Abstract:

The Joy Luck Club is a well-known novel which was published in 1989. It was written by Amy Tan, an American writer of Chinese origin. It is an interesting and moving story of four Chinese-immigrant women and their American-born daughters. At the beginning, the two generations’ relationship is always in tension and full of conflicts. Having had enough life experience of the world, however, the daughters begin to accept their mothers and the culture their mothers represent in the end of the novel. This thesis tries to present and analyze the cultural collision and fusion displayed in the novel. It is divided into five chapters. First, it gives a relatively detailed introduction to the writer—Amy Tan, including her life experience, works and her achievement. That is followed by a brief introduction of the novel itself. After an explanation and definition of cultural diversity and some distinctive features of both Chinese and American cultures, the paper elaborates in details the conflicts between mothers and their American-born daughters, and the factors that lead to such a collision from two aspects: collision in two distinguished languages—Chinese and American English and collision in distinctive cultural values. It also illustrates the reconciliation between the two generations, and analyzes the causes of fusion: maternal love and multicultural communication. Based on the analysis above, this thesis reaches the following conclusion: Different cultural backgrounds behind the mother-daughter relationship is the main cause of their conflicts. However, it is those conflicts that reveal the essence of kinship and love, and it is the maternal love that help them cross the cultural chasm and reconstruct the harmonious mother-daughter relationship. The fusion also demonstrates the significance to respect various cultures under globalization.
  
Keyword: The Joy Luck Club; mother and daughter; conflict; fusion; culture

摘要：

《喜福会》是由美国华裔女作家谭恩美在1989年发表的著名小说。《喜福会》讲述了发生在四位美籍华人母亲和她们美国土生土长的女儿之间有趣而又感人的故事。一开始两代人的关系经常处于紧张状态，母女之间充满矛盾与冲突，但是历经世事之后，女儿们渐渐接受了她们的母亲以及她们所代表的的中国文化。这篇论文分为五个章节。一开始详细介绍了作者,包括她的生平经历，作品以及所获得的成就。接着简单介绍了本篇论文所要分析的小说—《喜福会》。为了可以更好了解文化在冲突与融合中的作用，本文给出了文化多样性的定义，并且比较了中美两国文化所特有的一些特征。在接下来的两章中分析了两代人之间的冲突与和解以及引起这些冲突与和解的原因，分别从两个方面来分析：不同语言以及不同的文化价值观；母爱以及母女交流。母亲努力通过爱与交流在文化差异之上建立一座连通自己与女儿的桥梁。虽然一开始女儿们拒绝倾听母亲的故事，但是随着时间的流逝她们渐渐理解并最终接受了母亲以及她们根深蒂固的中国观念。不同的文化背景是引起母女冲突的主要原因，然而，正是这些矛盾才揭示了亲情与爱的本质，也正是母爱帮助她们跨越文化鸿沟并重建和谐温馨的母女关系。母女的和解以及文化的融合也表明在全球化的背景下我们要尊重文化多样性，从而更好的发展国与国的关系。
 
关键字：《喜福会》；母女；冲突；融合；文化