中美家庭价值观差异比较-以《喜福会》为例_英语论文

A Premilinary Comparison of Family Values Between Chinese and American Cultures --A Case Study of The Joy Luck Club

摘要

《喜福会》是著名美籍华裔女作家谭恩美的处女作，小说以故事的形式讲述了从中国移民到美国的移民家庭里，四个中国母亲和四个女儿间由于中美家庭价值观差异而引起的误会，冲突以及和解。本文结合小说中的具体事例，采用并列比较方式，分析中美家庭价值观在家庭教育、婚姻以及语言和表达等方面的差异，并对中美家庭观差异形成的原因进行探究，从而在使中美两国人了解对方家庭价值观的核心，理解对方的行为，在两种截然不同的家庭价值观之间架起一座沟通的桥梁，避免在跨文化交际中产生碰撞。同时，《喜福会》中四对母女之间冲突与和解对指导中国现代家庭价值观的发展提供了一些启示。

关键词：《喜福会》；中美；家庭价值观；差异；跨文化交际；启示

Abstract

The Joy Luck Club is a maiden work of the well-known Chinese-American writer, Amy Tan, which is a narrative focuses on the misunderstanding, conflicts and reconciliation between four Chinese mothers and four daughters born and raised in the United States in Chinese-American immigrant families. By combining the specific cases in the novel and adopting the intuitive parallel comparison method, the essay mainly analyzes the differences between Sino-American family values in family education, marriage, languages and expressions, etc. and explores the reasons for the differences in the formation of Chinese and American family values, so as to make people of both China and America recognize each other’s core values and understand each other’s behaviors in order to build a bridge of communication between the two completely different family values and avoid collision in cross-cultural communication. Meanwhile, the conflicts and reconciliation between four pairs of mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club provides some enlightenment to the direction of the development of Chinese modern family values. 

Key words: The Joy Luck Club; China and America; family values; difference; cross-cultural communication; enlightenment

Contents

Introduction 1

1. A Brief Introduction of Amy Tan and The Joy Luck Club 2

1.1 Amy Tan 2

1.2 The Joy Luck Club 2

2. The Definition of Family and Family Values 3

2.1 The Definition of Family 3

2.2 The Definition of Family Values 3

3. Differences in Sino-American Family Values in The Joy Luck Club 3

3.1 Different Concepts of Family Values 4

3.1.1 The Dominant Family Value of China: Collectivism 4

3.1.2 The Dominant Family Value of America: Individualism 5

3.2 The Differences in the View on Marriage 6

3.3 The Differences in the View on Family Education 8

3.4 The Differences in Languages and Expressions 9

4. Reasons for the Differences Between Sino-US Family Values 10

4.1 Historical Reasons 10

4.2 Cultural and Religious Reasons 11

4.3 Ideological Consciousness 12

5. Enlightenment for Modern Chinese Families 12

5.1 Confident Personality rather than Rebellious Prodigy 12

5.2 “Family Democracy” rather than “Parental Autocracy” 13

5.3 “Constructive Communication” rather than “Cold War-style Silence” 14

Conclusion 14

References 16