从隔阂到相知

——从《喜福会》中探索美籍华裔母女关系的转变

华裔文学作品已经逐渐赢得了西方文学评论家的认可，这些很大程度上归功于华裔女性作家的作品。最近，我重温了华裔著名作家谭恩美的一部极具代表性的作品《喜福会》，其中探索了四位ABC（American Born Chinese）女儿们与母亲们的文化冲突，以及母女关系的转变。 喜福会这个名字是四位第一代华人移民的四个母亲，在生活工作之余组成的麻将小组名字。小说分别描写了，这四位各自走出命运阴影的母亲们漂洋过海来到异乡的国土，为了适应新环境，不得不在传统的中国文化上形成自己的人格，但是在骨子里渗透着的还是几千年来传统的教育和思想；而同时，第二代ABC女儿们虽然有着同样的黄皮肤、黑头发的东方特征，他们从小的教育环境为他们注入的是西方的文化气质。这些反差使母女之间产生了不少隔阂，无论是在教育、生活、工作还是婚姻上都出现了诸多冲突。有趣的是，在种种因素的促成下，特别是传统文化的诱因下，母女关系得到了改善，真正走上了相知相容。 其中，最主要的原因是母亲和女儿们成长的环境背景的不同。母亲们生长在解放前的旧中国，深受中国传统文化的影响，各自背后都有一些不为人所知的痛苦经历。虽然来到异乡，但是内心的保有的仍然是中国传统女性的特性——相夫教子、贤惠守理。相反的，女儿们却生活在女权运动的美国社会，倡导的是男女平等、自由开放，在这样的欧美文化占主流的社会中，他们不可避免地认同这种文化，因而在看到家庭、工作等问题上与传统的母亲们截然想法。其次，生活在白人社会的美国，黄皮肤黑头发的女儿们虽然内心认同西方的文化，但是外貌特征的不同，让他们多少产生些许身份认同的困惑，他们心中视美国为自己的祖国，竭力想摆脱华人身份，成为地道的美国人。这些促使他们反抗母亲强加给他们的中华文化价值观，努力工作融入西方社会主流。特别表现在在择偶婚姻上，她们更倾向于嫁给金发碧眼的白人，而不是中国人。对于母亲们一直提到的中国，感到的只是陌生和不解。可以说，母女的关系冲突，更多的是中国传统文化价值观和西方主流价值观之间的碰撞。

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Keep Faith with Hope

The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, is the first English novel I have read. I was attracted by this book, because it is a book filled with hope that matters to everyone.

Before they came to America, they had their own stories that have life-long influences on them. Suyuan Woo has a husband who was an officer with the Kuomintang. Her husband took her and their two babies to Kweilin for their safety when Japan launched a war to China. But she finally had to run away from Kweilin, on her way toward Chungking, she lost everything, including the babies. An-mei Hsu , whose mother married a rich businessman in Tientsin as a concubine, witnessed her mother’s unlucky life in a prestigious family and her mother’s death. Lindo Jong was forced to betroth to a boy she has never met when she was a little girl. Ying-ying St.Clair from a rich and powerful family in Wushi married a playboy and had an abortion in despair. These four women escaped from their hard life in China and came to America to pursue their new life.

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喜福会

身为女性，一直对女性意识的主题很感兴趣。《喜福会》这部电影就以四对母女关系探讨了女性意识的时代流变，对于女性的弱者的地位，与女性为求改变的不断抗争，进行了描摹。

旧中国的妇女，与美国的新时代女性，绵延半个多世纪，甚至将近一个世纪，女性在不断的找寻自己的位置，从被压迫与被欺凌的旧中国，到女性可以参与社会事务与男人平起平坐的、号称世界上最民主最开放的美国，可说是两重天，这个电影，给了我们展示女性地位变化、人格命运演变的最好的舞台。 女性找到真实的自我了吗？从外表上看，女儿们不再有母亲所要经受的父权与夫权的压迫，而精神上呢，女性自身对自身的束缚，却并未远离。

从血缘中，从慢慢追述的历史中，母亲们期望着的是，自己身上的悲剧不再重演，可是那些创伤已经渗入她们的骨髓，在对女儿们的教育中，她们将那些过高的期望、被压迫者过分的敏感与自尊一股脑压在女儿的身上，结果，造成了母女之间深深的隔阂，以及女儿残缺的人格。

周彩芹演的林朵阿姨，是个性鲜明、开朗直爽的母亲，从小靠自己的力量从包办婚姻中逃离，到了美国后，对女儿寄予了极高的期望，女儿有下国际象棋的天赋，得冠后照片被登上杂志封面，这位兴奋的母亲就一路拉着孩子向人夸耀，孩子并不喜欢，母亲就冷眼相向，当孩子向她请求谅解，想继续下棋，她却说了一句，想下就下没那么简单，这句气话，挫伤了女儿的自信，从此她觉得天赋远离了她，再也没赢过，不肯低头的母亲，就这样把孩子的信心给毁了。

