Background on Amy Tan
Born in Oakland,
California, 1952
Grew up in Fresno,
Oakland, Berkeley, San
Francisco, Montreux,
and Switzerland
Currently lives in San
Francisco
Story
Content
Each story gives a wonderful glimpse
into Chinese culture and heritage
including festivals, marriage
ceremonies, food dishes, clothing, and
raising children. The reader is also
introduced to the social rules and
expectations for the traditional Chinese
woman.
The most moving part about The Joy
Luck Club is that in spite of this
upbringing, each woman or girl has a
true nature and spirit that enables her
to find unique ways to cope with life.
These individual spirits are the basis of
survival through hard times both
emotional and physical.
The stories, while separate, are woven
together as we learn of subsequent deaths,
divorces, and family reunions in later
chapters. Certain details in later vignettes
relate back to events earlier in the book. The
feelings that mothers have concerning their
daughters, how daughters feel about their
mothers, and the competition, love and
resentment that takes place among various
members of the group are skillfully revealed.
One of the major conflicts between the
mothers and their daughters is the desire of
the young generation to become more
Americanized. But as the second generation
ages, they become more interested in
retaining their unique Chinese heritage.
Consequently, as the book ends it becomes
evident that the Joy Luck Club will continue
and that there is a renewed appreciation for
what it means to be Chinese among the newer
generation who must now pass this bond on to
their own children.
Feathers from a
Thousand Li Away
Section One
The Joy Luck Club
Story of Suyuan (told by Jing-Mei)
Explains the Joy Luck Club
Sets up the narrator’s purpose for the
search for her sisters
Establishes the significance of Mah Jong
and the “balance of the table”
Mah-Jong
Mah Jong
A traditional Chinese tile game with many
variations
Often associated with gambling and serious
competition
The literal translation of "Mah Jong" is
"flax/hemp" "sparrow clattering."
The sound of the tiles as they are mixed
together prior to the start of each hand.
Listening carefully, players hear the sound of
the flax blowing in the wind and the sparrows
clattering.
The Tiles
The Tiles
A complete set contains 144 tiles. The
tiles fall into four categories:
Suits
Honor
Flowers
Seasons
The Suits
There are three suits:
the dots (also called circles or balls)
the bamboos (also called bams or sticks)
the characters (also called characks, cracks, or
wan).
The suit tiles are numbered 1 through 9, and
in any given suit, there are four of each
number
Suit tiles may be either simple or terminal.
Suit Tiles: Characters
Suit Tiles: Bamboo
Suit Tiles: Dots
Honor Tiles
There are two types of honor tiles:
the winds (East, South, West, and North)
the dragons (Red, Green, and White)
There are four of each wind and four of each dragon
The dragons appear in red, green and white. On more
traditional sets, the red has the Chinese character (in
red) for Cheung -- meaning center of the four directions
The green dragon is not really a dragon, but a green
imprinted Chinese character, Fa (or Fa Choy), meaning
"commence" or "begin good luck"
The white dragon (also known as white board, soap,
bak board, or pak board) may have a rectangle on the
tile
Dragon
Tiles
Wind
Tiles
Flower & Season Tiles
Differ in nature from the suit and honor tiles
There are only 4 flowers (1, 2, 3, and 4) and
only 4 season tiles (1, 2, 3, and 4
Their use is somewhat like that of the joker in
card games
When drawn, they are declared and a
substitute tile is drawn
They are not collected for scoring, but the
flower(s) or season(s) corresponding with the
winning player's wind may double the
winning score one or more times
Season
Tiles
Flower
Tiles
Mah Jong Chart
Flower
Season/Occupation
Number
Corresponding Wind
Plum
Spring/Fisherman
1
East
Orchid/Lily
Summer/Woodcutter
2
West
Chrysanthemum
Autumn/Farmer
3
South
Bamboo
Winter/Scholar
4
North
The Game
Mah Jong is played by four people
A full game consists of 16 hands of play,
falling within 4 rounds
The rounds are named after the four
directions: East, South, West, and North
The first 4 hands are the East round; the
South round follows (second 4 hands); the
West round is next (third round of 4 hands);
last is the North round (last four hands)
Each Hand…
Each of four players is assigned a wind or
direction
The first player (the dealer) is always East
To her right is South; to the right of South is
West (across from East), and to the right of
West is North (to the left of East)
The order of play, beginning with East,
therefore, is counter clockwise
Note that the Chinese compass (placement of
the directions) is not the same as the English
compass
Placement of Players
W/3
N/4
East Round
E/1
S/2
E/1
W/3
S/2
N/4
South Round
West Round
N/4
E/1
W/3
N/4
S/2
E/1
W/3
S/2
North Round
Scar
Scar
Story of An-Mei
Lives with her Grandmother Popo until
Popo’s death
Leaves to live with her mother and her
extensive family
Tradition of soup
Traditions centered around death
Loyalty to family
Red Candle
Story of Lindo as a young
woman
Arranged marriage that fails
Tradition of lighting marriage candle
Leaves marriage to make her own life
Loyalty to family
Importance of keeping promise to parents
Moon Lady
Story of Ying-Ying when she is a
young child from a wealthy family
Falls off of boat and nearly drowns
Rescued by another boat and
encounters the Moon Lady at the
festival
Loses her innocence when she finds
out the Moon Lady’s secret
Experiences at the festival
Tradition of fishing/water
The Moon Festival
Legend says that during King Yao's rule, ten suns
appeared in the sky. Because the heat from these
suns endangered crops, wildlife and the very
existence of people, King Yao asked a famous archer
to shoot down nine of the ten suns. After shooting
the extra suns down, archer Houyi asked for the
hand of the Emperor's beautiful daughter,Chang E,
as a reward. Houyi took good care of Chang E but
she remained indifferent to him, always considering
herself the most beautiful woman in the world.
