Defying one's parent during a childhood is a common feature for most of the children in the age of daughter Jing-mei who is the main character in the story of "Two Kinds". It is easy to assume that the of "Two Kinds" rests on a common struggle between mother and daughter. However, by looking at the background description of Jing-mei and time period that the story was written,  of the story is a struggle caused by cultural discrepancy between Chinese immigrant and Chinese American. story builds steadily toward a climax with the scene that Jing-mei's mother forces her daughter to develop her piano performance as a prodigy regardless of her daughter's talent. This one scene reflects many cultural, historical facts of Chinese immigrants' society. It explain why her mother showed extreme expectation on her daughter and clarify the cultural of the story. 

The story "Two Kinds: is an excerpt from Tan's first novel, the Joy Luck Club written in 1989. The time period that her novel was written is when Chinese immigration was prevalent. Influx of immigrants continued to increase until the passage of first Chinese exclusion law in 1882 in the United States. They came to the United States to seek a new land of economic security for their families (Lau 20). Also some of them came for Gold rush and settled in California. Most of Chinese immigrants were peasant farmers who left everything in China because of economic and political problem. Despite their efforts to settle down in the United States, many Americans looked down on Chinese immigrants, so that they were considered racially as well as culturally inferior. Most Americans thought that Chinese immigrants are totally different from them to assimilate into American culture. They usually criticized for following a different religion, using opium, playing different gambling games, speaking different language, wearing different clothes and styles, eating different foods, and celebrating different holidays (The Chinese Experience).

Nonetheless, most of Chinese immigrants and their second generation quickly settled down in the United States not only economically but also intellectually because of their own ethic of hard work. Since most of Asian American students comport well and get high GPA in the school, there is a stereotype of Asian students that they have a natural affinity. For example, at schools like hunter and Columbia, student council is comprised of about 17 percent of Asian American students who have multicultural perspectives due to their family (Louie 41-42). Asians do better in school because they work harder than other people and parents played an important for this (Louie 47). The emphasis on school came from the family. Asian parents are more exacting of their children (Louie 39). There are several reasons why they emphasize to be a good person in the school and the society. They are teaching their child how to survive as a minority of group in the United States. Most of them strongly believe that education is one of the fairest and the easiest way to live successful life in the future. 

A conflict between Jing-mei and her mother starts to come from . Jing-mei did not undergoes any of her mother's hardships such as the terror of privations of war (aftermath of World War II), the tragedy of losing her twin children, and the difficulties of adapting to a new culture. Hence, it is difficult to obey her mother's suggestions which are concerns for her daughter's future. Jing-mei's mother does not want her to live hard life like she did. Living in the United States as women, people of color and immigrants, they encounter many hardships. Injustice and discrimination is still alive everywhere. To fight against these difficulties her mother needed to fight for her rights so that she can prevent and dispel injustice and discrimination (Poon). Jing-mei's Mother strongly believes that only way to overcome unfair treatment is becoming successful that is why American dream was an ideal concept. She thought that American dream can be realized by anyone. The main reason of the immigration of her mother is that the United States is a land of opportunity. However, a prevalent concept of American dream among immigrants seemed non-sense for Jing-mei because she was born and raised in the Unites States and equal opportunity for everyone was obvious right with her view. Since her mother experienced many hardships to bring up her daughter alone, American dream must exist so that her mother's only hope and reason of her living can be maintained.

The biggest concern for Jing-mei is employment of her daughter in the future. Chinese immigrants, especially women, had difficulty of finding suitable work. Even well educated women with extensive work experience in their country had difficulty of finding employment. Lack of familiarity was the main reason that impeded their search for work (118 Man). They were mostly trapped in typical women professions such as teacher, nurse, and clerical worker (Poon). Jin-mei's mother does housecleaning in the story to earn extra money for her daughter's piano lessons.  Housecleaning is a blue-collar job which requires a lot of manual labor with low pay. Jing-mei's mother forced her to become a prodigy regardless of her daughter's opinion. However, Jing-mei does not understand her mother's effort to assist her for the bright future. 

It is a natural reaction that Jing-mei rejects and cannot understand her and her mother's suggestions. A conflict caused by different perspective between Jing-mei and her mother is a common phenomenon that showed between Asian immigrants and second generation Asians. Large and small problems come up all across the country since the background of both groups is very different. Globalization made favorable trend of accepting foreign culture lately. However, culture issue was more prevalent during 1980s during the time of a huge influx of immigrants. Immigrants did not try a lot to break cultural barriers and to absorb culture. Instead, Chinese immigrants made their own communities. The writer set the relationship of mother and daughter to reflect the real problem caused by cultural discrepancy between immigrants and Asian Americans (or even Americans). The writer could develop a story very realistically and objectively because she recognizes these problems very well as an Asian American herself. The restoration of relation between mother and daughter is done after the death of Jing-mei's mother which is the scene of playing the piano that her mother offered for Jing-mei's 30th birthday. The fact that their relationship did not restore until her mother's death implies that cultural difference is in existence and not easy to solve.
