I believe this book is the perfect way to explore how culture is navigated within the Western world and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters where generational shifts can be testing.Īs a novel by an Asian woman, about female relationships and cultural exploration, this book is often disregarded by reviewers and the male audience as ‘chick lit’ and hence refused the attention and discussion it deserves. In the current climate of prejudice and mistrust, it is especially crucial to read narratives that cross cultural boundaries and establish relationships between cultures and generations. Furthermore, despite Chinese immigrants forming a huge part of the Western world, this is one of few books in English focusing purely on the experiences of Chinese women in a Western context. These stories are knitted around the older women and their daughters, focusing on the clash between the daughters’ longing to be westernised and the mothers’ own concerns that their daughters do not know or truly appreciate their own personal experiences.Īmy Tan touches on incredibly personal familial moments and highlights the difficulties of not only a split in culture, but also a generational shift and the fight between the past and the present – all themes that are relevant to people of all cultures and ages.
Their tales are interwoven through The Joy Luck Club, a weekly gathering where the women play mah-jong, a routine that to the younger Jing-Mei (June) Woo has always seemed a “shameful Chinese custom, like the secret gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or the tom-tom dances of TV Indians preparing for war” (28). It follows many stories of conflict between mothers and daughters, all of similar ages and of Chinese descent, now living as immigrants in America. It is a book my mother and her friends have all given their partners to read, and it is one that deserves attention, specifically in English Literature syllabi, where I find texts with Asian influences are often disregarded. Seven years later and only now am I beginning to understand the significance of this book for women like my mother strong and independent women who were once caught between cultures, but also for others, who cannot grasp the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship strained in a cultural cross-fire. When I was eleven, I went over to one of our bookshelves and found a fairly worn copy of The Joy Luck Club, picked it up and brought it to her.
Many times in my life I have wished to be more like my mother she is strong, independent, smart, but also a little bit wild. At night they shine golden”’ – Amy Tan ( The Joy Luck Club 1989) (246)
Edited by Maria Elena Carpintero Torres-Quevedo
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