1。2 Literature Review

Since the publication of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, scholars have shown steady interest in studying this novel。 Domestic research mainly conducted in the following aspects: study on the themes, study on the characters, study on the narrative techniques and comparative studies, among which, studies on the themes are most popular among literary critics and scholars。 Study on the themes have been conducted from various perspectives such as culture, mother-daughter relationships and feminism。     

Zou Jianjun is one of the typical writers who did research on novel from cultural perspective。 In his article, The Mystic Orient In Amy Tan’s Novel, A Cause Study of Bonesetter’s Daughter, taking The Bonesetter’s Daughter as an example, he explores the function of the mystical oriental images in the novel by analyzing their four modalities, which not only accord with historical truth of Chinese folk life and folk culture, but also satisfy the requirements of the novel’s artistic truth。 They embody the author’s pursuit of unique artistic conception and independent Artistic quality。 Zhuang Enping and his students Guo Xiaoguang interpret the novel from cultural perspective in their article From the Theory of Culture Integration to Multi-Cultures。 Based on intercultural communication theories, they pay special attention to Tan’s attitude towards different culture and her thinking of multi-cultures in the novel。 In light of politics of difference in postmodern theories and Stuart Hall’s culture identity theory, Jin Xuepin’s dissertation Representation and deconstruction: a study on Confucianism in Chinese American literature analyses The Bonesetter’s Daughter and other typical novels written by Chinese American writer from cultural perspective to find characteristics of Chinese Americans in Chinese American literature and to support that Confucianism has been both represented and deconstructed in the change of cultural identities of Chinese Americans。

Some scholars study the novel from the perspective of mother daughter relations and they have made some achievements。 For example, Chen Ai-Min explores direct and indirect factors leading to conflicts between each pair in her essay on the mother-daughter relationship in Amy Tan’s new novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter and draws the conclusion that understanding is the key to real communication in two generations。 Her another essay on the theme of mother-daughter relationship decoding Amy Tan’s new novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter, focusing on mother-daughter relationship again, she offers an answer to the question why Amy Tan prefer to write mother-daughter relationship, which reveals the truth behind fabrication and whole situation of Chinese immigrants and represents the sincere wish for the future relationship between the two nations。 

As for the motif of feminism, Zhao Xiaolin talks about cultural identity in The Bonesetter’s Daughter from the perspective of feminism and the reconstruction Chinese women’s cultural identity(赵晓琳,2014)。 From the perspective of Third World feminism, the novel has been regarded as manifestation of Amy Tan to encourage third world women to strive for inner voices and express their needs。 (蔡婷婷,2007)文献综述

There are several research works focusing on characters。 Wang Yu, unlike other scholars, he makes an analysis of characteristic and destiny of male characters  in Chinese American literature to support the view that orientalism and historical reason leads to distinctive portrayal of male characters(王宇,2013),。

Unique narrative techniques also account for her success。 Cheng Aimin, he makes an analysis of nesting narrative technique in Bonesetter’s Daughter to explore the application and function of this kind of narrative structure(程爱民，2003)，while Tan Anqing focuses on Tan’s special narrative strategies of talking stories (谭岸青，2004)。