1、从喜福会看中西教育之差异On the Differences between Chinese and Western Education: An Analysis of The Joy Luck ClubAbstract: The Joy Luck Club is a famous novel, its writer named Amy Tan who isa Chinese-American writer. In this novel she mainly describes the conflicts between The Joy Luck Club mothers and their
2、daughters to show us cultural differences. As Chinese mothers, they have trouble communicating with their daughters and their daughters lovers and friends. It is clear that the communication gap is partly because of the different educations the two generations have received. Different educational ba
3、ckgrounds make everyones thoughts and value is different, so cross-cultural communication barriers and conflicts happen from time to time. Daughters ignore the criticism of mothers, for they think mothers advice is a kind of interference of their personal life. For mothers, they think their daughter
4、s are enslaved by American education, and give up their spirit of struggle for survival. At the same time, mothers feel grieved for daughters failing marriage. However, because of love and persistence from mothers, they finally bury the hatchet. Their relationship become harmony from the not underst
5、and and hostile.With The Joy Luck Club mothers and their daughters conflicts as the starting point, this thesis aims to analyze the differences between Chinese and Western education, and the influences on the two generations different ideas about education, view of marriage, family concept, etc. The
6、re are five part in the thesis; the first part is the Introduction; the second part describes the conflicts of mother-and-daughter in The Joy Luck Club; the third part analyzes the differences between Chinese and Western education and the reasons for the differences; the forth part analyzes the infl
7、uence of educational differences manifested in the novel; the last part is the Conclusion.Key words: The Joy Luck Club; mothers and their daughters conflicts;Chinese and western education; differences从喜福会看中西教育之差异摘要：喜福会这本著名小说，它的作者是美国华裔女作家谭恩美。在这篇小说中，作者主要讲述了由于文化的不同，四对移民母女之间冲突。作为在中国长大的母亲与美国出生的女儿以及女儿的伴侣、
8、朋友之间沟通起来很艰难。显然，这种沟通障碍是因为母女们之间不同的教育背景。不同的教育背景使母女的思维方式和价值观不同，因此，由于教育不同造成的障碍和冲突也就应运而生。女儿们毫不在乎母亲们的批评，在她们看来，母亲们的劝告是干预自己私生活的表现。在母亲们看来，女儿们被美国教育同化，放弃了她们那种为了生存而奋斗的精神，同时，母亲们为女儿们的失败婚姻感到伤心。但是，由于爱的指引，加上母亲们的执着和女儿们的努力，她们终于冰释前嫌，由彼此之间的不理解，以及相互之间的对立，逐渐走向了最终的和谐。本文以喜福会母女之间的矛盾作为出发点，阐述中西方在教育方面的诸多差异，以及由于教育差异所引起的两代人在教育、婚姻观
9、和家庭观念等方面的不同观念。文章共分为五部分：第一部分为引言；第二部分分析喜福会中四对母女矛盾；第三部分分析中西教育的差异，及造成这种差异的原因；四部分分析中教育差异在喜福会中的体现及影响；第五部分是结论。关键词：喜福会；母女矛盾；中西教育；差异1. IntroductionAmy Tan is a Chinese-American writer. In 1993, she published her first novel The Joy Luck Club which explores mother-daughter relationships, and became a commerci
10、ally successful novel. This novel has 35 versions in different language.Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California, but she has Chinese descent, because her father and mother are Chinese who immigrate to America. Her father is working as an engineer of electrical. Her mother is a traditional Chinese wo
11、men, and she divorced with her first husband in China because she cannot bear his abusive behavior, she got freedom but she is deprived of custody. So she had to give up their babies when she goes to America in 1949. This incident set a foundation for Tans first novel The Joy Luck Club which became
12、the 1989 New York Times bestseller.Amy Tans major in university is medicine but at the end got a masters in linguistics. The Joy Luck Club is her best famous work, and she also publish many good works, such as The Bonesetters Daughters, Saving Fish from Drowning and Kitchen Gods Wife, etc., these wo
13、rks give her a good reputation. Her words can touch everyones heart and let people think deeply.The immigrant mothers live in America, but the Chinese traditional education has taken root in their minds and their experiences in China help them to form their world view and Chinese thought. But the gi
14、rls could not understand their mothers thoughts because they never accept the Chinese education. So there are many mother-and-daughter conflicts in this novel. After a long time, the daughters start to understand their mothers.The mother set up The Joy Luck Club for Chinese friends to have fun in ev
15、ery week, it is the the source of novels title. This novels structure just like the mahjong game which the mothers always play. The Joy Luck Club describes the conflicts by the form of story ring, it sharesthe four immigrant mothers and three American-born daughtersstories. The novel is divided to f
16、our parts, and before every part is an allegory.This novel was very famous in 1993, the director Wayne Wang saw this chance and adapt the novel into a film, and request Amy Tan and Ronald Bass to write the screenplay. At the same time, the Pan Asian Repertory Theater in New York releases this novel
