On Being Asian American: A Question of Assimilation or Isolation Joy Luck Club is an intimate exploration of the lives of four Chinese

Americans and their respective mothers, who were born in feudal China and immigrated to the United States for a new beginning and a better life for their children. A life based on the American way. But no matter how the children act like Americans and, although, their mothers are thousand miles away now and safe from their cruel experiences in the mainland, their Chinese lineage and past still runs through them. This results to the film's exploration of two conflicting cultures and the relationships between mothers, who grew up in traditional Chinese upbringing, and daughters, very much alien to their race's culture. The film starts in a family gathering for June's trip to China to visit her long lost twin sisters. In the event, June, the daughter of Suyuan, is invited by her aunts to take the place of her mother, who just died months ago, to play mahjong with them. And through a series of flashbacks or vignettes, the stories and relationships of each mahjong player with their respective daughters are told and explored. Chinese and American Culture In the film, June, Waverly, Lena, and Rose--the daughters of Suyuan, Aunt Lindo, Ying-Ying, and An-Mei, respectively--have fully undergone the three levels of a minority group's assimilation to a dominant culture due to migration. Cultural assimilation: All the characters speak the dominant language, English, in the American way; they wear American clothes and fashion, eat American food, and they have fully learned American values and norms. They are even

unaccustomed to Chinese culture: They do not speak or write the Chinese language, with the exception of June who knows a little; they do not wear Chinese clothes. Structural assimilation: the daughters work in the same firms that Americans work; they went in the same schools; and lives in the same American neighborhood with their American husbands, except June, who still lives in her family's house. Lastly, biological assimilation: Waverly and Rose married American husbands--with Rose having a white daughter. Being born in the US, the four women have clearly imbibe the American culture. Unlike the unhappy childhood of their mothers, who are raised to become obedient daughters and wives in a patriarchal Chinese society, the four women grew up with an independent mind. Unlike their obedient mothers, June and Waverly can say no and speak their minds to their own mothers. They both rejected their mothers's dictates upon them--of being a great piano and chess champion, respectively--and, instead, chose their own paths and pursued their own dreams. Moreover, Waverly, Lena, and Rose chose the man that they love, although Waverly once married a Chinese to satisfy her mother. They also have the choice of divorce. This is unlike the Chinese tradition that children's marriages are often arranged to preserve or expand family wealth. They have also become materialistic (Waverly and Lena). Waverly brags about her fashion things and spends much on being pretty; Lena and her husband focuses too much attention on their monetary expenses. Unlike their daughters, Aunt Lindo, Suyuan, Ying-Ying and An-Mei have not fully assimilated to American culture. They retained their Chinese cultural

traits. They still wear Chinese clothes although combined with American ones, cook Chinese cuisine, play mahjong, and speak broken English with Chinese accents. Importantly, they still follow Chinese beliefs. For one, Suyuan and Aunt Lindo believe that daughters must be obedient to the motherly wishes. In a way, the differences of the daughters and mothers depict the divide between American and Chinese culture. The American way of life, which the young women grew up with, is democratic: it is easy going, independent, full of many choices, shame and failure is easily forgotten, and one's path is based on one's choice. The Chinese way is rigid, strict, and authoritarian: rules and traditions often determine one's choices and status in life, very family centered that often one's fate is determined by the family, and family type is extended. This difference, in turn, results to uneasy and conflicting relationships with the mothers and daughters--as the daughters are ignorant of their mothers' trials and their Chinese origins. In the early part of the film, June and Waverly misunderstand the many efforts of their mothers for them to excel, seeing it as intrusion and controlling one's own life, not knowing that their mothers only wish them the best in life. Meanwhile, Suyuan and Aunt Lindo see their children's resistance as rebelliousness and, in a way, ungratefulness. The two mothers try to instill lessons and guidance to the two, which are very much Chinese. But, being seen by their daughters as traditional people, their daughters harbor resentment against them and what they stand for. However, much as Rose and June try to break away from their Chinese roots, they become more and more ordinary, yet still different from their white counterparts. They lose their

distinctiveness as individuals. Although they live like Americans, one knows that they are still Chinese. Rose and Lena's situation, however, is different to June and Waverly. Although raised in the American way, they still end up acting as traditional Chinese wives. Rose loses her voice when she married. She becomes submissive and dependent on the decisions of her man, which becomes the cause of their short separation (they later reconcile when Rose finally recovers her voice through the inspiring story of her mother). Lena also becomes submissive; she tolerates the indifference of her first husband, who is more concerned on money. Ying Ying and An Mei are dismayed in the condition of their daughters because they are slowly becoming incarnation of their mothers' sad past as wives. The film also shows a typical Asian American family in the US after World War II to the present: economically successful, educated, and has strong family relationships. Assimilation or Isolation In immigrating and being in a foreign land, it is only natural that there are things in one's culture that are lost--forgotten--in one's self as the culture of the foreign land or new home becomes one's dominant culture. One is forced to assimilate and embrace the new land's culture to adapt in the new environment and avoid isolation. However, assimilation does not mean that one must abandon one's culture or origin. One can still maintain one's cultural identiy as shown by the mothers without being discriminated or isolated from the community. Instead

of assimilating, one can have two or more cultures, in the film being Chinese American; one can practice multiculturalism or pluralism, where one still maintains much of one's cultural identiy while participating and mingling in one's chosen society. In the end, by understanding and becoming enlightened by their mothers' lives in China, the daughters finally finds and understands their own identity, voice, and selfworth. It shows that to fully assimilate or adapt in another country's culture, one must first begin to understand one's own. References: Thio, Alex. 2007. Society: Myths and Realities: An Introduction to Sociology . Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Min, Pyong Gap. 1995: Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues. California. Sage Publications, Inc. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review? res=9F0CE1DA1031F93BA3575AC0A965958260&scp=2&sq=joy%20luck %20club%20movie %20review&st=cse&gwh=906172BF7164C6F3C6F9F48BAA2D1D28 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/