Siir Tecirlioglu

English A2 Year 1

Ms. Standley

November 18, 2010

How is culture presented in the Joy Luck Club and to what effect?

Culture is one of the key elements in Amy Tan’s the Joy Luck Club, which establishes an

ongoing conflict between the protagonists of the book. Briefly, the novel is about four Chinese

mothers who have migrated from China to the United States, when they were around 20 years

old, for different reasons. The mothers talk about the Chinese culture and tell about the lives of

their daughters. The daughters were born and raised in the United States, which makes the

American culture overtake their Chinese heritage. Although both the American and the Chinese

cultures are presented in the Joy Luck Club, the amount of Chinese cultural elements is greater

than of the American, because Tan wants her readers to gain a deep understanding of the Chinese

culture. The most important cultural elements in the Joy Luck Club are the idea of obedience, the

belief in the relation between fate and birth date, and the idea of marriage, because these are

explored in depth by Amy Tan in order to inform the reader about the Chinese culture and

understand how the characters act in the ways they do in the story.

The first concept is obedience which is how the characters in the book base their views on.

This is especially true for the mothers because they have more Chinese background than their

daughters. There are, “only two kinds of daughters…those who are obedient and those who

follow their own mind!” (Tan 142). Mothers want their daughters to learn this concept and act

according to it. Tan brings forth this idea in many parts of the book so that the reader emphasizes

the concept of obedience in Chinese means. One of the mothers complains about not being able

to teach her daughter “about the Chinese character…how to obey parents and listen your

mother’s mind.” (254) Another mother talk about herself and being obedient: “I was an obedient

wife; just as they taught me.” (61) Other examples of Chinese culture are brought up with the

idea of obedience, such as listening to the elders. Most of the daughters are told to obey their

parents because they are elderly and they know the best from experiences. Therefore, in China,

most of the mother-daughter relations are based on this idea.. The conflict is that, in America,

obedience is not so much important because people are taught to have their own ideas, ways of

living and own values. Obedience is one of the major sources of the conflicts in the Joy Luck

Club because it creates other problems between the mothers and the daughters.

The other concept is the belief in destiny, fate and birthdates. According to the Chinese

culture presented in the Joy Luck Club, the year, the hour, the minute of a person’s birth gives

enough information about that person’s fate, destiny, and personality. There are people whose

professions are based on fate and birthdates. They are called matchmakers. For example, in one

of the stories, “the village matchmaker came to (one of the characters’) family when (she) was

just two years old” and told her who she would marry (50). What the matchmaker said turned out

to be true because the family of the girl was so convinced that this was the truth. This is an

example of one of those ideas where a person is told something and he/she does anything to

make it happen because he/she believes it is the truth. Another example of the belief in fate and

birthdates is the zodiac signs. According to the year a person is born in, it is possible to guess

that person’s personality and future actions. For example, “A Horse, born in 1918, (is) destined

to be obstinate and frank to the point of tactlessness.” The author uses these zodiac signs as

symbols for different people and their personalities. In almost every chapter of the novel, the

author talks at least a bit about the relation between destiny and the zodiac signs of different

characters. She then tells what actually happened. In most cases, the reader finds out that the

information based on birth date is true. The characters of the novel experience these in their lives

as if they are normal events happening every day. They are not surprised or amazed by any of

this. Even more, they base their lives on fortunetelling. In one of the stories, this is brought up in

detail because both the mother and the daughter have the same zodiac sign which means they

have the same personalities. The mother explains a conflict between her and her daughter: “She

will fight me because this is the nature of two tigers.” (248). The reader ends up thinking; “It is

normal that Chinese people believe in their birth dates being signs of their futures”.

The final and the most important concept if marriage in China. First of all, there are many

differences between males and females. The mothers have experienced this split more because

they were raised in China. But their daughters do not know about this because in America

everyone is equal. In China, there are different reasons for why men marry and why women

marry. Men marry to show their wealth and power because they can have more than one wife.

The more wives they have, the wealthier they look. Therefore there is no love in any of the

marriages in China. “Wu Tsing had asked her to be his concubine, not for love, but because of

the prestige of owning what so many other men wanted.” (234). Women marry because it is their

job to give both to sons that will carry on a family’s existence. Women marry to serve their

husbands. Therefore, marriage in China is not for love; it is for position. Women can be First

Wives or the concubines of a man. From this, their values are measured. Women cannot remarry

and “…suicide is the only way a woman can escape a marriage” (234). For example in China,

the destiny of marriage is based on a candle. Lindo Jong, one of the mothers, explains the idea

behind candle: “The candle (is) a marriage bond that (is) worth more than a Catholic promise not

to divorce. It (means a woman cannot) divorce and even remarry, even if the (husband) died.”

59. This idea brings out another Chinese cultural element which is shame. Anyone who goes

against the Chinese morals is shameful for doing so. The idea of marriage and how it works is

brought up throughout the entire novel. In each chapter, the reader finds more about this concept.

The entire book is based on men-women relationships and how they are different in the United

States than they are in China.

These examples show the importance of culture, especially the Chinese culture, in the Joy

Luck Club. The conflicts between the characters are based on these differences in culture—a

clash of cultures. The mothers are trying to teach their daughters the Chinese morals, but the

daughters are refusing to learn because the American one seems more modern to them. Idea of

obedience, relation between destiny and birth date, and the marriage in Chinese means are the

three most important Chinese cultural elements in Tan’s novel, because they bring forth other

Chinese cultural elements as well. They are like stems of trees from which many branches grow.

In other words they are the roots of the other Chinese cultural elements in the Joy Luck Club.