The Search for Identity in The Joy Luck Club When Chinese immigrants enter the United States of America, it is obvious from the start that they find themselves in a world very different from their homeland. Facing a dominant culture that often acts and thinks in ways contrary to their previous lives, immigrants face a difficult path in trying to become Americans. Chinese immigrants often find themselves caught between two worlds: the old world of a structured, traditional and didactic China and the new world of a mobile, young and prosperous America. They look nostalgically at China, longing for a simpler life, but see the United States as a land of opportunity and freedom they did not experience in China. Because that's why they came to America in the first place, to provide for their children and themselves, something they couldn't do in China. To achieve this, they are of course faced with the challenge of assimilation. Learn the language, acquire an education, own property, etc. are all ways to capture the American dream. However, this poses a problem for the Chinese immigrant because, in the process of assimilation, he loses part of his Chinese culture. This is especially true for the children of Chinese immigrants: second-generation Chinese Americans. Second-generation Chinese Americans face a particular challenge. Their parents endured the struggle to get to this country...... middle of paper ...... October 19: 256 257.Shear, Walter. “Generational differences and the diaspora.” Critique Spring 1993: 193-199. Tan, Amy. The Joy Chance Club. Vintage contemporaries. New York: a division of Random House, Inc., 199 1.Tsai, Shan-Shan Henry. The Chinese Experience in America. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1986. Xu, Ben. "Memory and the ethnic self. Reading Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club." Meleus. Spring 1994: 3 -16.Yung, Judy. Chinese Women in America: A Pictorial History. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1989. (several found in Gale Literary Database t)v-(http://www.galenet.com/servlet/GLD/hits?c...n=10&1=d&NA=Amy +Tan=&La+Joie+-Chance+Club)