Abstract:

When scholars analyze Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, most of them focus on the issues of mother-daughter relationships, intercultural communication and feminism. However, this study concentrates on the image of Precious Auntie and attempts to explore how her personality traits are formed by navigating her life course before and after her marriage. This study aims to reveal Precious Auntie’s function in textual integration. This thesis also analyses some oriental images which are related to Precious Auntie.

Key words: Precious Auntie; character; oriental culture

摘要：

在对谭恩美的小说《接骨师之女》的研究中，大多数学者着眼于母女关系，跨文化交际以及女权主义的研究。本文将重点研究宝姨这一人物形象。通过对该作品中宝姨的婚前及婚后的生活经历的文本细读，探索宝姨生前及死后作为鬼魂的性格特点及这些特点的形成原因。研究的意义在于进一步了解作者希望通过宝姨传达给西方读者的神秘的东方文化和宝姨在作品中起到的文本统合作用，从而对文本及这位有着典型东方特点的女性有更深刻的认识。

关键词：宝姨; 性格; 东方文化

1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Amy Tan the Author
Amy Tan is one of the most splendid writers in the Chinese American literary circle at present. Most of her works are based on her life experiences and family history. Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1952. Her parents Daisy and John Tan departed from China for America in 1840s. The life experiences of her parents provided her with abundant fodder.
Amy Tan is the middle child and the only daughter in her family. In the late 1960s, Amy’s 16-year- old brother Peter and her father died one after another of a brain tumor. Amy’s mother Daisy thought the reason of the tragedies is the geomantic imbalance in Oakland, so Daisy moved Amy and her younger brother John Jr. to Switzerland, where Amy finished high school. Against her mother’s will of being a neurosurgeon by profession, and pianist by avocation, she changed majors from medicine to double concentration in English and Linguistics. Then in 1973, she graduated with a B. A. in English and began graduate work in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. It was not until 1980s that she became a full-time writer. Her maiden work The Joy Luck Club is the most well known work of hers, which has been translated into 35 languages. In 1993, the book was adapted into a commercially successful film. Tan has written several other best-selling novels, including The Kitchen God’s wife, The Hundred Secret Sense, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Saving Fish from Drowning. She has also written a collection of non-fiction essays which is entitled The Opposite of Fate. What’s more, she has written two children’s books as well: The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat.