【正文】
Chinese Diet。關(guān)鍵詞:中國文化;儒家思想;飲食文化;宗教信仰ABSTRACTAmy Tan is one of the most important contemporary writers in Chinese American literature. In her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, she tells the stories of four mothers who came to the United States as the first generation Chinese immigrants, and those of their Americanborn daughters. The four mothers were all from mainland China and had a lot of miseries in old China. As a result of the restrictions and suppression of the feudal society and Confucianism, they fled to the United States in an attempt to find their happiness there. Nevertheless, the mothers’ lives in America are still bound to the traditional Chinese culture, which has been deeply rooted in their minds. They educate their daughters according to the Chinese customs and habits. But the daughters can not understand this, for they were born and brought up in America. They often disobey, and thus deeply hurt their mothers. When they grow up, and experience the tortures of life, they e to understand their mothers gradually. As an Americanborn Chinese, Amy Tan reveals some distinct features of the traditional Chinese culture in the novel.Confucianism has been the core of the Chinese culture for two thousand years. It emphasizes the relationship between human beings. This thought, however, is in conflict with the mainstream of western ideology, which pays more attention to individualism. Besides, the mysterious beliefs of Taoism are strange to the westerners, most of whom believe in God and Christianity. What’s more, the Chinese have different ways of educating and nurturing their children, and different ways of cooking. They are thought by the Americans as having weird beliefs and a “brutal” way of eating. As a result, the traditional Chinese beliefs are treated as heathen ones, and the Chinese culture is viewed as the “Other” by the westerners. In the novel, the mothers are the representative of the Chinese culture, while the daugh