).”On the other hand,Chinese superstition cast its shadow on her.Her mother once tells her that her great-grandfather punishes a person and suffers retaliation for his deed.Since then, China in her mind has become a pretty savage place,and she even asks her mother:“Did they slice off his skin first?Did they use a cleaver to chop up his bones?Does he scream and feel all one thousand cuts?”(ibid:102).Her mother is very angry with her misunderstanding of her great-grandfather.

Naturally the four daughters try to identify themselves with American mainstream culture.Both Rose and Lena marry Americans or what their mothers call“Waiguoren”. They admire the Americans and their culture so much that they are willing to make sacrifice for their American husbands.Waverly thinks that her mother’s Chinese outlook would make her lose face when she attends her wedding,so she conspires with her beauty parlor to dress up her mother in an American style.The mothers in The Joy Luck Club intervene so much in their daughters’life that the daughters feel their mothers’love is not embrace but suffocation.Waverly,a chess prodigy thinks she has grown cleverer than her mother who gives her“invisible strength”.Lena fears being drawn into her mother’s madness and consoles herself by imagining others who have a life worse than hers.Rose,whose mother cannot let go of the memory of her son who is drowned.And June believes it is her mother’s impossibly high expectations that

make her feel that even today,she is a failure.

On the other hand,for mothers,also cannot understand some behaviors of their American-born daughters.Their behaviors are so different from their mothers’that their mothers even feel distained about the American culture.Ying Ying can’t bear the go-Dutch rule between Lena and her husband.Under the rule,the couple only pays for their common life expenditures that both of them have to use in their daily life.If they want to buy some personal commodities,they must pay for themselves.This is no surprise in the western countries,especially in the U.S.But according to the Chinese culture in which their mothers were born and grew up,it’s unacceptable.A married Chinese couple cannot calculate the family financial expenditure so clearly;they must share the burden together.

There also exist other conflicts between mothers and daughters.When Jing-mei Woo quarrels with her mother Suyuan,Suyuan says in Chinese,“Only two kinds of daughters,those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!Only one kind of daughter can live in this house.Obedient daughter!”(Tan19:124).In traditional Chinese culture,children must obey parents’requests without any excuses. So when June makes her mother angry,Suyuan bursts out these Chinese characters. Due to the cultural differences,the mothers and daughters have many difficulties in communicating and understanding each other,and these difficulties cannot be elated in a short period.For quite a long time,the mothers in The Joy Luck Club,who live in the United States as minority groups,are overwhelmed by American mainstream society, but they make great efforts to make their daughters understand them.They chat with their daughters about their past experiences and impart maternal love to their daughters, patiently waiting for the moment when their daughters can understand and respect them and Chinese culture.

2.5Summary

The conflicts vary among four pairs of mothers and daughters.Suyuan Woo expects too much for her daughter,which imposes breathless pressure on her.An-mei Hsu tries to teach her daughter to be more confident and self-esteemed as a Chinese.However,her daughter feels inferior to those Americans and she always follows her husband’s advice without regard to her own personality.The conflict between Lindo Jong and her daughter,who interprets the so-called maternal love as superfluous action, lies in what is an acceptable degree of interfering with her private affairs.Ying Ying Gu’s daughter misunderstands the Chinese people with the prejudice that they are savage and uncivilized.Conflict is the main plot in The Joy Luck Club.Because the two generations are born and grow up in different cultural environments.The mothers grow up in China where there are many traditions and rules to follow.However,the daughters grow up in San Francisco and live in an American way.So there exists big cultural background gap between them.

There are so many differences existing between the mothers and daughters,and it is these differences that causes the conflicts between them,and we will study these cultural differences in Chapter3.Chapter3The Differences between China and American

Cultures Presented in the Movie

The mothers are deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese culture,while their daughters are born and get educated in the United States,whose culture is a completely different one.This lead to misunderstanding between mothers and daughters,so we should pay attention to the different cultures between China and America.

3.1Different educational background

Mothers grow up and are educated in China.They accept traditional Chinese-style concept that the children should be obedient and be patient.Even if spurned by the mother children should obey parents without any complaints,because we believe that filial piety comes first.These viewpoints are totally different from American.America is a country which appeals to individualism and freedom,so when the mothers are trying to instill their Chinese traditional thoughts into their daughters’minds it will be totally refuses by them.Because the daughters grow up in American,they eat apple pie and drink cola.During the process of growth they have had the American value,so they cannot understand their mothers and struggle with their mothers in order to fight for their rights.

What’s more,the daughters have strong prejudice against their mothers and the Chinese culture.Born in the United States and brought up in American mainstream culture.They believe that American culture is superior to Chinese culture.In their eyes, their mothers symbolize backwardness and ignorance.They are ashamed of their mothers who open jars to smell the insides in grocery stores and they are angry with their mothers who like to show them off.

