Since its publication, the novel "Xifuhui" by the famous American Chinese writer Tan Enmei has attracted widespread attention from critics. By telling the story of conflict and harmony between the American-born daughter and her immigrant mother, the novel explores the theme of the identity crisis and reconstruction of the second generation of Chinese immigrants.
As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, although the daughters in the novel are born with a Chinese face, their thoughts and actions have been completely Americanized. Their ideas and concepts are very different from those of their mothers, and the mother-daughter relationship is full of contradictions and conflicts. And they have to struggle between the two cultures because they do not identify with the traditional Chinese culture represented by their mothers, nor with the mainstream culture of American society— although they were born American citizens, they are still regarded as "others" by whites, and as a result, they encounter a huge identity crisis. At first, they rejected the traditional Chinese culture represented by their mother, but in order to get out of the identity crisis and build a new identity, the indispensability of traditional Chinese culture prompted them to finally achieve reconciliation with their mother and acceptance of traditional Chinese culture.
Identity crisis in the context of racial discrimination and cultural conflict
Although the second generation of Chinese immigrants has been significantly Americanized, they are still discriminated against by mainstream society as "others" because of their racial and cultural imprints. For example, when Rose meets her future mother-in-law, Mrs. Jordan, mrs. Jordan patiently explains to her why Ted cannot marry her. She repeatedly reminds Rose that Ted wants to be a doctor and that his wife must meet certain societal expectations, while she hints at how unpopular the Vietnam War was. In her opinion, Rose's union with Ted would certainly jeopardize her son's future. By referring to the Vietnam War, Mrs. Jordan hinted that the image of all Asians, including Chinese, was disgraceful in the minds of white Americans.
Sayyid argues that "the construction of self-identity involves the construction of the identity of the 'other' as opposed to oneself, and always involves the constant elaboration and reinterpretation of qualities different from 'we.'" [] (P426) And Mrs. Jordan's attitude shows that in the minds of white Americans, the Chinese, like other races of color, are different from their own "others", and their race and culture are inferior.
In order to avoid being regarded as "others" by mainstream society, the daughters in the novel try to integrate into mainstream American society, and in order to achieve their goals, they do not hesitate to abandon their racial and cultural identities. However, their efforts were doomed to be futile, because their "other" status in the eyes of whites doomed them to discrimination. At the same time, the daughters' rejection of their own ethnic and cultural identity has directly led to tension in their relationship with their mothers. Because their mothers are eager to pass on traditional Chinese culture to them, they are very respectful of the American cultural model. This inevitably leads to a conflict between mother and daughter, and this conflict is the manifestation of the collision of two heterogeneous cultures.
In traditional Chinese culture, "the parent has absolute power in the family." As a mother... There is the right to arrange the life of the daughter, and the daughter has the obligation to obey. [2] (P36) However, daughters who have grown up under the concepts of democracy, freedom, and equality naturally cannot tolerate this conception of motherhood. For example, jingmei's mother cleaned the room for the piano teacher every week in order to let her daughter learn the piano, and bought a piano for her daughter. However, Jingmei did not understand her mother and believed that she had the right not to learn piano. In order to stop her mother's "stupid pride", she even deliberately lost in the talent show. Subsequently, when her mother asked her to continue practicing the piano, she shouted without flinchingly: "The kind of daughter you like, I will never be... I don't want to be your daughter, I hope you're not my mom. ” [3]（P145- 146）
Although the daughters in the novel blindly respect the mainstream culture of the United States and completely deny traditional Chinese culture, they cannot change their bloodline, so they inevitably become marginalized "others", so they fall into an unprecedented identity crisis.
Second, the reconciliation of the mother-daughter relationship and the construction of a new identity
Although the mother-daughter relationship in the novel was once very tense, it was eventually reconciled. This reconciliation is a long process that requires the joint efforts of both mother and daughter.
