从《喜福会》谈中西方文化

文化的融合

学 院： 哲学与政治学学院

专 业： 2010政治学与行政学

学生姓名： 海 啸

学 号： 201003402118

20xx年6月

摘要：本文通过跨文化的角度对电影《喜福会》和其原著《喜福会》中涉及到中美文化冲突方面进行分析。具体来说就是对各具特色的母女之间的冲突、矛盾的产生、发展、解决过程进行分析。希望从家庭文化的融合方面来看到中西方文化的融合，以点窥面。

关键词：母女冲突 家庭文化 中西方文化融合

前言：电影和书中对带有传统中国特色的一代移民母亲们和接受西方文化长大的二代移民女儿们之间的冲突和矛盾的描写是基于家庭层面来描写的。而这种家庭文化不同于美国的家庭文化，是带有中国传统家庭血缘关系、成员纽带、遵从家长制的家庭文化特色的。当然，因为她们的家庭地处美国，家庭成员，特别是二代移民女儿的个性成长是带有西方的自由主义特色的，故这种中国家庭文化和家庭成员西方价值取向的冲突和矛盾给我们带来了精彩纷呈的视觉享受和对文化差异的深入思考。

一、对《喜福会》的简介

《喜福会》是美国著名华裔女作家谭恩美的第一部长篇小说，也是她的成名作，该书一出版即大获成功，当年曾经连续八个月荣登《纽约时报》畅销书，成为19xx年美国四大畅销书之一，多次获奖并拍成电影。。

有一只鸭子，他一直不甘心自己是鸭子，因此一直伸长颈子想作天鹅，没想到后来它真的成了天鹅。电影《喜福会》，是说着四对母女的故事。每个母亲都被她成长中的社会视为鸭子、不值一爱的被轻贱，但她们不甘于这被轻贱的命运，为自己的命运孤注一掷奋力一搏，终于给了她们女儿尊贵的身份与地位。她们正像伸长脖子的鸭子，终能留给女儿天鹅的羽毛，与充满爱与尊严的未来。

四个母亲中就有三个，反应出传统中国文化中对女性的不公平对待，她们不可能挣脱，除非离开孕育这传统文化的土地；但很奇怪的是，当她们到了美国社会，挣扎奋斗出另一种人生，想给女儿另一种命运以后，却发现女儿承袭着自己的过去，用另一种方式重蹈人生的悲剧，唯一自小反抗母亲的女儿，又特别的会被母亲“我不赞同”的沉默所干扰，彻底的失去了自信与自我。

于是母亲必须跟女儿和解：母亲必须透过讲述自己的故事，赋予女儿坚强的力量与自信；母亲必须伸出援手，让女儿及早阻止悲剧继续搬演下去。这种母女间“运遗传”系，将母女间的特殊情感发挥的很耐人寻味。

二、母女冲突映射文化冲突

《喜福会》中四位母亲是旧社会迫害女性的当事人和典型范例。旧社会中的家长制和男人本位制以及动乱的社会环境对四位母亲造成了不可磨灭的伤害。母亲们本身便带有着强烈的中国旧社会印记，虽然社会环境变了，沟通语言变了，这种根植于他们灵魂的东西不会变。人在遭受过苦难之后才真正懂得人生的可贵，带着对新生活的渴望和对过去生活的诀别，母亲们毅然来到了异国他乡，努力奋斗，为下一代创造良好的生活环境。这种愿望是好的，但实际情况却不容乐观。女儿们作为第二代移民，也许只拥有着华人的外貌，他们的性格、价值取向、处理人际关系方式和她们的母亲却是天差地别。因此，矛盾冲突接踵而至。

母女之间的误解来自于文化的冲突。中国的家庭文化赋予了家庭更多的东西和外延，比如：对子女生活状况的关心和规划、对家庭成员个人发展的牺牲、根植于家庭的传统美德（孝悌之义、仁爱、诚信、节俭、廉耻等等）。而美国的家庭观念是根植于自立、尊重和自由之上的。家庭成员之间相互尊重、没有等级划分、家庭对家庭成员束缚极小。这两种中西方不同的家庭文化的差异在这四对母女的日常生活之中逐渐的渗透、矛盾和冲突也逐渐暴露出来。

中国和美国是有着不同语言、不同民族、不同历史渊源并且完全处在两个不同地域的国家。不同地域的文化孕育着不同的文化模式，在不同地域文化背景下成长的人身上烙上的是不同的哲学观念、不同的宗教信仰、不同的民族传统习惯和不同的思维方式，这些根植于骨髓里的分歧时根深蒂固的，甚至是不可调和的。