17、to people in the form of a play.Since 1990s, The Joy Luck Club was compared with The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston who also are Chinese-American writer.Many American reviewers such as Amy Ling, Marina Heung, Walter Shear, BenXu think that Amy Tans writing style abandon the traditional Chines
18、e female stereotypes and inherit the conflicts of the cultural and family in Chinese culture.However, some male critics of Chinese-American, like Shawn H. Wong and Jeffery Paul Chan etc., they think the China in this novel was described very poor and no humanity, it is bombastic.“The Joy Luck Club t
19、hus was assumed to deliver reliable information not only about things Chinese but also about the really important things in life Roots, Culture, Tradition, History, War, Human Evil.”(Wong, 1995:200) This thesis is analyzingthe differences between Chinese and western education.2. TheConflicts in The
20、Joy Luck Club Between the mother and the daughterIn the novel, these immigrant mothers lived in China a long time but their daughters grew up in America and accept western education. The differences of education is the largest reason for mother-and-daughter conflicts in The Joy Luck Club, it increas
21、es the distance between daughters and mothers.The conflicts between four mothers and four daughters aredifference. Wu Suyuan gives much pressure to her daughter, because she puts all her hope on her daughter Jingmei. Anmei wants her daughter can have confidence in her marriage and like a Chinese, bu
22、t her daughter always obey her husband and has no personality. Lindo give her daughter much mothers love in Chinese way, however, her daughter cannot understand and accept. Ying-ying and her daughters conflict is because her daughter has a wrong cognition for Chinese, her daughter think Chinese is r
23、ude and cruel.In daughters second culture, education is an important part. The daughters accepted western education when they were born, they went western school and learn western thoughts, so they took shape the lifestyle of western and became Americanized. They consider themselves as Americans, bu
24、t in Americans eyes they are Chinese, it is embarrassing for the daughters. They want to be a real American, and try their best to integrate into the western society, but their yellow skin and value make them be somebody in America. Their mothers value of traditional Chinese has make an influence fo
25、r their value in imperceptible. The daughters never think they are Chinese, because China is too strange for them, and they cannot fully understand the Chinese. The mothers are the combination of contradiction. For one thing, they hopes their daughters can be a real American and integrate into mains
26、tream society in America. For another, they want their daughters can maintain the traditional characteristics of Chinese.2.1 The Conflicts between Wu Suyuan and JingmeiIn her hearts, she think America is a very good country, because it can give you many chances to save money, you can do what you wan
27、t to do in America. If you open a restaurant, the American government will give you much help. She believe people can get money and reputation quickly in America. So she believes her daughter can be a successful people. In order to achieve her dream, she test her daughter Jingmei for finding Jingmei
28、s talents by many quizzes. When failed time and time again, She finds that Jingmei has gift to be a pianist.In order to let her daughter to study piano, she decides to purchase a piano for Jingmei, but the week income of her cannot afford it. Then she clean the old piano teachers house regularly to
29、gets a opportunity for her daughter to study piano. When she have enough money and buy the piano for her daughter to practice it at home every day, Jingmei is not happy for this, because she want to follow her own will and be a ordinary being. However, Wu Suyuan gives more expectation for her daught
30、er Jingmei, Jingmeis incomprehension make she feels upset and sad.“Only two kinds of daughters in this world”, she said loudly in Chinese. “one isobedient and the other is following their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!”“Then I wish I wasnt your daughte
31、r and you werent my mother,”Jingmei shouted to her mother.“Too late to change this,” Wu Suyuan said shrilly.“And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I wanted to see it spill over. And thats when I remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. Then I w
32、ish Id never been born!”Jingmei shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like the babies wasabandoned in China”.(140)The extreme argument reflects mother-and-daughter conflicts on different education completed. In Chinesethoughts, the children should obey their parents, the parents have therights to plan all things of their childrens future, especially the marriage. Childrens success is parents pride, they like to show their childrens success to others. All of these are the traditional Chinese education. On the contrary, in the West, children are hearten by their mother to fi
