The Representation Of China In “the Joy Luck Club” In An Orientalist Perspective

“The Joy Luck Club” is a film focuses on the stories and relationships between four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born Chinese daughters. In the film, the four mothers, Lindo, Ying Ying, An Mei and Suyuan are Chinese women who emigrate from China to America and then get remarried. Each of them has an American-born Chinese daughter; they are Waverly, Lena, Rose and June. The film reveals the past stories of these mothers, also, through the mother-daughter relationships, it shows the clashes between Chinese and American culture. In the description and representation of China, the film depicts the Western construction towards China and Chinese culture from the Orientalist perspective. However, from the Orientalist perspective, the film misrepresents Chinese culture, particularly Chinese myth. Also, the film highlights the differences between the West and East by the depiction of stereotypical image of Chinese culture, which creates an inferior Chinese image compared to the West. In the following, this paper analyses the representation of China in The Joy Luck Club, and argues that this film depicts China in an Orientalist perspective and such stereotypical representation creates an Otherness image of China. Yet, at the end, the film tries to interweave the conflict between American and Chinese culture, and encourages the coexistence of the two cultures.

First, in The Joy Luck Club, China is shown as an obsolete, mystics and chaotic land. By showing the comparison between the four mothers’ life in the past and present, it illustrates the great differences between China and America. In the film, the mothers suffered from trauma in their homeland China. Lindo suffered from a loveless arranged marriage, Ying Ying abused by her husband and lost her son, An Mei lost her mother and Suyuan lost her twins in wartime. Suffered from the trauma, these women decided to leave China as to escape from the suffering and immigrate to America to start a new life. The decision of these four mothers has portrayed China as a land of bitter, obsolete and oppression; whereas America is portrayed as a land of opportunity, hope and prosperity. Also, in the beginning of the film, it narrates the believe of Suyuan in moving to America, which says “In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there nobody will look down on her. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow”. This narration implies that it is lucky for her to be able to leave the homeland, and that she can have a good life in America with hope. It reveals the disparity between China and America, which suggests a backward impression of China and a desirable image of America. Such negative depiction of China is an Orientalism which reveals the American enhancement of self image through creating an inferior image of China.

Second, in the film, Chinese are depicted as superstitious and mystics, they believe in Fengshui and other traditional superstition, revealing the Otherness of China. In An Mei’s story, in order to save her grandmother, her mother cut a piece of flesh from her arm and put it in a soup for her grandmother to drink. In the film, this act is considered as a Chinese traditional ritual and myth as Chinese people believes the flesh of daughter and son can cure their parent’s diseases. Yet, this is a misrepresentation and misunderstanding towards Chinese culture as such act is not a traditional ritual or practice in China. Such misrepresentation creates an alien image of the Chinese culture and it strengthens the Otherness of China since such action is considered as unreasonable.

Other than that, in Lindo and her daughter Waverly’s story, Waverly tells her friends that when Lindo sees a mirror at the foot of her bed, Lindo says that the mirror would bring her bad luck and asks her to remove it. Everyone laughs after Waverly tells the story, such reaction shows that they think it is funny for Lindo to worry about the mirror and think that she is superstitious. Their laughter also shows their distrust towards Chinese belief, which exerts an inferior image towards Chinese culture compared to the West. Hence, the abovementioned two scenes create a mysterious and superstitious image of Chinese culture, especially for the flesh myth, it creates a strange, unreasonable and backward image of Chinese culture, which reinforces the Otherness and stereotype image of China.

Third, the stories of the four mothers show the influences of patriarchal values in the Chinese culture. In the film, Chinese men have higher social status than women; they are the authority in the family. However, Chinese men are depicted negatively in the film in order to emphasize the patriarchal value in Chinese society. In Lindo’s story, she did not have any freedom in choosing her partner and is being arranged to get married with Tyan Yu. After marriage, Lindo is abandoned by her husband and challenged for childless. In this loveless marriage, Lindo did not has any right to speak up for herself, which reveals the inferior status of Chinese women in marriage. Tyan Yu’s ignorance towards Lindo depicts Chinese men as heartless and unsympathetic. Other than that, in Ying Ying’s story, her husband abuses and cheats on her for an opera singer, his action of abusing Ying Ying creates an evil, cruel and superior image of Chinese men. Also, in An Mei story, her mother is being raped by Wu Tsing and is forced to become his fourth wife afterwards. Although An Mei’s mother is the victim, An Mei’s family blames her for the incident and did not show any sympathy towards her suffering. The deficiency of sympathy towards An Mei’s mother and the concubine system show that the status of women is low in Chinese society, their rights are being neglected. Through the stories of the mothers, the film emphasizes on the patriarchal value in Chinese culture and shows the imbalance relationship between husband and wives. By reaffirming the unequal gender status in China, the film creates an impression of outdated cultural practice in China, which also creates a negative image of the Chinese men.