三、家庭向心力促进文化融合

基于母女两代人的不同生活环境和价值取向，她们之间的矛盾不可避免，这是两种不同家庭文化和价值取向的冲突。但无论是西方还是中国，以血缘关系为基础，以家庭关系为纽带的家庭文化是永远不会被人们遗忘的。身处不同环境受到不同教育和影响的母女在教育、婚姻、母女关系都发生了大小不一的矛盾甚至是冲突。但是，母女之间那种斩不断的血缘关系，传承自古老中国的家庭向心力紧紧地将死对母女拴住。来自于中国和美国的家庭文化开始融合。母亲对中国家庭文化中

家长专制进行了让步，女儿对以自我为中心的西方家庭文化进行了让步。直到母女相拥的时候，我们才知道，文化的差异会给她们造成困扰，但文化差异并不能阻挡她们之间的爱，不能阻挡她们宁愿为爱做牺牲的意志。让我们从书和电影中来看这种为爱而产生的文化融合：

（一）母亲门逐渐接受美国文化

母亲们脱掉从中国带来的长袍，穿上美国的衬衫和长裤，说着被女儿们嘲笑的蹩脚英语，习惯了美国每个周末的宗教活动。许安美在儿子不幸落海之后，她首先想到的不是菩萨保佑，而是西方的上帝：龚琳达从开始因为女儿和美国男友私奔而脱下鞋子打他们两，到后来接受女儿的男朋友，并慈爱地教他吃螃蟹。这是母亲对中美文化差异的尊重与宽容。

（二）女儿对母亲有更多的理解

随着岁月的流逝，原本在心里认同美国文化的女儿们经历了事业，婚姻和家庭的挫折，对自己的边缘地位有了进一步的理解，逐渐变得成熟。同时中国文化也对她们产生了巨大的影响，母亲的眼里不过是一种自我保护，女儿们的醒悟使母女矛盾逐渐缓和。这表明文化宽容想文化融合的升华。

我们可以看到，喜福会找到了结合中西文化这两种截然不同又各具魅力的文化的切合点——母女关系。这种母女关系对文化给予了一种全新的诠释，完全不同的文化之间尽管有着不可避免的冲撞，也未尝不可以共存和兼容。家庭文化的向心力紧紧地吸引着她们，爱和真诚永远是沟通心灵的桥梁，连接世界的纽带。

参考文献、资料

?1?电影 《喜福会》 The Joy Luck Club (1993) 导演: 王颖

?2?谭恩美 《喜福会》译者:程乃珊 上海译文出版社 20xx年版

?3?论《喜福会》中的中西文化冲突和融合 湖北科技大学本科生毕业论文 ?4?百度百科 《喜福会》词条 /view/620059.htm

 

第二篇：跨文化交流论文--有关喜福会

跨文化交流论文——有关喜福会

the Joy Luck of Club

-----------the culture shock between

the east and the west

Abstract

The communication problem between mother and daughter has long been a topic for a long-term. In this paragraph, the communication problem has been a cross-cultural problem for the conflict is between four immigrant’s mothers and four American-raised daughters. In my opinion, the conflict is

actually lead by three reasons: (1) the struggle for the women to get equity (2) the misunderstanding love (3) the clash between generations and cultures. This paragraph focuses on the novel “the Joy Luck of Club”, which is about the stories of four different immigrant families and mainly described the conflicts between mothers and daughters.

In sum, though there are many reasons which lead to the communication problem, we can also conquer the problem and find a way to talk about people, not only our mothers, as in the end of the novel.

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目录

preface of the paragraph.................................................................. 4

introduction of the book .................................................................. 4

The struggle for the women to get equity--individual freedom ...... 5

The misunderstanding love--criticism versus encouragement ..... 6 The clash between generations and cultures--Chinese verse English

......................................................................................................... 7 the end of the paragraph ................................................................. 9

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The first time I saw the title of the book, the Joy Luck of Club, I suppose it might be a book filled with joy, luck and happiness. However, out of my expectation, in this book, I saw many unpleasant things-----conflicts, hardships, disappointments, sorrows, hurts and so on. But fortunately it has a happy ending. Although there are many things which I didn’t like, I had to admit that I have learnt a lot from this book and it made me have a penetrating thinking.

Introduction of the book

The Joy Luck of Club expounds two aspects: to begin with, the suffering of four mothers in old China; In addition, the conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters and their struggling to understand each other, which is the conflict and blend between the east culture and the west culture. The Joy Luck of Club is the title of this novel. It is also a party which held by Suyan, Jingmei’s mother, to gather four families immigrated to America in 1949. What is the purpose of holding such a party each week? The answer is to be joyful as the name of the party---the joy luck of club. Four old ladies always play Mahjong and tell funny stories in the party. Everyone here tries his or her best to pretend to be happy. However, deeply inside their hearts, all of them have their own sorrows.

What makes them unhappy? Those pains are caused not only by their lives in the old China, but also by the misunderstanding of their own 4 / 9

American-born daughters.

The book shows us these points: the struggle for the women to get equity; the misunderstanding of love between the mothers and the daughters and the clash between the generations and the cultures. Now I am going to show you my understanding of them.

