Family in Chinese Culture As shown in Amy Tan's short stories A Pair of Tickets, Immortal Heart, and Two Kinds, one can see the importance of family in Chinese culture. In the piece A Pair of Tickets, it is shown how hard Jing-mei's mother Suyuan looks for the twin babies she is forced to leave behind. Her effort is shown when Jing-mei's father recalls the travels, saying, "We went to many different cities, back to Kweilin, to Changsha, as far south as Kunming. She was always looking out of one corner of her eye for twin babies, then little girls" (Tan, A Pair of . . ." 163, 164). This passage tells of the unsuccessful journey that Suyuan and her new husband go on a search for the babies. It demonstrates how attached a family is in Chinese …show more content…
Yet I have a memory of her telling me with her hands. I can see her telling me with her eyes. When it is dark, she says this to me in a clear voice I have never heard. She speaks in the language of the stars" (Tan, "Immortal Heart" 152). Though Precious Auntie is dead, Lu Ling feels that she is still with her, and wishes that she had appreciated Precious Auntie more. with Precious. In addition quote shows Lu Ling's connection to her dead father who is named Baby Uncle. He says that Precious Auntie speaks the language of the stars, which creates a connection between father and daughter. The final story, Two Kinds is generally focused on a mother and her daughter. The mother who is named Daisy wants the best for her daughter who is named Jing-mei. Enforcing this and trying to teach that hard work can pay off, Daisy says, "You can be best at anything" (Tan, "Two Kinds" 413). 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
Jing-Mei has this mother who lost her husband and twins back in China and is now trying very hard to get a fresh and better start on her new life with her child. Now this could mean many different things to different people, but
An-mei was a member of the Joy Luck club with a mother who was widowed and disowned by her family when she remarried as a man’s fourth wife. Similarly, Daisy influenced this character as her mother was a young widow, who was raped by a very rich and powerful man and later became the very wealthy and powerful man’s mistress. In Amy’s other written works, some of the characters were also based on her mother’s life. However, this was not the only way Daisy influenced Amy’s
When Jin is upset on his way to his new home, he is comforted by an old Chinese parable making him feel closer to his mother. Jin is sitting in the back of his car with a tear running down his face (Yang 23). His mother tells him the story of a Chinese boy whose mother makes him move often but in each place new place he stays he can learn new skills in order to adapt to the environment (24). With the use of their culture, she is able to alleviate his worries about moving. It proves to him that no matter where he goes there are always ways to fit in.
The one-child policy helps children in China have a much better life. China’s population was the largest in the world and a very poor country at the same time. Still, the chairman called for people to have even more children. His advisors were against this decision. Finally, in 1980, the one-child policy was placed upon China (BE).
A Pair of Tickets and Volar First story: The story A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan is a story concerning family and heritage. Jing-Mei was a Chinese born in the USA and grew up with an American background culture, whereas her mother and father grew up in China and then immigrated to America. The narrator, Jing-Mei explores the internal conflicts affecting individuals living abroad. She wanted to prove how being ignorant and not embracing one’s own culture could make a person miss out on the most important elements of one’s life and heritage. The story illustrates the challenges faced by second generation American immigrant children.
Also to meet a few family members, including her twin half-sisters, whom she had never met. Suyuan, her mother, departed China during World War II and left her twin daughters behind. Suyuan had walked herself to fatigue, causing her to feel symptoms of dysentery in her stomach. She knew she couldn't witness the twins perish alongside her on the side of the road.
At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings
Through analyzing the stories about their lives’ hardships and experiences, it is revealed that Suyuan’s American Dream is achieved by Jing-mei by going back to her own country, retrieving her two sisters, and makes the family whole again. The story of Suyuan and Jing-mei chasing their American Dream teaches us a lesson: Never gives up your dreams casually. One day, you will be thankful for your persistence, when the dream comes
(Tan 24). through this it can be said that Jing-Mei’s mother has a very different culture compared to
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
When the story was told from Jing-mei’s perspective, Suyuan seemed like a selfish mother but when Suyuan’s story was told from Jing-mei’s father’s perspective, we saw the reality of Suyuan’s sacrifice. Another example of is when she takes on an extra job so that Jing-mei could take piano classes. After Suyuan had passed away, Jing-mei reminisced about her past and told her story of when she was 9. Her mother had wanted her to be a prodigy. When Suyuan saw a piano prodigy on TV, she called Jing-mei over and
A Pair of Tickets In “A Pair of Tickets,” Amy Tan described the journey of Jing-Mei Woo, a middle-aged, Chinese-American woman, to China where she experienced a compelling change in herself. The author herself is Chinese-American, which enabled her to use insightful experiences in the story that were similar to her own experiences to better illustrate the emotions that Jing-Mei felt. Reminiscing about her own trip to China, Tan wrote: “As soon as my feet touched China, I become Chinese” (Tan 146). As Jing-Mei made the long travel to her motherland, she experienced a series of events, met her long-lost relatives, reflected on her own memories, and listened to stories about her mother’s past, deepening the connection that she had with her mother
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
"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is a complex representation of an unsteady mother-daughter relationship. The focal point of the story is oftentimes troublesome yet inescapable and uncovers clashing values. The relationship between Jing-mei and her mother stretches throughout the story. Conflict rises as opposite standpoints in connection with identification surface. Living in America as a Chinese immigrant, Jing-mei 's mother plants her dreams of American success on the shoulders of her daughter.
As a whole, while the story was very depressing at times, it still has an underlying tone of family ideals, as the relationship between the mother and daughter still remained despite the arguments they had. In my opinion, I think the author’s message that she wished to convey was that despite any event that may occur, family members will always be there support you. This is shown in how, despite Jing Mei’s failures at becoming a prodigy, her mother still supported her and did not give up hope on helping her daughter becoming a successful person. As such, it strengthens the idea that “family will always be there for you”, no matter what hardships come their way. In addition, it helped to add a sense of togetherness in the short story, as it inadvertently revealed how much Jing’s mother actually loved her, despite her tough exterior.