Abstract

     The Joy Luck Club, a book mainly about the relationship between mothers and their daughters, is a best-seller in America in the 1980s by a Chinese woman writer, Amy Tan. This paper begins with a general review of the family education described in this novel, then makes a comparison of Chinese and American family education, and further analyzes the causes for the differences. Finally, the essay attempts to share some enlightenment with the readers ― we should learn from others the strong points to offset our weaknesses so that we should be concerned about what can be learned and what can be evaded from American family education.

Key words: family education, China and America, difference, cause, attitude

摘 要

《喜福会》，一部主要关于母女关系的小说，是华人作家谭恩美写于二十世纪八十年代的畅销书之一。本文首先概述小说中的家庭教育，然后从家庭教育的理念、方式方法、内容与结果等方面对中美家庭教育进行对比，并进一步从历史背景、基本国情、思维方式等角度分析其产生的原因。本文意在与大家分享一些有益的启示——我们应该取他国之长补我国之短，这样我们才了解我们应该从美国家庭教育中学点什么以及避免哪些不足之处。

关键词：家庭教育；中国和美国；差异；原因；态度

1.    Introduction
The Joy Luck Club (1989) is a best-selling novel written by Amy Tan. It focuses on four Chinese-American immigrant families in San Francisco, California who start a club known as “the Joy Luck Club,” playing the Chinese game of mahjong for fun and money while feasting on a variety of foods. The novel is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four sections each, to have got sixteen chapters. The three mothers and four daughters — Suyuan Woo and her daughter Jing-mei Woo, An-mei Hsu and her daughter Rose Hsu, Lingdo Jong and her daughter Wavely Jong, Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter Lena St. Clair, with one mother, Suyuan Woo, dies before the novel begins — share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes. Each part is preceded by a parable related to the game.
Through the sixteen interconnected stories told by the four mother-immigrants from China and their four American-born daughters, The Joy Luck Club illuminates the nature of mother-daughter relationships in both cultures. The theme of Tan’s novel focuses on the impact of past generations on the present. The structure, in which the daughters’ eight stories are enveloped by those of the mothers, implies that the older generation may hold a key to resolving the problems of the young. Relationships between mothers and their daughters have been a constant topic Amy Tan likes to deal with in her other works. Some researchers put emphasis on the relationship between the mothers and daughters. Among the conflicts of mothers and daughters, we may find some highlight on family education.