What is the theme in Two Kinds by Amy Tan?

Identity is another theme in the book. When Jing-mei's mother says to her daughter in the opening paragraph of "Two Kinds," "you could be anything you wanted to be in America," she really means that her daughter could be anything her mother decided she could be. There are many aspects to the cultural and generational gap that separates Jing-mei from her mother (and the other mothers and daughter in The Joy Luck Club), but the one featured in the story entitled "Two Kinds" is the question of identity.