Cultural Conflicts and Integration Between China and America in the Joy Luck Club
by XXX A thesis presented to the School of English Education of Xi’an International Studies University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts
May 18, 2012
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西安外国语大学
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毕业论文题目：
分析《喜福会》中的中美文化冲突与融合 Cultural Conflicts and Integration Between China and America in the Joy Luck Club 任务起止日期：
2011 年 11 月 20 日 至 2012 年 5 月 20 日 毕业论文主要内容及参考文献：
小说《喜福会》是美国华裔女作家谭恩美的处女作，1989 年一经出版即受到广泛关注和好评。二十多年来对《喜福会》的研究一直是国内外评论界的热点。梳理国内外的研究成果可以发现，西方学术界偏重小说中的种族、身份、民族主义方面的寓意，国内则注重分析文化冲突问题,但是对文化融合的研究则略显欠缺。基于此研究现状和中美文化交流的新形势，本文将集中探讨小说中所体现的的文化冲突与融合。《喜福会》主要讲述了四位从中国移民到美国的女性和她们各自美国化女儿之间的“恩恩怨怨”，其中母女之间矛盾的产生和最终冰释是小说的重要情节，本质上表现的正是中美两种文化碰撞交流的过程。本文首先将通过对比母女两代人之间的语言，行为，观念等方面的不同，揭示矛盾背后的文化差异及其原因；接着分析文本中的母女关系的缓和所体现的文化融合；最后得出在现代社会我们对于文化差异及文化交流应采取的正确态度。希望今后不同民族的文化能够增进了解，增加沟通，彼此尊重，互相信任，优势互补，真正实现多元文化的共存与融合。
参考文 献：
Huntley, E. D. 1998. Amy Tan: A Critical Comparison. Michigan: Greenwood Press. Tan, A. 1989. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Penguin Books.
刘晓红．1998．隔膜·冲突·融合．思想战线（9），40-45． 王凤霞．2008．论《喜福会》中双重文化的冲突与融合．西南民族大学
（人文社科版）（12），76-79． 徐行言．2004．中西文化比较．北京 ：北京大学出版社．
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Acknowledgements
First of all, I wish to thank all those who have given me consistent help, encouragement, and advice.
Then, I am greatly indebted to my advisor, Wang Tong, a respectable, responsible and resourceful scholar,?who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this?thesis. Her effective advice, shrewd comments have kept the thesis in the right direction. Without her enlightening instruction, impressive kindness and patience, I?could not have completed my thesis. Her keen and vigorous academic observation?enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study.?
Last but not least, thanks all my friends, especially my lovely roommates, for their encouragement and support when I felt frustrated with this thesis.?
分析《喜福会》中的中美文化冲突与融合
摘要：
《喜福会》是美国华裔女作家谭恩美的处女作，小说主要描述了四对移民母女的关系和她们之间由于中美文化差异导致的一系列冲突，呈现了四对母女从误会，隔阂到相互理解的过程。母女关系的变化实质上也表现了中美异质文化由冲突到融合的艰难过程。随着全球化的加剧，文化交流和文化碰撞更加频繁，中国传统文化面临前所未有的挑战。本文通过分析《喜福会》文本中所体现的文化冲突与融合，得出在全球化和多元文化共存的环境中，文化交流中应该采取的正确态度，即不同文化之间增强交流，相互尊重，相互信任，共同创造人类文化的繁荣景象。
关键词：《喜福会》； 冲突； 融合；中美文化
Cultural Conflicts and Integration Between China and America in the Joy Luck Club
Abstract ：
The Joy Luck club is the first novel of Amy Tan, a Chinese-American writer. In the novel, by describing the relationship between the Chinese mothers and their American daughters and the conflicts caused by cultural differences, Amy Tan presents the process of misunderstanding, narrowing the gap and mutual understanding between mothers and daughters, which metaphorically represents the transition of the relationship from conflicts to integration between Chinese and American culture. With the intensification of globalization, cultural exchanges and collisions have become more frequent and Chinese traditional culture is facing more challenges than ever before. Through contextual analysis of the cultural conflicts and integration in the joy luck club, this paper attempts to demonstrate that in the age of globalization and cultural diversity, correct attitudes in cultural exchange should be taken. It suggests that different cultures should enhance exchange, respect and trust between each other and create a prosperous human culture together.
