Examples Of Cultural Encounter

Brendan McCauley ENG3U May 6, 2015 The Joy Luck Club Cultural stereotypes are very common these days; masses are often labeled before they are even given a chance. More specifically, Chinese people fall victim to these stereotypes quite often and are judged unreasonably because of this. Chinese kids are often used by their parents to show off to their friends and family, every Chinese person is skilled in some kind of musical extracurricular, and they all speak broken English is just some of the many stereotypes in The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan exploits these familiar cultural stereotypes in her representations of conflict in order to reveal the intricacies of Chinese-American family relationships and their contrast with Eastern societies.

A culture is the body of ideas, ways of looking at the world, values, and standards for conduct and behavior that a given people or nation hold in common. It includes the range of meanings that people assign to their own perceptions and behavior, as well as to the natural world around them. We can define the elements of that culture, and understand how they fit together as a culture, by examining that people's customs, language, religion, material artifacts, and social and political institutions.

Traditions, heritage and culture are three of the most important aspects of Chinese culture. Passed down from mother to daughter, these traditions are expected to carry on for years to come. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, daughters Waverly, Lena, Rose and June thoughts about their culture are congested by Americanization while on their quests towards self-actualization. Each daughter struggles to find balance between Chinese heritage and American values through marriage and professional careers.

Culture is one of the most relevant elements that can define not only a society but also a country’s cumulative beliefs and system. Often noted as the origins of a country, culture is definitive in the sense that it harbors all the elements that can provide justification on the traditions and norms set by the society for its members. More often than not, the society members follow norms in order to create a harmonious community, and the beliefs and the traditions serve as the poles or grounding rules for each member to follow. Culture is very dynamic in the way that it can change over a variety of foreign influences but what is permanent about it is that original elements about it often lingers with the influences, therefore making it multi-faceted and broad. More importantly, culture serves as an individual and unique trait each society has, and therefore sets it apart from other countries and other societies.

To begin with, The Joy Luck Club centers its content around the lives of eight women of Chinese heritage each with their own stories to tell; yet, all striving to satisfy their aspirations in America. A concisive cross is common between the mothers’ hopes compared to those of the American born daughters. Immigrating to America for various reasons, the four mothers all had one goal in mind, to not only construct themselves a better life, but also ensure the finest future for their daughters. For the mothers in the Joy Luck Club, the American dream was to instill Chinese history, heritage, and habit in their daughters while providing American opportunities of growth, gratification, and gallantry. Carrying heavy pasts, the four original American Joy Luck Club members arrived in The United States to start anew, “America was where

The Joy Luck Club is a novel known as the novel of stories within stories. This is because of how it is structured,Amy Tan writes about sixteen different interwoven stories about Chinese immigrant mothers and their relationships with their American born daughters. Amy Tan creates four different sections each of which contain four different narratives. In the first section the mother's recall their own relationships with their mothers back in china. The next section the

The concept of consent and descent is used throughout literature to show tension between cultures. Descent relates to the nation or culture that one or one’s family comes from. Consent shows a relation to the culture that is chosen, even though it may not be the one that someone is born into; consent may also be seen as Americanizing. One’s ethnic identity may be torn between the concepts of consent and descent. The culture of descent may conflict with the culture of consent. The contradictory ideologies might cause an inner struggle because these two components of identity. Within The Joy Luck Club, the Chinese heritage is the culture of descent and the American lifestyle is the culture of consent.

“Culture is sometimes described as a lens through which we view the world, meaning that one’s culture influences their perceptions and interactions in everyday life” (Davis, 2006). Every culture has different beliefs and customs

Chinese and American cultures and societies have many differences and similarities seen in Chinese-American children. An example of this can be seen in the realistic fiction novel, The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan. Happiness is described in many ways, but as many things are described, 'beauty (happiness) is in the eye of the beholder.' Tan writes sixteen short stories to exemplify the differences in happiness between Chinese and American cultures. This is displayed in The Joy Luck Club with short stories detailing the lives of four Chinese-American daughters trying to define their own idea of happiness.

For the cultural immersion experience, I attended a Hawaiian and Pacific Islander luau. During the event I observed large extended families gathering. There were numerous hula groups dancing and musicians playing. There were a lot of children and it seemed that they were being cared for by their family, extended family, and other families. I did notice that some of the children seemed to be missing shoes or slippers. For instance, one child had one slipper on and one off and many children had no shoes or slippers on. However, in Hawaii people sometimes do not wear shoes or slippers outside, so it did not strike me as a concern. Everyone seemed to be relaxed and focused on sharing and creating together. For instance, five different large extended families had come together and prepared the food. Also, right before the meal

Culture by definition is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any type of social group that has its own distinct culture. To me that definition couldn't be more spot on but let's go more in depth over the past few months in my English class we have been trying to learn what our culture is and what part culture plays in our daily lives so in this essay I will be sharing with you what I think culture is what it means to me and how I think it impacts our way of living and the way we look at each other as human beings and how we treat each other and how all this makes up my culture

Different races, ages, and cultures determine the way people interrupt concepts. In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, shows the cultures an interpretations of the mothers and daughters. Asian mothers and Asian-American daughters understand and see themes and concepts in distinct ways.

In the movie, the Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, we see many examples of the challenges of intercultural translations. The movie portrays cultural conflict between Chinese culture and the American culture as portrayed by the lives of four mothers and their daughters. The mothers were born and raised in China, adopting the high-content Chinese culture, while their daughters, born and raised in America, adopted the low-context American

The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.

Culture can be defined in many ways due to the fact that everyone can have their own distinct and traditional beliefs and values. “ Culture is fluid, it is not a static entity which one takes out of the box on occasion. It is with us daily” (Cultural Handout). Someone’s culture is set as the characteristics of the group practices in language, religion, types of food, social traits and habits, and the distinct arts and music. There are a variety of different cultures for example, Western Culture, Eastern Culture, Latin Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and African Culture. All of these different cultures have their own ideas, values, and individualism, laws that are implied, civil rights, and even technology. In our, “ Culture Handout” culture is defined as the tool of the mind, “ it is an individual’s way seeing and interacting within the world. It encompasses one’s values systems, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around them. Race, socio-economic class gender, sexual orientation, ability, geographic location, age, religion language, etc. all impact the formation of culture, but these various context are not culture” (Cultural Handout).