上学期写的书评,又要写论文了,想起了放在这U____U
Amy Tan, who wrote The Joy Luck Club in 1989, is the second generation of those who immigrant to America from China. As a Chinese-American, her works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-America experience. A careful observation of the book, which illustrates the various experiences of four first immigration Chinese immigrants and their daughters in the United States, helps us relate to the constructs and theories in intercultural communication.
Part I : “Melting Pot” versus “Salad Bowl”
As we all know, America has been traditionally referred to as “melting pot”. The term “melting pot” is a metaphor for heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements “melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture. When it comes to the United America, even the “melting pot” process has always been equated with Americanization. In other words, assimilation is considered to be always a uni-directional process from immigrants toward the dominant host culture and culture heritage that immigrants brought with them over their native culture are assumes to diminish over the process.
However, when we look deeply into the American society, things seems much different comparing to what we have expected. American history began with waves of immigrants, bringing their own culture and traditions to a vast nest country. In the past 3 centuries, Europeans、Africans、Asians、Latins flooded into the new land, where different languages were spoken, different festivals were celebrated. Just a little walk in the city of New York or Chicago, for example, would make any foreigner realize the presence of people of various races walking down the street: probably Caucasians, blacks, Hispanics, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and so on. Indeed, America is a land of plural races and ethnicities, with a multicultural context. However, the Americans has never melted together completely in terms of culture. Yet more than 100 years later the abolition of slavery, intermarriage between African-Americans and other ethnicities is much less common than between different white ethnicities, or between white and Asian ethnicities.
In my opinion, the American Society is much more like “salad bowl” rather than “melting pot”. “Salad bowl” is another expression that describes the diversity of people in America where each ethnic group retains its cultural heritage and remains as being unique yet coexist with other ethnic groups. In the salad bowl model, various American cultures are juxtaposed — like salad ingredients — but do not merge into a single homogeneous culture. Having a close look at the reality of the country, such as the existing ethnic segregation, the fact of the white population fleeing away from the minority poverty, and the trend of the minority group forming an enclave, however, one can see that the “melting pot” theory is merely a myth, and despite its long fame, it is rather more suitable to label America as a “salad bowl.”
In The Joy Luck Club, four mothers have socialized mainly with other Chinese; they anticipate in ethnic activities and speak Chinese most of the time. They have kept their cultural heritage and had a limited exposure to the “dominant” society. On the other hand, most of their daughters are married to Caucasians, speak little Chinese and get easily irritated by their mother’s speaking Chinese. Yet, the cultural heritage that the first generation Chinese brought with them has been passed on to their daughter to some degree.
Part II: Intercultural identity
Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to, as part of the self-conception and self-perception to nationality, religion, social class, generation, locality, and any kind of social group that have its own distinct culture, in this way cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also to the culturally identical group that has its members sharing the same cultural identity. In an intercultural context, cultural identities, may be more salient when they are distinctive, i.e. when there are few people holding the same ethnic identity.
All human beings are born into an unfamiliar environment and are brought up to become part of a culture. This process is known as enculturation. When you immigrant to a new culture, the individual must learn to adapt and grow into the new environment, as they are often faced with situations that challenge their cultural norms and worldview. This is the cross-cultural adaptation, which is defined as “the process of change over time that takes place within individuals who have completed their primary socialization process in one cultural and then come into continuous, prolonged first-hand contact with a new and unfamiliar culture”. In this process, an individual experiences comfort and discomfort and changes in attitude, self-image and self-awareness. Cross-cultural adaptation includes one’s encounter not only with others but also with oneself; the entire process is a process of personal growth.
According to Adler (1975), cross-cultural adaptation is seen as a process of personal growth consisting of five steps. They are: (1) a contact phase where an individual perceives the new environment ethnocentrically; (2)
A disintegration phase where an individual identifies cultural differences negatively and is confused and depressed; (3) a reintegration phase where an individual rejects the second culture and yet tries to defend his own difficulties; (4) an autonomy phase where an individual starts to understand the host culture with a feeling of competence; and (5) a final independence stage where an individual acquires an intercultural identity. With this intercultural identity, an individual acquires flexibility and considers oneself neither totally a part of nor totally apart from any particular culture. Although Adler’s model is generally applicable to immigrants’ experience, it does not seem to sufficiently explain how second generation American-born Chinese daughters identify with a culture. As the second generation immigrants are enculturated into two cultures, the dominant culture and their parents’ culture, this process is seen to be extremely complex.
