A Cross-Cultural Perspective in Communicating Love in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
د. اسيل الركابي | Aseel Alrikabi
01/04/2019 القراءات: 403
Cross-cultural differences exist in communicating love. In line with an expected contrast between Asian and western cultural traditions regarding love, a study examines the cross-cultural differences in communicating love among young adults from the U.S. and Asian countries. The study finds out that love in marriage is seen as important and unconditional for Americans, while Asians are more likely to report caring as an important belief. In other words, Chinese of both sexes are more friendship oriented in their love relationships than are respondents of Anglo-Celtic or European ethnocultural backgrounds. Sports and shopping are activities associated with expressing love for Americans, while talking and cooking food are activities for expressing love for Asians. For instance, Waverly describes cooking as "how my mother expressed her love, her pride, her power, her proof that she knew more than Auntie Su." Similarly, Jing-mei says that Chinese mothers show their love "not through hugs and kisses but with stern offerings of steamed dumplings, duck’s gizzards, and crab"(JLC, 202).
Food and communication are means to express love, hope, and happiness. Because it breaks with Chinese custom for a woman to initiate a marriage proposal, Lindo uses the fortune cookie to "ask" Tin to marry her. The English writing must be translated, because Tin does not know the meaning of "spouse.” Lindo and Tin use written texts to facilitate their courtship. An-mei and Lindo plan to pass a "written note" to Tin. Because they work in a fortune cookie factory, the women decide to arrange a marriage proposal by putting the message in a cookie: "A house is not a home when a spouse is not at home" (JLC, 264). The use of an English text, allows Lindo to determine her future. Lindo's use of the fortune cookie is an example of how a person can find small, but important places where the tensions and misunderstandings between speakers must be alleviated through written texts.
Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club
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