In the story of“Feathers from a Thousand Fly Away”,the grandmother is often admonishes and says:“Haven’t I taught you that it is wrong to think of your own needs?

A girl can never ask,only listen!”(Tan1991:75)This example shows us what is traditionaol Chinese education.There exist many shortcomings in Chinese education,which leads to self-abasement of children,just like Waverly in the movie.She always bear her mother’s hypercritical,because her mother seemed never satisfied with her,no matter what she did.So she becomes self-contemptuous.Besides,June’s mother, JingMei,is another example,when her daughter fails in the piano performance,she doesn’t communicate with her daughter.On the contrary,she chooses silence and criticize her daughter.This kind of way to educate children has many bad effects.This kind of way may make children diffident and dependent.Chinese parents always give children undue protection,and care too much about their children,even thought some small things.This undue love let children have no self-care ability.But in America, parents always learn to encourage their children to do things,no matter how they did them,parents would praise them.This may bring positive energy to children.

Chinese elementary education is laying the foundation of basic knowledge,“learning more enlightened few”,while American education is developing creativity,“learn little more than enlightened.”

Chinese parents produce a great impact on their child’s future.They often design a future for children,whether they like it or not.The largest parental expectation on children is that they work hard and try to be promising.And parents would like to spare their no efforts to provide children with a more favorable growing environment, for they believe that everything they have done deserves if children can get a better future.Just like June’s mother in the movie,she let her daughter learn piano and always shows off to others,but June doesn’t like it very much,so they quarreled for many times.Mothers grew up in China,they thought the children are everything for them,and they can pay out anything for them.Even though June’s performance failed, her mother still sticks to.But June said“I am not your slave,it is not in China,and you cannot make me!”This can show obviously that the two kinds of cultural backgrounds crash together.Daughters growing up in American think that they are themselves,and they will never give in to their mothers.This is American education.

However,as far as I’m concerned,the education styles of Chinese mothers are not without problems.Firstly,mothers in The Joy Luck Club put too many expectationsupon their daughters,which make their daughters very nervous and uneasy.Second, unlike the American mothers,mothers in The Joy Luck Club criticize their daughters more than praise them.Third,they care too much even interfered with their daughters’private life.If the Chinese mothers could get rid of these negative habits,the relationship between them would be easier and more harmonious with the sincere maternal love and effective communication.

3.2Different views on love and marriage

3.2.1Different views on love

Love is the most beautiful sentiment of our human beings;it is also a very important composition of our lives.Therefore,no matter in eastern and western,love is always the eternal theme in literary works.

The views on love are different between China and America.Traditionally,most Chinese people are not given entire right to purse love.They have to follow their parents’advice.By contrast,people in America are free to purse love,love is just a matter of themselves.People around them even their parents will never interfere with it. What’s more,the love of Chinese is always means responsibility,and lovers are not likely to break up with each other as a result of a small thing.But things change in westerners.Usually they establish such kind of relationship with somebody on the base of feelings,but if the feeling is gone,then it is time for them to put an end to their relationship,.

3.2.2Different views on marriage

3.2.2.1Chinese’s view on marriage

From the movie we can clearly know that there exist many differences between China and America.It is obvious that the view of marriage between China and America is different sharply.In China,especially in the past,the marriage is usually decide by parents and the children do not have the right to ask and decide.Just like Lindo in the movie,she becomes the child bride and is married to a man she has never met before.She is just used to give birth to a baby.Her tragic marriage life was givenby her parents.Chinese young men have no final say to their marriage.Chinese people pay attention to the relationship with others and how they look like in others’eyes. Besides,in China,marriage is based on reproduction.A person get married just for the sake of having a baby who has their blood,whoever the woman is.If the women cannot give birth to a boy,the husband may find another woman to marry.So this kind of marriage is a tragedy.This kind of thoughts is inherited from generation to generation,leading to the mother’s domination their daughter’s marriage in the movie.

3.2.2.2American’s view on marriage

On the contrary,marriage in American is free and open,because they live in a country which worships individualism and most of them are Christians.They believe that their personal interest is higher than anything.So their purpose of marriage is to find a person who they loved,and who they can get satisfy action from both mental and physiological.So long as they love each other,they can marry.Rose and Ted are a pair of lovers in the movie,they are attracted by each other and soon they decide to get marry.They doesn’t think for future.When Rose see Ted’s mother,his mother refuses them,because she think Rose is a Vietnam and Rose doesn’t match with their family. And Ted says that he feel very ashamed of his mother’s behavior.However,they finally get married.From the example we can easily find that people living in America lead a more free life.They are direct.If they like,they will express that way,vice versa. Besides,America is a“young”country;it consists of people and immigrants from many areas.The pluralistic cultures in American make them believe“every man for himself and God for us all”;and“every man is the architect of his own fortune”(W. Herzog,1974).They thought that marriage is a relationship between2people;no one can interference it,including their parents.Marriage for them is just a kind of form, rather than a kind of responsibility.

