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Biography of the Director
Wayne Wang
QUICK FACTS
- NAME: Amy Tan
- OCCUPATION: Author
- BIRTH DATE: February 19, 1952 (Age: 61)
- EDUCATION: Linfield College, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of California at Berkeley.
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Oakland, California
- FULL NAME: Amy Ruth Tan
- ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces
BEST KNOWN FOR
Amy Tan is a Chinese-American novelist who wrote the New York Times-bestselling novel The Joy Luck Club.
Synopsis
Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. In 1985, she wrote the story "Rules of the Game," which was the foundation for her first novel The Joy Luck Club. The book explored the relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. It received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was translated into 25 languages. Tan lives in San Francisco and New York.
Profile
Writer. Born February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. Tan grew up in Northern California, but when her father and older brother both died from brain tumors in 1966, she moved with her mother and younger brother to Europe, where she attended high school in Montreux, Switzerland. She returned to the United States for college, attending Linfield College in Oregon, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of California at Berkeley.
After college, Tan worked as a language development consultant and as a corporate freelance writer. In 1985, she wrote the story "Rules of the Game" for a writing workshop, which formed the early foundation for her first novel The Joy Luck Club. Published in 1989, the book explored the relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters, and became the longest-running New York Times bestseller for that year. The Joy Luck Club received numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award. It has been translated into 25 languages, including Chinese, and was made into a major motion picture for which Tan co-wrote the screenplay.
Her other two books, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), have also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Her latest novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter, was published in 2001. Tan has also written two children's books:The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), the latter of which was adapted to television for PBS.
Amy Tan has been married to her husband, Lou DeMattei, for over twenty years. They live in San Francisco and New York.
© 2013 A+E Networks. All rights reserved.
Source : "Amy Tan Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 6 May 2013.
Themes
- Exploitation of the female gender
In this film, there is a clear theme of exploitation of the female gender. We can see that the discrimination against women is clear within the Chinese community. Women are not treated fairly by society and suffer because of that very reason. In Joy Luck Club, most of the female characters have encountered this problem. The theme is evident when each of them they tell their stories in the film. The mothers in the film especially face discrimination or poor treatment because they were women instead of men. For example, in China, one of the mothers, Lindo received poor treatment. Due to her marriage, she is forced to live like a servant to her mother-in-law as well as her husband. Instead of being treated with respect as a wife and a daughter-in-law, she is treated like a servant. For their society, a woman is treated this way because of the notion of feminine submission and duty. Moreover, Ying-Ying was exploited as well. She became a passive woman and would continue this passivity in her marriage. She married a man who would cheat on her. However, she did nothing and continued with the marriage. She allowed her dignity as a woman to be exploited by her husband. An-Mei’s mother would be another example for this theme. She was raped by a man who would then be her husband. This was so she could keep her honor. However, he as a man, could marry how many women he wanted without being judged. An Mei’s mother was even disowned by An Mei’s grandmother because of the belief of purity that has to be held by Chinese woman. With the mothers in the film having such experiences in their lives, their daughters would have to go through the same kind of torment. Rose’s relationship with Ted clearly signifies the stereotypical relationship that involves a heroic male and a victimized female. Besides that, Lena is caught in a marriage where her husband and her would have to use a balance sheet to list down their debts to each other. Her husband did not carry out his responsibilities as a husband to care for her financially.
- The difficulty of preserving culture and heritage
In the film, we can see that there was difficulty in preserving the Chinese heritage and culture when the mothers immigrate to America. The mothers hail from China and they had suffered greatly back there. Therefore, by immigrating to America, they have hopes of realizing the American Dream. However, they still love their native land and hope to preserve their heritage and culture. Unfortunately, their daughters who were born in America are not interested in the past. Instead, they wish to minimize their culture and heritage as much as possible. They want to be accepted as true Americans. They have become Americanized that they lost touch with their roots. With this, the mothers teach their daughters about China and relive their experiences back there. The stories then teach them about the strength and suffering of each mother that enable the daughters to appreciate their Chinese heritage. The daughters are inspired by the stories and have found strength. As they come to appreciate their mothers and their Chinese heritage, they become strong women who are empowered. They lead happier lives as they accept their roots and find a way to blend it with their lives. Settings
- Time period
The time period of the film takes place sometime around the 1980’s. However, with the mothers’ flashbacks, their stories range in the period from around the 1920s to the 1960s.
