小說《喜福會》中的文化認(rèn)同現(xiàn)象 英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文

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1、論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… The Phenomenon of Cultural Identity in The Joy Luck Club Author: CHEN Wei Supervisor: LI Zhi-ling, Professor (College of foreign Language, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018) Abstract: The Joy Luck Club is written by a Chinese-American

2、 writer, Amy Tan. And this story is related with immigrants and their family. Most of the foreign and domestic comments on this novel focus on the relationship between immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters, and the challenges of cultural translation. They pay little attention to the

3、dual identity of immigrants, which is very crucial to the life and fate of the characters. Here I will refer to the two meanings of the word “identity”: one is “who somebody is” which is the most common meaning; and the other one is “exact likeness or sameness” which is the meaning in the norm “cult

4、ural identity”. The theme of the paper below is cultural identity, and we will first have a look at its manifestation in each of the characters in the story. Then, I will focus on the phenomenon of cultural identity faced by the whole world. With the rapid advance of globalization and constant mobil

5、ity around the world, the crisis of cultural identity becomes a serious question. Who am I? This simplest question has become a most confusing one for today’s people especially for the immigrants. And the last part is the cultural identity in China. The crisis of cultural identity is not fierce floo

6、ds and savage beasts. And we should take an active attitude towards it. How to seek the best balance point between two different cultures is what we should learn from this story. Key Words: identity; culture; immigrants; belonging; crisis 小說《喜福會》中的文化認(rèn)同現(xiàn)象 摘要：《喜福會》由美籍華人作家譚恩美所著，故事是有關(guān)移民和她們的家庭的。國

7、內(nèi)外對此書的評論大都集中在移民母親和她們在美國長大的女兒之間的關(guān)系，和對文化翻譯的挑戰(zhàn)上，卻忽略了作為移民來說他身上的雙重身份，而這一點對小說人物的生活和命運是極其關(guān)鍵的。這里我將涉及到“identity”這個詞的兩個含義：一個是“身份”，這是最經(jīng)常用到的；另一個是“相同性，一致性”，這個就是它在名詞“文化認(rèn)同”里的意思。以下論文的主題是文化認(rèn)同，我們先來看一下它在小說中各個人物身上的表現(xiàn)。然后我會重點介紹全世界共同面臨的文化認(rèn)同現(xiàn)象。隨著全球化的推進(jìn)和世界范圍內(nèi)的人口流動，文化認(rèn)同的危機(jī)已經(jīng)成為一個嚴(yán)峻的話題。我 裝 訂 線 ……………….……. …………. …………. ……

8、 第 1 頁 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… 是誰？這個無比簡單的問題現(xiàn)在變成最讓人困擾的難題，尤其對于移民來說。最后一部分是文化認(rèn)同在中國的表現(xiàn)。文化認(rèn)同危機(jī)不是洪水猛獸，我們應(yīng)當(dāng)以積極的態(tài)度去面對它。怎樣在兩種不同的文化之間尋找最佳平衡點是我們應(yīng)該從小說中學(xué)習(xí)的。 關(guān)鍵詞：身份/認(rèn)同; 文化; 移民; 歸屬感; 危機(jī) 1. Introduction The Joy Luck Club tells us a bittersweet story about the conflict and love betwee

9、n four Chinese immigrant mothers Suyuan Woo, Anmei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Yingying St. Clair, and their American-raised daughters Jingmei Woo, Rose Hsu, Waverly Jong and Lina St. Clair. The book hinges on Jingmei’s trip to China to meet her half-sisters, twins Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa. There are four sec

10、tions in the novel, each of which contains four separate narratives. In the first four stories of the book, the mothers, speaking in turn, recall with astonishing clarity their relationship with their own mothers, and they worry that their daughters’ recollections of them will never possess the same

11、 intensity. In the second section, these daughters—Jingmei, Waverly, Rose and Lina—relate their recollections of their childhood relationships with their mothers. The great lucidity and force with which they tell their stories proves their mothers’ fears at least partially unfounded. In the third gr

12、oup of stories, the four daughters narrate their adult dilemmas—troubles in marriage and with their careers. Although they believe that their mothers’ antiquated ideas do not pertain to their very American lifestyles, their search for solutions inevitably brings them back to their relationships with