Key words：the Joy Luck Club; conflicts; integration; Chinese and American culture
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the Author and the Novel…………………………………………...1 2. Cultural Conflicts Between China and America in the Joy Luck Club……………..2 2.1 Episodes Reflecting the Conflicts in the Novel…………………………………2 2.2 Factors Causing the Conflicts …………………………………………………..4 2.2.1 Different Languages and Expressions……………………………………4 2.2.2 Different Views on Love and Marriage…………………………………..5 2.2.3 Different Senses of Value………………………………………………...6 2.3 Cultural Interpretation of the Conflicts…………………………………………7 3. Cultural Integration Between China and America in the Joy Luck Club…………...8 3.1 Episodes Reflecting the Integration in the Novel……………………………….8 3.2 Ways Promoting the Integration………………………………………………...9 3.2.1 Mothers" Efforts to Instill Chinese Culture in Daughters………………...9 3.2.2 Communication Between Mothers and Daughters……………………….9 3.2.3 Daughters" Understanding and Respect of Mothers…………………… 10 3.3 Cultural Interpretation of the Integration………………………………………11 4. Correct Attitudes in Cultural Exchange……………………………………………11 4.1 Enhancing the Exchange of Different Cultures………………………………..12 4.2 Learning to Respect and Trust…………………………………………………13 4.3 Seeking the Common Points…………………………………………………..13 5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………14 Reference……………………………………….…………………………………….16
1. Introduction
Amy Tan is one of the most highly acclaimed writers of American-Chinese literature. She published her first novel the Joy Luck Club in 1989, which received great attention immediately and remained on the New York Times best-seller list for many months.
In the novel the Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan explores the relationship between mothers and daughters. The novel focuses on four pairs of mothers and daughters: Suyuan Woo and Jing-Mei Woo, An-Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, Lindo-Jong and Waverly Jong, and Ying- Ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. The four mothers are the first generation immigrants from the Chinese traditional families. The daughters are born in America as the second generation immigrants who are deeply influenced by American moral standards and acting principles. They cherish their independent spirits and characters, and they are not willing to be controlled by others. They cannot understand their mothers" Chinese culture and their way of thinking. They reject the advices and criticisms from their mothers no matter whether they are reasonable or not. Meanwhile, the mothers, as the first generation immigrants, do not totally integrate in American culture. They cannot speak fluent English. They never discard the tradition and never forget their lives in China. They show their love for daughters by planning their futures and interfering in their activities, which is hated by the daughters. Consequently, there are constant conflicts between mothers and daughters from choosing husbands to hairdos.
However, the novel does not end up with conflicts. The mothers make continuous efforts to instill Chinese culture with daughters and they never stop maternal love to their daughters. Moreover, in the process of growing up, the daughters gradually understand their mothers" love for them and accept it eventually. At the end of the novel, the reconciliation between mothers and daughters forms naturally. In fact, all the conflicts are caused by cultural differences, and the final reconciliation suggests the possibility of integration of different cultures. In the
context of globalization, the communication between China and other countries whose cultural backgrounds are totally different from China"s is increasing rapidly. China face more challenges to its traditional culture. It is a knotty question how to get integration in the cultural exchange. This paper analyses the cultural conflicts and integration between the mothers and the daughters in the novel the Joy Luck Club, and metaphorically between Chinese and American culture, with the aim to get the correct attitudes in cultural exchange.
2. Cultural Conflicts between China and America in the Joy Luck Club
In the Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan presents many conflicts in the mother-daughter relationship.