M.Benett (1986) and J.Benett and M.Benett (1992) present a more sophisticated model of the process of acquiring an intercultural identity and suggest six stages consisting of three ethnocentric stages and three ethnorelative stages. As it focuses not on the process of adaptation to a particular culture but rather on the process of acquiring an intercultural identity, the J.Benett and M.Benett (1992) model is better suited in analyzing the cultural identity of both the first and second generation immigrants. The cultural identity of both the first and second generation immigrants. The three ethnocentric stages are: (1) a denial of difference stage where an individual never recognizes cultural differences because he or she is isolated or separated from the dominant culture; (2) a defense against difference stage where an individual where an individual recognizes cultural differences and evaluates most variations negatively; (3) a minimization of difference stage where an individual recognizes and accepts superficial cultural differences and emphasizes universal cultural elements. The three ethnorelative stages are: (1) an acceptance of difference stage where an individual recognizes and appreciates cultural differences in behavior and values; (2) an adaptation to difference stage where an individual develops communication skills using empathy and shifting frame of reference; and (3) an integration of difference stage where an individual internalizes multicultural frames of reference and freely chooses a proper judgement standard appropriate for the situation. An individual in this state of mind is called a person of “constructive marginality”.
A. The Joy Luck Mothers’ Identity
All four mothers in the story escaped from Mainland China after World War II and have lived in the U.S.A for almost fifty years. Yet, as far as the previous process of acquiring intercultural identity goes, few of them have gone beyond the ethnocentric. The strong sense of ethnocentrism is illustrated in the following two examples.
First, when one of the daughters, Jing-mei Woo, asked her mother about the difference between Jewish and Chinese mahjong, her mother tried to convice her of how Chinese mahjong is far superior to Jewish mahjong:
“Entirely different kind of playing,” she said in her English explanation voice. “Jewish mahjong, they watch only for their own tile, play only with their eye.” Then she switched to Chinese: “Chinese mahjong, you must play using your head, very tricky. You must watch what everybody else throws away and keep that in your head as well. And if nobody plays well, then the game becomes like Jewish mahjong. Why play? There’s no strategy. You’re just watching people make mistakes.”.
Second, although all of the mothers experienced hardship in China, they still cling to their “old Chinese value” and regret that their daughters cannot appreciate the “old Chinese value”:
“She learned these things, but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character. How to obey parents and listen to your mother’s mind. How not to show you own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. Why easy things are not worth pursuing. How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best.
Ethnocentrism causes an individual to clearly divide the world into two parts: us and them. The Joy Luck mothers have a clear idea of who belongs to the in-group and who belongs to the out-group. Sometimes the mothers perceive their own daughters as members of the out-group; that is, as an American. For example, Ying-ying St. Clair was upset about her daughter’s “Americanized” idea and says:
“Annh! Why do you Americans have only these morbid thoughts in your mind?.
Ying-ying, who is married to a Caucasian, has perceived even her husband not as an individual but as an individual from the out-group since her husband proposed to her. Ying-ying says:
“Saint courted me for four years in his strange way. Even though I was not the owner of the shop, he always greeted me, shaking hands, holding them too long. From his palms water always poured, even after we married. He was clean and pleasant. But he smelled like a foreigner, a lamb-smell stink that can never be washed away.
Moreover, this mothers’ idea of in-group versus out-group further brings a conflict with their daughters. The following is the conversation between one mother named An-mei Hsu and her daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan. The conversation took place after Rose’s Caucasian male friend picked her up at home. Rose describes him as follows:
“He is American,” warned my mother, as if I had been too blind to notice. “A waigoren.” “I’m American too”, I said.
As the above example shows, a word “American” or “waigoren” is a reflection of the mothers; concept of out-group. Likewise, it may be also true that a word “American” or “waigoren” strengthens the mother’s ethnocentric world view.
At the same time, identity confusion has also been reflected in one of the mothers——Lindo Jong. Not being able identify with either of the two cultures clearly, American or Chinese, she cannot freely switch back and forth between the two cultures. Lindo illustrate her own identity confusion as follows:
I smile. I use my American face. That’s the face Americans think is Chinese, the one they cannot understand. But inside I am becoming ashamed. I am ashamed she is ashamed. Because she is my daughter and I am proud of her, and I am her mother but she is not proud of me. Mr. Rory pats my hair more. He looks at me. He looks at my daughter. Then he says something to my daughter that really displeased her: “It's uncanny how much you two look like!” I smile, this time with my Chinese face. But my daughter’s eyes and her smile become very narrow, the way a cat pulls itself small just before it bites.