The struggle for the women to get equity--individual freedom

In old Chinese tradition, wives must follow their own parents, husbands and parents-in-law who are not allowed to have their own ideas and have no right to choose their own life. If they do not obey the rules, they will be considered as a bad woman. This is a very old point and it is referred in the first part of the book----four mothers’ tragic stories in the old China. However, although they have escaped from old China, they also have the Chinese tradition characters in their mind.

However, in America, children have equal rights with their parents. They can choose their own life in the way of they like. It is not difficult to understand why American-born daughters don not like the way their mothers educated them.

Take Waverly Jong for example. Lindo Jong asks her daughter to play chess and take part in a contest. After winning the game, Lindo boasts her daughter’s prize to others. But Wavely cannot understand this way and hate this. She wrangles with her mother and even swears that she would not play chess any more. In her view, winning the game is only for 5 / 9

her mother’s vanity and she could not get a little happiness from it. The misunderstanding love--criticism versus encouragement

We all know that Chinese parents express their love for children through criticism. On the contrary, the Americans show affection through encouragement.

For example, Suyuan always compares her daughter Jingmei with Waverly. She always brings the bad points of Jingmei. These things make Jingmei unhappy and make Jingmei thinks that her mother wants to control her and likes Wavely more than her. In order to displease her mother, she decided not to play the piano that her mother tries her best to let her learn. It is a tragedy to Jingmei as she really has a talent for playing piano. She does not know that until her mother died. The reason of this tragedy is the misunderstanding between two generations in different cultures.

In addition, we can also see another point from this example. When Suyuan demands the little Jingmei to play piano, Jingmei shouts to her mother, ”You can’t make me!” Jingmei even cries that she wishes she is not Suyuan’s daughter and Suyuan isn’t her mother, and that she wishes she were dead like the babies that Suyuan abandoned in China. The sad expression on Suyuan’s face indicates that she was hurt by her daughter’s innocent words.

This reminds me of the similar experience. Once I hurt my mother as 6 / 9

Jingmei did. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but those wounding words just slip out of my mouth unconsciously.

Often, we hate that why our parents don’t understand our feelings, why they like us to be something and totally unaware of what their children are. While the parents don’t know why all their sacrifice to the children cannot be paid off, or even incite hatred. Actually, this is the generation gap that causes the misunderstanding. We don’t know the hardship our parents underwent before, and they cannot understand what we are thinking. So the misunderstanding appears.

Maybe as a child, Jingmei cannot comprehend what her remarks meant to Suyuan, and just want to show her grudge. But another main reason is the different backgrounds of Jingmei and Suyuan bare. Chinese parents always like to put all their hopes on the next generation for they are the generation full with hardships and pain. All they do is just to want their children to be better, but they ignore that the children influenced by the American culture and knowing a little about the Chinese culture. In their view, their mothers’ thoughts and behaviors are both absurd and ridiculous. So the two sides don’t compromises with each other, resulting in a deep contradiction.

The clash between generations and cultures--Chinese verse English The first reason of the communication barrier between generations is the language. Language as a sign, reflecting the cultural stereotypes and 7 / 9

constraints of people's thoughts. In this book, we can find out that even in the family, all the members use English to communicate with each other, but mother’s English always mixed with some Chinese words, especially when they want to express something eagerly. So we believe that, to the mothers, Chinese is their mother tongue forever, as China will always be their home of their soul. If they want to, this language will come out from their mouth fluently at any time in any occasions. So Suyuan insisted to hold “the Joy Luck Club”, because this is the home of the Chinese tradition culture. This home let them who are in a foreign country and wandering on the edge of American mainstream culture, have the real fun and free, they can put on Chinese clothes, chat with the mother tongue, tell stories, and feel intense feelings of spiritual comfort in the local culture in an atmosphere. But they are worried about their children, the children grown with the time went by almost forget they are originally Chinese; they don’t use Chinese but use fluently English to communicate.

the end of the paragraph

After these conflicts, we are very pleasant to see the situation is changed. Jingmei can understand her mother’s love; Lindo accepts Wavely’s husband who is a foreigner which she dislikes;Lena approves her value to her American husband after her mother’s advice……

In the book "Joy Luck Club", mothers represent the traditional Chinese culture, and the daughters represent the modern American civilization. 8 / 9

The author stands in a unique perspective to give the “Chinese---American culture” equal attention. This kind of attention, different from the pattern which American culture is at the center or Chinese culture is at the center，behind the surface of cultural conflict, achieve a deeper level of culture identify. This book, expresses expecting to the integration of two cultures; the immigrants don’t want to hide the cultural identity of China, subservient to meet mainstream culture in order to get into the mainstream American society, and they also don’t want to stick to Chinese cultural to counter the will of the white mainstream culture. So the entire book conveys an information which to fade the cultural identity and eliminate the culture conflict to achieve the global varied cultural world.

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