2.1 Episodes Reflecting the Conflicts in the Novel The most obvious conflicts happen in the story “Two Kinds”. Jing-Mei’s mother Suyuan Woo has a high expectation for her daughter. She believes that “you could be anything you wanted to be in America”. She thinks that Jing-Mei could be a prodigy. She hopes that Jing-Mei would be a pianist in the future. So the mother gets all kinds of magazines from people whose house she cleans, and searches for stories about remarkable children to tell to the daughter. She trades housecleaning service for weekly lessons and a piano for her daughter Jing-Mei to practice on every day. Jing-Mei likes piano herself, but she does not want to play the piano for her mother. In Jing-Mei’s eyes, she has the right to decide what she would do and not do. She has the right not be controlled by her mother. In order to break her mother’s hope, Jing-Mei disrupts a piano show on purpose with all the friends of her parents present to shame her mother. The mother does not give up, however. She continues to force her daughter to practice the piano. Jing-Mei remains defiant. She says to her mother: “You want me to be someone that I’m not! I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be.” (Tan, 1989: 142) The mother replies that only the obedient daughter can
live in the house. The daughter does not give in to her mother, shouting that “I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother. Then I wish I had never been born! ” (Tan, 1989: 142) The relationship between Lindo Jong and her daughter Waverly Jong also vividly reflects the cultural clash. In the story “Rules of the Game”, as a little girl, Waverly Jong shows great talent on chess. The mother, Lindo Jong, is so proud of her daughter that she introduces Waverly to whoever looks her way when they go out together. In order to create a good environment for her daughter to practice chess, Lindo make many concessions with the aim that her daughter can concentrate on chess. She makes decision that the daughter no longer has to do the dishes and her two brothers need to do the chores in place of her. When the daughter complains that the bedroom that she shares with her two brothers is so noisy that she couldn’t think, the two brothers are arranged in the living room facing the street, immediately. The mother regards herself as a protective ally of her daughter. She has a habit of standing over her daughter while Waverly practices the chess at home. When Waverly wins the game, she likes to announce to others: “I told my daughter, use your horse to run over the enemy, she won quickly this way.” (Tan, 1989: 170) However, the daughter hates “the way she tried to take all the credit”. (Tan, 1989: 170) Finally, one day, in the middle of a crowd of people, the daughter burst out her aversion. She says: “Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?”(Tan, 1989: 99) These words actually turn their mother-daughter relationship down to the bottom. Their constant conflicts reach a climax ever. Besides, the conflicts not only exist between Chinese mothers and American daughters, but also between other members from Sino-American Families. Both Rose and Lena marry American husbands. Rose has always been told to be submitted and meek by her Chinese mother since her birth. As a result of her mother’s education, Rose is used to listening to her husband’s advices in marriage life. When asked for her opinion, she usually says: “You deicide.” or “I do not care.” or “either way is fine with me.” In such case, her American husband would say in his impatient voice, “No, you decide. You cannot have it both ways, none of the responsibility, none of the
blame.” (Tan, 1989: 120) Because of Rose’s behavior, her husband proposes to divorce with her. Lena and her husband have a piece of paper on which under each of their names are things they have bought and how much they pay. Just things they share. This is not surprising in America. Lena feels uneasy and is in a complete despair eventually. She says to her husband: “our marriage is really based on …not this balance sheet, who owes who what.” (Tan, 1989: 165)
2.2 Factors Causing the Conflicts Actually all these conflicts can be attributed to the American-Chinese cultural differences which are embodied in three aspects. 2.2.1 Different Languages and Expressions First, the mothers are born and grow up in China while the daughters are educated in America. They speak different languages and have different styles of expression. As language is the carrier of culture, different languages convey different cultural information. Language can give the speaker certain kind of cultural identity. A language means a pass check to know the culture it belongs to. In the Joy Luck Club, language has been a barrier obstructing the mother-daughter communication, which is hard to remove. Although having been living in America for many years, the mothers are used to speaking in Chinese, especially when they need to express something important or their strong feelings. Chinese is their mother tongue, which they cannot leave behind. They either speak the broken English or the Chinese-English sentences. For the daughters, who are brought up in America, they speak fluent English. They do not like and even despise their mother’s way language, no matter they speak Chinese or the broken English. Consequently, the communication problems arise. For example, Jing-Mei says: “My mother and I never really understand one another. We translate each other’s meaning and I seemed to hear less than was said, while my mother heard more.” (Tan, 1989: 27) On the one hand, the daughter looks for meaning in what is stated by her mother and does not understand that her mother omits important information because she thinks that her daughter knows it; on the other hand, the mother looks for meaning in what has not been stated and adds many things to what has been stated and comes up with meanings that surprise her daughter.
