The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
About Amy Tan:
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It is said that the Joy Luck Club is loosely based on certain aspects in Amy Tan’s life
Wrote various pieces, including short stories and children’s books, including Sagwa, The
Chinese-Siamese Cat which was turned into an animated tv show on PBS
Born: Feb. 19th 1952 in Oakland California (a few years after her parents immigrated
from China)
Father: John, electrical engineer and Baptist minister
Mother: Daisy, left behind a secret past in China, including a son who did as a toddler
and three daughters and the ghost of her mother who killed herself when Daisy was
nine years old. Daisy was married to an abusive man, and was forced to leave behind
her children in Shanghai.
Tan family belonged to a small social group called The Joy Luck Club, whose families
enacted the immigrant version of the American Dream by playing the stock market.
Family moved neighborhoods in Oakland often.
At age 15, her father and brother both died of brain tumors six months apart. Her
mother took her and her younger brother John to Europe before a curse killed them all.
The family settled in Switzerland.
At age 16 Amy was arrested for drugs and let off with a warning.
Adult life education:
o San Jose State University bachelor and master degrees
o UC Santa Cruz & UC Berkeley doctoral
o Roommate was murdered so she left doctoral program and began to help those
with disabilities. Later started writing fiction in her spare time.
Met Lou DeMattei on a blind date while in college and they later married in 1974. Lou is
now a retired tax attorney. They are “devoted parents to four Yorkies: Bubba, Lilli,
Bombo, and now Bobo.”
Amy traveled with her mother Daisy to China in 1987 and met her three half sisters
She was diagnosed in 2003 with Lyme Disease, which she actually got in 1999. While
today she is not cured, it is medically managed.
Setting
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Present day of the novel: San Francisco, California 1980’s
In the end, trip to Guangzhou and Shanghai, China by June
Flashbacks to daughter’s childhoods, around 1950s
Flashbacks for mothers, various places in China ranging, around 1920-1940s
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Setting’s role in the story: allows for the tension between cultures, the mother’s being
raised in China have different values/beliefs than the daughters who are raised
surrounded by their traditional teachings of their families and American culture. Only
connection to China for daughters is their parents, while for the mothers, they don’t
fully understand American Culture as well as their daughters do.
Main Characters
Jing-mei (June) Woo- American born daughter of Suyuan and Canning Woo. As a child, she took
matters into her own hands to just “be who she is”, meaning when her mother urged her to be
a spectacular pianist and paid for her lessons and what not, she tried hard to not good at
playing piano. She feels that she is always disappointing her mother’s high expectations. Takes
mother’s place in Joy Luck Club once she dies. Travels to China with her father after her
mother’s death to meet her half-sisters, her mother’s other daughters. Comes to peace with
her family/mother.
Suyuan Woo- Chinese Immigrant who fled China and an abusive husband, and had to leave two
daughters during the process. She fled because she heard the Japanese were coming and they
would most likely kill her and her daughters, so she flees on foot, and has to leave her
daughters on the side of the road with money, valuables and information so they can be saved.
Suyuan is the founder of the Joy Luck Club, which started in China during her first marriage, but
she revived in San Francisco which meets once a week to play Mahjong. The Club is meant to
remind the women of their happiness and luck in life despite their sufferings. Mother to June.
Ying-Ying St. Clair- previously a free-spirit, talkative girl who lost her identity and herself and
turned into a self-proclaimed ghost who just goes through the motions. This occurs partly
through her husband’s good intentions, of changing her name to Betty and writing down her
birth year (which deeply upsets her but she doesn’t do anything – he writes down the year of a
dragon instead of a tiger). She has the power to somewhat predict the future if it pertains to
her/her family, but she does not do anything to change her fate. She and her husband do not
communicate well, and he often seems to put words in her mouth because he just doesn’t
understand Chinese and she speaks little English.