3.3Different senses of value

In“The Joy Luck Club”,those daughters are born in the United States,and fully accept the education of American mainstream culture.Americans focus on individual

freedom and rights,and they believe in the concept of“natural rights”.The“standard of right”is an important feature of American value system.Instead,what those mothers in The Joy Luck Club inherited is traditional Chinese culture,and traditional Chinese cultural values highlighted“obligation standard”,so the parents enjoy the supreme authority in the family.With respect to the relationship between mothers and daughters,the mother not only has obligations to take care of her daughter,but also have the rights to arrange her daughter’s life,and her daughter has no choice but to obey such arrangements.It is different for the East and the West in the cultural values, Hence,those daughters in The Joy Luck Club who are deeply affected by the freedom, equality and democracy could not put up with their mothers’interference in their lives. Therefore,there sharp conflicts often occur between the mother and the daughter.

Those mothers in The Joy Luck Club try to find their own values in the lives of their daughters,and they expect that their daughters could achieve their unfulfilled wishes.This is because in mothers’minds,daughters are the continuation of their lives, and daughters should have such obligations.But unfortunately,the daughters think that “I am myself”.They refuse their mothers’interference in their lives.More importantly, they could not tolerate their mothers’arrangements for their futures.On the way to success of Waverley,the chess genius,we can see that Lin Du always expects to share joys and sorrows with her daughter.She not only provide strategies for her daughter during the practice,but also serve as the“protecting ally”in the games.After her daughter achieves the success,she thinks that her daughter’s success should be attributed to her great efforts.So she says:Lost eight pieces this time.Last time was eleven.What I tell you?Better off lose less!(Tan1991:97)She is proud of her daughter’s success,but her daughter Waverley does not think so.She complains:my mother loved to show me off,like one of my many trophies she polished.(ibid.) In The Joy Luck Club,the conflicts between mothers and daughters are a public fight between two evenly matched forces.Such a“public fight”between mothers and daughters are actually the public struggle between the Eastern and Western values.3.4Different ways of language expression

In this movie,Chinese and Americans have total different ways of language expression,that is Chinese-style modesty and the U.S.style of straightforwardness, which we can attribute to the high and low-context culture.High-context culture and the contrasting low-context culture are terms presented by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his1976book Beyond Culture.It refers to a culture’s tendency to use high-context messages over low context messages in routine communication.This choice of communication styles translates into a culture that will cater to in-groups,an in-group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations,from which inferences are drawn.In a high-context culture,many things are left unsaid,letting the culture explain.Words and word choice become very important in high-context communication,since a few words can communicate a complex message very effectively to an in-group,but less effectively outside that group,while in a low-context culture,the communicator needs to be much more explicit and the value of a single word is less important.

The communication problems that arise when one speaker is from a high-context culture and the other is from a low-context culture can be seen in the conversations of June and Suyuan,“My mother and I never really understood one another.We translated each other’s meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said,while my mother heard more”(The Joy Luck Club19:27).June looks for meaning in what is state and does not understand why her mother omits important information because her mother assumes June knows it and can infer it;her mother,on the other hand,looks for meaning in what has not been stated and so adds to what has been stated explicitly and comes up with meanings that surprise her daughter.

The conflict between Lindo and her daughter’s husband is another typical example.Although this is not a direct conflict between the mother and the daughter, still as an Americanized person,the daughter also experience the similar kind of conflicts.

When Waverly invites her new boyfriend Rich,an American,to dinner,mother Lindo prepares a big dinner,including her favorite steamed pork and preservedvegetable dish.As the Chinese cook’s custom,the mother always makes disparaging remarks about her own cooking.“Ai!This dish not salty enough,no flavor,”She complains,“It’s too bad to eat.”We Chinese people understand that actually she is encouraging the guests to have a taste,and then praise her cooking skills.But Rich says:“You know,all it needs is a little soy sauce”(ibid.).Then he pours a lot of salty black staff on the dish,which makes her mother very embarrassed and angry.It is just the mother’s Chinese-style modesty and the husband’s U.S.style of straightforwardness that conflict with each other..

3.5Summary

Different educational backgrounds,different understandings of love and marriage, different value systems and ways of language expression caused the conflicts during communication.There exists so many kinds of different things between China and America,so it is not weird that there exist gaps between mothers and daughters during communication.