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A Reading Report of The Joy Luck Club

Recently I have read a book named The Joy Luck Club. It is written by Amy Tan who is a Chinese American writer and her works explore mother-daughter relationships. She was born in California. After studying at San Jose State University, she obtained the bachelor’s and master’s degree in English language. She is good at describing Asian American life and their cultural conflict. She likes using the exquisite portrayal to describe Chinese culture and show the charm and magic of Orient to Western readers. In 1987, Amy Tan wrote the novel The Joy Luck Club according to her grandmother and her mother 's experience and in 1989 the book was published. In 1993, the novel was adapted into a feature film and received a great success. The novel was also adapted into a play, by Susan Kim, which premiered at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York. It is known all over the world and has been translated into 35 languages.

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The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is one of the my favourite movies, it begins with the main character Ah muir, just returning to the United States from the mainland visit, caught up with a party whose members are all her mother’s lifetime friends and their daughters when mother was still alive. Ah muir is playing mahjong with aunts, sitting in the seat which was her mother’s before. All the four people on the table, with different characters, have their own pains and struggling stories behind. Aunt Lin’s smartness and strongness let herself get rid of the identity as a child bride, striving to today's position; Aunt yingying has unbearable memories in the past, so she hopes her daughter will be bravely being herself; Aunt Anmei was influenced by his mother, knowing to make voices in front of the fate of unfair; While ah muir's mother, because of the war, got apart from her little children accidentally. Four women are all surviving from the poor, getting through trails and tribulations.They don't want their own daughter to repeat their tragedies.

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Since you assigned us the Joy Luck Club to read, I downloaded an e-book and skimmed through it from time to time. Given my limited knowledge and full schedule, it’s ashamed that I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the deep culture values being presented in the book. However, I loved this book so much that I wanted to express some of my feelings and I have promised to myself I would read it word for word in the near future.

The stories told about the mother-daughter relationships, including fighting, understanding and their love eventually. Each of the four Chinese women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in China and wants to share that vision with her daughter. The daughters try to understand and appreciate their mothers' pasts, adapt to the American way of life, and win their mothers' acceptance.

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从《喜福会》看跨文化交流

电影《喜福会》（The Joy Luck Club）以插叙的方式和细腻的手法将四对华裔母女的故事缓缓道出。四位母亲，她们生长在中国，准确的说是生长在解放前的旧中国，而她们每一位的心中都深藏着一些不幸的遭遇和或多或少悲痛的回忆。四个女儿，她们生长在美国，接受美国的教育和文化，竭力融入美国社会，她们一方面抗拒母亲的施加给她们的希冀，另一方面身上已经不可避免地带有了母亲潜移默化对她们的影响。

片头的独白说“老妇人记得多年前于上海，曾花费不菲买下一只天鹅。??旅途中，她告诉天鹅说，在美国我会有个像我的女儿，在那儿，她无需仰仗丈夫鼻息度日；没人会看低她，因为她将说得一口流利的英文；我要她成为一只比期望中还要好上一百倍的天鹅。??这羽毛虽不值钱，却是来自遥远的国度，一直载负着我的期盼。” 这一根鹅毛承载的是母亲沉甸甸的期盼，她不希望发生在自己身上的悲剧重演，希望女儿不像她一样是只不起眼的鸭子被人驱赶，她希望女儿成为一只高贵的天鹅自由自在。母亲希望女儿能承袭她的愿望和期盼，能过上母亲理想中的天鹅般的生活。

“她们忧心忡忡，虽然女儿们已经说得一口流利的英文，但却轻忽了她们来到美国的梦想。”女儿们在这一场文化冲突和交融中艰难地寻找属于自己的文化身份而不得。同时这一场文化冲突和交融集中表现为四对母女在相处中的矛盾、误解以及沉默。女儿们想极力摆脱中国式的文化模式，但最终还是无法超越自己的文化之根，仍落入与母亲相似的命运中去了。“我们宛如上楼梯，一步又一步，或上或下，永远重复着相同的命运。”所幸，最终母女们能坦诚地交流，女儿们理解了母亲们的苦心，母亲们也卸下了心中的担忧。这一场跨文化的交流终于有了好的结果。

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Fighting For What We Females Want

I have seen the film named The Joy Luck Club when I was a middle school student. But then I didn’t deeply think about what the film reflect. Until recently, in the advise of my teacher, I read the novel. It takes me some nights to accomplish. And now I am greatly touched and shocked by the novel. The novel contents so many things that it is impossible to express all of them in a few lines of words. The gap between the generation, behavior and attitude of women, and the difference between tradition and modern are all the themes the author try to deliver to readers. And there is no doubt she has been successful for expressing.

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