Lena St. Clair- Ying-Ying’s daughter, and only child. Develops her mother’s passiveness. She and
her husband keep track of what they spend and what they owe each other, and Lena knows
shes getting the short end of the stick but does nothing about it. She ends up somewhat
standing up for herself through her mother’s advising.
Lindo Jong- cunning and crafty. She is very self-determined and ambitious for a good life. She
was forced into a marriage and treated as a slave by her mother in law, but she used her
trickiness to honorably free herself. Believes in herself and her thoughts/inner voice.
Waverly- Lindo’s daughter. Child prodigy at playing chess, very competitive, independent and
cunning. She strong and a leader in her relationships. Has a daughter, Shoshana with her first
husband Marvin who her mother was very critical of. She tends use her mother’s
traditions/beliefs as an excuse for her own insecurities, such as her future marriage to a white
man.
An-mei Hsu- her mother committed suicide in an attempt to give An-mei a better life. She
believes she can accomplish anything she sets her mind too. It is said by the others that she is a
push over. She raises seven children in America, and one son drowns which questions her
beliefs.
Rose Hsu Jordan- youngest of An-mei and George’s three daughters. Married Ted Jordan
despite protests by both sets of parents. Passive, always lets Ted make decisions until he asked
for a divorce and her mother teachers her that she must assert herself.
Plot
The book focuses on mother-daughter relationships; specifically the cultural differences
between the Chinese Immigrant mothers and the American raised daughters as well as the
generation gap. All of the four mother/daughter pairings are apart of The Joy Luck Club, which
consists of four different families, and the mothers play Mahjong. The main focus is on Jing-mei
(who goes by June), whose mother has recently died and she must take her place in the Club.
She knows that her mother had another life in China, and was married to an abusive husband
who she divorced and had to leave two other daughters on the side of the road as she was
fleeing Japan’s invasion of Kweilin during World War II. June finds out for the other women that
her mother, Suyuan, had located her two other twin daughters, born to a husband different
than June’s father, and wanted to go see them but unfortunately died. The other women urge
June to go to China and tell her half-sisters her mother’s stories. However June is unsure of how
well she knows her own mother, which worries the other mothers about their relationships
with their daughters. The novel is broken up into various sections, the first being the mothers
reflecting on their relationship with their mothers, then their daughters reflecting on their
childhood with their mothers and then the daughters discussing the struggles in their adult
lives. The final section focuses on the mothers attempting to console and support their
daughters. June finally travels to China and helps her half-sisters to know a mother they cannot
remember; she forges two other mother-daughter bonds as well. Through the journey she
comes to better understanding of her mother, including her culture, values, and beliefs. The
journey also gives hope for a better understanding for the past, present, generations and
cultures to the other mothers.
Themes
Identity- Throughout the novel, the women are all still establishing their identity and learning
about themselves. The mothers aim to teach their daughters lessons they have learned too
late, some on asserting themselves and others on family values. The daughters all are at a point
in their lives where they are married or involved, attempting to be present in their
relationships. The mothers want their daughters to know their backgrounds and what makes
them who they are. The daughters are trying to establish themselves throughout the novel,
many confused because they are half American/Chinese, or just raised in America, being raised
around American and Chinese Culture aspects.
Language/communication- Along with the cultural identity crisis faced in the novel, the women
also find difficulty truly communicating. Some turn passive, letting their husbands make
decisions and speak for them. The communication barrier also plays into the misunderstanding
of mother and daughter. The daughters were all born in the U.S., while their mothers speak
broken English, and the daughters often had to translate.
America/American Dream- To the mothers, America symbolizes a better life, as it does to many
who immigrate to the country. But in a way each woman resents American ideas – they are all
afraid their daughters are not Chinese enough, and too American. They came to American in
hopes of providing a better life for their daughters and themselves. It’s as though they want
their daughters to be free and believe in the ‘American Dream’ of opportunity, but don’t
believe in some of the characteristics of American Culture that goes against their Chinese
beliefs, such as attitudes towards respect and honesty.