Clash of cultures depicted in The Joy Luck ClubThe environment in which one grows up shapes one's character and behavior. The four daughters portrayed in The Joy Luck Club are of Chinese descent, but they are not Chinese. The daughters speak English, not their mothers' language, Mandarin. The daughters are called by their English names, or have no Chinese names at all. They think like Americans and have little memory of Chinese thought, customs and traditions. In me they see their own daughters equally ignorant, equally oblivious to all the truths and hopes they brought to America. They see daughters who become impatient when their mothers speak in fragmented English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed minds born in America "joy luck" is not a word, there is no way that she will give birth to grandchildren born with no hope of connection passed down from generation to generation " (Tan). Chinese mothers "have been taught to desire nothing, to swallow the misery of others, to eat their own bitterness." Yet daughters do not have this blind obedience to their mothers. After the talent show fiasco piano, a fight broke out between June and Suyuan. June didn't have this blind obedience like a Chinese daughter: "I no longer had to do what my mother said. I was not his slave. This wasn't China" and refused to be the best, perfect, as her mother wants her to be. Her mother hoped and wanted only the best for her daughter, as the Chinese think, but June believes her mother wants her to be she is someone she is not. Suyuan tells June, "only one kind of daughter can live in this house, the obedient one... middle of paper... tensions between mothers and daughters that have their origin in one clash of cultures. Tan also shows that as the mothers and daughters reconcile, these tensions begin to diminish and the daughters begin to accept their Chinese heritage. Works cited and consulted Feng, Pin-chia. Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 173: American Novelists since World War II. Fifth series. Gale Research, 1996: 281 -289. Heung, Marina. "Daughter-Text/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club. Fall 1993: 597 - 613. Schell, Orville. "Your mother is in your bones." The New York Times Book Review 19 March 1989: 3.28 Seaman, Donna, Amy Tan. "The Booklist Interview: Amy Tan." Booklist: 256.257.., 1991.