1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

since the 1970s, the rise of chinese american novels has gained much attention in american literature. by right of her magnum opus the joy luck club, amy tan has won several prestigious awards and became a big shot in chinese american literature. she tactfully combines her dual cultural background and the living experiences of her mother’s generation to create a series of representative female images in her most works. meanwhile, the success of the joy luck club also remains a significant topic of research for the present scholars throughout the world. in order to seek out the deep meaning behind the context, many scholars engage heartily in doing research of this novel from different perspectives.

the joy luck club is regarded as a paradigm to explore the connection between chinese culture and american culture, especially referring to the relationship of chinese mother and american-born daughter. only a few scholars study and investigate it from the perspective of the male characters so that the male characters in the joy luck club have not received enough attention, let alone the differences between chinese male characters and american male characters. generally, this is the main reason why i choose this topic to do research.

more specifically, the scholars who study the male characters in the joy luck club often choose a sole aspect to develop their articles. it is too fragmental to give an overall perspective. domestically, for example, the male characters reflected in the joy luck club written by wu ting, who comes from the school of foreign language at wuhan university, talks about the male characters’ marginalized masculinity in the joy luck club according to r. w. connell’ masculinity theory. she claims that it is the marginalized status of male that makes for female’s perversely central place (吴婷, 2017). similarly, liu yi says that most of the male images are not masculine (刘怡, 2016). in addition, shao li focuses on the influences of american mainstream culture, as the fundamental cause, to discuss the frail, diminished male figure described by amy tan (邵莉, 2016). firstly, the chinese male characters in the joy luck club are classified into three categories by shao li: quiet and unknown men like june’s father, selfish and barbarous men like wu qing and ying-ying’s first husband, and coward and poor-spirited men like hong tianyu, the first little husband of lindo. through these specific analyses, she finds that there are three reasons under the large background of american mainstream culture. first of all, almost all chinese males are regarded as the sick men due to the opium war. amy tan has no living experiences in china when she creates the joy luck club. all chinese stories and chinese factors mentioned in her novel are from her mother’s narration. inevitably, when writing chinese male characters, she more or less adds her personal emotions and the social influences. secondly, the american people look down upon the cheap chinese workers with an innate sense of superiority then. they consider themselves as masters while the chinese men as servants. lastly, the american heroism always propose that men and women are equal so that some writers deliberately uglify the chinese men for catering to americans. there are fewer cases at abroad.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This paper aims to analyze the shaping of Chinese and American male characters in The Joy Luck Club. Generally speaking, the paper consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction to the writer, her works and literature review. The second chapter is the analysis of the engrained Chinese traditional ideology, mainly talking about the early patriarchy society. The third chapter is the analysis of the impacts of American mainstream culture. The fourth chapter is the analysis of the awakening of female consciousness. The last chapter is the conclusion. Through the three analyses, we can have a better understanding of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and find out why the Chinese male characters play an ugly, evil and impotent role in her works that is completely different from the upright role of American male characters, and also the Chinese male in Chinese traditional culture.

To accomplish this paper, I will mainly adopt two research methods: close reading and cultural studies. Additionally, I also will seek help from Professor Li, who is a scrupulous supervisor as well as an erudite teacher.

3. 研究计划与安排

Before 26th, December：settlement of the title
Before 25th, February： submission of the outline
Before 25th, April： submission of the first draft
Before 24th, May： revision of the draft
Before 5th, June： final submission

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1]chen, lihua, xiong, man. analysis the gender conflicts of the joy luck club[j]. studies in literature and language,2016,11(6):.

[2]michael delucchi. self and identity among aging immigrants in the joy luck club[j]. journal of aging and identity .1998 (2).

[3]naeimeh tabatabaei lotfi. a unique approach of memory narrative therapy in diasporic contexts: an analysis of the bonesetter’s daughter and the kitchen god’s wife by amy tan[j]. theory and practice in language studies,2014,4(9):.