跨文化交流论文--有关喜福会.docx

跨文化交流论文有关喜福会the Joy Luck of Club-the culture shock between the east and the westAbstractThe communication problem between mother and daughter has long been a topic for a long-term. In this paragraph, the communication problem has been a cross-cultural problem for the conflict is between four immigrants mothers and four American-raised daughters. In my opinion, the conflict is actually lead by three reasons: (1) the struggle for the women to get equity (2) the misunderstanding love (3) the clash between generations and cultures. This paragraph focuses on the novel “the Joy Luck of Club”, which is about the stories of four different immigrant families and mainly described the conflicts between mothers and daughters. In sum, though there are many reasons which lead to the communication problem, we can also conquer the problem and find a way to talk about people, not only our mothers, as in the end of the novel.目录preface of the paragraph4introduction of the book4The struggle for the women to get equity-individual freedom 5The misunderstanding love-criticism versus encouragement 6The clash between generations and cultures-Chinese verse English 7the end of the paragraph9The first time I saw the title of the book, the Joy Luck of Club, I suppose it might be a book filled with joy, luck and happiness. However, out of my expectation, in this book, I saw many unpleasant things-conflicts, hardships, disappointments, sorrows, hurts and so on. But fortunately it has a happy ending. Although there are many things which I didnt like, I had to admit that I have learnt a lot from this book and it made me have a penetrating thinking. Introduction of the bookThe Joy Luck of Club expounds two aspects: to begin with, the suffering of four mothers in old China; In addition, the conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters and their struggling to understand each other, which is the conflict and blend between the east culture and the west culture. The Joy Luck of Club is the title of this novel. It is also a party which held by Suyan, Jingmeis mother, to gather four families immigrated to America in 1949. What is the purpose of holding such a party each week? The answer is to be joyful as the name of the party-the joy luck of club. Four old ladies always play Mahjong and tell funny stories in the party. Everyone here tries his or her best to pretend to be happy. However, deeply inside their hearts, all of them have their own sorrows.What makes them unhappy? Those pains are caused not only by their lives in the old China, but also by the misunderstanding of their own American-born daughters. The book shows us these points: the struggle for the women to get equity; the misunderstanding of love between the mothers and the daughters and the clash between the generations and the cultures. Now I am going to show you my understanding of them.The struggle for the women to get equity-individual freedomIn old Chinese tradition, wives must follow their own parents, husbands and parents-in-law who are not allowed to have their own ideas and have no right to choose their own life. If they do not obey the rules, they will be considered as a bad woman. This is a very old point and it is referred in the first part of the book-four mothers tragic stories in the old China. However, although they have escaped from old China, they also have the Chinese tradition characters in their mind.However, in America, children have equal rights with their parents. They can choose their own life in the way of they like. It is not difficult to understand why American-born daughters don not like the way their mothers educated them.Take Waverly Jong for example. Lindo Jong asks her daughter to play chess and take part in a contest. After winning the game, Lindo boasts her daughters prize to others. But Wavely cannot understand this way and hate this. She wrangles with her mother and even swears that she would not play chess any more. In her view, winning the game is only for her mothers vanity and she could not get a little happiness from it. The misunderstanding love-criticism versus encouragement We all know that Chinese parents express their love for children through criticism. On the contrary, the Americans show affection through encouragement.For example, Suyuan always compares her daughter Jingmei with Waverly. She always brings the bad points of Jingmei. These things make Jingmei unhappy and make Jingmei thinks that her mother wants to control her and likes Wavely more than her. In order to displease her mother, she decided not to play the piano that her mother tries her best to let her learn. It is a tragedy to Jingmei as she really has a talent for playing piano. She does not know that until her mother died. The reason of this tragedy is the misunderstanding between two generations in different cultures.In addition, we can also see another point from this example. When Suyuan demands the little Jingmei to play piano, Jingmei shouts to her mother, ”You cant make me!” Jingmei even cries that she wishes she is not Suyuans daughter and Suyuan isnt her mother, and that she wishes she were dead like the babies that Suyuan abandoned in China. The sad expression on Suyuans face indicates that she was hurt by her daughters innocent words.This reminds me of the similar experience. Once I hurt my mother as Jingmei did. I didnt mean to hurt her, but those wounding words just slip out of my mouth unconsciously. Often, we hate that why our parents dont understand our feelings, why they like us to be something and totally unaware of what their children are. While the parents dont know why all their sacrifice to the children cannot be paid off, or even incite hatred. Actually, this is the generation gap that causes the misunderstanding. We dont know the hardship our parents underwent before, and they cannot understand what we are thinking. So the misunderstanding appears.Maybe as a child, Jingmei cannot comprehend what her remarks meant to Suyuan, and just want to show her grudge. But another main reason is the different backgrounds of Jingmei and Suyuan bare. Chinese parents always like to put all their hopes on the next generation for they are the generation full with hardships and pain. All they do is just to want their children to be better, but they ignore that the children influenced by the American culture and knowing a little about the Chinese culture. In their view, their mothers thoughts and behaviors are both absurd and ridiculous. So the two sides dont compromises with each other, resulting in a deep contradiction. The clash between generations and cultures-Chinese verse EnglishThe first reason of the communication barrier between generations is the language. Language as a sign, reflecting the cultural stereotypes and constraints of peoples thoughts. In this book, we can find out that even in the family, all the members use English to communicate with each other, but mothers English always mixed with some Chinese words, especially when they want to express something eagerly. So we believe that, to the mothers, Chinese is their mother tongue forever, as China will always be their home of their soul. If they want to, this language will come out from their mouth fluently at any time in any occasions. So Suyuan insisted to hold “the Joy Luck Club”, because this is the home of the Chinese tradition culture. This home let them who are in a foreign country and wandering on the edge of American mainstream culture, have the real fun and free, they can put on Chinese clothes, chat with the mother tongue, tell stories, and feel intense feelings of spiritual comfort in the local culture in an atmosphere. But they are worried about their children, the children grown with the time went by almost forget they are originally Chinese; they dont use Chinese but use fluently English to communicate.the end of the paragraph After these conflicts, we are very pleasant to see the situation is changed. Jingmei can understand her mothers love; Lindo accepts Wavelys husband who is a foreigner which she dislikes;Lena approves her value to her American husband after her mothers adviceIn the book Joy Luck Club, moth