People from the two cultures also have totally different expression styles. American people cannot understand the virtue of being modest and reserved in Chinese culture. Just as Jing-Mei says, “it was one of those Chinese expressions that means the better half of mixed intentions. I can never remember things I didn’t understand in the first place.” (Tan, 1989: 19) Unlike Chinese, Americans are frank and direct when expressing their ideas. They say what they think. Chinese people say half of what they think. Sometimes, they even say what is opposite to what they think. There is a talking between the two Chinese mothers Lindo Jong and Suyuan woo reflecting the feature of Chinese communication. Lindo says: “She brings home too many trophy. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings. ” Suyuan responses: “Our problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-Mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It’s like you cannot stop this natural talent.”(Tan, 1989: 138) At the superficial level, they are complaining about their problems. Actually, it is a Chinese way of showing off. However, this connation is not effective for the Americans. When Waverly’s husband Rich first comes to her parents’ home, the mother Lindo Jong cooks her famous steamed pork and preserved vegetable dish, which she always serves with special pride. When Lindo Jong makes disparaging remarks about her cooking as usual, “the dish is not salty enough, no flavor. It’s too bad to eat”. (Tan, 1989: 178) As an American man, Rich does not know that is a cue for others to praise the cook. He says: “you know all it needs is a little soy sauce.” And he proceeds to “pour a riverful of the salty black stuff on the platter, right before the mother’s horrified eyes”. (Tan, 1989: 178) He even calls Waverly’s parents’ name directly, which is considered as not polite in China. Waverly thinks over and over when she decides to tell her parents that she will get married with Rich. For Rich, it is only a matter of one sentence “Mom, Dad, I’m getting married.” Chinese people are roundabout while American people are direct.
2.2.2 Different Views on Love and Marriage Second, in terms of the views on love and marriage, the mothers and daughters hold different ideas. According to Chinese tradition, children’s marriage is a vitally important thing for parents. They try to give their suggestions, sometimes even the
decision. Parents interfere with children’s marriage out of responsibility and kindness to make sure that their children can have blissful life in the future. To some extents, it is an important manifestation of parents’ love to children in China. American culture values independence. When children get married, what the parents need to do is to give their blessings. For Americans, marriage is a private thing they do not like to share with others. When the two different views meet, the conflicts are inevitable. Lindo Jong thinks that Waverly’s first boyfriend is lazy and lack of family responsibilities. She thinks the boy is not good enough for her daughter. When she finds her daughter elopes with this guy, she throws her shoes at them. The daughter Waverly does not understand her mother’s behavior. When her first marriage fails, she even thinks: “If perhaps my mother has poisoned my marriage.”(Tan, 1989: 174) As an Americanized girl, she does not think her mother has the right to intervene in her choice. Another girl, Lena believes in gender equality and equal rights for man and woman, equal rights for husband and wife, which are advocated in American culture. They go Dutch in life, which seems just. They think that only by doing this way, they can “eliminate false dependencies…be equals…love without obligation…” (Tan, 1989: 162) But her mother Ying-Ying cannot bear this rule. According to the Chinese culture in which the mother was born and grew up, it is unacceptable. A married Chinese couple cannot calculate the family financial expenditure so clearly; they must share the burden together. Having received the American education, Lena still holds Chinese traditional view by nature. Such nature makes it a little difficult for her to integrate into the western marriage.
2.2.3 Different Senses of Value Third, the mothers and daughters also have totally different senses of values. Chinese culture emphasizes the collectiveness, while American culture values the individualism. In China, people are seen as one part of the group and individual’s ability not only embodies one’s value, but also represents the collective values of the whole group which he belongs to. According to Chinese traditional Confucianism, the interests of the social group take precedence over the interests of the individual. When one succeeds, his family receives compliment. When one fails, his family receives
criticism. Individual is closely tied with family. So Waverly’s mother Lindo Jong shows off her daughters’ success as if she succeeds herself. In America, people are mutual independent. They think if one wants to succeed, he should rely on himself rather than his family. When you talk with Americans, it is rare to find them boast of their family or social relationship. Freedom and independence are highly valued by the daughters who are raised in the US. They cannot bear being interfered and controlled by others. The American culture sees people as individual with intelligence, dignity, and free will. Everybody needs to be responsible for their own fate. So Jing-Mei shouts to her mother: “I am not you salve. This isn’t in China. You cannot make me.”(Tan, 1989: 140) So Waverly says: “Do not be so old fashioned, Ma. I’m my own person.”(Tan, 1989: 254) 2.3 Cultural Interpretation of the Conflicts Ultimately, underneath the conflicts between the mothers and daughters are the clashes between the Eastern and Western cultures. All people are created different, and thus no two cultures will ever be the same. The Sino- America relationship has been unequal for many centuries. America is the strong; China is the weak. Due to the relationship on the unfair and unequal basis, it is inevitable for the American people to have prejudice against Chinese people and things. In the eyes of the Americans, China means ignorance and backwardness. When the two meet, they naturally choose the superior one in their hearts. So Rose considers that “Chinese people had Chinese opinions, American people had American opinions. And in almost every case, the American version was much better.” (Tan, 1989: 191) Chinese traditional culture is suppressed in American society where the mainstream American culture predominates. At the beginning of the story, when Jing-Mei’s mother arrives in America, the immigration officials force her to leave the swan she buys from China. The potential meaning of this plot is that the American culture violently cuts the bond between the mothers and her traditional culture with its advantage. But Suyuan still preserves one swan feather, which stands for the weak culture’s struggle and survival.
