可怜的关系

Questions: What similarities and differences do you notice between Amy Chua's relationship with her kids and the mother-daughter relationship we see in 'The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates'? Do you think the Amy Tan's novel endorses Chua's argument about motherhood?

Relationships with family members are usually about love and the health of individuals, but sometimes, family reputations are an essential part of family quality, which disrupts the purpose of family.

While reading the article called “Why Chinese Parents Superior,” I was able to see the connections between Amy Chua's ideologies and Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club.

In Amy Chua’s article, she discusses simply how Chinese styles of conducting their children are clearly more clever and efficient then Westerners. In addition, she also explains how the performances of their child allows parents the to brag. Amy Chua states:

The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it. (And when Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.) (Par.14).

This demonstrates that love between Chinese parents and their children is insignificant- the parents only adore their skills, and the only reason why they be fond of their skill is because they created it. The parents are proud of their hard work, and display their Childs skills to their peers- this usually causes other parents to push their children even more. Though the child may not resemble the same affection as their parents, they have to continue the skill to make their parents happy and allow brag all day long- that potentially gives off a lot of pressure to do well.

This relates to The Joy Luck Club because in the third section: “Four Directions”- Waverly Jong converses about her admirable skill, chess. She won all her competitions and has loads of shinny gold trophies. But, in this chapter, she realizes how much her mom actually cares about her (Waverly’s) individual achievements:

“And for my mother loved to show me off, like one of many trophies she polished. She used to discuss my games as if she had devised the strategies,” (170).

This continues the idea that Waverly’s mom did not adore her daughter as an individual, but of what she gave out to the world- her skills. The mother-daughter relationship shown here is not intimate and delicate. The only element that actually drives their relationship is chess.

Overall, Amy Chua and Amy Tan’s ideas connect distinctively. The live of Chinese children: love is distant; love is unseen; study is present, and reputation is vital. This the life of Chinese children. As a result, Amy Tan’s argument definitely endorses Chua’s argument about motherhood.  Although Chinese parents assume they are playing the right actions, they will regret their actions later on.