Sino-American Cultural Conflicts in the Joy Luck Club from the Perspective of Cultural Identity

Abstract

The Joy Luck Club is the masterpiece of Chinese American author Amy Tan that tells the stories of four pairs of mothers and daughters in Chinese American families. In the novel, conflicts between mothers and daughters develop with the collision and integration of two cultures. In recent years, plenty of scholars have conducted research on this novel from various perspectives, such as Orientalism, mother-daughter relationships, and Sino-American culture. This article applies the theory of cultural identity to analyze the manifestations and causes of conflicts between two generations and two cultures. Instead of merely comparing the pairs of conflicts, the article combines the conflicts with the establishment of cultural identity and aims to promote awareness of identifying one’s cultural identity and standing firm when experiencing two or more types of culture.