3. Cultural Integration between China and America
in the Joy Luck Club
Conflict is the main plot in the Joy Luck Club, but it is not the final destination. Moreover, the author, Amy Tan is always trying to find the possibility of integration between people from different cultures. Actually, she succeeds in doing this. Struggle is painful, but it is worth if it can make people to examine themselves. In the Joy Luck Club, conflicts begin with antagonistic contradiction, but end up in accommodation. 3.1 Episodes Reflecting the Integration in the Novel Despite so many contractions having happened before, the mothers and daughters indeed come to reconciliation at last. For instance, Waverly and Rich decide to go to China to spend their honeymoon. Waverly’s American husband hopes that Waverly’s mother Lindo could go with them. Lindo would love to go, although she does not say it directly. Waverly does not like this idea. She thinks that her mother would keep complaining about dirty chopsticks and cold soup, three meals a day. But she also considers: “Yet part of me also thinks the whole idea makes perfect sense. The three of us, leaving our differences behind, stepping on the plane together, sitting side by side, lifting off, moving West to reach the East.” (Tan, 1989: 184)
Another Example of integration is about Jing-Mei and her mother. After her mother’s death, Jing-Mei opens the piano which causes the fierce conflicts between her mother and her many years ago, plays the two songs which brings much pain to her. After playing them both a few times, she realizes that they are two halves of the same song. The one is shorter but slower; the other is longer but faster. It indicates that the eastern culture and western culture are both part of the whole human culture. Separated from the other, the remains is not complete and perfect. At the end of the novel, Jing-Mei set foot on the Chinese land. When she hears the story of her mother and sees her Chinese sisters, she totally understands her mother and knows that her mother loves her more than her own life.
In the third part of the novel, the four daughters narrate their dilemmas after they
grew up. Although they think their mothers’ ideas are out of date, when they search for the solutions, they inevitably come back to their mothers. At last, mothers offer solutions and support to their daughters with their past experiences in China. For example, Rose Hsu Jordan finds herself unable to persist in her ideas. Although she expresses her ideas by disobeying her mother to marry Ted, she makes herself the victim to Ted in marriage. At home, Ted decides everything. At last, she listens to her mother and takes actions to protect her rights. 3.2 Ways Promoting the Integration From the conflicts to integration, there are some ways promoting the process. It is due to the joint efforts by mothers and daughters that the final reconciliation can be achieved. 3.2.1 Mothers" Efforts to Instill Chinese Culture in Daughters The mothers make great effort to instill Chinese culture in daughters during the daughters’ growing up. The mothers in the joy luck club come to America with their American dreams. They come to America in order to find a better life. Deeply, they still preserve the pride of Chinese culture. Confident of their culture, they want to pass it to their daughters. When Waverly asks her mother what is Chinese torture. The mother answers: “Chinese people do many things. Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture.”(Tan, 1989: 91) Lindo says these words because she does not want her daughter lose confidence in front of her American classmates. In this way, she tells her daughter that Chinese people are not inferior to any other people in the world, even the American people. For them, the offspring of Chinese immigrants are as superb as the Americans. Waverly misunderstands her mother’s hometown Taiyuan as Taiwan because of the similar pronunciations. Lindo cannot wait to correct it, saying: “I was born in China, in Taiyuan. Taiwan is not China.”(Tan, 1989: 183) She does not want her daughter misunderstand her motherland. Through this kind of daily dialogue, the Joy Luck Club mothers gradually instill a sense of Chinese affection into their daughters’ hearts. 3.2.2 Communication Between Mothers and Daughters
Mutual communication is another factor contributing to forming the reconciliation between mothers and daughters. There has always been a barrier during the mother and daughter’s communication. The language and culture barriers ever make it hard for them to understand each other and communicate. However, as time goes by, they gradually know and accept each other and eventually overcome the communication barriers. Seeing the hardship and pain their daughters suffer from the American mainstream society, the mothers realize the necessity of communication. They break their usual silence and open the memories to have dialogue with their daughters.
