the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, it tells of four Chinese women drawn
together in San Francisco to play mah jong, and tell stories of the past.
These four women and their families all lived in Chinatown and belong to the
First Chinese Baptist Church. They were not necessarily religious, but found
they
could improve their home China. This is how the woo's, the Hsu's, the Jong's
and the St Clair's met in 1949.
The first member of the Joy Luck Club to
die was Suyuan Woo. Her daughter, Jing-mei "June" Woo, is asked to sit in
and take her mother's place at playing mah jong. Memories of the past are
shared by the three women left, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St Clair.
June Woo learns of the real secret her mother carried to her grave from her
mother's friends. The twin baby girls, her half sisters, Suyuan pushed in
a Wheelbarrow as she escaped from the Japanese. Due to sickness, Suyuan can
no longer carry her babies, and is forced to leave them on the side of the
road. She lives her whole life not knowing if they are alive or dead.
In
the book, the Woo's left for America to build a better life for themselves.
Suyuan Woo wanted to have a daughter like herself, and no one would look down
on her. It was important that she speak perfect English and hopefully not
share in the same tragedies and sorrows she had known.
The movie brought
this concept out very vividly. You were able to imagine the time and place
and the emotions of the characters. Their anger in the early years, how women
and children were treated as possessions.
The book spoke of Rose Hsu Jordan,
daughter of An-mei Hsu, who had seven brothers and sisters. A very tragic
time in her life when her brother Bing drowns at age 1 while she was in charge
of watching him.
The movie does not touch upon this tragic event and brings
out the rich family Rose marries into, and the instant rejection from her boyfriends
mother. Rose unhappiness in her