Suyuan’s most cherished wish was that she could be reunited with her long-lost twin daughters. The friends urge her to go to China and tell her sisters about their mother. Jing-mei doesn’t think that she’s capable of telling her twin sisters about their mother because Jing-mei isn’t sure she knew their mom herself. She travels to China and realizes that she’s more Chinese than she thought. She learns about her own identity while also learning about her mother.
When she travels to China, she discovers the Chinese essence within herself, thus realizing a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings Suyuan’s story to her long-lost twin daughters, and, once reunited with her half-sisters, gains an even more profound understanding of who her mother was.For the most part, Jing-mei’s fears echo those of her peers, the other daughters of the Joy Luck Club members. They have always identified with Americans but are beginning to regret having neglected their Chinese heritage. Her fears also speak to a reciprocal fear shared by the mothers, who wonder whether, by giving their daughters American opportunities and self-sufficiency, they have alienated them from their Chinese heritage.Jing-mei is representative in other ways as well. She believes that her mother’s constant criticism bespeaks a lack of affection, when in fact her mother’s severity and high expectations are expressions of love and faith in her daughter.
As an adult, Wong realizes that she had lost an opportunity to become a more complete Individual when she let go Chinese identity. Part 2: Reaction In “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl.” Wong talks about her cultural experience. It is sad that she denied her Chinese culture and missed the chance to have a mixed culture. She refused to accept her Chinese origins, which her family was intent on keeping. Chinese culture has a long history, and to inherit one’s culture is valuable; Wong should have cherished it.
This shows the cultural differences (i.e. American and Chinese.) between the mother and daughter as well as the significance of material items that Chinese culture places on such things. It is only after Suyaun dies that June starts to comprehend that her jade pendant is actually an expression of love from her mother. “For a long time, I wanted to give you this necklace.
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
Living Through Your Child in “Two Kinds” The 20th Century short story “Two Kinds” by author Amy Tan tells about the life of a young Chinese girl and her family who immigrated to The Unites States. The young girl’s name is Jing Mei. Jing Mei’s mother always wanted the best for her. She wanted her daughter to become a prodigy at the age of nine. Jing Mei’s mother forces her to try different things that the mother wants her to do to become a prodigy.
Nearly 40 years after the first meeting, as the novel opens, Suyuan Woo has died and her place at the mah jongg table is assumed by her 36-year-old daughter, Jing-mei. Like many another American-born child of immigrants, Jing-mei has little understanding of her mother's values or the world that shaped them, although recently, the general interest in ethnicity has prompted her to revive her Chinese name, "Jing-mei,'' in preference to the American "June May,'' and has made her more curious about her roots. When her Joy Luck "aunties'' (Lindo Jong, An-mei Hsu, and Ying-ying St. Clair) offer Jing-mei a trip to China to meet her long-lost half sisters, whom Suyuan was forced to abandon as infants while fleeing war-torn Guilin, the "aunties'' (now edging into their 70s) urge Jing-mei to tell her half sisters the story of the mother they never knew. The trouble is, Jing-mei feels she never really knew her mother, either - a feeling shared by the other Joy Luck daughters: Waverly Jong, Rose Hsu Jordan, and Lena St. Clair. The daughters' difficulty in comprehending their mothers
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.
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. “My sisters, I repeat to myself, saying these two words together for first time” (Tan
A person can arrive at the answer to the question “who are you?” in many different ways, through family, through self-reflection and through spiritual experiences. In The Joy Luck Club, Jing-mei feels that she does not know who her mother Suyuan is and therefore does not know herself. Because of this insecurity she must figure out who her mother was in order to have the strength to face her family in China. This is a repeating theme in The Joy Luck Club; it shows us that through our family we can come to know ourselves. Jing-mei really does know who her mother is, but must be pushed into this understanding so that she can change her thinking patterns and grow.