The Joy Luck Club presents stories about four Chinese-immigrant women and their daughters. Each of the women views the world differently and they try to share their visions with their daughters, hoping that their relationships with their daughters is just as strong as what they had with their own mothers. One of the mothers, Suyuan Woo, forms a club in China called the Joy Luck Club in order to distract her friends from their problems during the Japanese invasion during World War II. She moves to San Francisco in 1947 after losing all of her family during the war, including her twin daughters. She has a daughter named Jing-mei and starts another Joy Luck Club with three other women.
Abuzar Turabi Mrs. Kira Rensch AP Language and Composition 16 May 2014 Character Analysis of Jing-Mei Woo Jing-Mei Woo is the narrator and the position of her story makes her seem to be the primary character of the novel “The Joy Luck Club”. At the end of the book, Jing-Mei Woo fully understands her mother and her Chinese heritage, and she travels to back to China to accomplish her deceased mother’s dream by taking over mahjong table in Joy Luck club. Even though “ we would actually argue that Jing-mei develops the least personally.”(Shmoop), Among all the daughters in the novel, Jing-Mei is the one who fully and truly realizes her individuality, for she preserves her Chinese values along with her American character by “serving as a bridge” (SparksNotes) between the two different cultures. In the first chapter, Jing-Mei Woo’s father asks her to “be the fourth corner at Joy Luck club” (Tan, 5) because her mother had recently passed away. She then goes to the Hsus' house which felt, “heavy with greasy odors.” (Tan 15) She acts very courteous to everyone and respects the wishes of her elders as displayed when she accepts to take her mother’s place at the mahjong table.
When she travels to China, she discovers the Chinese essence within herself, thus realizing a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings Suyuan’s story to her long-lost twin daughters, and, once reunited with her half-sisters, gains an even more profound understanding of who her mother was.For the most part, Jing-mei’s fears echo those of her peers, the other daughters of the Joy Luck Club members. They have always identified with Americans but are beginning to regret having neglected their Chinese heritage. Her fears also speak to a reciprocal fear shared by the mothers, who wonder whether, by giving their daughters American opportunities and self-sufficiency, they have alienated them from their Chinese heritage.Jing-mei is representative in other ways as well. She believes that her mother’s constant criticism bespeaks a lack of affection, when in fact her mother’s severity and high expectations are expressions of love and faith in her daughter.
Chinese Cinderella Plot Summary Preview of Chinese Cinderella Summary: Chinese Cinderella, The True Story of An Unwanted Daughter, is the autobiographical account of Adeline Yen Mah's childhood, covering her life during the ages from four through her early teen years. Four-year-old Adeline proudly showed Aunt Baba the medal she received from the kindergarten teacher for being the best student of the week. Aunt Baba was proud of her little niece and put the certificate that Adele received along with the medal into her lock box, the same place she kept her precious jewels and other valuables. It meant that much to her. Aunt Baba had cared for Adeline since she was two weeks old, when her mother died.
The culture not only affects their relationships, but the decisions they make along their journey and their resolve. Culture first of all, is probably the most important concept that Amy Tan focuses on during The Joy Luck Club. Take this exemplary quotation, “Five months ago, after a crab dinner celebration Chinese New Year, my mother gave me my “life’s importance,” a jade pendant on a gold chain.” (197) June’s mother (Suyaun) bestows the name “life’s importance” for the pendant to her daughter. June does not appreciate it saying that she “forgot about it.”, missing the entire point her mother was trying to show her. This shows the cultural differences (i.e.
Amy Tan was born in California in 1952; only two years after her parents had emigrated from China. Her Chinese name is An Mei, which means blessing from America (Kramer 10). The Chinese culture was always a major part of her life. Tan most often writes as a storyteller, or in past tense. She describes her mother as a natural story teller (Kramer 48).
Living Through Your Child in “Two Kinds” The 20th Century short story “Two Kinds” by author Amy Tan tells about the life of a young Chinese girl and her family who immigrated to The Unites States. The young girl’s name is Jing Mei. Jing Mei’s mother always wanted the best for her. She wanted her daughter to become a prodigy at the age of nine. Jing Mei’s mother forces her to try different things that the mother wants her to do to become a prodigy.
Feb 13, 12 Modernizing China and Japan Critique 1: Wild Swans Three Daughters of China Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is about the lives of three Chinese women; the author herself, her mother Bao Quin, a high ranking Communist official who fell under conflict with political leaders when Jung Chang was still a child, and Jung Chang’s maternal grandmother Yu-fang, who could remember back to the “Old China” when events were so much different. Through a look into the lives of these women, we can see the effects of personal, political and societal Chinese history on particular individuals; through them, history is made personal. The changes that these three generations of women saw are truly amazing. For example, Yu-fang, who was given to a warrior as a concubine at the age of 15, suffered through both the agony of foot binding, a binding of the feet to stop growth, and, much later, the equal agony of allowing her feet to change back to their natural state. After only six days together, her husband left, leaving his
Fortonitly Murasake relied on her brother, who she grew up learning Chinese by reading and writing it. While Murasake was in her early twenties, she decided she was ready to marry, yet she found a man known to be a distant cousin, Fujiwara Nobutaka. A few years passed, they had a daughter in the tear 999. After a few years of happiness, her husband passed away in the year 1001. Leaving her a single, widowed, woman.
Katie Tava July 25, 2012 “The Struggle to Be an All-American” Part 1: Summary In “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl,” Elizabeth Wong writes about her transformation from being a Chinese girl in to an American girl, as she moved to the U.S. Wong went to a Chinese school at the same time she attended American school because Wong’s mother wanted her and her brother to maintain the Chinese language as part of their heritage. Wong became embarrassed by her Chinese culture while studying in America. She said Chinese was, “ quick, it was loud, it was unbeautiful…. Chinese sounded pedestrian” (98). The desire to become American had become her dream.