Meanwhile, the king was worried the extra suns
would appear again and cause a new disaster so he
gave Houyi a pill that was said to ensure
immortality. But Chang E learned of this pill and
decided she could make better use of it herself. So
she swallowed the pill and immediately started
floating into the air. She soon reached the moon,
where she remains, transformed into a toad as
punishment. Leaving poor Houyi to see only the
shadow of his vain wife and only when the moon is
full.
Twenty-six
Malignant Gates
Section Two
Rules of the Game
Story of Waverly Lindo’s daughter
During her childhood she becomes a
child prodigy learning how to play
chess
Development of the relationship
between mom & daughter
Mother’s push for excellence and the
daughter’s struggle for power
Voice from the Wall
Story of Lena daughter of Ying-Ying
See mom/daughter relationship in
comparison to the “American” family
next door
Introduced to mother’s problems
See the daughter’s attitudes/issues
which develop from the relationship
Half and Half
Story of Rose daughter of An-Mei
Discusses divorce and beliefs
concerning divorce
Death of her brother and her feeling of
responsibility
Development of her “complex”
Role of religion/balance
Two Kinds
Story of Jing-Mei daughter of Suyuan
Understand the mother’s “investment”
in the daughters
See the development of the competition
between the mothers through the
daughters
Feeling of failure in the relationship
between Jing-Mei and her mom
American
Translation
Section Three
Rice Husband
Story of Lena daughter of Ying-Ying
“Chunwang chihan”
Superstition
Value of marriage/relationships
Rice bowl and her “future husband”
Emotional voids
Four Directions
Story of Waverly daughter of Lindo
Daughter’s embarrassment because of
her mom
BUT, still concerned about her mom’s
opinion concerning marriage/relationship
Significance of birth sign/year
Without
Wood
Without Wood
Story of Rose, An-Mei’s daughter
“Old Mr. Chou”
Death of her brother and her inability to
make decisions or bear responsibility
Effects on her marriage
Symbolism of the garden
Best Quality
Story of Jing-Mei daughter of Suyuan
Symbolism of the jade pendant from
her mother
Significance of the crab dinner
Competition of daughters passed on to
their relationship
Queen Mother of the Western
Skies
Section Four
Magpies
Magpies
Story of An-Mei mother of Rose
Daughter’s inability to make a decision
Relationship with her mother and
extended family
Her mother’s inability to cope with her
situation
Story of the turtle and birds
Waiting Between the Trees
Waiting Between the Trees
Story of Ying Ying St. Clair, mother of
Lena Forced to marry a “bad man”
Unwanted pregnancy/death of the child
Significance of birth year
Her daughter’s lack of understanding
Significance of the “spirit”
Double Face
Double Face
Story of Lindo, mother of Waverly
Chinese face vs. American face
Two cultures shared by same family
Meeting An-Mei and her husband
Significance of the mirror
A Pair of Tickets
A Pair of Tickets
Story of Suyuan and Jing-Mei
Daughter goes to meet the sisters in
China accompanied by her father
Jing-Mei learns about the two sisters
Names
Relationship in family
Jing-Mei comes to appreciate her
mother and her heritage
Chinese Immigration to the US
First major wave of around the 1840's
Prompted by the gold rush and westward
expansion
Chinese men came to the country to pursue
work
Another influx of in the 1860's to work on the
construction of the Transcontinental Railroad
Chinese created booming businesses by
taking care of functions such as laundry and
cooking
Many were artisans and factory workers.
After the completion of the railroad, the
mistreatment of Asian immigrants,
particularly in California, escalated
A series of immigration quotas limited the
number of new immigrants into the country.
The end of World War II, and the new
communist government in China toward the
end of the 1940's prompted another major
exodus of Chinese
The mothers in The Joy Luck Club all came
to the United States during this time period.
Chinese Culture
Performing
Arts
Legends
Art
Chinese classical dance
traces its origin to
celebrations in the
emperor’s court in ancient
China. The dance is often
based on fairy tales and
poetry. It is characterized
by subtlety, elegance and
balance of masculinity and
femininity.
In contrast, Chinese folk dance
originated in the villages. The
dance is often about the lives of
the average people and tends to
reflect the custom and belief of
the time. As the folk dance
evolved over the years, it
expanded to include the folk
dances of the minority people in
China, such as Mongolians and
Dai people.
Chinese traditional music is rooted
in the rich soil of folk customs and
feelings. It is characterized by rich
tonality and emotion, and very
much connected to social
environment, language and poetry.
The music,played with a variety of
instruments such as Er-hu and
Pi-pa, is often performed with
dance and opera. Together they
tell history and human dramas.
Art
In ancient China, people believed that numerous gods
inhabited the Three Realms (heaven, earth, and the
underworld) and ruled over human affairs and destiny.
To fulfill their hopes for a bountiful harvest, healthy
male heir, official promotion, and other auspicious
wishes, people sought the blessing of these deities by
representing them graphically in a medium that has
become a unique folk art tradition known as "paper
gods" or "paper joss." With the development and
proliferation of printing, the Chinese were able to
mass produce woodblock prints since the late Ming
dynasty (mid-sixteenth century) to satisfy the high
demands.