International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 10, No. 2; 2020 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 244 A Comparative Study of Cultural Values in Chinese and American Parenting Reflected in The Joy Luck Club Bao-qin Wu 1 , Muhammad Afzaal 2 , Abdul Ghaffar 3 & Swaleha Bano Naqvi 4 1 School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 Institute of Corpus Studies and Application, Shanghai International Studies University, China 3 University of Education Lahore, Multan Campus, Pakistan 4 Foundation University Islamabad (Rawalpindi Campus), Pakistan Correspondence: Muhammad Afzaal, Institute of Corpus Studies and Application, Shanghai International Studies University, China. E-mail: muhammad.afzaal1185@gmail.com Received: November 26, 2019 Accepted: January 21, 2020 Online Published: February 6, 2020 doi:10.5539/ijel.v10n2p244 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v10n2p244 Abstract Education plays a pivotal role in a country’s progress and rejuvenation. As the most basic and vital stage in education, parenting exerts an invaluable role in supporting the progress of children. Under the influence of production mode, geographical environment, national policy and other factors, education in different countries takes on a unique and distinguishable character in correspondence with its cultural and geographical contexts. China and America are two prominent countries on the world map which represent, in many ways, divergent national culture models. Taking Strodtbeck and Kluckhohn’s theory of cultural values combined with Hofstede’s national culture model as the theoretical framework, and the novel The Joy Luck Club as data, the study investigates differences in Chinese and American parenting in terms of cultural values from the perspectives of humankind and nature, time orientation, activity orientation and social relationships. Comparing the two styles of parenting, the study argues that Chinese parenting is distinguishable from American parenting in many aspects, including parenting idea, parenting content and parenting method. Adopting a monitoring role, the Chinese parents foreground criticism in parenting, whereas American parents tend to prefer encouragement as the cornerstone of their parenting style, demonstrating a democratic approach and magnanimity towards their children. Keywords: parenting, theory of cultural values, Hofstede’s cultural model, The Joy Luck Club 1. Introduction Education is just like a kaleidoscope through which one can view a social and cultural phenomenon. If education is a window through which countries can learn to know one another, then parenting is the mode whereby a country’s education can be known. People from different cultural backgrounds hold different parenting values. These are differences which show the uniqueness of different nationalities, enrich human civilization and make the educational community more colorful. Parenting is a lens for interpreting Chinese and American cultural values, since a comparison between Chinese parenting and American parenting can contribute to mutual learning and complementarity, thus making it possible for parenting to better evolve in line with the developments of time and society. In China, the word “parenting” did not appear until New Culture Movement. In 1925, the renowned expert on education Chen Heqin published a monograph titled Family Education and laid the theoretical foundations for parenting research in China, although he did not extend a definition of “parenting” per se. Decades Later, several perspectives on the concept of “parenting” had appeared by the 1980s. Zhao Zhongxin put forward the concept of “narrow parenting” and “broad parenting” in his Household Pedagogy (1988), highlighting that the narrow sense of parenting refers to education that parents implement for children, from their birth to the time before schooling, while broad parenting refers to the education parents implement during the children’s life directly or indirectly. A similar pluralism in definitions of “parenting” can be found in international literature. Nancy Darling and Lawrence Steinberg (1993) argued that parenting referred to collections of a series of attitude, emotion and atmosphere and parents’ daily behavior demonstrated in this atmosphere which together exerted an influence on