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For Chinese people, it is very important to be better than your colleagues, to be respected and to make sure you are not disgraced in the social nets. In order to achieve this, children should study hard to be the best they can be. However, for most Americans it is the opposite, they do not feel disgraced if they are not the best. Obviously, in “Two Kinds”, the conflicts between Jing-mei and her mother are partially because the intense relationship between them, which comes from her wishing her daughter would live her dream. The reason why Jing-mei’s mother is asking her to play piano is her mother wants her to beat Auntie Lindo’s daughter in the field of music. If Jing-mei cannot do this, her mother would feel disgraced, because Auntie Lindo’s daughter is good at playing chess, who gains a certain amount of fame as “Chinatown’s littlest Chinese Chess Champion. In the story, Jing-mei’s mother told her “Of course you can be prodigy, too. You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky” (454). Jing-mei’s mother thought Jing-mei can be prodigy if you give her proper guidance. She thought Jing-mei can be the best while actually Jing-mei does not have such talent. In fact, Jing-mei did very badly on the talent show of the Chinatown, and eventually she
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It is different from cultural conflict, but is a more common reason. In the story, Jing-mei’s mother seldom has effective communication with her daughter, because she does everything in her own way and never stands in Jing-mei’s point of view. Jing-mei does not want to do the tests, but she dares not to tell her mother about this. She lets her mother give up on her by paying no interest in the tests. “I pretended to be bored. And I was. I got so bored … At last she was beginning to give up hope” (456). This indicates that they have a big generation gap; Jing-mei never tells her mother her real thoughts because her mother has never talked to her heart to heart. Even though her mother has become a citizen of the United States, her thought is still rooted in traditional dogmatic Chinese culture. In her mind, Jing-mei should always be obedient. And even if Jing-mei did so, the generation gap between them can only be bigger. According to the story, at first Jing-mei tries to be obedient, she tries to play piano every day. But eventually, all her feelings are that her mother does not care about her at all. Her mother forced her to do so even though she does not like it. Her anger accumulates one day after another which enlarges the generation gap between them and finally it breaks
It is different from cultural conflict, but is a more common reason. In the story, Jing-mei’s mother seldom has effective communication with her daughter, because she does everything in her own way and never stands in Jing-mei’s point of view. Jing-mei does not want to do the tests, but she dares not to tell her mother about this. She lets her mother give up on her by paying no interest in the tests. “I pretended to be bored. And I was. I got so bored … At last she was beginning to give up hope” (456). This indicates that they have a big generation gap; Jing-mei never tells her mother her real thoughts because her mother has never talked to her heart to heart. Even though her mother has become a citizen of the United States, her thought is still rooted in traditional dogmatic Chinese culture. In her mind, Jing-mei should always be obedient. And even if Jing-mei did so, the generation gap between them can only be bigger. According to the story, at first Jing-mei tries to be obedient, she tries to play piano every day. But eventually, all her feelings are that her mother does not care about her at all. Her mother forced her to do so even though she does not like it. Her anger accumulates one day after another which enlarges the generation gap between them and finally it breaks