Read this excerpt from amy tan's short story "fish cheeks":
i fell in love with the minister's son the winter i turned fourteen. he was not chinese, but as white as mary in the manger. for christmas i prayed for this blond-haired boy, robert, and a slim new american nose. .

on christmas eve i saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. she was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. the kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: a slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. a bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. a plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires. .

after everyone had gone, my mother said to me, "you want to be the same as american girls on the outside." she handed me an early gift. it was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "but inside you must always be chinese. you must be proud you are different. your only shame is to have shame."

and even though i didn't agree with her then, i knew that she understood how much i had suffered during the evening's dinner. it wasn't until many years later — long after i had gotten over my crush on robert — that i was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. for christmas eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.

how does this excerpt illustrate the theme of cultural conflict that persists throughout the story? be sure to use specific details from the text to support your answer.