...the beginning of “Two Kinds”. Jing Mei’s mother only wanted to push Jing Mei to succeed only because she didn’t want her to have to go through all she had been through in her early years. “America was where all my mother's hopes lay” suggested her mother has already lost everything and was desperately hoping to create a better life in America for Jing Mei. Throughout the story Jing Mei’s mother pushed Jing Mei to be the best she can be and explained to her that there are only two kinds of daughters, “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind.” In the first part of the story, Jing Mei’s mother pushes her to become a child prodigy, a genius and famous. Jing Mei has internal conflicts with herself because she only wants to be herself. What she doesn’t realize is she can be herself while becoming the things her mother is trying to push her to be. Since Jing Mei’s mother doesn’t yet know that Jing Mei will soon start to rebel, her mother seems to push harder and harder. With Jing Mei’s mother desperately trying to live up to the “American Dream”, she buys Jing Mei a piano. The piano plays a substantial role in the story. It seems as if the piano represents what her mother wants for Jing Mei. However, Jing Mei does not want these things for herself. Some may think that the mother is trying to live her life through Jing Mei, but overall it seems that Jing Mei’s mother only wanted Jing Mei to live the American dream. The song Jing Mei performed came unnoticed by her...
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...unfold their wings and become the greatest among basically everyone. From time to time it can even occur, that they want more than that as they choose to live out their own dreams through their children. The latter is what the text ”Two Kinds” by Amy Tan deals with. The short story Two Kinds is a text written with a first-person narrator. The agonist in the text is a girl named Jing-Mei. Both of her parents are from china, but they now live in America, where Jing-Mei is born. As the story moves on, we follow Jing-Mei, and how her parents, mostly her mother, have always had extremely high expectations to her. We see, that she enjoys this in the beginning: “In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size.”(P. 107, L. 22-24). What we also can draw out of this quote, is the aforementioned expectations from her mother, as we hear that the mother is excited for her daughter perhaps being a prodigy. Following Jing-Mei further, we see that she goes through a development. Every night after dinner her mother gives her some tests, in hope of her daughter becoming a prodigy – and as time goes on, she grows tired of these tests. Ultimately this results in her disappointing the mother. Jing-Mei is as described earlier a dynamic character. She seems somewhat stubborn, as she does not wish to be changed just because of the way the mother wants her to be. That also explains...
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...moved here from Florida, I was very uneasy because I wasn’t sure how I was going to be treated when I arrived. I remember thinking that Maryland was in the north and it was always cold there. My perception of Maryland was ice skating, snowboarding, and snowball fights all of the time. I didn’t think I would be able to handle that after living in sunny Florida my whole life. I was very nervous and cautious of my new surroundings. In A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan, Jing-mei visits her mother's homeland of China to meet her twin half-sisters for the first time and to find her Chinese identity. Jing-mei was also nervous and cautious about her trip to China because she had never been there before and only knew of it from her mother’s stories. Jing-mei was also nervous about meeting her twin half-sisters. Jing-mei and her father travel to China to carry out Jing-mei’s mothers’ final wish of having all of her daughters meet each other. While fleeing from one town in China that was about to be taken over by Japanese, Jing-mei’s mother, Suyuan, had to leave her twin baby girls on the side of the road. She traveled on foot from the town while carrying her twin baby girls and as many belongings as she could. Before deciding on setting her girls down, she had discarded all of her food and other belongings. She was very sick with dysentery, pains and fever. She had no more strength. There was no one that she could get a ride from. She believed that she would...
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... 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 magnificently, her mother was inspired to make Jing-Mei become a famous pianist. Through her eyes, she was not really concerned about playing well and didn’t practiced efficiently. As a result, when she played her piece at the talent show, she fumbled on some notes. As it suddenly became a snowball effect. At this point, Jing-Mei felt ashamed of herself and was not satisfied with how her performance went. Indeed, we see this exact thought in the lines of the story when she states, “my whole face quivering as I tried not to cry” (p.410). In the third experience, we see Jing-Mei at home about two days after the talent show. After her mom kept reminding her about her usual four o’clock lesson, Jing-Mei replies that she was not going to play the piano anymore. This angered her mother...