When Rose runs into the marriage crisis, she would choose to turn to the psychiatrist rather than talk with her own mother. But her mother An-Mei tells her that “a mother is best, a mother knows what is inside you, a psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu (Chinese expression which means confused), make you see heimongmong (Chinese expression which means darkness).” (Tan, 1989: 188) This is a typical kind of Chinese theory.
Ying-Ying realizes that she has passed her passivity and fatalism to her daughter Lena. She begins to change herself not to be silent anymore. She says: “all her life, I have watched her as though from another shore. And now I must tell her everything about my past. It is the only way to penetrate her skin and to pull her to where she can be saved.” (Tan, 1989: 242)
Waverly decides to marry Ted. She needs to tell her parent the news. She thinks that her mother does not like Ted and would object her choice. After the intimate and frank conversation with her mother, she understands her mother’s love for her finally. She knows that her mother is not to fight with her on purpose as she thinks before. That is just a way of love from a Chinese mother. The mother also agrees on the daughter’s marriage with an American man, indicating her acceptance for American culture. In the story “Four direction”, Waverly says:
“In the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was really there: an old woman, a work for her armor, a knitting
needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.” (Tan, 1989: 184)
3.2.3 Daughters" Understanding and Respect of Mothers
Daughters’ understanding and respect of mothers is the last step to shape the accommodation between mothers and daughters. The American daughters are always resisting their mothers. The mothers and daughters seem to be in the opposite side all the time. Jing-Mei indeed succeeds in resisting her mother. She disappoints her mother to assert her own will and her right to fall short of expectation. She does not become a pianist. She does not become class president. She does not get into Stanford. She almost makes all of her mother’s expectation fail. Meanwhile, she becomes an ordinary person. In order to reject her mother’s showing off, Waverly stops playing chess. After letting go of her mother’s support, Waverly is not a genius any more.
As the daughters grow up, they gradually understand their mothers’ good intentions. In Jing-Mei’s trip to China, her father tells her the story about Suyuan after she runs away from Kweilin. Jing-Mei totally understands why her mother leaves the twins on the road at that time. She also knows the meaning of her mother’s name “Suyuan” and hers “Jing-Mei”. She has a deeper understanding of her mother’s hope for her. At the end of the novel, Jing-Mei meets her twin sisters in China. “I look at their face again and I see no trace of my mother in them. Yet they still look familiar. And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood. After all these years, it can finally be let go. ” (Tan, 1989: 288) She finally agrees that her mother is right. She is becoming a Chinese. At the point when Jing-Mei and her two sisters embrace together, murmuring “Mama, Mama”, the cultural barrier has disappeared. The Chinese culture and America culture are wholly integrated.
3.3 Cultural Interpretation of the Integration Throughout the whole story, Amy Tan shows the readers the possibility and inevitability of cultural integration. Despite of the differences, with love and tolerance, different cultures can live in harmony. The mother-daughter relationship’s
reconciliation symbolizes the integration between Chinese and American culture. Although the American culture holds the main stream in the American society, it cannot remove Chinese culture from its society totally because Chinese culture has its own value and advantage, just as many other cultures do. Neither could Chinese culture beat American culture, nor could American culture wipe out Chinese culture. The future could only be that the two live with equality and harmony. In this way, the cross-culture communication can be conducted effectively and meaningfully.
4. Correct Attitudes in Cultural Exchange
Nowadays, we are living in an age with globalization and cultural diversity. There are much more collision and clashes between different civilizations during exchange than before. We are faced with many cultural shocks. Thus, correct attitudes in cultural exchange are necessary and should be advocated.
Ruth Benedict, a noted American cultural anthropologist views the human cultures as “personality writ large”. Each culture chooses from the “great arc of human personalities” only a few characteristics which become the leading personality traits of the persons living in that culture. These traits compromise an interdependent constellation of aesthetics and values in each culture which together add up to a unique gestalt. In fact, behind one national culture are its national strength and the level of productive forces. In modern society, the West countries take advantage of the productive force to make some part of their cultures go ahead of the rest of the world, such as science, management and education. If other cultures do not learn from their strong points, they may be ruled out of the main stream of world cultures. What’s worse, they cannot have a fair and frie...