Chinese Culture In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Introduction

Amy Tan, who was born in California, Oakland, USA in 1952 and became an outstanding American Chinese writer. She began to write novels at the age of thirty-three. Based on the experiences of her grandmother and mother, a full-length novel called The Joy Luck Club was published and her reputation in the literary world has been established. The Joy Luck Club vividly depicted the delicate feelings between mothers and daughters, not only won the National Book Award this year, but also adapted into a film and set up a high box office record.
Since the novel was published, it has given rise to quiet a few controversial points that the effects to literary circles are drastic. The scholars study it from different angles. For one thing, most of the western scholars concentrate on the analysis of images of female characters, features of defensive ethnicity and so on. Some of them suppose that the subjective description of Chinese traditional cultures confirms the discrepancy and clashes Chinese and western culture in this communication collision. Zhao Jianxiu, a famous American critic, criticized Amy Tan’s misinterpretation of Chinese culture. He deemed that The Joy Luck Club shows that Chinese culture was rotten, superstitious, benighted and backward. Her distortion

It put forward four dimensions: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity /Femininity and Individualism/Collectivism. The four dimensions interpret and elaborate cultural differences from a several of perspectives and appropriate entry point. In addition, making full use of these theories can help us comprehend and grasp on the different dimensions of cultural differences, and the effective utilization of cross-cultural communication instruct and enrich intercultural communication practice under the background of