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...A Mother's Dream and a Child's Choice Jennell Osborn Lit/210 - World Literature October 20, 2013 Shannon Green A Mother's Dream and a Child's Choice: A comparison of A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry and Two Kinds, by Amy Tan While it is true that every mother should have a dream for her child, she should never burden him with it because the child will grow up believing he has disappointed or failed her in some way. There is an old Jewish proverb that says, "A slave shows his true character not while enslaved, but when he becomes a master." (Author unknown). In the same way, a child who has not yet become his own person is often enslaved by his mother's dream for him. This comparative essay will attempt to explain how each of the mothers in Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, and Two Kinds, written by Amy Tan, places the burden of their own dreams onto their children, and the impact it had on both Walter and Jing-Mei as adults. Additionally, my research results will explain the trauma a child may suffer when a parent wants their children to reach for dreams, and ambitions not their own. There can be a fine line between supporting a child’s ambitions and emotionally abusing them with pressure to succeed. It is important the child enjoys what he is doing, and except failure, knowing he has done his best. Equally important...
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...mother and daughter relationships are considered a theme. The cultural differences between a mother and her daughter, Jing-mei, really take a toll on their personal relationship. The struggle that a mother has in wanting her child to have a better life and all have all the opportunities that she didn’t have growing up drives her mother to the point of almost unrealistic expectations for her daughter to be good at something and become known as a ‘prodigy.’ Throughout this story, Jing-mei learns a little about herself and in the end, later in life, begins to understand her mother and her expectations for her as well. Jing-mei’s mother believed America held all the possibilities in the world along with the ability to become anything you wanted to be; if you were dedicated to something Her mother has high hopes for her daughter becoming a prodigy. She does not know what her talent is, but explores and considers all sorts of possibilities that stem from her reading magazine articles on amazing kids in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” and other popular magazines. Jing-mei was forced to take piano lessons from Mr.Chong, a retired piano teacher who was deaf. He could not hear her off-key notes that she would play in her attempts to not try to learn how to play. Mr. Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with her hitting the wrong notes, so she gets away with it. Jing-mei's mother brags about her daughter's "natural pride," and is determined to put an end to her mother’s boasting an an...
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...Everybody no matter where they come from has hopes and dreams of becoming extraordinary, but how much are we willing to fight for our dreams? And are we doing it for ourselves or are we just doing it for others’ approval? This is a short story called ‘’Two Kinds’’ (1997) by writer Amy Tan dealing with a mother and daughter who have two different ideas of what succes is. The short story is about a young Chinese immigrant girl called Jing-Mei who lives with her mother and father in the United States of America. The mother set voyage for America in the 1950’s after she had lost her family, her home and her first husband and children in China. She has hopes and dreams for herself and her daughter that the American dream surely will happen to them at some point. She wants her daughter to be a child prodigy while the daughter is trying to live up to her mother’s expectations. As I wrote earlier, the story takes place in the United States of America. Unlike her mother, Jing-Mei has lived her whole life in the U.S.A. Her mother did not have the same opportunities as Jing-Mei back in China, so she is frustrated that her daughter is not even trying to seize any of the many opportunities that she has got in her life, and that she is ignoring the fact that she can become anything, even a genius. She is sacrificing a lot for her daughter by cleaning for Mr. Wong and in return he will teach her daughter to play the piano. The only piano teacher she can afford is Mr. Chong who is deaf and...
