THE JOY LUCK CLUB INTRODUCTORY POST
The book I am reading is very popular, “The Joy Luck Club,” written by Amy Tan. I chose to read this novel because of its interesting title “Joy Luck” - it is not a word in English. The writer’s name, Amy Tan, indicates that she might be of Chinese background. I read the short introduction to the novel and gleaned some understanding before reading the novel describing four Chinese families who live in San Francisco. Since I also have a Chinese heritage from Xiamen, China, but I was born in Malaysia. There should be a lot of connections with the novel and my own background. “The Joy Luck Club” was published in 1989 by G. P. Putnam's Sons and the total number of pages in the book is 404 pages and the online book is 166 pages. Set in San Francisco in 1949, this is a story of four Chinese American families who immigrated to San Francisco and they started a club known as the “The Joy Luck Club.” The club was used to gather the members together to play Mahjong over meals, but that had changed to investing in the stock market. The novel is structured like a Mahjong game which is separated into four sections and played by four players. Mahjong is a very entertaining game, which I played a lot when I was a kid. It is a game involved in strategy, mental skills, calculation, and, most importantly, it is able to gather people to chat. The novel is composed of four sections, where two of the sections are about mothers and the other two sections are about daughters.
A mother, Su Yuan, who founded the club died several months ago with an unfinished wish. During the Japanese War, she was forced to leave Kweilin and abandon her baby twins, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa. Then, she immigrated to United States and was remarried to Jing-Mei’s father. Jing-Mei is asked from the aunties to complete her mother’s “unfinished business” which is to go China to meet her twin sisters who have been found in China, and tell them about their mother and Su Yuan’s death. Su Yuan’s separation with her relatives is similar to my grandmother’s experience. During the World War II, my grandmother had to leave her hometown and family behind in China and flee to Malaysia to find a job. Her separation caused her depression and illness in her old age. She always reminds me to stay with family as much as I could because life is short. Jing-Mei always shows no interest and easily gives up on anything that causes her to lose confidence. Also, with the pressure from Su Yuan and the language barriers,"These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and i spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, and she answered back in Chinese."(p12, Amy Tan) she feels more self-doubt and thinks Su Yuan is disappointed in her. However, Su Yuan was never disappointed but proud of her daughter. In the end, Jing-Mei and her father flew to China and met her twins sisters. I can understand Jing-Mei’s feelings. When I tried to give up on my level 8 violin test, but my mom encouraged me to continue and she gave me support. There are no parent in the world who feels shame and disgrace for their children's failures, but they are rather heartbroken.
The second mother, An-Mei’s story starts with her mother leaving her and becomes the fourth concubine of Wu Tshing. Everyone in the family disliked An-Mei’s mother because they believed that she was the cause of An-Mei’s father’s death. Later, An-Mei discovers that her mother was forced to marry Wu Tshing because he raped her. However, she could not speak up herself so she chose to commit suicide in order for An-Mei to live better. An-Mei tells this story to her daughter, Rose who divorced her husband who cheated on her. At first, she hides her pain and not knowing what to think. After consulting with An-Mei, she spoke for herself, “You can’t just pull me out of your life and throw me away.” (p110, Amy Tan) In the old days, people in China especially women, they don't stand for themselves and suffer without taking action. Nowadays, people can fight for themselves through laws, but it depends if you want to make a change.
The third mother, Ying Ying was taught to be a gentle and passive girl. She married a man she did not love and accepted her fate. Her daughter, Lena followed her path being "like a small shadow so nobody could catch me."(p34, Amy Tan) and she married a guy who controlled her and was selfish towards her. With Ying Ying’s experiences, she encouraged Lena to free herself in the loveless marriage and be brave to take risk. Everyone should think on their own because you can’t rely on others to create your future. You should be brave to direct your own future.
The fourth mother, Lindo promised her family to marry a kid when she was young. She managed to free herself from the loveless marriage while keeping her promise without disgracing her family. Her daughter, Waverly did not know to communicate with her mother and felt like all she did was wrong in her mother’s eyes. In fact, her mother understood her and tried to help out. Linda believed Waverly was being rude without listening to her elders and she needed to respect her mom. We should always listen to elders because they use their experiences to give us knowledge and support us.
The following is a book review for this novel:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7763.The_Joy_Luck_Club
Citation:
https://westernhs.bcps.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_4204286/Image/Grade9GTjoyluckclub.pdf
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