Chinese-American Culture In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Throughout the novel, Amy Tan’s personal connection with the story exemplifies why The Joy Luck Club contributes to Chinese-American culture by providing an example of the struggle of communication between the Chinese immigrants and their American children. An incident that demonstrates this is when Lena attempts to explain her and Harold’s list to her mother (Tan 162). Contrasting each other, the two sets of ideas, Lena’s and her mother’s, conflict about Lena’s marriage situation. Worried that her daughter may make the same mistake as hers, Ying-Ying uses her Chinese ideals and past experiences to alleviate her daughter’s problem. However, Lena, unsure of how to deal with the situation, fails to explain or defend her marriage from her mother’s criticism because of the reason that Lena lacks her mother’s experience and was raised the American way, not the Chinese way. Most likely the basis of Lena’s character and the other daughers’ characters, Amy Tan’s relationship with her mother (discussed in an article by State University of New York at Buffalo) further explains the conception and meaning of The Joy Luck Club’s message. In the article, the author states that Amy Tan found it difficult to communicate with her mother for the reason that Amy Tan “grew up trying to please a mother who could not be pleased” (Longenecker 1). Obsessed with her superstitious beliefs, Amy Tan’s mother often created tension between her and her daughter with her “high suspense” manner of acting, threatening suicide or returning to China at times (Longenecker 1).