13、 the older generation. In the final group of story, the mothers struggle to offer solutions and support to their daughters, which itself turns out to be a process in which they learn more about themselves. At some point in the novel, each of the major characters expresses anxiety over the inabilit

14、y to reconcile her Chinese heritage with her American surroundings. Indeed, this reconciliation is the very aim of Jingmei’s journey to China. Jingmei’s experience in China at the end of the novel certainly seems to support the possibility of a richly mixed identity rather than an identity of warrin

15、g opposition. Her journey brings hope to the other members of the Joy Luck Club that they too can reconcile the oppositions in their lives between past and present, between Chinese and American cultures, and between different generations. 2. The manifestation of cultural identity in each character

16、 2.1 Cultural identity of the mothers When Chinese immigrant mothers enter the United States of America, it is evident from the start that they are in a world far different from their homeland. Face to face with a dominant culture that often acts and thinks in ways contrary to their previous lives

17、, mothers are on a difficult path of attempting to become an American. They cannot help nostalgically looking back at China longing for a 裝 訂 線 ……………….……. …………. …………. …… 第 2 頁 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… simpler life, but in the mean time, looking at the United Stat

18、es as a magic land of opportunity and freedom. They realized that this is a land that did not know in China. And after all, this is exactly why they come to America. They want to provide their daughters a well-off life as well as freedom and others’ respect that they have never experienced in China

19、before. But the traditional Chinese values in the mothers of filial obedience, criticism-enveloped expressions of love, and the concealment of excessive emotions all clash with the daughters’ “American” ideas about autonomy, freedom of speech, and self-esteem. Thus, they all struggle to find their o

20、wn cultural identity. 2.1.1 Suyuan Woo Suyuan Woo is a strong and willful woman who refuses to focus on her hardships. Instead, she struggles to create happiness and success where she finds it lacking. It is with this mentality that she founds the original Joy Luck Club while awaiting the Japanes

21、e invasion of China in Kweilin. “We search our conscience and we’d rather welcome death happily than await doomsday pessimistically, so what’s wrong with it?”(Amy Tan, 1989: P10). However, her power of will causes problems when she educates her daughter Jingmei. She believes that Jingmei can be a ch

22、ild prodigy if only she can locate her talent and nurture it well enough. The immense energy that Suyuan devotes to the search for Jingmei’s “inner prodigy”—cleaning for her piano teacher, saving up for a used piano—demonstrates that her motivations probably lie deeper than the promise of bragging r

23、ights at church each Sunday. It is Suyuan’s incessant nagging and inflated expectations that leads to a deep resentment in Jingmei. We can see that Suyuan is really a typical Chinese mother: fierce love for her daughter, often expressed as criticism; always comparing her own daughter with other chil

24、dren; a distress at her daughter’s desire to shake off her Chinese identity in favor of an American one; and a fear that she may be alienated from her daughter either because her own actions or because of their divergent ages and cultural upbringings. 2.1.2 Lindo Jong Lindo perhaps experienced th

25、e largest crisis of cultural identity of among characters. Even while a young girl in China, Lindo showed that she did not completely agree with Chinese custom. She agonized over how to extricate herself from a miserable marriage without dishonoring her parents’ promise to her husband’s family. Whil

26、e her concern about her parents shows that Lindo did not wish to openly rebel against her tradition, she made a secret promise to herself to remain true to her own desires. This promise shows the value she places on autonomy and personal happiness which are two qualities that Lindo associates withAm

27、erican culture. She named her daughter Waverly, after the street they lived on, to let her know that America, San Francisco in particular, was where she belonged. She knew that by naming her daughter after their street, she was taking the first step in making her wholly American, and thus alienating

28、 her daughter from herself. She regrets having given Waverly both American circumstances and Chinese character, stating that the two can never successfully combine. “For a long time, I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and 裝 訂 線 ……………….……. …………. …………. …

29、… 第 3 頁 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… Chinese character. How could I know thee two things do not mix? I taught my daughter how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it’s no lasting shame, because you can try to get a scholarship first. In American, nobody say

30、s you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. She learned these things very quickly, but I couldn’t teach her about Chinese character: How to obey your parents; Listen what your mother says; How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feeing behind your face so you can take advant

31、age of hidden opportunities; Why Chinese thinking is best…She dose not listen to this at all! When I am preaching to her earnestly and maternally, she just chew gum continually and then blow a bubble bigger than her cheeks.”(Amy Tan, 1989: P250). At the same time, however, she recognizes her own A

