Mother Daughter Relationship in Amy Tan’s "Two Kinds"

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Mother Daughter relationship in Amy Tan’s Two kinds 
Amy Tan’s Two kinds focuses on the narrator and her Chinese mother as both have divergent worldviews on what it means to be successful. The narrator is the author who has to obey her mother and be seen as good or rebel and be independent. Tan’s mother believed in the American Dream, but then thought this could be achieved when she imposed her views on the daughter. In Two Kinds, Amy Tans explores the theme that mother-daughter relationship between the Chinese born mother and American born daughter is strenuous because of their different worldviews and cultural expectations.
Jing-mei the narrator traces her mother’s journey from China, her life in America and highlights her perspective that daughters should always do as told by their mothers. The opening statement is “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America,” (Tan 471). However, what follows is the mother dictating to the daughter what she would do to be successful as she emphasized on a rigorous piano training program, but Tan flops when placed before a large audience. “At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. We'd watch Shirley's old movies on TV as though they were training films” (Tan 471). Tan’s mother was so fixated with success that she was willing to force her daughter to do anything to be a prodigy or genius like other Chinese relatives.
Jing-mei’s mother other emphasize that family honor was important, but the narrator was more focused on individual achievement and interests. Lindo and Jing-mei were close friends but Lindo was the little princess of the Chinatown for her prowess in playing chess and winning many tournaments. Auntie Lindo’s lamented that the daughter brought home many chess trophies, and that is all she thought about. Jing mei’s mother also states “If we ask Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It's like you can't stop this natural talent” (Tan 475). In reality, the narrator was no music prodigy and she embarrassed by her mother’s insistence that she was one. This worsened the mother-daughter relationship, as Jing-mei was reluctant to openly voice her displeasure at engaging in activities that did not interest her. This created tension, and it is only when she objected to her mother’s way of thinking that the two tried addressing the conflicts surrounding the mother-daughter relationship.
Intergenerational relationship in the story worsens as the characters have different visions and worldviews...