The Joy Luck Club



The Joy Luck Club is an 1989 novel by Amy Tan, which was adapted into a 1993 film, directed by Wayne Wang.

The book centers around four mother-daughter pairs living in San Francisco. The mothers are Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. The daughters are, respectively, Jing-Mei (June) Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All of the mothers immigrated from China during their lives, and much of the book talks about their relationships with their mothers, with the exception of Suyuan Woo. The book is structured in sixteen chapters, each narrated in first person by one of the characters; the first four are told by the mothers, the next eight are told by the daughters, and the last four are told by the mothers, all with the exception of Suyuan Woo, who is dead at the beginning of the novel, so Jing-Mei takes her chapters. Most of each chapter is dedicated to a flashback of the narrator's childhood, usually regarding a particular incident or series of events involving that character's mother.

The film The Joy Luck Club was named to the National Film Registry in 2020.


 * Abusive Parents: Or rather, abusive aunt and uncle in young An-Mei's case. Lena thinks she encounters one in the apartment next to her as a child, but it turns out the mother and daughter are only playing.
 * Adaptation Distillation: The film kept most of the stories (with some changes), but trimmed some parts.
 * Adaptation Expansion: Some parts were added to the film.
 * Adult Fear:
 * Being forced to abandon your baby girls to the elements in the desperate hope someone will find and take care of them, because you simply can't carry them any more.
 * Waverly running away from her mother in a busy street as a child.
 * 4-year-old Bing's death.
 * Arranged Marriage: Lindo's first marriage, to a Spoiled Brat.
 * Asian Gal with White Guy: Most of the women, specifically Rose, Lena, and Waverly. In the film, Rose's is Andrew McCarthy.
 * Probably a deconstruction for Rose and Lena. They are not happy with their husbands for the husbands do not understand them and vice-versa. They eventually divorce.
 * Batman Gambit: Lindo's plan of getting out of her first marriage.
 * Break the Cutie/Break the Haughty: Varying cases through all of the characters.
 * Broken Bird: Young An-Mei, Ying-ying.
 * Cheerful Child: 4-year-old Ying-Ying in "The Moon Lady."
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the mothers.
 * Darker and Edgier: Arguably, the fate of Ying-Ying's first baby in the movie. In the book, Ying-Ying gets an abortion. In the movie, Ying-Ying carries it to term but later drowns it, acting listless the whole time.
 * Defiled Forever: An-mei's widowed mother is raped by a strange man, and is then forced to marry him because she is considered defiled.
 * Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Poor Ying-ying.
 * The Eighties: The novel's set time.
 * Extreme Doormat: Tan makes it pretty clear on just how terrible the consequences can be if a woman acts as such.
 * Flash Back: All the mother and daughter stories up to the present.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Yes, that is Mulan's voice coming out of Jing-Mei. Lena is also Jinx and Gizmo.
 * Heroic Sacrifice Meets My Death Is Just the Beginning: An-mei's mother, trapped into a horrific marriage, commits suicide by poison, but does so two days before the new year. Folklore states that the third day after death is when a spirit returns to settle old scores -- and you do not want a spirit angry with you on New Year's Day. An-mei's mother ensures her daughter and son will be cared for.
 * Like Brother and Sister: The extent of Lindo's relationship with her first husband.
 * Memento MacGuffin: The jade necklaces.
 * Parental Abandonment: Entirely unwillingly, on  part.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Mr. St. Clair could never understand his wife fully because of this, resulting in a marriage run mostly by tolerance than true love. Also a common case between the mothers and daughters.
 * Precision F-Strike: Andrew McCarthy's character gives this to his own mother after she makes remarks towards Rose.
 * Pretty in Mink: Waverly's fiance giving her a mink coat.
 * The Roaring Twenties: In the sequences with the mothers' childhoods. More evident in An-mei and Ying-ying's stories, given how they were raised in wealthy families with some Western influence.
 * Rape as Backstory: An-Mei's mother in "Magpies."
 * Rape as Drama: Tyan-yu and Lindo in "The Red Candle." Huang Taitai enables and condones this because she wants an heir.
 * Rich Bitch: Ying-ying in her youth, before she was broken by her terrible first marriage. The Second Wife in An-mei's story is this to a T.
 * Stage Mom: Suyuan and Lindo in regards to their daughters' piano playing and chess playing. Suyuan especially counts since the only reason Jing-Mei picked up the piano in the first place was because Suyuan was trying to force her into being a child star.
 * Well Done Daughter Girl: Waverly and Jing-Mei feel this about their mothers, who constantly compared each of their daughters to the other's.
 * World War Two: Most prominent in Suyuan's story.
 * You Are a Credit to Your Race: Implied by Mrs. Jordan when she speaks to Rose at an outdoor barbecue.
 * You Know What They Say About Asians: Again implied by Mrs Jordan to Rose.