Chinese and Western Culture Discrepancies Reflected from The Joy Luck Club

【Abstract】It goes without saying that culture reflects society. Recognizing the characteristics of Chinese and Western Culture is thus constructive and indispensable for the promotion of mutual understanding of the two cultures and their people. Amy Tan， as a representative Chinese American writer， established her position in the history of American literature with her maiden work The Joy Luck Club. The work，as an epitome of the conflicts and integration between Chinese and Western Culture，centered around the interwoven stories presenting the cultural misunderstandings between the Chinese immigrant mothers and their Western-raised daughters. This paper tries to discuss the similarities and discrepancies between Chinese and Western Culture from three perspectives.

【Key words】Chinese and Western Culture; collision; mutual understanding

【作者簡介】楊濟嘉，南京師范大學教師教育學院。

1. Cultural context 文化情境

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall proposed the notion of High Context and Low Context. A high-context communication is one in which most of the information is already in the person while little is in the coded， explicit， transmitted part of the message while a low-context communication is just the opposite where the mass of information is explicitly coded. Chines culture， by nature， is high-context and Western culture is low-context. We commonly hold that the Westerners tend to take the linear mode of talking where speakers directly express thoughts along a relatively set course while the oriental ones are marked by “indirection” and the ideas conveyed are sometimes developed “in terms of what they are not， rather than in terms of what they are”. Below is an example in The Joy Luck Club. That left two on the platter： a large crab with a faded orange color， and number eleven， which had the torn-off leg. My mother shook the platter in front of me ‘Take it， already cold， said my mother…I thought I was doing the right thing， taking the crab with the missing leg. But my mother cried， No！ No！ Big one， you eat it. I cannot finish. The mother tried to persuade her daughter to take the crab by affirming she was already full yet we could easily tell that she did so to let her daughter take the crab without feeling ashamed and uneasy. However， Westerners are relatively much more straightforward and plain in this regard.

人類學家愛德華·霍爾曾提出了高語境與低語境的概念。高語境指的是，在傳播時絕大部分信息或存于物質語境中，或內化在個人身上，極少存在于編碼清晰的被傳遞的信息中;低語境則相反。中國文化在本質上是高語境的，而西方文化則是低語境的。我們通常認為西方人傾向于采用直線形的語言模式，說話者沿著一個相對固定的路徑表達，而東方人則以不直接為特點，思想常通過不是什么，而非是什么表達。例如《喜福會》中，當盤中剩下兩只螃蟹時，媽媽喊道：“不不！大的那只，你吃，我吃不完。”媽媽堅稱自己已經吃飽了而想說服女兒吃大的螃蟹。很顯然，我們知道她是為了不讓女兒吃得有所羞愧或不安而這樣說的。西方人，相對而言，在這一方面，要直截了當得多。

2. Face issue 面子問題

Face——the public self-image that every adult tries to protect refers to the emotional and social sense of self that every person has and expects everyone else to recognize. Chinese people regard face differently from Westerners. Below is an example in The Joy Luck Club which reveals how Chinese， especially Chinese parents view face. A friend once told me that my mother and I were alike that we had the same wispy hand gestures， the same girlish laugh and sideways look. When I shyly told my mother this， she seemed insulted and said， ‘You dont even know little percent of me！ How could you be me？ In a gesture to sustain her superior position as a parent， Jingmeis mother denied their great resemblance despite the fact that she felt gratified to hear such nice comments. As a typical Chinese parent， she hid her inner happiness from her child and remained callous，holding that conceding the resemblance is face-threatening， which also manifested the mindset of Chinese peoples senior equals superior.

面子，即每個成年人都試圖維護的自我形象，指的是每個人都具有的并希望他人意識到的情感與社會的自我認識。東西方對待面子問題所持的觀點有所不同。下面舉《喜福會》中的一例以示中國式家長們，是如何看待面子問題的。當精美羞澀地告訴母親她的朋友說她和她母親長得很像，母親卻仿佛被羞辱般地說一點不像。為了維護她作為家長的尊位，她抑制著內心的歡喜，拒絕這一贊美。作為一個典型的中國式家長，承認與孩子長相相像是有傷面子的，因此她將欣喜藏于心中，表面上仍是冷酷，這也體現(xiàn)了中國人的年長則尊的觀點。

3. Personal values 個人價值觀

Anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn noted that personal value is the notion taken which a person believe is correct， and the very notion affects peoples behavior， choices and perceptions. The conflicts between collectivism and individualism，among other things are worthy of attention. To achieve harmony， Confucian thought calls for obedience to hierarchy and authority. On account of the profound influence of ancient Chinese culture， Chinese attach tremendous significance to family and community. They highlight the interdependence and the strength of unity. The Westerners， however， uphold personal freedom and advocate the value of individual struggle. In the novel， Jingmeis mom， insisting that her daughter be an obedient child， was driven by the notion that the success of her daughter could bring glory to the whole family and forced her to learn the piano against her will. Jingmei once retorted her mom， protesting that no one could force her to do anything and she attributed all her accomplishments to her own endeavor. Westerners attach great significance to the notion of ‘self and the compound words with self as suffixation amount to over one hundred in Western lexicon of which Chinese words fall short.

人類學家克勒克荷恩提出個人價值觀是指一個人認為是正確的而采取的觀念，這一觀念影響著人的行為、選擇以及看法。這其中，集體主義觀與個人主義觀的不一致值得關注。為尋求和諧，孔子思想要求對等級制度及權威的遵守。深受古代中國文化的影響，中國人高度重視家庭與集體，西方人則高舉個人之自由意志及個人奮斗之崇高意義。小說中，深受女兒的成功能榮耀家族觀念的驅動，精美的媽媽，堅持要求女兒做一個順從聽話的孩子并強迫她學習鋼琴。一次，精美反駁母親，稱無人可強迫她做任何事并將自己的一切成就歸結于自我奮斗。西方高度重視自我的觀念，可見于以自我為詞綴的復合詞多達一百，而中國單詞于此則不具有如此之數。

It is inevitable that sometimes Eastern and Western cultures， each with its own quintessence may collide;however， different cultures are not necessarily mutually exclusive and by no means could we judge them as superior or inferior. Only when we fully acknowledge and appreciate their differences could we lead better lives in this multi-cultural world. As in the end of the novel，when Jingmei hugged her twin sisters in the airport， she finally saw clearly her cultural identity with pride and affection ‘ I finally saw the part of myself which belongs to China. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in my blood. And through these years， it finally runs out.

References：

[1]Hall E T. Beyond Culture[M]. New York： Doubleday， 1976.