- Geographical Location
The characters in the film are living in San Francisco, California, America. However, with the mothers’ flashbacks, their stories take place in various locations in China. However, in the end of the film, June travels to China to meet her long lost half-sisters.
- Mood
The mood of the film is sorrowful and serious. As each of the character narrates their stories, their tone in telling their stories are very serious. This is so the viewers would truly understand and feel what these women have suffered through. The mood is especially serious when the mothers tell their stories as they are trying to convey a message to their daughters through these stories. With this, their daughters can learn a lesson or two to make their lives happier than they used to be.
- Social Conditions
There a number of social conditions highlighted within this film. In the present era, we see that there a number of Asian-Americans that reside in America. However, some Caucasians are not acceptive of them. For example, when Rose was first in a relationship with her Caucasian husband, Ted, his mother was not truly acceptive of their relationship. She even mistook Rose as a Vietnamese although she in fact, an American whose ethnicity was Chinese. We see a small hint of racism in that particular scene. In the stories of the mothers, there is a heavy representation of social conditions. They live in an era where women were surpressed and do not experience freedom. They were not able to say or think what they want but to only follow orders from other people especially men.
- Emotional Conditions
The emotional conditions that are portrayed are sorrow and reflective. In the beginning, the characters face so much in their lives. They have suffered a great deal and experience sorrow. However, with everything that happened in their lives, they overcome them with kindness and grace. They have matured and understood the reasons behind their experiences. They reflect on their experiences and appreciate their culture and heritage.With this, they find a new sense of happiness as they blend their culture and heritage into their modern American lives. They are filled with hope for the their future. Character Analysis
- June Woo
- In the film, June is in a way the main character. She is the character that connects all the women in the film as they attend a party to celebrate her trip to China. She is a character that connects America and China in the present era. She speaks both for herself and for her recently deceased mother, Su Yuan. When she travels to China, she realizes the connection or bond that she always had with her mother.
- She meets her long lost half-sisters in China. This gives her a more profound understanding of her mother. She shares a similarity with the other daughters of The Joy Luck Club. They have become Americanized and have lost their appreciation for their Chinese heritage. Therefore, as they learn the stories that their mother went through, they grew to have appreciation and an understanding for their roots.
- She believes that she has always been a disappointment for her mother as she received lack of affection. However, her mother has had so much of love and faith in her. Although there was cultural and generational differences, June mends this problem by her visit to China which then provides hope to the other mother-daughter pairs.
- She is the mother of June. She is a strong woman who has faced many hardships when she was living in China. She believes that her daughter, June, can be a child prodigy in music if she makes sure that her daughter is trained well enough. With this, her daughter grows to resent her. She is the founder of The Joy Luck Club. She formed the club with the ladies she met in church.
- She has abandoned her twin daughters during troubled times in China. After her survival, she has always wanted to locate her children. However, her death is what prevented her to meet her children.
- She has a fierce love towards her daughter, June. Although it is perceived to be harsh criticism, she actually wishes for the best for her daughter and loves her very dearly. She felt that she was not deserving to be called a good mother as she abandoned her twin daughters back in China.
- She is Waverly’s mother. When she was a young girl in China, she was married off to an impotent husband and lives in a loveless marriage. She is oppressed by her mother-in-law’s tyranny. She is treated like a servant in the house. Therefore, by tricking her mother-in-law using superstition that her mother-in-law believes in, she manages to escape herself from the marriage without dishonoring herself.
- She nurtures Waverly’s skills in chess which made Waverly resent her as she seemed to control Waverly and taking claim for her successes. She
- She is the daughter of Lindo Jong. As a child, she was a chess prodigy. However, she becomes frustrated as her mother would use her successes as a reason to show off. She then quits playing chess. However, when she decides to play chess again, she has lost her touch and was not as good as she was.
- As an adult, she is a successful tax-consultant. She fears her mother’s criticism of her fiancé, Rich. As she sits through a family dinner with her parants and Rich, she sees that Rich is making a lot of mistakes that her mother might find as reasons to hate him. However, she finds out that her mother actually likes Rich.
- She has a rivalry with June as well and this causes her to humiliate June in front of others during Su Yuan’s New Year’s dinner.
- She is Rose’s mother. As a child, she witnesses her mother’s sufferings. Her mother killed herself so that she could have power and freedom.