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...daughter relationship can be either good or bad, but it’s definitely interesting. People say this kind of bond is unbreakable because of what they shared during pregnancy and birth, but others say this bond doesn’t last for long or maybe never really grew. In this short story “A Pair of Tickets” and poem “Hanging Fire” show a difference in each relationship. In “A pair of Tickets” the character Jing-mei, is an American Woman on a pilgrimage to China to meet her half-sisters, who were also abandoned by her mother in China during World War II. Jing-mei’s mother hoped to reunite with her daughters, but she had died from a severe heart condition called aneurysm. In the beginning of this short story Jing-mei and her mother have a conversation about how she denies at all being Chinese. Her mother responds with, “Someday you will see”, “It is in your blood, waiting to be let go.”(263) Her mother’s friend saw her twin half-sisters in China and with encouragement from her aunt’s, and carrying out her mother’s dream she decided to make the trip with her father and go back home to China. But Jing-mei is dreading to go back and is afraid that her half-sisters will blame her for their mother’s death. For example, when she was speaking to her aunt about how she couldn’t tell them that her mother was dead through a letter. She explained how she felt as though she is responsible. “They’ll think I’m responsible, that she died because I didn’t appreciate her.”(266) At first when she sees her half-sisters...
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...the stories of their mothers through four parables. ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ tells the story of a young woman, Andy, who in her newly gained job as a co-assistant in the chaotic unfamiliar world of high-end fashion, portrays the concept that understanding can nourish belonging or a lack of understanding can hinder belonging, thus portraying an absence of belonging. Belonging to a culture brings stability at a place. This aspect is widely expressed through the text ‘The Joy Luck Club’ with Jing-Mei as the focus. After the death of her mother, Jing-Mei is forced to carry on the role as the ‘fourth corner’ in the parable ‘Joy Luck Club.’ Through her barriers of lack of understanding and knowledge of her Chinese culture, it is evident from the outset that she doesn’t belong to the Joy Luck Club, and thus feeling a sense of isolation and displacement. This is evident through the quote, “Nobody says to me ‘come sit here, this is where your mother used to sit’” (pg 32). Throughout the chapter, Jing-Mei suffers silently as she receives criticisms for dropping out of school. The mood in this chapter is quite...
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...In The Joy Luck Club, the struggles between the relationships shape the independence and who the characters are ("Themes and Construction: The Joy Luck Club"). Amy Tan uses Bronte’s way of writing to make her novel stand out and prove a point: the point of relationships and struggles of the internal self. Jing-Mei Woo says, “That was the night, in the kitchen, that I realized I was no better than who I was…I felt tired and foolish, as if I had been running to escape someone chasing me, only to look back and discover there was non one there” (Tan 207). The internal conflict that Jing-Mei Woo experiences is similar to Jane. The self-realization shows the importance of identity and the continuing theme of independence. Amy Tan proves in her novel and the characters that she develops, that the internal conflict is an ongoing struggle between characters and their selves, which can be related to any person in what they are going...
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...[pic] Chinese Traditional Woman Image --- the Chinese Mother in Joy Luck Club by 陆婉霖 A thesis presented to the School of English Studies of Xi’an International Studies University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts May 18, 2011 Class: 2007-19 Advisor: 常莉 西安外国语大学 毕 业 论 文 开 题 报 告 |姓名 |陆婉霖 |性别 |女 |班级 |2007-19 |学号 |0701011921 | |论文题目： | |Chinese Traditional Woman Image --- the Chinese Mother in Joy Luck Club | |《喜福会》中中国式母亲体现出的中国传统女性形象 | |任务起止日期: 2010 年9 月1 日 至 2011 年 5 月27日 | |论文主要内容及参考文献： | |本文从跨文化交际和文学的角度对谭恩美的小说《喜福会》进行了分析。通过认知解读传统文化中的女性角色以及书中主人公的遭遇，使读者理解| |书中上一代母亲们的自我认知历程以及在此过程中所形成的价值观。文中展现了四个母亲和四个女儿的成长背景及人物性格，概述了每个人物所| |经历的不同境遇，分析了单独事件的文化原因及影响，从而呈现出典型的中国传统女性形象。文章从不同角度举出例子概括这一普遍的社会现象| |并且分析了母女冲突的原因并且从积极的角度对其结果给予了分析与展望。 | |参考文献： ...
