Inquiring Of Cultural Identity

Amy Tan, a second-generation immigrant, is one of famous Chinese American women writers. She laid emphasis on depicting the bitter experiences of Chinese immigrants after they immigrated into America and the problematic Chinese mother-American daughter relationship. They were trapped in double "other" positions, the ethnic "other" and the sexual "other". Sexist and racist discrimination compelled gender to be ethnicized and ethnicity to be gendered. So both mothers and daughters were refused from mainstream American culture. Amy Tan probed into the problem of cultural identity faced by Chinese immigrants. She afforded them the way of developing their cultural identity .Taking a perspective of cultural studies, this paper analyzes the double "other" positions of two generations of women and explores how they argue for a stable and comfortable identity. Amy Tan insists Chinese immigrants should try to develop their cultural identity by blending the.best of Eastern and Western culture. Her thinking also offers us some insight into the broader issues of globalization and multiculturalism.