The Joy Luck Club
...part of the Chinese culture to take advantage of those opportunities given to you in America because you will never find as many opportunities back home. Her mom tries to persuade her daughter to take advantage and become her best in America. Thus, June, is faced with the risk of forgetting who she really is by fulfilling her mom’s expectations. “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn’t get straight A’s. I didn’t become class president, I didn’t get into Stanford. I dropped out of college. For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.” (p. 153-154) In the American culture, children do not take full advantage of the opportunities given, because they do not understand what it means not having those opportunities presented to them. June’s mother knows what it means to be looked down on. Thus, it is part of the culture to take full advantage of any opportunities and be anything you want when given the chances. By facing her mother’s expectations of becoming a Chinese daughter, (be accepted to Stanford and receive straight A’s) June is risking losing her own identity. Unlike her own mother, June believes that she can’t be whoever she wants to be; she can only be herself. Thus, when faced with both American and Chinese cultures, June is forgetting who she really is: her own self. Waverly is raised in America, but she attempts to lose her identity in order to fit in the Chinese culture. However, according to her mother, Waverly will not succeed to fit in, no matter how hard she tries to lose her own identity. Before leaving for China, Waverly changes the way she carries herself, so that she won’t be an outsider. She is risking losing her own identity so that people would accept her for what they want her to be. “‘Aii-ya, I said. ‘Even if you put on their clothes, even if you take off your makeup and hide your fancy jewelry, they know. They know just watching the way you walk, the way you carry your face. They know you do not belong.’ My daughter did not look pleased when I told her this, that she didn’t look Chinese. She had a sour American look on her face. Oh, maybe ten years ago, she would have clapped her hands-hurray!-as if this were good news. But now she wants t be Chinese, it is so fashionable.” (p. 288) This example shows the different aspects of the American culture and the Chinese culture. As shown in this quote, females in China do not use excessive makeup, fancy jewelry and fashionable clothes. In America, on the other side, it is the opposite. Thus, women dress differently in these countries, which show a contrast between these two cultures. Cultural Studies is the theory that studies these cultural differences. Based on this theory, one can conclude that Waverly is forgetting her true self by trying to fit in the American and Chinese cultures when appropriate. She tries to change the way she carries herself, so that she would be accepted by the Chinese people. However, according to her mother, ten years ago, she would have appreciated the fact that she looked American because immigrants were discriminated against at that time. In conclusion, Waverly does not know who she really is because she is always trying to fit in. Thus, faced in between these cultures, Waverly is risking losing her own true identity. When Lindo Jong first moves to America, she is faced with a different culture, which increases the risk of losing her own identity by trying to blend in the new environment. Lindo forgets about herself by trying to impress the new continent. She even pays someone to teach her how to become Americanized and how to lose herself in the new American culture. She learns what it takes to move as far away form the Chinese culture as possible. “It’s hard to keep your Chinese face in America. At the beginning, before I even arrived, I had to hide my true self. I paid an American-raised Chinese girl in Peking to show me how. ‘In America,’ she said, ‘you cannot say you want to live there forever. If you are Chinese, you must say you admire their schools, their ways of thinking. You must say you want to be a scholar and come back to teach Chinese people what you have learned.’” (p. 294) According to the Cultural Studies literary theory, two different cultures are presented in the quote above. Chinese people are known to move to America for the sake of education. Education is essential in the Chinese culture. It is part of the Chinese culture for p...