Abstract ：Amy Tan, who is one of the most famous female Chinese American writers, explores mother-daughter relationship and the Chinese –American experiences. She has written five influential novels between mother and daughter in Chinese American family and has been highly appraised by the specialists in the literature field. Based on mother-daughter relationship, Amy Tan’s novels are full of mixed feelings including entanglements and tolerances. So there are two basic relation modes came into being: contradiction mode and conciliation mode. Amy Tan also uses these ways to describe the survival of Chinese in America. By researching Amy Tan and The Joy Luck Club we can get a deeper understanding about mother-daughter relationship in Chinese American families as well as do some self-reflections to help us dealing with our own family issues.

Key words：Amy Tan; The Joy Luck Club; Chinese-American; mother-daughter relationship; contradiction; conciliation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Introduction-3

Chapter one  Cultural differences between east and west-5

1.1The opposite family values-5

1.2The opposite characters-6

Chapter Two  Contradiction mode-7

2.1 Features of mother-daughter contradiction-7

2.2 Reasons of mother-daughter contradiction-9

Chapter Three  Conciliation mode-10

3.1 Features of mother-daughter conciliation-11

3.2 Reasons of mother-daughter conciliation-12

Conclusion-13

Bibliography-14

Acknowledgement-15