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...What exactly is the American dream? For many individuals the so-called American dream might vary. In “two kind” by Amy Tan the mother whom is a Chinese immigrant wishes that her first generation American daughter accomplish everything she couldn’t and even wishes that her daughter becomes a prodigy. This hope to acquire the American dream bring tension in the mother and daughter relationship and she in between these two kind of dreams her mothers dream for her and her own dreams. Also, this writing emphasizes the relationship of an immigrant mother and her Chinese American daughter and the tension cause of the American culture that clashes with mother Chinese culture and leads into miscommunication. Also, what might seem like the mother want...
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...brings tears into my eyes. When I was younger viewing the movie, which was very close to reality to what actually happen to women in China in the time, I think now when I view the movie, I’ve missed the whole point of the movie, it was really describing the relationship between mother and daughter in different time zone and culture background. “As cultural institutions, mass media often reflect some aspects of the society in which they operate. The critically acclaimed film The Joy Luck Club (1993) reflects diaspora experiences of Chinese immigrant women and depicts intergenerational tensions between Chinese mothers and their American-born Chinese daughters. It also reflects the struggles, dilemmas, and conflicts in the search for identity and self-development among Chinese and Chinese American women.” (Yea-Wen, C. (2007). The storyline is centered upon Jing-Mei Woo also referred as June, who struggles to deal with the recent death of her mother Suyuan Woo, throughout the movie. The movie takes place at a reception held on June’s behalf before her trip to China to meet her twin half-sisters who were abandoned by their mother many years ago. June struggles with her mother’s past which she never fully understood. Though Suyuan dies before the movie begins, it is revealed that Suyuan was forced to abandon her daughters after contracting severe dysentery on her journey to escape the Japanese invasion during the Second World War. Believing she would die on the journey, Suyuan leaves them...
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...Accessed: 05/09/2012 13:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Asian Survey. http://www.jstor.org W i l l i a m a . Ca l l a h a n China’s Strategic Futures Debating the Post-American World Order a b S t r aC t This essay examines how China’s “harmonious world†foreign policy has unintentionally created opportunities for citizens to challenge elite discussions of foreign policy. Although they are relative outsiders, the essay argues that citizen intellectuals are a growing influence as a source of ideas about China’s future—and the world’s. K e y W o r d S : China, foreign policy, strategy, public intellectual, civil society Although we did not recognize it at the time, Beijing’s current assertive foreign policy started in September 2005 when Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a major speech to a global audience at the United Nations. From the podium of the General Assembly, Hu introduced “Harmonious...
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...Negotiation: the Chinese style Tony Fang School of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Abstract Purpose – To examine the nature of Chinese business negotiating style in Sino-Western business negotiations in business-to-business markets involving large industrial projects from a social cultural point of view. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual approach developed from personal interviews. Findings – This study reveals that the Chinese negotiator does not possess an absolute negotiating style but rather embraces a mixture of different roles together: “Maoist bureaucrat in learning”, “Confucian gentleman”, and “Sun Tzu-like strategist”. The Chinese negotiating strategy is essentially a combination of cooperation and competition (termed as the “coop-comp” negotiation strategy in this study). Trust is the ultimate indicator of Chinese negotiating propensities and role choices. Research limitations/implications – The focus of this study is on Chinese negotiating style shown in large B2B negotiations with Chinese SOEs. Originality/value – Differing from most other studies on Chinese negotiating style which tend to depict the Chinese negotiator as either sincere or deceptive, this study points out that there exists an intrinsic paradox in Chinese negotiating style which reflects the Yin Yang thinking. The Chinese negotiator has a cultural capacity to negotiate both sincerely and deceptively and he/she changes coping strategies according to situation and context...
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