From the study in this Chapter,the reasons why mothers and daughters have conflicts become clear.This kind of gaps and conflicts caused by cultural backgrounds is undeniable,especially in The Joy Luck Club.By and large,mothers from traditional Chinese families cultivate Chinese ways of speaking and behavior,while daughters growing up in modern American environment chiefly formed American ways of speaking and behavior,which certain to cause misunderstandings and conflicts in communication.Chapter4Conclusion

4.1Major findings

By contrastively analyzing the conflicts between this two cultures,we may have access to many different cultural aspects of America and also gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

From the study of the paper,we can find that there are many conflicts existing between mothers and daughters,and these conflicts are caused by their educational backgrounds,different understandings of love and marriage,different value systems and ways of language expression.Chinese people’s ways of speaking and behavior are inclined to be conservative and implicative.But when it comes to Americans,their speaking and behavior are exoteric and untrammelled.

Besides,the high and low-context culture plays an important part in the formation of the Chinese-style modesty and the U.S.style of straightforwardness.In a high-context culture,many things are left unsaid,letting the culture explain.Words and word choice become very important in high-context communication.China is a high-context country.So when Lindo remarks about her own cooking,Waverly’s husband,who is an American,can not understand the implied meaning of Lindo’s words.

What’s more,the different understandings of love and marriage also result in many conflicts between the mothers and the daughters.Marriage in America is free and open,because Americans live in a country which worships individualism.

Through the study of this paper.We know the differences between China and America.We can learn Chinese culture and American culture systematic ally and comprehensively from different aspects.So it not only enlarges our understanding of the world but also enable us to maintain constructive relationship with American society that operates according to a different logic from our own.4.2Implications

The main purpose of this thesis is to draw people’s attention to the cultural conflicts and cultural backgrounds during cross-cultural communication.In this movie, the tender and complicated love between mothers and daughters certainly impressed me a lot.

From the study of this paper,people will know more about cross-cultural communication,and pay more attention to the cultural background behind it.Therefore, it has a practical significance.

Now we are living in a fast-developing country.The coexistence between Chinese and American cultures is an inexorable trend.In the future,this kind of cultural coexistence is bound to bring about the advancement of people’s spirit and even the development of the whole world(Peng Taoying2006:49).So we should pay more attention to the cultural backgrounds behind countries.It is important to know the cultures of other countries during cross-cultural communication.Only in this way,can we have a good communication with foreigners and have a good relationship with them.

4.3Limitations and suggestions for future research

Above all,this paper still has its limitations.This study on The Joy Luck Club mainly from the angle of mother-daughters’relationship,analyzes the culture conflicts. But if just analyzing the female images in the movie,will make the study at a single depth.Therefore,if the paper can start from the male images in the movie,to summarize the common characteristics of these male images,that is,they are all represented as the vicious images and the speaker of the patriarchy,the study will be more comprehensive.

Therefore,to make sure the validity and reliability of the study,the future study should be further on its ways of male images.Besides,if the study of the male images can be combined with the female images from the cultural on other perspective,it will be better.For these reasons,there is still enough room for further studies.References

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis.

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Associate Professor Liu Lihua, my supervisor,for her constant encouragement and guidance.She has walked me through all the stage of the writing of this thesis.During this period,my supervisor taught me a lot and I learn many things from her,which I appreciate very much.The guidance she offered and the academic experience she imparted have enlarged my horizon and have imbued me with initiative and creativity.Without her consistent and illuminating instruction,this thesis could not have reached its present form.Besides, she always puts high priority on our dissertation writing and is willing to discuss with me anytime available.I have learnt from her a lot not only about dissertation writing, but also the professional ethics.I am very much obliged to her efforts of helping me complete the dissertation.

Thanks are also to my partner Tian Yangyang and my roommate Lu Yuejiao,who have helped me when I was in trouble,we can discuss together and finally deal with it. Besides,I would also like to express my gratitude to all my respectable teachers during the four-year undergraduate study.They are Prof.Xu Kun,associate Prof.Wang Duqin, associate Prof.Wu Yan,associate Prof.Feng Xiaoxuan,associate Prof.He Yaqin,,Miss Su Xiaojuan,Miss Fan Jiying.They taught me many things we haven’t learn before.

Last but not least,I would like to thank my family for their support all the way from the very beginning of my study.I am thankful to all my family members for their thoughtfulness and encouragement.声明

本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，进行研究工作的总结。尽我所知，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本学位论文的研究成果不包含任何他人享有著作权的内容。对本论文所涉及的研究工作做出贡献的其他个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。

签名：弭依彤

日期：2015.6.25