Revisiting the Amy Tan Phenomenon: Storytelling and Ideology in Amy Tan's Children's Story the Moon Lady/Amy Tan Fenomenine Yeniden Bakis: Amy Tan'in the Moon Lady Adli Cocuk Oykusunde Oyku Anlatimi Ve Ideoloji‪.‬

Abstract: In the formation of cultural identities, the role of children's literature is very substantial and powerful. Focusing on the literary acclaimed Chinese American writer Amy Tan's picture book The Moon Lady (1992), this paper aims to reveal how this childre's story, unlike most ethnic children narratives, registers to its young readers a cultural identity that reinforces distinctly western values and upbringing. The legend of the Moon Lady narrated by an elderly Chinese grandmother does not function as a medium through which communal knowledge and values of Chinese culture is maintained and transmitted. On the contrary, the story serves as a channel that legitimizes Western exotic images of a China whose old ways can offer no useful guide to a newer generation. Consequently, Amy Tan's story, The Moon Lady, provides an opportunity of self-knowledge and identification to its young readers only by perpetuating the discourse of dominance and creating a children's literature that appeals to the taste of a west-dominated readership. Keywords: Amy Tan, The Moon Lady, storytelling and ideology, children's literature, Chinese American literature