It is easy to assume that the theme of "Two Kinds" rests on a common struggle between mother and daughter. However, by looking at the life background of Jing-mei and the time period that the story was written, we can see that the story is a struggle caused by a cultural discrepancy between a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese American. It explains why her mother had high expectations for her daughter and clarify the insubordinations of Jing-mei. The 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.

The story "Two Kinds: is an excerpt from Tan's first novel, the Joy Luck Club, written in 1989 (Tan 211). The time period that her novel was written is when Chinese immigration was prevalent. Before the story "Two Kinds" was written, the Chinese immigrants 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 languages, wearing different clothes and styles, eating different foods, and celebrating different holidays (The Chinese Experience).

Despite these difficulties, a lot of Chinese immigrant did not stop immigration to the United States and after 1980s and a lot of second generation Chinese started to appear. According to Zia, Chinese immigrants settled into a dank tenement on Henry Street, where many new arrivals made their first home in New York. It stands today, with the shared bathroom down the hall and the bathtub in the kitchen, still home to new generations of Chinese immigrants (Zia 3-20). Time does not improve Chinese immigrants' economic situation any better. Nonetheless, most of the 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 (3-20).

Since most of Asian American students comport well and get high GPA in school, there is a stereotype of Asian students that they have a natural affinity. For example, at schools like hunter and Columbia, the 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 then other students and parents played an important role in this (47). The emphasis on school came from the family. Asian parents are more exacting of their children (39). Asian parents want their children to be a good figure in the society because they believe that comfort well and being successful are the only ways to survive as a  minority in the United States. Jing-mei's mother wanted her daughter to become famous like Shirley Temple, then become a musical prodigy. This shows high expectation on success of Jing-mei which Jing-mei could not understand at all (Tan 211).

A conflict between Jing-mei and her mother starts to come from differences in opinions. Jing-mei cannot understand her mother's high expectation on her because she does not undergo 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. Identity and life background of Jing-mei are just same as the one of American's (Tan 211). Hence, it is difficult for Jing-mei to accept the fact of her mother's desire for her to live better life. Jing-mei's mother does not want her to live a hard life like she did.

Jing-mei's mother thinks that the American dream can be realized by anyone and it is a way to take a step toward success. The main reason of the immigration of her mother is that the United States is a land of opportunity. However, a prevalent concept of the 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 an obvious right with her view.  the American dream must exist so that her mother's only hope and reason of her living can be maintained (Tan 211-219).

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 (Man 118). They were mostly trapped in typical women professions such as teacher, nurse, and clerical worker (Poon). Jing-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 (Tan 214).

It is a natural reaction that Jing-mei rejects and cannot understand her mother's suggestions. Different perspective on order of priority of their values on success and happiness causes a conflict. A conflict caused by different cultural perspectives between Jing-mei and her mother is a similar phenomenon that is found in our daily life in the United States.  Globalization makes a trend of accepting other's cultures openly. However, neither Chinese immigrants nor American people did not try to minimize the gap in-between them. The writer set a familiar relationship, mother and daughter, for easy approach of cultural gap. It is important to understand thoughts of both sides to fully understand the theme. Position of Jing-mei's mother is expressed by this quote. "Of course you can be prodigy, too" (Tan 211).  However Jing-mei thinks, "I'm not going to play anymore, why should I? I am not genius" (Tan 218). This is the reason why both cannot understand each other and keep insist on their side. 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 thirtieth 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. In real life, people try to understand each other to decrease cultural discrepancy.
