An Analysis Of The Other In The Joy Luck Club From The Perspective Of Orientalism

Undoubtedly, Amy Tan occupies a remarkable position in thecontemporary American literary world. With the appearance of her fourbest-selling novels, The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991),The Hundred Secret Sense (1995), The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2001), shebecame a shinning star in American literati. Not only did she receive the highcompliments from the Western critics, but also attracted a more generalaudience. As the best-loved novel among them, The Joy Luck Club, with itsgood reputation, has been well received and stayed on the New York Timesbestseller list for nine months since its publication. Owning to the hugesuccess of The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan was granted several prestigiousliterary awards, such as the National Book Award for Fiction and the BayArea Book Reviewers Award.The huge success of The Joy Luck Club, winning a great recognitionfrom the mainstream readers, opened a new chapter in the history ofAmerican literature. When cheering for her great achievement, we shouldnote that Chinese American writers have the tendency to alienate, distort anddemonize Chinese culture and images because of their special cultural,national identity and their political and social environment. Situated in theThird World culture, they are the descendents from the Third World. To get rid of the mode of aphasia and rootlessness, they value the Orient as if theywere Westerner by taking advantage of their dual cultural identity and culturalheritage from the parents, and they even orientalize China and Chinese culture.The Joy Luck Club, whose writing is based on the Chinese culture andcustoms of the American Chinese, has ties to the Orientalism put forward bySaid. To keep pace with the ideology of American mainstream culture, AmyTan throws“Othering”light on the Chinese and Chinese culture in theperspective of Orientalism. Through The Joy Luck Club, we can find theimages of China as the“Other”depicted by Amy Tan who is deeply soaked inwestern culture. Meanwhile, the Chinese Americans are labeled as“Other”.First, the Chinese males are considered as the“Other”in Americanmainstream society. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan creates several maleimages of the old China. After reading this novel, the readers may feel thatsuch a group of Chinese males are so disappointing: indifferent, impotent andlustful. It is apparent that such a male image is totally different form theimage of brave and responsible males in Chinese traditional culture. Whilethis standardized and stereotypical mold of Chinese males coincides with theWestern culture in which Chinese men are described by a series of adjectiveswith negative meanings: wicked, cruel and degenerate. In fact, such astereotypical image of Chinese men is just the Western society’s“Othering”imagination of the different race embodied on the writers. As the victims ofthe racial discrimination in America, Chinese males are relegated to be the “emasculated Other”. Another image of Chinese mothers in The Joy LuckClub, described as Other, represents a weak culture. Under dual oppressionsfrom the patriarchy and racism, the Chinese mothers naturally can’t get rid ofthe image of Other and are relegated to the silent, submissive and ethnic Other.Then the author discusses the Chinese mothers as the Other before their ABCdaughters. Chinese mothers in the novel often see their daughters assubordinate and impose authority over them. Such ideological concept isinconsistent with ABC daughters’individualism and freedom. Besides, forAmerican-born daughters, Chinese mothers’way of communication is tooevasive to understand. At last, the author discusses the traditional Chineseculture concerning Chinese food and Chinese beliefs. On the one hand, theChinese are regarded as a barbaric and primitive Other for their ways ofeating and their tendency to eat everything. On the other hand, the popularityof Chinese mystic beliefs reinforces the image of heathen Other.These descriptions of China by Amy Tan have proved her tendency toparticipate in the discourse of Orientalizing Chinese. The construction ofimages of the Chinese and Chinese traditional culture as Other results in thephenomenon that the mainstream readers with different cultural backgroundsshow their hostile attitude towards the Oriental culture, the Chinese and theChinese Americans.