32、merican characteristics and knows that she is no longer “fully Chinese”. During her recent visit to China, people recognize her as a tourist. Distressed by this, Lindo wonders what she has lost by the alteration. She has always believed in her ability to shift between her true self and her public se

33、lf, but she begins to wonder whether her true self is, in fact, her American one. “I look at my daughter and I through the mirror, and think of the ways I conduct myself in society. I really cannot figure out which are Chinese ways and which are American ones. Anyway I can only take one of them and

34、discard the other, and I have hesitated between the two for so many years to consider which one I shall take.” (Amy Tan, 1989: P261). In reality, each identity is itself mixed: just as the American culture is not wholly about autonomy, and liberty, the Chinese culture is not wholly passivity, obedie

35、nce, and self-restraint. So, It is not necessary to figure out which is which, because she has been already accustomed to American life and live well enough. 2.1.3 Anmei Hsu At an early age, Anmei Hsu learns some lessons in stoic and severe love from her maternal grandmother and from her mother. H

36、er mother also teaches her to swallow her tears, to conceal her pain, and to see beyond other’s appearances. Her grandma once told her that, “When you lose your face, Anmei, it just as you drop your necklace in to the well. So the only means to save it is to jump in the well right after it.”(Amy Tan

37、, 1989: P34). When Anmei’s grandma is seriously ill, her mother slices off a piece of her own flesh to put it in her mother’s soup, hoping superstitiously to cure her. Having grown up in such circumstance, Anmei understand the meaning of “ your hair and skin are all from your parents” in a deep sens

38、e. “A daughter is so filial towards her mother, and this obedience has already been engraved into her marrow, thus the pain suffered from it seems so trivial and insignificant to mention. You have to forget that pain.” (Amy Tan, 1989: P39). However, Anmei’s mother’s first lesson—that one should swal

39、low his own tears—proves harmful, first to Anmei’s mother herself, then to Anmei, and then to Rose, to whom Anmei passes it on unwittingly. Anm phenomenon, saying that even though she tried to teach her daughter to speak up for herself, Rose followed in her mother’s footsteps. Anmei remarks that onl

40、y after her own mother’s ei reflects on thisphenomenon, saying that even though she tried to teach her daughter to speak up for herself, Rose followed in her mother’s footsteps. Anmei remarks that only after her own mother’s suicide did she learn “to shout” and to assert herself. Anmei 裝 訂 線

41、 ……………….……. …………. …………. …… 第 4 頁 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… recognizes that while passivity may once have been the only option for women, women no longer need live this way. She wonders now how to rectify the seemingly irrepressible force of inheritance, how to extricate h

42、er mother’s passivity from her daughter. There is no doubt that it is American circumstances that give Anmei this thought. 2.1.4 Yingying St. Clair Yingying was born in the year of the Tiger, a creature of force and stealth. However, when her nursemaid tells her that girls should be meek and pass

43、ive, Yingying begins to lose her sense of autonomous will. Furthermore, at an early age Yingying’s profound belief in fate and her personal destiny led to a policy of passivity and even listlessness. Always listening to omens and signs, she never paid attention to her inner feelings. Because she bel

44、ieved that she was “destined” to marry a vulgar family friend, she did nothing to seriously prevent the marriage, and even came to love her husband against her will. So she made no real effort to resist, and the tragic course of events that followed destroyed her spirit. After she aborted her child,

45、 Yingying thought she would take advantage of the cunning, “black” side of her Tiger spirit and wait for a ripe opportunity to reenter life in full force. However, when she meets Clifford St. Clair, Yingying displays the same fatalism that led her to her first marriage disaster. Although she neither

46、 likes nor dislikes the foreign merchant, she “knows” that he embodies a message: that the black side of her would soon fade away. On entering America with the man, Yingying’s identity was altered by changing her name, and also, accidentally, her birthday. She was held as a “displaced person” at the

47、 immigration station, and this image persists as a motif throughout the story. When the St. Clairs move to a new neighborhood, Lina’s father sees the shift as a rise in status, but Yingying judges her new apartment by different standards. She deems the house out of balance and feels a sense of foreb

48、oding, but she finds herself unable to explain her fears. She dose not refuse to speak out her actual worries and dissatisfaction, but she has no way to speak out. The dissatisfaction stems in part from her first move, from China to America, and from her more general failure to keep a balance betwee

49、n both sides of her life, both sides of her identity. The first marriage had already drained her spirit to such an extent that as soon as she stopped having to struggle to live, she became the ghost of the tiger she had once been. Yingying has decided to make a change, because she realizes that sh

50、e has passed on her passivity and fatalism to her daughter Lina. Seeing her daughter in an unhappy marriage, she urges her to take control. “Her wisdom is like a bottomless lake. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything. I think

51、this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body, but when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away even since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore. And now I must tell her everything about my past.

