Joy Luck Club

Rating:
Summary: Flawless story telling depicts intergenerational tension.
Review: When Rose Hsu Jordan attempts to define the Chinese words hulihudu and heimongmong she says, "they can't be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have." And this sums up Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club - it is an introspective search into what it means to be a Chinese American. Tan adeptly translates these unique Chinese "sensations" to the reader through cleverly created characters of gimlet-eyed mothers and their incorrigible daughters. An indirect dialogue between mothers and daughters is set up through Tan's flawless storytelling. It is edifying without being didactic. Readers from all walks of life will walk away feeling wiser.

Rating:
Summary: A Chinese-American must-read
Review: Written from the point of view of a true Chinese born American, Amy Tan reveals the reality about immigrating to a new country and living amongst diverse cultures in the book The Joy Luck Club. Four separate stories twist around each other about four girls and their mothers who came from China's hardships a couple of years back. The four mothers met through weekly games of mahjong, gossiping and sharing their unique stories with each other. As each realized how many times they could have lost hope, they named their weekly visits "The Joy Luck Club". Tan unravels each family secret deliberately, making each one different, but just as sophisticated. She portrays the difficulty each girl goes through as they struggle from the grasps of their culture and tradition to become an American.
Born as a Chinese-American myself, there are times when I feel like I can never fit in perfectly anywhere. With English constantly at the tip of my tongue, I'm taken as a foreigner in Asian countries. However, in any Western country, my black hair and dark eyes Asian features immediately reveals my identity. Through Tan's book, I have a new perception that living a diverse life means keeping an open heart to fit into foreign cultures, but to never abandon our own traditions. I can celebrate Christmas, the Fourth of July, speak English, and listen to American pop singers, but I must not ever forget how to speak, read, or write my Chinese dialect, the Lunar calendar and it's wonderful holidays.
Tan wrote beautifully, being incredibly sensitive with her descriptions of the contrast between two very different cultures. Those who are open-minded to our diverse world would thrive inside these stories. Those with mixed backgrounds would be filled with complete understanding. Those who are Chinese born American must pick up this book sometime along their own path.