The Joy Luck Club Cultural Clashes English Literature Essay

The Joy Luck Club¸ by Amy Tan surrounds sixteen interweave stories about clashes between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters. It centers around four Chinese American refugee families living in San Francisco, California. They start a club known as “the Joy Luck Club.” The characters are broad, in the sense that, even though they are from different families, the problems and emotions that they are experiencing are alike. Their mothers are Chinese immigrants who speak broken English, while their daughters are all born in the U.S. The barriers that exist between the mothers and the daughters are mostly due to their lack of ability to communicate with one another.

In the beginning of the novel the narrator quoted from the prologue saying, “This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.” And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English (17). She is saying that there is a language gap among the daughter and mother. In order to get her daughter to appreciate all of her love and purposes, the mother needs to hang around and converse in her daughter’s language. A week before Suyuan pass away, her and her daughter, Jing-mei was talking about what she is going to cook for the Joy Luck Club. Jing-mei tells her mother not to show off her mother replies, “It’s not showoff.” She said the two soups were almost the same, chabudwo. Or maybe she said butong, not the same thing at all. 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” (19). Jing-mei does not comprehend what her mother is talking about. Therefore she cannot remember her mother’s intended meanings of the conversations she has with her mother. There is a noticeable language barrier that may result in feelings. Suyuan is telling Jing-mei the difference between Jewish mah jong and Chinese mah jong. Jing-mei becomes puzzle because her mother keeps switching from English to Chinese, “These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese,” (33-34). This is the largest problem here, both Jing-mei and her mother, Suyuan literally speaking different languages. They just do not understand each other. The dilemma is cause because of cultural barriers.

The daughters are frequently baffled by the clashes between the American and Chinese language and culture. Jing-mei seems to lose her heritage more and more, she does not notice it until her reminds her, “But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once again: 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,” (37). After listening to her aunt, Jing-mei finally realizes that her and her mother did not really comprehend each other. Even though, they translate it to each other it seems like Jing-mei hears less and less every day. In contrary, her mother hears more and more. Lena St. Clair’s father is asking her what her mother is saying, she was having a hard time thinking of what to tell her father, “I could not tell my father what she had said. He was so sad already with this empty crib in his mind. How could I tell him she was crazy? So this is what I translated for him: “She says we must all think very hard about having another baby. She says she hopes this baby is very happy on the other side. And she thinks we should leave now and go have dinner,” (112). Ying-ying’s English must be really terrible if she cannot tell that her daughter is being untruthful. Whatever the case may be, Lena’s role as an interpreter between her parents is placing her in an uncomfortable spot. She is somewhat is being deceitful to both parents in order to protect her family’s harmony. In Double Face, Lindo Jong talks about her daughter Waverly Jong saying, “It’s my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?” (254) She is saying that it is her to blame for daughter, Waverly’s behavior and actions now. Lindo always wants the best for her daughter.  Lindo believes Waverly’s American-ness is partially her own burden for giving Waverly such an American name. 

Waverly is not pleased because her mother told her she does not look Chinese. Lindo even tells her why other people would think she is not Chinese, “How can she talk to people in China with these words? Pee-pee, choo-choo train, eat, close light sleep. How can she think she can blend in? Only her skin and her hair are Chinese. Inside – she is all American-made,” (253-254). Lindo is saying that language barriers are the only reasons why nobody in China would ever oversight Waverly for being Chinese. Lindo is disappointed in Waverly for not being able to speak Chinese correctly. On the contrary, Waverly is fond to think of herself as Chinese. Waverly’s mother, Lindo did not really accept the fact that her Chinese daughter is about to marry a Caucasian man. Even after Waverly and Rich were married, Lindo would still try to avoid it, “My mother had never met Rich. In Fact, every time I brought up his name – when I said, for instance, that Rich and I had gone to the symphony, that Rich had taken my four-year-old daughter, Shoshana, to the zoo – my mother found a way to change the subject,” (167). Waverly knows that her mother is avoiding meeting Rich, or even talking about him. Lindo wants to steer clear of the fact that her newly son-in-law is not a Chinese man but a Caucasian man. Lindo was in painful denial seeing the evidence of Rich all over the house. Lindo talks about the rumors spreading around about how she met her husband. She tells Waverly that those rumors are not true; she also questions Waverly saying, “Why are you attracted only to Chinese nonsense?” (259) Lindo explains that Waverly should understand her real circumstances. She clarify that after she married him she lost her Chinese face. This is why Waverly is like this today, yet again she blames herself.

Throughout The Joy Luck Club, the different narrators ponder on their incapability to interpret the ideas and emotions from one culture to another. Furthermore, the barriers that lives sandwiched between the mothers and the daughters are mostly due to their lack of ability to communicate with one another. Jing-mei learns in the end that part of her is Chinese. It is so obvious what it is, her family and it is in her own blood.