The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan’s brilliant debut novel, The Joy Luck Club, is a complex narrative of four Chinese mothers and four Chinese American daughters, whose lives in America are still influenced by the lives the mothers left in China. The women come together regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell each other the stories of the lives they’ve left behind. The book was translated into a 1993 film directed by Wayne Wang, and brilliantly combined the narratives of the daughters with the stories of their mothers. The film featured a large ensemble cast made up of mainly Asian American women, including several Japanese American, Chinese American, and Vietnamese American actors spanning several generations.
The film was well received among American audiences, and praised for its depiction of Chinese Americans outside of the limited range more often seen in film. The film touched upon various types of conflicts that women, not limited to Asian American, encounter in their lifetimes including domestic abuse and rape. And therefore, despite the largely Asian American cast and Asian-specific storyline, the film is still extremely relatable. The film featured two actresses who played Suzie Wong on the Broadway stage, and other actresses who were relative unknowns.
I remember watching this film as a child, and being absolutely amazed that the people in the film were just like I was. The women I saw on the screen were not blue-eyed bombshells, blonde, or brunettes, but had dark hair and brown eyes, and lived life in a similar fashion to my own life. I very much liked how the film integrates Chinese as a language of dialogue between the mother and their daughters; something that I felt was very admirable and realistic to those within the same cultural situations.
Asian Americans have often been denied the leading role in a film, for the belief that an American audience composed primarily of Caucasians and African Americans, would not be able to relate to the cultural differences. However, the Joy Luck Club is a prime example that all stories of struggle and love have underlying themes that can be universally understood.