Multiculturality Of Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother: Conceptual Metaphor Perspective

Amy Chua is a Chinese American professor in Yale Law School. Her novelBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011) draws much attention and raves from thepublic instantly after its issue. The focus of these heated debates centers on theeducation culture difference, which has been highlighted for a long time. Howeveracademic analyses and interpretation under certain critical theories are few. Themulticulturality has escaped the majority’s notice. Therefore this thesis employsLakoff’s conceptual metaphor theory to analyze the multiculturality in the novel. Themulticultural integration during the process of multicultures’ friction and conflicts isunder detailed analysis. The research’s focus restriction of Eastern-Western cultureand educational difference is broke through. The seldom mentioned multiculturality isbrought in front of research, which opened a wider widow for the Chinese Americanliterature study.In the thesis there are four crucial parts. The first part is the “zodiac”ontological metaphor of mother&daughter image. Three typical Chinese zodiacanimals,“tiger”,“monkey” and “boar”, mix the American mother and daughters withChinese cultural elements. As the typical “Chinese mother” image,“tiger mother” iscreated. The foreign cultural elements, such as the zodiac animals, are borrowed andcombined into the novel, which makes it multicultural. The second part is the “battle”structural metaphor of mother&daughter relationship. Their “battle” relationship isthe soul part of the novel. The fuse of their “battle” is tiger mother’s special “Chinesemother” way of education. The growing flames of war accompany Sophia and Lulu’sgrowth. The “battle” originates from multicultural difference. Difference arousesconflict, then conflict updates into battle. The third part is the “spiral-interweaving”structural metaphor of narrative structure. The novel’s content and structurecorrespond with each other in multiculturality. Based on the battle relationship of tigermother and her daughters, structural metaphor of narrative structure is produced. Themain “battle” story line of mother&daughter and other subordinate story linesinterweave with each other. In this way the multicultural conflict-integration narrative structure is constructed. The last part is the “iceberg” ontological metaphor of ChineseAmerican Literature. In the novel the carefully designed character-images, storyevents, narration structure, and the role of Chinese American literature combinetogether perfectly. Conceptual metaphor theory unfolds the contact, conflict andintegration of multicultures in the world layer by layer. The Chinese Americanliterature is just a tip of the “iceberg” of world literature. Thus the multiculturality ofChinese American literature is also just a reflection of world literature.The communication and integration between eastern and western cultures are theminiature of those of world multicultures. In order to construct a modern harmonioussociety, it is necessary to advance the coexistence, communication, integration anddevelopment of multicultures. The development of human civilization is always fullof diversity. Different civilizations have different developing tracks and features. Theyenrich the whole human being history and create a human culture treasure vault.Human cultures’ keeping having strong vitality is because they constantly drawnutrient from multicultures during the cultural contact, conflict and integrationprocess, where the cultures strengthen and update themselves.Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother metaphorizes the integration and harmoniousdevelopment of world multicultures. As a Chinese American literature works, itcontributes a lot to the world literature. Moreover it greatly stimulates the peacefulcoexistence of various nations in the world. In the garden of literature art, it is aprecious wonderful flower of multicultural integration.