- She is the daughter of An Mei. She is the wife of Ted Jordan. She is someone who is timid and unable to voice out her opinion. She is unable to stand up for herself or to make decisions. Therefore, she is often taken for granted. She becomes a ‘victim’ to her husband’s role as a ‘hero’ by letting him make all the decisions in their life and marriage.
- When she and Ted are going to get a divorce, her mother intervenes and inspires her to be strong and stand up for herself. With this, she refuses to let Ted to ‘bully’ her and take away her house.
- She is Lena St. Clair’s mother. She comes from a wealthy Chinese family. When she was a young woman, she married a man and gave birth to a son. However, her husband cheats on her on betrays her. She did not do anything about it but remained passive. With extreme hate towards him, she cannot handle his betrayal and drowns their baby when she was bathing him. She felt that this would take away a part of her husband. After many years, she felt regretful about her action of killing her child and would sometimes fall in a deep state of passivity filled with depression.
- Lena is the daughter of Ying-Ying. She is living in an unhappy marriage to Harold. He insists that they use a balance sheet to detail their debts to each other. He believes that they should share all costs so that money would not wreck their marriage. However, it is doing the opposite. For example, the cost of the ice-cream that only Harold eats would have to be shared among the two of them. Lena fails to stand up for herself and subjects herself to such treatment. Her mother then inspires her to take charge in the relationship. She then starts by saying that she would not pay for the ice-cream.
- In the film, we see a conflict between individuals. The individuals would be the mothers with their daughters. The mothers want their daughters to understand their culture and heritage so that they would be spared of the pain they suffered when they were in China. However, the daughters feel that their mothers are too critical of them or interventing too much. They think that their mothers are narrow minded and do not understand the American culture. That is why their relationship was not that close. However, as each of the daughters reflect on their past experiences and the stories each of their mother share, they manage to blend their Chinese heritage together with the present American culture. They grow and mature as they become appreciative of their heritage and realize the importance of it as one should never forget their roots.
- Woo Su Yuan
- She is the mother of June. She is a strong woman who has faced many hardships when she was living in China. She believes that her daughter, June, can be a child prodigy in music if she makes sure that her daughter is trained well enough. With this, her daughter grows to resent her. She is the founder of The Joy Luck Club. She formed the club with the ladies she met in church. - She has abandoned her twin daughters during troubled times in China. After her survival, she has always wanted to locate her children. However, her death is what prevented her to meet her children.
- She has a fierce love towards her daughter, June. Although it is perceived to be harsh criticism, she actually wishes for the best for her daughter and loves her very dearly. She felt that she was not deserving to be called a good mother as she abandoned her twin daughters back in China.
- Lindo Jong
- She is Waverly’s mother. When she was a young girl in China, she was married off to an impotent husband and lives in a loveless marriage. She is oppressed by her mother-in-law’s tyranny. She is treated like a servant in the house. Therefore, by tricking her mother-in-law using superstition that her mother-in-law believes in, she manages to escape herself from the marriage without dishonoring herself. - She nurtures Waverly’s skills in chess which made Waverly resent her as she seemed to control Waverly and taking claim for her successes. She
- Waverly Jong
- She is the daughter of Lindo Jong. As a child, she was a chess prodigy. However, she becomes frustrated as her mother would use her successes as a reason to show off. She then quits playing chess. However, when she decides to play chess again, she has lost her touch and was not as good as she was. - As an adult, she is a successful tax-consultant. She fears her mother’s criticism of her fiancé, Rich. As she sits through a family dinner with her parants and Rich, she sees that Rich is making a lot of mistakes that her mother might find as reasons to hate him. However, she finds out that her mother actually likes Rich.
- She has a rivalry with June as well and this causes her to humiliate June in front of others during Su Yuan’s New Year’s dinner.
- Hsu An Mei
- She is Rose’s mother. As a child, she witnesses her mother’s sufferings. Her mother killed herself so that she could have power and freedom.
- Rose Hsu Jordan
- She is the daughter of An Mei. She is the wife of Ted Jordan. She is someone who is timid and unable to voice out her opinion. She is unable to stand up for herself or to make decisions. Therefore, she is often taken for granted. She becomes a ‘victim’ to her husband’s role as a ‘hero’ by letting him make all the decisions in their life and marriage. - When she and Ted are going to get a divorce, her mother intervenes and inspires her to be strong and stand up for herself. With this, she refuses to let Ted to ‘bully’ her and take away her house.