52、It is the only way to pull her to where she can be saved.” (Amy Tan, 1989: P236). She tells Lina her story for the first time, hoping that she might learn from her mother’s own failure to take initiative and instead come to express her thoughts 裝 訂 線 ……………….……. …………. …………. …… 第 5 頁

53、 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… and feelings. “Many years’ hardships and suffering have already made me more sensitive and accurate about all kinds of signs. I must use the painful horn of the “tiger” to poke my daughter to awake her. I know that she will fight with me, because we were

54、both born in the year of Tiger, and to fight is the nature of tiger. But I will win her, because I love her.” (Amy Tan, 1989: P246). In this belief in astrology Yingying finds a sort of positive counterpart to her earlier, debilitating superstitions and fatalism, for it is a belief not in the inevit

55、ability of external events but in the power of an internal quality. 2.2 Cultural identity of the daughters While the daughters in the novel are genetically Chinese (except for Lina who is half Chinese) and have been raised in mostly Chinese households, they also identify themselves with and feel a

56、t home in modern American culture. Only as they mature, the daughters begin to sense that their identities are incomplete and become interested in their Chinese heritage. 2.2.1 Jingmei Woo In a way, Jingmei Woo is the main character of the novel. Structurally, her narratives serve as bridge betwe

57、en the two generations of storytellers, as Jingmei speaks both for herself and for her recent deceased mother, Suyuan. She also bridges America and China. Jingmei denied during adolescence that she had any internal Chinese aspects, insisting that her Chinese identity was limited only to her external

58、 features and going by an English name “June”. She believes that her mother’s constant criticism bespeaks a lack of affection, when in fact her mother’s severity and high expectation are expressions of love and faith in her daughter. All of the other mother-daughter pairs experience the same misunde

59、rstanding, which in some ways may be seen to stem from cultural differences. “The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes. And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters as ignorant and indifferent as me of the principles our mot

60、hers bring to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese……Without any other means, they watch their daughters grow up day by day, and then marry and bear children, but without any connecting hope or possibility passed from generation to generation.” (Amy Tan, 1

61、989: P30). But when she makes a journey to China, she begins to understand her mother as well as her Chinese heritage. She comes to see that China itself contains some American aspects, just as the part of American she grew up in---San Francisco’s Chinatown---contained Chinese elements. Although Jin

62、gmei has been envisioning her first real Chinese meal to be a several course banquet, the relatives wish to stay with them in their hotel for the night and decide to order room service: hamburgers, French fries, and apple pie. Yet, Jingmei also goes further than Lindo in contemplating the nature of

63、a double identity. Lindo feels uncomfortable in her recognition that American culture has left an indelible trace on her. She fears that she has lost a certain purity or honesty of herself. In contrast, Jingmei joyfully comes to recognize the Chinese heritage that lies deep within herself; she happi

64、ly perceive that the American culture she has embraced for so long does not preempt 裝 訂 線 ……………….……. …………. …………. …… 第 6 頁 論 文 專 用 紙 ……………………. ………………. ………………… a Chinese consciousness as well. Seeing her sisters for the first time makes her realize that her identity need not b

65、e proven to anyone, for it is innate. 2.2.2 Waverly Jong Waverly Jong has always been a model of success, winning chess tournaments as a child and eventually building a lucrative career as an attorney. Much of Waverly’s talent in chess came from her ability to hide her thoughts and channel invisi

66、ble powers taught by her mother Lindo. She fears that Chinese identity has come to constitute merely Waverly’s exterior, while American identity dominates her interior self. Lindo blames herself for Waverly’s lopsided duality. She even meditates that Waverly would clapped her hands for joy during her teen years if she had told her that she did not look Chinese. Yet, from Waverly’s own narrative, we know that Lindo’s fears are not entirely justified. Waverly exhibits a deep respect and concern fo