Joy Luck Club

Although difficult in a foreign environment, East-Asian immigrants felt compelled to retain their culture to leave a legacy of their heritage. From the beginning, Asian immigrants knew they did not belong in the white environment. Mai chronicles the prejudice, “we would never be welcome in this country . . . set apart from everyone else” (Cao 65). In Obasan, Canadians ridicule the Japanese by constantly calling them “Japs,” a demeaning term. Even from a young age, the white children in the novel pick on and segregate away from their “yellow peers.” To cope and keep traditions and cultures, immigrants created communities to support each other. One of the most famous cultural centers hat still holds on to its beginning roots is Chinatown, San

A crucial part of East Asian culture, the ideas of family and filial respect for parents obliged high esteem. The family carried the role of the elemental social unit in China (Welty 198). “To be obedient and respectful in all cases to their parents” is a stipulation in Asian culture (Welty 253). Mother and daughter relationships exhibit an especially intriguing dynamic because, in the traditional cultures, women often held second class positions that did not hold considerable authority . The Joy Luck Club’s Ying-Ying St. Clair explores this notion when she says, “I know this because I was raised the Chinese way: I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, to eat my own bitterness” (Tan 241). Due to this inherent cultural sexism, mothers often could only find respect from their daughters. To try to retain some dignity, mothers used this sovereignty over their daughters. Haunted by the clout of her mother, Waverly Jong complains, “I used to believe everything my mother said . . . The power of her words was that strong” (Tan 206). In the United States, mothers still tried to hold on to this stalwart dynamic of

Daughters perceived their mothers to be adrift in the past. When Thanh is incapable to adjust to the American way of life Mai thinks, “But somehow at that moment, my mother imperfect and unable to adjust, died in my mind” (Cao 70). This separation often contributed to the perceptions of disorientation and inability to synchronize in harmony. Lena St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club reiterates this idea of separation and misunderstanding as she recounts her relationship with her mother as lost, unseen, and unheard (Tan 64). The power in the relationships between mother and daughters, however, proves strong as immigrants can overcome their differences to find restoration and healing. Describing her powerful connection with her daughter, Thanh writes, “It will always be there, of course. Even Mai has worked her way into accepting that fact, the fact of our connection, strong and steady like the heart’s vascular valves” (Cao 169). The conclusion of The Joy Luck Club follows this theme of the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters, even when facing the challenges of Asian assimilation. Plagued by her unfulfilled duties as a daughter, Jing-Mei Woo travels to China to meet her older sisters. She describes, “Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish” (Tan 332). Although Jing-Mei