The Joy Luck Club - Author Background Information

Born?

Oakland, California

Parents?

Chinese immigrants

Where has she lived?

Several communities in the Northern California, before settling in Santa Clara.

Siblings?

Older brother and younger brother - she is the middle child

What happened to her Father and brother?

They died when she was 15, 6 months apart, because of a brain tumor. This caused her mom to want to commit suicide and also lash out on her - she didn’t suicide

College?

Berkeley & San Jose State

Career?

Bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in linguistics
First - language development specialist for children with developmental disabilities

Then - (1981) Began working as a freelance business writer (highly successful but unfulfilled)

When did she start writing fiction?

33

First official writing?

Short story - Rules of the Game
33 years old when she became a writer

What career did her mom want her to take?

Medicine (because it is successful), she did Premed but switched.

Why did she write The Joy Luck Club?

To better understand and honor her mother She wanted to better understand and repair her strained maternal relationship between her mother and her former marriage to another man in China. (her mother left her 4 kids that she left behind in China for another marriage in Shanghai.)

How did she get the title, “The Joy Luck Club”?

The name of the gathering of Chinese - Americans that Suyuan Woo started. It is also the name of the investment club that her parents and their friends made.

What is the setting of the Joy Luck Club

There are two places -
Mother’s stories -
pre-World War II in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Daughters’ stories -
950s-era in the San Francisco Bay Area where she grew up

The book is set in the 1980s in the San Francisco Bay Area

The characters of the Joy Luck Club

Total - 63 Characters
Hsu Family - 10 people
Woo Family - 5 people
Jong Family - 9 people
St. Clair Family - 5 people

Main People - From each family, there is a mother and daughter that are important

Structure of the book

Broken up into 4 sections, 2 around the mothers, and 2 around the daughters. They are narrated through parables.

Major Themes

Tradition/Culture - Culture of the original immigrants

Immigration - The American Dream and Immigration

Language/Miscommunication - More American Daughters vs More Chinese Mothers

Family Life Relationships - Relationship between mother and daughter

Fate/Autonomy - Staying to culture vs self determination

Historical Context

KMJ - Nationalist Party, AKA - Kuomintang
CCP - Chinese Communist Party (restricts the freedom and rights of Chinese citizens)

Mao Zedong = Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China

The Chinese Civil war caused more than two million soldiers to pass or be wounded in combat and five million civilians died as a result of combat, starvation, and disease.

The Chinese Civil War: Tension and war between the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party. Took place starting in 1949

Context of the American Dream

Historically - The dream originated in colonial regarding frontier life.
Originated - 18th century

The American Dream emphasizes the idea that people from any background can achieve success through hard work and determination. However, factors such as race, gender, and economic disparity challenge universal opportunity.