Joy Luck Club Culture

Culture is more than just arts, beliefs and customs espoused by society. It is also intended to establish peace and harmony in a family. In fact, it devises a set of rules for family members to conform with. Unfortunately, it can be a hindrance that strains a family relationship. In Amy Tan’s, Joy Luck Club, the mothers are characterized as the impassive and demanding authoritarians who seldom display their love noticeably towards their daughters. Tan accentuates how the four newly-immigrated mothers constantly clash with their American daughters because they demand unconditional obedience from their daughters. Throughout the novel, Tan demonstrates that the restrictive Chinese culture impedes the development of the American daughters’ individuality,
Jing-Mei’s mother demands absolute obedience from her daughter. When Jing-Mei objects to practise her piano, her mother chides her daughter that there are “only 2 kinds of daughter [and] only obedient daughter can live in [her] house” (Tan 142). The varying family values are that the mother wants her daughter to obey her with absolute obedience while the daughter believes in freedom and individuality. Thus, the daughters and mothers are in constant disagreement, which ultimately puts a strain on their relationship. To further understand the cause of their tensions as a result of the family values, Li Rui of ChildResearch.net concludes that “a Chinese parent greatly values his solitary child because of the "major investment" and "national resource" the child represents. Consequently, significant amounts of money and high expectations are focused upon the child in hopes that the child will excel in academics and other areas” (Jenkins). The mothers believe that because they have invested so much time and effort to develop their daughters’ potential, they expect their daughters to do their utmost to produce. However, the daughters value more on choice and individuality. Her identity is undermined because she is forced to abide by the Chinese culture. Eventually, constant feuding contributes to hostility and intolerance. Secondly, in the Chinese culture, sacrifice is necessary and expected. Chinese families tend to sacrifice everything for their love ones. Lindo Jong “once sacrificed [her] life to keep [her] parents’ promise [but] to [Waverly], promises mean nothing”. A daughter can be late for dinner “if she has a headache, [or] if she has a traffic jam, [or] if she wants to watch a favorite movie on TV” (Tan 49). The mother believes that promises and family time is the top priority over everything. However living in America