This scene indicates that Lindo has not become a person of constructive marginality who can freely set his or her own cultural boundary.
B. The Joy Luck Daughters’ Identity
While the Joy Luck mothers stay within the ethnocentric stages, the daughters’ cultural identification process has progressed further. The daughters have gone through the defense against difference stage. For example, Jing-mei Woo, one of the four daughters, recalling the days when she was fifteen, says:
“cannot be helped,” my mother said when I was fifteen and had vigorously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin. I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were.
As the description above shows, Jing-mei Woo was in the second stage of the J.Benett and M.Benett (1992) culltural idenfication model. She was confused to know or to be informed that “she is different from other classmates” and tried to deny her being Chinese.
Rose Hsu Jordan, recalling the time when she first met her mother-in-law, also illustrates her psychological state in the same stage:
She assured me she had nothing whatsoever against minorities; she and her husband who owned a chain of office-supply stores personally knew many fine people who were Oriental, Spanish, and even black. But Ted was going to be in one of those professions where he would be judged by a different standard, by patients and other doctors who might not be as understanding as the Jordans were. She said so unfortunate the way the rest of the world was, how unpopular the Vietnam War was. “Mrs. Jordan, I am not Vietnamese,” I said softly, even though I was on the verge of shouting.
Before Rose met Mrs. Jordan for the first, her mother stopped her from dating Ted because he is American. Then, Rose opposed her mother by claiming that she is also American. This shows that she identified with American cultural rather than with Chinese culture. Yet, when she was identified by Mrs. Jordan with another group of Asians, she was confused. She might be depressed to realize the fact that she was view as somebody different no matter how much she identified with the American dominant culture. Also, her cultural pride as being a Chinese-American might have been a little hurt when Mrs. Jordan did not seem to distinguish the Chinese from the Vietnamese.
Rose, after her marriage with Ted fell apart, attributes the failure to her Chinese background and says:
At first I thought it was because I was raised with all this Chinese humility……Or that maybe it was because when you’re Chinese you’re supposed to accept everything, flow with the Tao and not make waves. But my therapist said, why do you blame you culture, your ethnicity?
This examples show the complexity of how second generation daughters acquire their cultural identity. They are enculturated into both Chinese and American culture. Nevertheless, they have progress further in cultural identification than their mothers. For example, Jing-mei Woo, after meeting her sisters in China, starts to move to the fifth or final stage of cultural identification. She says:
And now I see her again, two of her, waving, and in one hand there is a photo, the Polariod I sent them. As soon as I get beyond the gate, we run toward each other, all three of us embracing, all hesitations and expectations forgotten. “Mama, Mama,” we all murmur, as if she is among us. My sister look at me, proudly, “Meimei jandale,” says one sister proudly to the other. “Little sister has grown up.” I look at their faces again and I see no trace of my mother in them. Yet they still look familiar. And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is obvious. It is my family. It is our blood. After all these years, it can finally be let go.
This comment indicates that Jing-mei Woo is in the stage where she start to understand the Chinese culture inside her a feeling of competence. In other words, Jing-mei Woo starts to enter the stage of constructive marginality where she enjoys being on the margin of the two cultures and negotiates the boundary between the two cultures.
Part IV : Conclusions
Up to now, we have talked about America as “melting pot” versus “salad bowl” and intercultural identity of the first and second generations of Chinese immigrants to America. Although claimed to “melting pot”, America is more like a “salad bowl” where different ethnics retain their traditions and coexist with each other. It’s hard for Chinese immigrants to adapt to the dominant culture and cultural conflicts happen everywhere in their social life. The inevitable question they have to face all their life is that——“where are you really from?”—— It may sound offensive, but that’s the reality. You may have tried hard to blend into the American culture, but just because of your yellow skin, you seems always the one who doesn't belong to them. And the phenomenon is especially obvious in the first or second generation. That’s what the Joy Luck mothers and daughter have suffered. Generations after generations, things may be easier a lot. Whatever, that is the process they have to going through.
Book Review of The Joy Luck Club
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