- Ying-Ying St. Clair
- She is Lena St. Clair’s mother. She comes from a wealthy Chinese family. When she was a young woman, she married a man and gave birth to a son. However, her husband cheats on her on betrays her. She did not do anything about it but remained passive. With extreme hate towards him, she cannot handle his betrayal and drowns their baby when she was bathing him. She felt that this would take away a part of her husband. After many years, she felt regretful about her action of killing her child and would sometimes fall in a deep state of passivity filled with depression.
- Lena St. Clair
- Lena is the daughter of Ying-Ying. She is living in an unhappy marriage to Harold. He insists that they use a balance sheet to detail their debts to each other. He believes that they should share all costs so that money would not wreck their marriage. However, it is doing the opposite. For example, the cost of the ice-cream that only Harold eats would have to be shared among the two of them. Lena fails to stand up for herself and subjects herself to such treatment. Her mother then inspires her to take charge in the relationship. She then starts by saying that she would not pay for the ice-cream. Conflict
- Individual vs. Individual
- Individual vs. Society
-
The conflict between individual and society can be seen as well. There
are a number of examples of this conflict being portrayed in the film. The
mothers are the individuals that defy society with their societal traditions
and norms. The mothers in The Joy Luck
Club suffered a great deal when they were in China due to restrictions
caused by the Chinese society’s traditions. With this, they are oppressed by
people especially men. They are unable to live in a way which they could
experience freedom. They are expected to be submissive to men and not do
anything if they are taken advantage of. For example, Lindo had to live in a
loveless marriage and be treated like a servant by her mother-in-law.
Therefore, fed up of being treated in such manner, she tricks her
mother-in-law using superstition that her mother-in-law believes in. With
this, she manages to escape her marriage without dishonoring herself. She
defies societal norms that expect women to stay quiet and do nothing about
whatever ordeal they go through. The other mothers also try to change their
unfortunate fate of being controlled by social standards by going against
them so that they can live better lives.
Quotations
“No one believed she was raped. Not even her own
mother. She had nothing. No one would take her in. No one would give her work.”
- When a woman is raped, she loses everything in life. She is treated like she is nothing because her dignity has been robbed.
“I am the
husband. I make all the decisions. You sleep on the floor. Do it! Do it now!”
“The next few
years, I tried to accept my life, to act like an obedient wife. Every night, I
made Huang Tai Tai special soup, good for mother-in-laws. Still, she was not
pleased.”
- A woman is supposed to be obedient and listen to orders by people who are ranked higher than her. For example, her husband and her in-laws. This restricts the woman's rights and freedom in life.
“I-I don’t really care. I--I just want you to... be
happy.”
“It’s just that once in a while...I would like to
hear what you want.”
“You used to have an opinion.”
“Every time you give him gift, like begging. “Take
this. Oh, sorry. Please forgive me. I’m not worth as much as you.”’
- Women lose their independence. They rely on others to make decisions for them. In this case, Rose depends on her husband, Ted, to make decisions in the household.
"I always knew you were a jerk, but, shit, this is the first time in my life I've been ashamed of you."
"How dare you use that language. I think you'd better apologize right now."
"I'm sorry Mom, you made a fucking asshole out of yourself in front of the woman I love!"
- Ted scolds his mum for talking to Rose with racist connotations. We see Asian-Americans being discriminated for being of Asian heritage.
"Where are my grandsons, huh? My son says he's planted enough seeds in you to fill a basket, plenty for ten thousand grandsons! It's all your fault, always running around, letting my son's seeds spill out. From now on you lie in bed all day. Lie down! Lie down! Until my grandson comes! Do you hear me? Disgusting little thing!"
- Lindo is being scolded by her mother-in-law as she has been unable to bear a child for her husband. We see that women are not respected but only treated as objects that are responsible to bear children.
"I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. No, this cannot be, this not knowing what you're worth, this not begin with you. My mother not know her worth until too late - too late for her, but not for me. Now we will see if not too late for you, hmm?"
- We see the Chinese traditions affecting females. They are expected to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery and to accept their own ill fate. It is because they are born as females, they are supposed to go through such ordeal. They cannot change it because they are bound by the strict traditions.
Lens
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