Amy Tan Research Paper

The Joy Luck Club is the first novel by Amy Tan, published in 1989. The Joy Luck Club is about a group of Chinese women that share family stories while they play Mahjong. When the founder of the club, Suyuan Woo, died, her daughter June replaced her place in the meetings. In her first meeting, she finds out that her lost twin sisters were alive in China. Before the death of Suyuan, the other members of the club located the address of June’s half-sisters. After that, they send June to tell her half-sisters about her mother’s life. In our lives there are events, and situations that mark our existence and somehow determine our life. In this novel, it shows how four mothers and their daughters were impacted by their tradition and beliefs. In the traditional Asian family, parents define the law and the children are expected to follow their requests and demands; respect for one’s parents and elders is critically important. Traditions are very important because they allow us to remember the beliefs that marked a whole culture.

My assigned partner, Michelle Nguyen, was born in California and is part Vietnamese. She is a major foodie but prefers not to eat meat, and does not have a favorite food. Michelle described herself as clumsy, bipolar, lazy, awkward, and an introvert. She has a love-hate relationship with makeup, which I can relate to. Michelle played piano since she was four but quit when she turned twelve. Michelle played volleyball for her high school all four years and has been playing since fifth grade. She loves animals and her favorites are puppies and bunnies. When she was young she had a small dog that had passed away but she does not have any pets at the moment.

Amy Tan lives in a different era of Maya Angelou’s character. Tan’s character lives in the 1960s. “My father had invited the minister family for dinner,” Amy is shocked that her father would do that to her. “I fell love with the minister’s son,” Amy has a crushed on Robert and she does not want Robert to see, “our shabby Chinese Christmas.” This would

Amy Tan was born in 1952, in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan. Her family eventually settled in Santa Clara. When Tan was in her early teens, her father and one of her brothers died of brain tumors within months of each other. During this period Tan learned that her mother had been married before, to an abusive husband in China. After divorcing him, her mother fled China during the Communist takeover, leaving three daughters behind who she would not see again for nearly forty years.

The story Two Kinds By Amy Tan was about a young Chinese girl and her mother who had just moved to the United States. The mother had moved to America because she had lost everything her husband, mom,dad, and children. Even in spite of all this loss she never looked back and never regretted her decision. One day Ni kan’s mother had the idea of Ni kan becoming a child prodigy because to Ni kan's mother you could do anything in America.

Tina Robbins has always said she would like another child. She wants a child with down syndrome. The reason is because down syndrome kids are usually very nice and their brain tells them to be nice. Tina has worked at head start for 8 years. While she worked there she was an assistant teacher, who dealt with the kids who had down syndrome. It has given her a special bond. She says, “If any of my kids have a child with down syndrome, the minute they have it at the hospital I will take it. The only time they can see it is if they visit, because I have always wanted a child with down syndrome of my own.” This is information found about down syndrome. Down syndrome symptoms, different kinds, and ways to overcome it.

Another book that Amy published that focuses on mother-daughter relationships was The Valley of Amazement. In addition to discussing mother-daughter relationships, this novel also expounds on family secrets and trauma. Tan can relate to family secrets because her mother left her three daughters’ in China which affected the way her mother raised her. Daisy also held the secret of her mother, who committed suicide when Daisy was nine, and the ghost she left behind. Also, Amy experienced trauma when she lost both her brother and father due to brain tumors only six months apart. Having to cope with the death of her loved ones and living up to the unbearable standards of her mother, Amy chose to please herself first. Amy Tan wrote “The life we receive is not always what we chose”, in The Valley of Amazement. This can show how Amy was not satisfied with where her life was going so she decided to change her

Have you ever heard of Amy Tan? Amy Tan is a well-known Asian American author. I have chosen to write about Amy Tan because this semester I have read Amy Tan’s short story “A pair of tickets” and I believe she is an interesting author. According to, Denise Moore “Amy Tan was born in the city of Oakland in California and was the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Amy Tan was an American on the outside but, from the inside, she was Chinese” (Denise Moore). Amy Tan has written many novels and short stories. According to, Amy Tan.net “Amy Tan is the author of The Valley of amazement, The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen’s god’s wife, The hundred secret senses, The Bonesetters daughter, The opposite of fate, Saving fish from drowning, and is the author of two children stories The Moon Lady and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese cat.” (Amy Tan.net). Also, Amy Tan is the writer of “A pair of tickets” and is an author of nonfiction stories too. Womenyoushouldknow.net states an interesting fact about Amy Tan. “Amy Tan was lead backup singer of The Rock Bottom Remainders” (Womenyoushouldknow.net). Lastly, I have chosen to write about Amy Tan because her work is reflected on personal experiences since she learned she became Chinese and she traveled to China. Also, Amy Tan’s work is influenced by her mother.

Compositional writing in the Unites States started in the late 1600s and early 1700s with European born composer Charles Theodore Patchelbel (1690-1750). American compositional writers were a male dominant career, in which women had little compositions produced, until Emma Roberto Steiner (1852-1929) produced some of her works. It was not until Amy Beach (née Cheney) (1867-1944) who proved that American women as capable of producing small and large compositional works. Amy Beach was an extremely talented female composer who against the odds, of her parents and society, was influential and successful both as the first female American composer to compose large works and advocate for more female composers.

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan recalls “all the English that she grew up with,” all of

characters of the novel, Amy Tan 's parents adopted a pluralistic identity. According to E. D. Huntley:

There are four great women of the Pentateuch, but I think Sarah is the greatest of all. The following is the main background information about Sarah. Sarah Imeinu is the wife of Abraham and Mother of the Jewish Nation. Sarah was the first matriarch, and Abraham was the first patriarch (father), of our Jewish people. She was born and raised from the city of Ur, Kasdim, the Sumerian city of Ur.

Amy Tan's short story "Two Kinds" tells of the conflict between a Chinese-American girl named Jing-mei and her immigrant mother due to cultural differences. Throughout a portion of Jing-mei's childhood, her mother recognized her potential and was stricken with the belief that she should've used whatever natural talent or ability that she might've had to become a child prodigy. Jing-mei's mother tried a handful of things in hopes of discovering her talent, including acting, intellectual tests, and the piano, where most of her time was dedicated into attempting to turn Jing-mei into a piano virtuoso. Initially, Jing-mei struggles to decide whether she should fulfill her mother's wishes or stay true to her own identity, but after a disastrous

Tan uses details and point of view to affect the understanding of difference. In the short story her mother makes a special Chinese dinner for New Years Eve. She goes into detail of her mother making the food, “She was pulling black veins out of the backs of Fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling amounts of raw food,” (Tan 117). From sharing the details of the food, it is clear that Amy was focused on

But the main problem between mothers and daughters in Amy Tan's novels is the lack of communication. As will be discussed below, mothers usually have some terrible hidden secret, something that even her closest relatives ignore. In "The Joy Luck Club" is the fact that Suyuan Woo had been formerly married and had two lost children in China in The Kitchen's God Wife, we have the same again; and, finally, in The Hundred Secret Senses, the father is the one who had a secret past life, but here also the relationship between mother and daughter are somewhat problematic. Olivia is not very close to her mother, who used to care more about finding an exotic partner than for her children.