Cultural Differences In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Culture and tradition is passed down to remember your beginnings.In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan she introduces cross cultural differences in the life of Jing mei Woo the daughter of Suyan Woo. Jing mei woo the narrator of the story who is the bridge between the relationships in the novel has a difficult time finding herself in the world because she does not understand who she is because of language barriers and cultural barrier within her life and of her mother. This leads to her regretting neglecting her chinese heritage. This can be seen by the mother of the story as well when when the mother's fear that they have alienated her daughter from chinese heritage by giving them american opportunities. Jing mei believes that the constant criticism of her mother is a form of lack of affection when in the eyes of her mother it is an expression of love and faith in her daughter.
The characters in the joy luck club all try to make peace when trying to translate ideas from
Jing mei who went back go back to china to find her true chinese heritage “it's even become fashionable for american born chinese to use their chinese names(37)”. By keeping their chinese name they remember their heritage and accept it. Even though this was not always the case she has grown to to become more jovial about her life and about her culture after her mother's death.
Symbolism “jing mei called the jade pendant her mother,suyuan gave her life's importance”(197) First jing mei found the jewelry peace unstylish “the pendant was not a piece of jewelry i would have chosen for myself” (197) This pedant represented the cultural differences between her and her mother .This view of jing mei changes when suyan died “i now wear the pendant everyday”(197) and the pendant became a symbol of her mother's love and concern for her the whole