Cultural Conflict In Amy Tan's Short Story 'Two Kinds'

At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings

In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, we are introduced to Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei “June” Woo. As with any relationship, there is conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter, as it seems that Jing-Mei doesn’t understand her mother’s Chinese culture and ambitions. In the Chinese culture, women are seen as inferior and often lack basic rights such as the right to marriage or financial holdings, thus deprived of their potential. This is why the rights in the U.S. are seen as privileges to Chinese women, among other minorities, and why Suyuan endeavored for her daughter to become a prodigy and excel in anything and everything. Yet as Jing-Mei was forced into this ideal, and the more her mother tried to enforce this idea, the further she begun to despise her mother for attempting to turn her into a “fraud”.

American Born Chinese is a story about Jin, an American with Chinese roots, who struggles with his identity - self-conscious about how he looks, sounds, and acts. Jin divides into three different identities; Jin his overall identity, Danny his typical American side, and Chin-Kee his racist stereotype Chinese side. This book is split into three different stories that represent the three different identities, The Monkey King’s story, Jin’s story, and Danny and Chin-Kee’s story. In the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang uses symbolism and literary elements to illustrate struggling with your identity can lead to a better understanding of who you are and where you came from. Jin is faced with racial discrimination, not fitting

As a child growing up in an Asian household, I quickly became aware of how different my parents’ style of teaching was when compared to my other friends in elementary school. I remember feeling very surprised to hear how lenient most of my friend’s families were. I could never dream of even asking my parents at that age if I was allowed to stay over at a friend’s house. Everything, for me, revolved around doing chores and getting good grades. It was also strange for me to see how close and warm my friends’ families were together; where there were dedicated nights for board games or nights where they would watch TV together.

This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication. One of the difficulties between Jing-Mei and her mother is their different cultural backgrounds, which is supported by two points from the story. Firstly, Jing-Mei and her mother both disagreed on the opportunities that existed in America. According to Singer, Amy Tan uses “two entirely

“After losing everything in China…She never looked back with regret. ”(Chunk 1 ¶3). Jing-Mei’s mother is a Chinese immigrant with the typical ‘everything is better in America’ mindset. Jing-Mei, being raised in America, had more of an American mindset. “You want me to be someone i’m not…I’ll never be the daughter you want me to be!”

In this society, many judgements are made about people from different backgrounds. This causes many problems between people of other races. Racism can be shown in multiple ways such as by using overt and covert racism. In the two stories “The Stolen Party” by Liliana Hecker and “So What Are You, Anyway?” by Lawrence Hill, there are many examples of racist stereotypes.

It is my family. It is in our blood. After all these years I can finally be let go” (Tan 159). For the first time in her life of being stuck between two cultures and believing that she does not belong to either, Jing-Mei feels like she belongs. As it was previously stated about the meanings of this family’s poetic names, these names that were given to them by their mother created a meaningful theme.

Both her and her mom want her to be a prodigy of Beyonce. Both of their parents want them to become a prodigy of somebody. Jing-Mei’s mom wants her to be a prodigy of Shirley Temple. One other allusion in “Two Kinds” and modern day society is Peter Pan. Peter Pan never wants to grow up and neither does Jing-Mei.

Daisy hopes that young Jing-mei will try to be her best at anything. The mother's encouragement shows how greatly important it is for her daughter to succeed. In any of her works, Amy Tan includes various Chinese cultural values. One value that is existent in every on of her pieces is family, for it is a very important aspect of Chinese culture that

One dynamic that false expectation strains is the relationship between Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei. In a vignette told from the perspective of the latter, Suyuan has the notion that Jing-Mei should be able to perform something at the level of a prodigy. She begins

Jing did not feel as if she was Chinese, since she lived in California; she felt more American. Once the train entered China she felt as if she was becoming Chinese. “The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border… And I think, my mother was right, I am becoming Chinese” (241). Jing is excited to visit her relatives there

Jing-mei expresses, “Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training student in the Mission district and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking. Instead of big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz” (Tan 221). This shows that her mother’s eagerness for a famous daughter is emerging, and it comes to the point where she wants to change her child’s

Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment.

I believe that every family has their own roots, essence, uniqueness, beliefs and thoughts, some families have both parents, some just the mother, just the father, two mothers or two fathers, they might have an only child or two, or maybe 5 or even 10, therefore, those children start learning all these things from their family and surroundings, they ask questions, they imitate each other’s actions and are constantly learning and trying to catch as much information and experiences as possible. Children are growing fast, their parents are their role models, they learn mostly from them; parents have the tremendous job of forming good citizens that provide to society, healthy and happy beings that keep growing as humans in every stage of their