First, mothers must strive to bridge the cultural divide, break the silence about the past, and eliminate the stereotypes of their daughters about them. This is necessary for the reconciliation of mother and daughter, and it is also crucial for the construction of the identity of the daughter, because the new identity they want to build needs the support of traditional Chinese culture. For example, Waverley has always disdained to listen to his mother Lin Dong tell about the past, which makes Lin Dong very worried. She insisted that her daughter "have to understand the reality, how she got to America, how she got married, how she lost her Chinese face, and why she became like that." ” [3]（P296）
At the same time, the reconciliation process is inseparable from the participation of the daughters. When feelings and lives are in trouble due to the identity crisis, the daughters finally realize that in order to get out of the identity crisis and build a new identity, the traditional Chinese culture represented by the mother is indispensable. For example, when Waverley grew up, when she found that the construction of her new identity lacked the support of traditional Chinese culture, she began to consciously bridge the gap with her mother. In the novel, when Waverly and her American fiancé are preparing to go on their honeymoon in China, her fiancé proposes to invite Lin Dong to go with her, which she deeply agrees with: "The three of us, after putting aside our differences, strengthen cooperation on the plane, sit side by side, lift and descend, from the West to the East." ” [3]（P206）
Once the mother and daughter reconcile, the daughter quickly finds her place in traditional Chinese culture and constructs a new identity. This is confirmed in jingmei's story. At the end of the novel, Jingmei comes to China with her mother's last wishes and meets her two half-sisters, during which she realizes her special status as a Chinese immigrant. Like the other daughters in the novel, Jing Mei was once quite estranged from her mother. Although she had long ignored the meaning of her mother's story and the value contained in her mother's entrenched traditional Chinese culture, when she met her sisters and told them her mother's story, she achieved reconciliation with her mother. This trip to China provided an opportunity for Jingmei to reconcile with her mother, and also provided conditions for her to re-understand traditional Chinese culture. The trip to China also represents the fusion of the two cultures, which lays the foundation for Jingmei to build a new identity.
The construction of the new identities of the daughters in the novel is carried out with the reconciliation of the mother-daughter relationship. This process of reconciliation is not only the process of the daughter's acceptance of traditional Chinese culture, but also the process of The collision to integration of Chinese and American cultures. In our daughter, we "see both the contradictions and antagonisms between the two cultures of China and the United States, and the possibility and inevitability of the two cultural exchanges and integration." [4] (P91) And the fusion of the two cultures creates a whole new cultural hybrid in which the new identity of the second generation of Chinese immigrants is constructed, "and it is precisely in this "interstitial" limited space that cultural differences achieve a certain combination, resulting in an imaginary 'construction' of cultural and national identity. [5] (P40) In this way, as the second generation of Chinese immigrants, the daughters in the novel eventually construct their new identities in Homi Baba's "Threshold Space".
III. Conclusion
In "Joy and Happiness Club," Tan "explores the concepts of cultural diversity and the ethnic identity of Chinese Americans, setting an example for the shift in racial and cultural exchange concepts and the transmission of multicultural messages in the context of globalization." [6] (P173) The daughters in the novel accept traditional Chinese culture in the process of reconciliation between mother and daughter, and with the help of their mothers, they finally come out of the identity crisis and construct their new identities. The use of the postcolonial "other" and "threshold space" theory to study the identity crisis and construction of new generations of immigrants in cross-cultural, racial and generational gap contexts provides a new critical model for us to study Tan Enmei's other novels.
bibliography:
[1] Edward M. W. Sayyid. Oriental Studies[M].Beijing: Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore, 1999.1.
[2] Sun Ying. An Interpretation of The Joy Luck Club from Post-colonial Perspective. M.A. Thesis. North China Electric Power University, 2006.
Tan Enmei. Tian Qing (Translation).
Cheng Aimin,Zhang Ruihua. The Conflict and Fusion of Chinese and American Cultures: A Cultural Interpretation of the Happy Blessing Society[J].Foreign Literature, 2001(3).
WANG Ning. Homi Baba and his theory of postcolonial criticism[J].Southern Literary Circle, 2002(6).
[6] Zhang Qiong. Ambivalence & Ambiguity: Chinese-American Literature Beyond Politics and Ethnography [M]. Shanghai: Fudan Unversity Press, 2005.
Author: Wang Shuzhen
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