In addition, the Joy Luck Club emphasizes on describing the relationship between mother and daughter. The Chinese immigrant mothers represent China, whereas their American-born Chinese daughters represent the West, who dismiss China as puzzling and mystery. Through their relationship, it reveals the gap between the West and the East. The interaction between mothers and daughters shows the conflict between the West and East. First, from a conversation between Suyuan and June, it shows the difference in expression between Chinese and American. When Suyuan asks June to practice piano, she refuses and says, “I’m not your slave. It isn’t China. You can’t make me.”, Suyuan replies “There are two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow own mind. Only one kind of daughter will live in this house. Obedient kind.” and June says “Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter and you weren’t my mum. Then I wish I were dead like them: the babies you killed in China.”. In the conversation, June refuses to listen to Suyuan and refuses to follow her plan. To show her resistance towards practicing piano, June shows her rejection directly by using strong wordings. Also, June shows her disagreement towards Chineseness, “I’m not your slave. It isn’t China…” shows that she thinks the Chinese parental style is slave-like. However, such expression style is opposite to Chinese culture of filial piety. In Chinese culture, people should follow filial piety and respect the elderly, especially their parents. It is unacceptable for daughters and sons to talk to their parents using such strong wordings directly. Hence, in the conversation, the contrast in expression style reveals the cultural conflict between American and Chinese, in which, Orientalism is shown in June’s dialogue.

Moreover, from the mother-daughter interaction, it reveals the difference in Chinese and American cultural value towards independence and individualism. In the film, Waverly is the national chess champion when she is young. One day, when Lindo is telling others that Waverly is the national chess champion, she confronts her mother and says “Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess.” And then she runs away until no one can find her. After she gets home, she says “I'm never going to play chess again! You can't make me. You can torture me all you want, I still won't.....”. In this scenario, Waverly shows her hope for individualism. When Lindo is telling others about Waverly’s achievement, she thinks that she is controlled and restricted by Lindo. Therefore, Waverly confronts Lindo and wants to chase for individualism and freedom. Similarly, June refusal in playing piano also reveals her hope in achieving independence and freedom.5 In The Joy Luck Club, as the mothers represent Chinese culture, their parental style reveals that the Chinese parents tend to have high expectation towards their children and thus help planning and choosing their children’s future. On the other hand, the daughters represent American culture, they disagree with the Chinese style of parental style and would like to achieve individualism. The parents’ high expectation towards them have exerted pressure on them and that they want to choose and live their own life. Hence, the daughters have to confront their parents in order to achieve independence and self-understanding. The conflicts between mothers and daughters in this film show the clashes between American culture and Chinese culture, in which American is more open and free, whereas Chinese is relatively more conservative. Notably, in the scene where Waverly confronts Lindo on the street, the film uses background music to create a sarcastic feeling towards Lindo. When Waverly runs away, the background music “One Fine Day”, which talks about freedom in chasing for love, makes a strong contrast between the running Waverly and the stunned Lindo. The amusing music emphasizes the conservativeness of Lindo who represents China in this context, showing her mismatch with the American culture sarcastically. Such conservative impression and parental influences of China are conveyed through mother-daughter relationship from the Orientalist perspective.

Lastly, in The Joy Luck Club, reconciliation happens as the mother and daughters realize and understand the bond between them. For the mothers, they start to understand and accept the Americaness of their daughters. For Lindo, at the end, she accepts Waverly’s American boyfriend Rich even though Rich still cannot fully understand Chinese culture and acts against it, such as fail to use chopsticks. Lindo’s acceptance towards Rich shows her understanding and respect towards the cultural disparity between America and China. Further, for the daughters, after suffering from career, marriage and relationship problems in their life, they start to realize their identities as a Chinese American. For June, at the end, she realizes the Chineseness in herself, she says “Now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood. Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish”. In the film, the four daughters, although born in America, they are inborn Chinese. These Chinese American daughters are raised under American culture and speak native English, however, their inborn nature and appearances still make them being categorized as Others in the American’s eyes. Therefore, by knowing their mothers’ stories in China, it allows them to understand why their mothers hold high expectation on them, it further intrigues them to reflect on their misunderstanding and stereotypical perception towards Chineseness, and lastly accept the Chinese culture.

In conclusion, The Joy Luck Club applies Orientalism in describing the Chinese culture and China. By illustrating the cultural elements from an Orientalism perspective, the film shows the stereotypical image of China, such as Chinese myth, women status, patriarchal value etc. Through depicting China as inferior in different aspects, the film strengthened the America’s superiority of self-image. On the other hand, the film demonstrates the complex and profound Chinese culture in order to highlight the cultural conflicts and fusion between America and China. Throughout the film, the daughters travel from conflicts with their mothers, and lastly start to understand the cultural identity and Chineseness of themselves. The reconciliation of the mothers and the daughters also symbolizes the construction of the Chinese American cultural identity. By displaying the cultural conflict and reconciliation of the two cultures, in some context, it deconstructs Orientalism and illustrates the coexistence of the two cultures. Therefore, The Joy Luck Club applies Orientalism in the depiction of Chinese culture, but it also reconstructs the Chinese culture and creates the Chinese American identity of Chinese dispora.8 In the representation of Chineseness, the film shows the complicated and fluid discourse of Chineseness.

References

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