Amy Chua has one statement that she uses “Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them” (p. 3 l 26) later in the article she add “Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As… western parents can only ask their kids to they their best” (P 1, l 44). When she says that she indirectly means that Chinese parents are tougher than western parents. They don’t believe in their children, like Chinese parents do. They should rather make their child fell ashamed by using punishment, instead of always being careful and positive. Amy Chua gives a great example of the contrast between the cultures, she tell her readers how Chinese parents and western parents would react if their kid came home with an A minus “ the Chinese parent would gasp in horror and ask what went wrong” (p. 3 l 2) “A western parent would support and praise the child.” Later in the article Amy Chua comes with one of her statements, again“if a Chinese child gets a B – which would never happen” (p 3, l 21).
She then goes to the Hsus' house which felt, “heavy with greasy odors.” (Tan 15) She acts very courteous to everyone and respects the wishes of her elders as displayed when she accepts to take her mother’s place at the mahjong table. She feels out of place because she is younger than everyone else, and she finds out that her mother had made excuses for her to the other members. Although June dropped out of college, her mother told them that she might go back for a degree. “..but I know right away she’s lying. I know my mother probably told her I was going back to school to finish my degree.” (Tan 27) As the chapter is coming to an end and the night is at its peak, Jing-Mei starts to get up to leave but when the women stop her and tell June that her mother had left behind two infant twin daughters in China, she was shocked.
The daughters disagree and believe divorce is ok. The Mothers belief stems from old Chinese culture while the daughters belief stems from American culture where divorces are very common. Another chinese belief the mothers believe that every women should be married. That conflicts with the american belief that a woman is not required to get married, this creates conflict among the daughters. The daughters of the members of the joy luck club grow up struggling to balance
In Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha it is stated that “women were made of finer stuff. The finer stuff was usually porcelain, decorative, and on the shelf, suitable for meals and show” (2). What this means is women are like porcelain dolls and that they don’t belong in the military, in other words they have to stay home caring for the family, cooking, doing chores like it was in the old days. For centuries women have been portrayed as the weak and submissive. They think that we as women can’t do anything by ourselves that we always need back up in everything we do.
Not lazy like American people.”’(Tan, 91) Lindo Jong showed extreme pride in her home country while shining a stereotypically negative light on Americans. Little did she know that her deceptive daughter was interested in learning more about “torture” than “Chinese.” Lindo’s nationalistic behavior showed her slight disapproval of Americans and caused Waverly to question her engagement to Rich. Lindo’s tendency to over-encourage her daughter to work harder resulted to Waverly’s constant longing for her mother’s approval on her life’s major events. Despite the culture difference, the pairs were also in fact mother and daughter. The mothers’ more traditional ways disputed with the daughters’ modernistic ideas.
As a young adult Matlins parents expressed a concern that her deafness would be an insurmountable barrier in a world where words and sounds were so important to everyday living. But instead of agonizing over her deafness, they faced it head on and embraced it. They sent her to schools where she learned to both speak and sign and they encouraged her to make friends in the neighborhood. But most importantly they treated her as any child should be treated with love and respect. Marlee is currently serving as the national spokeswoman for the largest provider of TV closed captioning, and has spoken on behalf of CC in countries such as Australia, England, France, and Italy.
I won’t let her change me...I won’t be what I'm not." The Amy Tan's short story; “Two kinds (1989)” refers to women born in china before the communist revolution, with a helpless obedient personality, and strong ties to native culture, and women born in America, asserting their rights to an independent self with a mind of their own, not willing to be obedient, respectful or even recognize or appreciate their parents efforts in securing a comfortable future for them. In Tan’s story, Jing Mei’s mother makes mention of these two kinds of daughters or women that exist, “those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!” The characters in the story Jing Mei and her mother are the antagonist and the protagonist respectively, where the antagonist opposes the opinions and ideas of the protagonist creating a dynamic struggle. Jing Mei’s mother believes in the American of becoming rich, famous or
Novelist Amy Tan (Libi Pedder / Camera Press / Retna) Tan proves her point about parents’ influence on people’s life when she states “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well”. By talking about how her mother’s English lacked a certain wholeness and clarity, she explains why her thoughts about her mother tongue were different when she was a child; “I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants didn’t take her mother seriously, didn’t give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they didn’t hear her. Here Tan emphasizes the importance of mother tongue in somebody’s life. She believes that people may not be treated respectfully because of their poor speaking of any language. She never reflects on her mother’s difficulties as something that could’ve motivated her to become a writer.
In most cases this is true, for when they grow up they eventually figure out that they can reflect (retrace) their problems to that of their parents, and later understand what they had to go through. In the story The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Jing-mei is (acts like) an ignorant girl to her mother. Whatever tactic her mother tries on her to make her a better person she rejects. Jing-mei is constantly trying to hide her Chinese heritage and even changes her name to “June” to conform to American ways. But as she moves on in life, she begins to regret her past actions and finds out that her mother’s difficulties and problems, are (now) put on her shoulders and (now) for her to solve.
By that she means that Chinese parents raise much more successful kids. As a warrants for her claim, Amy Chua uses her own experience as a mother where she was to teach her 7 years old daughter to play a piano piece called “The little white donkey”. It was incredibly difficult for her daughter to learn, and she announced several times that she was giving up. Even though she didn’t want to play anymore, Amy didn’t let her child quit, and finally she manage to play it. With this example Amy wants to tell that parents have to be much more strict and that the worst thing they can do for their children’s self-esteem is to let them give up.