On Conflicts and Reconciliation Between China and America

王小娟

【Abstract】From an intercultural communication approach，this paper analyses conflicts and reconciliation experienced by Chinese mothers and their Americanized daughters in Amy Tans work The Joy Luck Club.The conflicts between them are conflicts between two cultures.To understand the conflict and reconciliation between two cultures profoundly, this paper applies the theories of “high-context culture” and “low-context culture” and Hofstedes Value Dimensions. From the film, The Joy Luck Club, it is a new trend that two cultures have been developing from the conflict to reconciliation.

【Key words】conflict; reconciliation; intercultural communication; The Joy Luck Club

1. Introduction

Cross-cultural communication, which is also called the intercultural communication, is an activity with a long history. As to the definition, cross-cultural communication is the communication between different cultures. Psychologically speaking, it is the communication in which the coding and decoding of information are conducted among people who do not share the same culture.

Samovar claims that cross-cultural communication occurs “whenever a message that must be understood is produced by a member of one culture for consumption by a member of another culture”(Samovar, 2000).To put it more precisely, cross-cultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbols are distinct enough to alter the communication event (Samovar, 2000).

In the film The Joy Luck Club，the four Chinese-born mothers and their American-born daughters have experienced cultural conflicts, cultural understanding as well as blending. However, cultural understanding cannot occur overnight.It is a long process with much pain and misunderstanding. Due to these mothers great efforts, their daughters gradually understand them and the Chinese culture as well.In this way, cultural reconciliation are achieved.With a research on The Joy Luck Club from the cross-cultural perspective，just as its ending implied—the reconciliation of Chinese and American culture is the main trend of modem age，and it is on its way to come.

2. Conflicts Between Two Cultures in The Joy Luck Club

2.1 Introduction to The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is held by Suyuan, Jingmeis mother, to gather four families immigrated to America in the late 1940s. What is the purpose of holding such a party each week? The answer is to be joyful as the name of the movie—The Joy Luck Club. Four senior ladies always play maijiang and tell funny stories in the party. Everyone there 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? They are caused not only by their lives in old China but also by the misunderstanding of their own America-born daughters. The description of the conflicts between mothers and daughters expresses the clash between Chinese culture and American culture.Mother represents Chinese traditional culture and daughter represents American culture.The two cultures always clash in the process of mother-daughter communication.

2.2 Causes of Conflicts Between Two Cultures

2.2.1 High-context Culture and Low-context Culture

Edward Halls theory on high-context and low-context cultures may be considered as his most significant achievement in the research of cross-cultural communication.Edward Hall categorizes cultures as being either high or low context，depending on the degree to which meaning comes from the settings or from the words being exchanged.This can vary from a high-context culture where background information is implicit to low-context culture where much of the background information must be made explicit in an interaction(Du Ruiqing, 2004).

In a high-context culture，the talk tends to be indirect.Much of the message is expressed by means other than words，and people learn to watch for and interpret non-verbal cues and hinted-at nuances of meaning.In other words，information is provided through gestures，the use of space，and even silence.Meaning is also conveyed “through status (age, sex, education, family backgrounds, title, and affiliations) and through an individuals informal friends and associates.” (Samovar, 2000) Chinese culture possesses strong stability and solidarity so that China is viewed as the most typical country of high context culture.

Low-context communication, however, is more direct and explicit: most of the message is carried in the words and people are comparatively unaware of other contextual cues and less adept at interpreting meanings other than those expressed verbally. In short，the verbal message contains most of the information and very little is embedded in the context or the participants (Samovar, 2000). America can be considered as the representative of low-context culture.

The communication problems that arise when one speaker is from a high context culture and the other is from a low-context culture can be seen in the conversations of June and Suyuan, “My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each others meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said while my mother heard more.” June looks for meaning in what is stated and does not understand that her mother omits important information because she assumes her daughter knows it and can infer it; her mother, on the other hand，looks for meaning in what has been stated explicitly and comes up with meanings that surprise her daughter.Those mothers in The Joy Luck Club like telling stories to their daughters，in which they hide their implications.

2.2.2 Collectivism vs. Individualism

Hofstedes research indicates that individualism is a cultural pattern which is found in most northern and western regions of Europe and North America. Collectivism refers to a cultural pattern common in Asia，the Middle East, Central and South America.

In collectivism-oriented culture，family is valued as the prototype of all the social organizations and, accordingly, Chinese people start acquiring their identities from the family. Chinese embraces the idea that the family makes its members. In this kind of family, a family members primary motivation for action is thought to bring honor and credit for his or her parents. He or she is not thought of as acting on his or her own behalf or for own purpose. On the other hand, individualism-oriented culture, person can take credit only for what he or she has accomplished by himself or herself. They uphold the concept that individuals make the family.

In The Joy Luck Club，mothers would like a daughter to obey their wills while daughters would like to be free and independent. So the family ties between the mother and daughter in each of these four Chinese-American families is no longer what determines the Chinese daughters obligations or the Chinese mothers authority. Family is not something to be proud of as in China, but rather something that causes embarrassment on one side or the other，and often both sides.

3. Reconciliation Between Two Cultures

At the end of the story, the situation has been changed. Jingmei can understand her mothers love; Lindo accepts Waverlys husband who is a foreigner that she dislikes; Lena approves her value to her American husband after her mothers advice. Daughters start to understand their mothers and Chinese culture. At the same time, mothers have also accepted American culture to some extent.At the beginning of their settlement on the new land，they have to learn English and get in contact with the natives. The generation gap between mother and daughter has been erased as well as the conflict between two cultures.

With the combined influence of religion，public attitude，education and political status of different classes and ethnic groups in society, the mother-daughter relationship goes far beyond generational gap and contains cultural conflicts，and is expected to move from confrontation to reconciliation and communication on the base of mutual understanding and comprehension.

4. Conclusion

In The Joy Luck Club, the mothers come to the USA first with their own American dream. Different from generations of white dreamers through the history of the USA, they wish their daughters to become as American as they can and able to accept the meaning of that swan feather—the carrier of all the good intention of the Chinese mothers. The conflicts shatter the Americanized dream into broken pieces because of cultural conflict. Due to these mothers great efforts, their daughters gradually understand them and the Chinese culture as well.In this way, cultural reconciliation are achieved.At the end of this film, all conflicts lead to the necessary cultural journey of Jingmei to China, which provides a feasible solution for the problems that Chinese and other Americans are facing—active participation in the cultural strive for openness and invitation for understanding of other cultures. Therefore, the reconciliation of Chinese and American culture is the main trend of modem age, and it is on its way to come.

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