Chinese Culture Exposed in Joy Luck Club and Kitchen God's Wife
Traditional Chinese customs are described in great detail in Amy Tan's books. This rich culture adds interesting and mesmerizing detail to the intricate stories of both The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife.
Traditions are apparent throughout all of the stories in The Joy Luck Club. One of the first instances is in the story from Ying-Ying St. Clair entitled "The Moon Lady." Ying-Ying is describing the Festival of the Moon Lady, a festival dedicated to the lady who lives on the moon and once a year comes down to earth to grant your secret wish--something you want but cannot ask. This excerpt describes proper traditional dress (ornate clothing saved for special occasions), delicious foods such as rabbits feet and mooncakes (saved for special occasions), fireworks, and family gathered all together. This is one of the most richly detailed and culturally authentic stories in the novel.
The other story that strikes the reader as containing vivid culture and tradition is Lindo Jong's "The Red Candle." This story, like Winnie Louie's, describes in great detail the customs of arranged marriages. Lindo Jong begins by talking about the village matchmaker coming to her housewhen she was two years old. The matchmaker, Huang Taitai, looked her over and said, "An earth horse for an earth sheep. This is the best marriage combination." Lindo says that Huang Taitai looked right through her and saw that she would be a perfect wife--a strong, hard, good worker, eager to please her elders in their old age. Lindo describes what happened next:
This is how I became betrothed to Huang Taitai's son, who I later discovered was just a baby, o...
... middle of paper ...
...s not considered a sufficient departure for the deceased.
Traditional Chinese customs are described in great detail in Amy Tan's books. This rich culture adds interesting and mesmerizing detail to the intricate stories of both The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife.
Works Cited
Conrad, Tammy S. "Creating an Asian-American Mythology: Storytelling in Amy Tan's Fiction". Tammy S. Conrad's Thesis. 1998.
Available: <http://english.ttu.edu/faculty/conrad/thesis.html.
Huntley, E.D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1998
Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God's Wife. New York, Ballantine Books, 1991.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Vintage Contemporaries. New York: A Division of Random House, Inc. 1993.
Wu, Shelley. "What is Chinese Astrology" Available: http://www.chineseastrology.com/wu/whatis.html
In their attempt to escape class persecution a subculture was formed in Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Ricans turned towards artistic means of expression, represented by the jibaro, because this was one area the Spanish could not restrict (Figueroa, Sept. 17). The result was the “total expression of the life of the spirit” through language in all of its forms (Valle Antilles, 95).
The early years of Spanish rule began with the gradual development of a settler society as well as the native Taino Indians. The Taino population was soon drastically reduced and the structure of this society, diversified with the introduction of African Slave laborers. Race is therefore a core element in the discussion of the Puerto Rican identity. The early settlers came from Europe in search of riches that were soon diminished and therefore a natural need for other economic means had to be developed by the people who decided to remain behind. Some of the people who remained in Puerto Rico were coerced into doing so because of...
...speech to the world where he was quoted as saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The speech was given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin (“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall: President Ronald Reagan”). This speech signified the beginning of the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. President Reagan’s foreign policy tactics are another reason why he was a great president.
Clincher: The man who awarded Dr. Bud Frazier, was Dr. Denton A. Cooley, who was actually the man who performed the very first successful heart transplant in the United States.
Guerra, Lillian. Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico: The Struggle for self, Community, and Nation, chs. 2-3 (Gainesville: U Press of Florida, 1998) 45-121.
... Kevorkian ment good by what he was doing. I believe that his major downfall was that the idea of assisted suicide was too much of a taboo for people to handle. I also think that he should have done his work legally rather than illegally. In my opinion he really cared about what he was doing because even thought the odds were against him he still helped people with assisted suicide.
Some people are inclined to view the Puerto Rican experience as a historical repetition of earlier migrations to the United States. However, the migration experience of Puerto Ricans to the United States is more complex, as well as one of a kind. Similarities do exist between the migration of Puerto Ricans and that of other groups, however, no other ethnic group has shared the tribulations of the Puerto Rican population. Their experience is different from that of anyone else.
These new immigrants brought new traditions, a foreign language to the United States, but also ideological diversity. People like Jose Marti fought for Cuban independence from U.S. shores, Luisa Capetillo and later Luisa Moreno fought for labor and women’s rights, and organizations like the League of United States Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and El Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española (the Spanish-Speaking People’s Congress) organized Spanish-speaking people to try to harness their political power more effectively, giving Spanish speaking communities a vo...
Here is a journey that not only started "a thousand Li away", but from generations upon generations of tradition. The Joy Luck Club travels over time and continents to present the background and turmoil of eight amazing women. All of these women have had to deal with the issues of culture, gender, and family, each in their own way, yet all similarly. Amy Tan dedicates her novel to her mother with the comment "You asked me once what I would remember… This, and much more." Each of the mothers in Tan's novel wanted to teach their daughters the lessons learned in China while giving them the comforts of America. But language and culture barriers diverge the women until they were almost lost to each other. Each character had to take their own journey to finally understand what drove them apart and find their common ground.
The mother-daughter relationship is often complex and confusing. Amy Tan explores this relationship with novel The Joy Luck Club narrated by four daughters and three mothers: Jing-mei Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Lena St. Clair, Waverly Jong, An-mei Jordan, Ying-Ying St. Clair, and Lindo Jong. June narrates in her late mother's place. The mothers talk about their difficult pasts in China and how they have been changed. The trauma from their past causes their daughters not to be able to connect to . The women are finally able to connect to each other. The women are forced to learn from the past, overcome adversity, and learn to understand one another.
When analyzing the Joy Luck club it is important to consider the life of the author. It is apparent after studying both The Joy Luck Club and Amy Tan that there are some incredible similarities among the two, particularly the story of mother Suyuan-Woo and her daughter Jing-Mei Woo. Suyuan is a main character and plays an extremely important role in the novel even though she passed away. She created the Joy Luck club years ago and is the main reason why this tight kit family exists today. Suyuan decided to create the Joy Luck club during a ve...
In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, four Chinese born mothers and their four American born daughters tell stories from their own point of view about their relationships with one another. These four mothers demonstrate the finest parenting by trying to keep their heritage alive and educate their daughters, while being immigrants. Through the mothers' actions, they are able to teach and influence their daughters about their Chinese heritage, about everyday life and situations, and how to stand up for themselves all while being in an overwhelming American society.
Amy Tan is a Chinese-American author. She had become Americanized, according to her mother, who still held traditional Chinese values. They fought sometimes, just as the women and daughters of The Joy Luck Club, over who was right and who was wrong regarding many problems they encountered. Tan most likely modeled The Joy Luck Club after her relationship with her mother. She even dedicated the novel “To my mother and the memory of her mother. You asked me once what I wo...
The Joy Luck Club is a representation of the persistent tensions and powerful bonds between mother and daughter in a Chinese American society. The book illustrates the hardships both the mother and daughters go through in order to please the other. Also, it shows the troubles the daughters face when growing up in two cultures. This book reveals that most of the time mothers really do know best.
There are two types of electricians, commercial and residential. Residential electrician maintain and upgrade electrical equipment in apartments and houses. Being a residential electrician takes four years of work under the supervision of experienced electricians. They must then pass state testing at the end of the four years.You must also know the Load Color Code. Wires are made into different color cables. The color of the cable tells what type of voltage it can take.