Cultural Identity In By Any Other Name, By Rama Rau

Then one day on Jing’s 30th birthday, the mother gives Jing the piano and Jing learns the real reason her mother challenged her since the mother tells her “You have natural talent. You could be genius if you wanted to… You just not trying” This quote is very important since Jing learns why she was pushed so hard. She also learns that she was talented and could have done a lot of things as well as everything that her mother had done for her was for her own good. To conclude, Jing Mei is being forced to do things other talented people can but learns that the reason she was pushed so hard was because she had natural talent and that she was just not

She explains that if she is obedient and follows the path her mother and father have planned for her, that would make her parents proud. In order to make her mother proud, Jing-Mei had to change her culture and become someone she was

Her mother took this to heart and forced upon Jing-mei the responsibility of ‘becoming’ a prodigy. With every failed test, Jing-mei’s mom became more and more disheartened with finding her daughters prodigal talents, but she never gave up, even after Jing-mei gave up. This shows how her past has defined her culture, and her future, because when she lost everything, she could have given

Our mothers have played very valuable roles in making us who a we are and what we have become of ourselves. They have been the shoulder we can lean on when there was no one else to turn to. They have been the ones we can count on when there was no one else. They have been the ones who love of us for who we are and forgive us when no one else wouldn’t. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the character Jing-mei experiences being raised by a mother who has overwhelming expectations for her daughter, causes Jing-mei to struggle with who she wants to be. “Only two kind of daughters,” “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!”(476). When a mother pushes her daughter to hard the daughter rebels, but realizes in the end that their mothers

The short story, “Two Kinds”, written by Amy Tan, is written from the point of view of the character named Jing-Mei. There are three experiences which demonstrate her viewpoint. In the first experience, Jing-Mei is being told by her mom about the “American dream”. At first, she strives to pursue this prodigy. Her mom would test her every night after dinner. Through Jing-Mei’s eyes, she starts to realize that it was not the life she wanted to live. Lines in the story illustrate this when he says “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not.” (p.406). In the second experience, Jing-Mei performs in a talent show. Her mother forced her to learn how to play the piano. After seeing a little girl playing the piano

Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).

Jing-Mei does not want her mother to change who she is as a person and this is a small glimpse of the independent woman that she will become. Soon after, her mother decides that it is time for Jing-Mei to have piano lessons however, Jing-Mei protests and tells her mother that “[she] is not a genius” and that she “can’t play the piano” (225). This shows that her mother still influences Jing-Mei’s life but not what she likes and dislikes. Jing-Mei knows that she does not want to be a genius or play the piano, and she is not afraid to vocalize that opinion to her mother. This exemplifies Jing-Mei’s growing independence and her mother’s diminishing role in her

Also, their relationship is shaped by the pressure Suyuan puts on her daughter. When Jing-Mei was growing up, her mother had the need for her daughter to be smart, talented, and a respectful Chinese daughter. This pressure put on Jing-Mei resulted in misunderstanding between mother and daughter. Jing-Mei constantly believed, “that she was disappointing her mother,” because she felt as if she failed at everything her mother wanted her to do. She believed she could never be as perfect as her mother was. Therefore she doesn’t think she is worthy enough to take her mother’s place at the Joy Luck Club “They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place” (Tan, 27). Jing-Mei does not understand that her mother wanted the best for her; Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to challenge herself because that is how one builds up character. Suyuan thinks her daughter could do anything she proposed to do but never put enough effort into anything “Lazy to rise to expectations” (Tan 31). Furthermore, Suyuan forced Jing-Mei to learn how to play the piano and then perform at a recital. Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother and refused to learn how to play the piano well. So, at the recital she ends up forgetting the music notes. Jing-Mei blames her embarrassment on her mother and states,

In Amy Tan's short story "Two Kinds," the events surrounding Jing-Mei can be closely related to my own personal experiences. Parents will often see other children and compare them to their own child. This puts a lot of pressure on their child, expecting them to mirror the other children, whilst becoming furious when you disobey them. This was evident throughout the short story and throughout my life.

At first, Jing-mei’s mother wants Jing-mei to take examinations that test her knowledges, “The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London”(1123). Jing-mei collapsed at these endless tests that her mother is slapping onto her face. Jing-mei immaturely responded to her mother’s test by acting boring and off task when her mother is testing her. Her lack of interest and activeness in this activity made Jing-mei’s mother eventually gave up on

At the end of the story, Jing Mei switches her narration from that of a child to that of the adult allowing the reader to see the "adult" perspective on her life. No longer is the relationship between Jing Mei and her mother antagonistic. With the offering of the piano, the mother tells her, "You have natural talent. You could have been genius if you want to" (Tan 1). Jing Mei states that she couldn’t. Then her mother states, "You just not trying" (Tan 1). Her mother bore her no anger or sadness when she made these statements and Jing Mei gave no argument in return.

“Two kinds” is a story, a Chinese girl whose life is influenced by her mother. Her mother came to America after losing everything in China. Jing-Mei’s mother was immigrated early to America from China who has “American dream”. Her mother had high expectations on her daughter and did not care how it could affect her. It made Jing-Mei become a stubborn and rebellious person. “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, … for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. (104) She expressed her anger by going against her mother's expectations in ‘who I am’, it inferred that such tendency come from her childhood experiences. Jing-Mei was frustrated because she could not satisfy her mother.

Music influences just about everyone and can be found anywhere. Beethoven was influenced by Mozart’s music, Elvis was influenced by gospel, blues, country and white pop, and Vic Fuentes was influenced by his dad. Cultures use music to communicate and to express themselves. For example with African culture, they use music to represent their heritage, religious practices, storytelling and dance. Post hardcore music helps connect people around the United States and represent who they are.

Music; Indefinable by words alone. It is not only something you can hear but what you can feel. It is something your soul is able to reach out and touch. Music also has the power to bring us as humans, together. It is one language spoken by all cultures, sexes, races, age and religions. Music also controls our emotions; it makes us happy, sad, angry, relaxed, etc. We also can express ourselves through music. It can affect our personality.. someone who listens to classical, like Mozart or Bach, all the time is going to be smarter and more intellectual than someone who listens to rap or metal, and someone who listens to more upbeat happier music, like Ska or Swing, is more likely to

Because this is a retelling of a mother-daughter relationship, Jing-mei is the protagonist and main character of this short story while her mother is the antagonist. Jing-mei is a dynamic character. At the beginning all she wanted to do was please her mother and accomplish her mother's version of the American Dream, but then her epiphany happened: she realized that this is not her dream, thus she rebelled and began to follow her own dream. On the other hand, Jing-mei’s mother is a static character. All her emotions, thoughts, and feelings surround one motive: for Jing-mei to become a prodigy. Although at the end she stops asking Jing-mei to do multiple hobbies, she still believed that Jing-mei had “natural talent [and that Jing-mei] could [still] be a genius if [she] wanted to” (Tan 48). In the end, Jing-mei’s mother realized that she no longer could control her daughter, yet that still did not stop her from hinting that her daughter still had the ability to become a