摘 要

《喜福会》是美国华裔女作家谭恩美的畅销作品，在1989年出版之后就受到了热情洋溢的评价，并且获得了全美图书奖和洛杉矶时代周刊的图书奖。当前国内外对喜福会的解读主要有文化冲突的母女关系，这些解读站在文化交流的高度，很少能够关注女儿们的成长：当母亲身上的中国特性对生长在美国文化环境中的女儿产生影响时，女儿们会何去何从。

本文分为六个部分。第一部分是对作者和《喜福会》的介绍。第二和第三部分论述了女儿们在成长道路上遇到的羁绊，成长道路上得到的指引。第四部分描写她们是如何克服对自己母国文化的偏见，完成和母亲的和解。第五部分探讨了母亲所代表的中国文化是财富还是羁绊。最后一部分是全文的总结，指出《喜福会》这样的小说在现实中对人们成长的借鉴意义。

关键词：成长； 中美文化； 个性； 《喜福会》

Abstract

The Joy Luck Club is American-Chinese writer Amy Tan’s best-selling work. Soon after its publication in 1989, The Joy Luck Club garnered enthusiastic reviews, remaining on the New York Times best-seller list for many months. It won both the National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book Award in 1989.

The current interpretation of The Joy Luck Club mainly includes cultural conflicts and the mother-daughter relationship, these interpretations stand on the height of cultural exchange, and few can involve daughters’ growth: when the Chinese characteristics represented by their mothers affected daughters who lived in the American cultural environment, where should daughters go.

This paper is divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction about the author and the works. The second and third parts discourse the barriers and guidance in the path of growth. The fourth part describes the daughters overcome the bias on Chinese culture and become reconciled with mothers. The fifth part defects whether the Chinese culture is wealth or trammel. The final part is the conclusion of this paper, pointing the significance of The Joy Luck Club in the process of one’s growth.

Key Words: growth; Sino-American Cultures; personality; The Joy Luck Club

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Barriers on Path of Growth — Losing Position between Two Cultures 3

2.1 Divergence between Mothers and Daughters 3

2.2 Divergence between Husbands and Wives 3

3 Leading Daughters’ Road — Helping Build Daughters’ Personality Traits 5

3.1 Chinese Culture Represented by Mothers 5

3.2 American Culture Represented by Husbands 6

4 Insight Moment — Reconciliation of Dual Cultural Identities 8

4.1Gradual Enlightenment —Torture under Chinese Culture 8

4.2Insight Moments—Reconciliation with Mothers 9

5 Inheritance from Mothers — Unique Personalities 11

5.1 Strong Mothers 11

5.2 Wealth or Trammel 12

5.3 Standing on Shoulders of Mothers 12

6 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

Impacts of Sino-American Cultural Environment on the Personality:

A Case Study of The Joy Luck Club

1 Introduction

Amy Tan is a prominent Chinese American writer. Her works have a huge impact on American literature. The Joy Luck Club published in 1989, soon garnered enthusiastic reviews, remaining on the New York Times bests-seller list for many months. It won both the National Book Award and the L.A. times Book Award in 1989.

In The Joy Luck Club, the main contents are about the conflicts between mothers and daughters. The Chinese mothers strive to inculcate their American-born daughters with Chinese mode of thinking, they also attempt to make daughters understand the pain they felt as girls growing up in China. The daughters, on the other hand, often regard their mothers’ attempt at guiding them as hypercritical meddling or a failure to understand American culture. Thus the daughters decide to resist their mothers’ assimilation. Both the mothers and the daughters struggle for identity: the mothers try to reconcile their Chinese pasts with their American presents; the daughters attempt to find a balance between independence and loyalty to their heritage.