By Clare Luo San

When I close the book, The Joy Luck Club, I feel a vague sense of uneasiness. It is not that I don’t like the book: the structure of the book and its language are brilliant; the stories of the four American daughters are strikingly touching. But my reservations derive from the descriptions of a China that I don’t know, a China that has its roots in historical fact but the flourishes of rebellion and fighting describes a land that is very foreign to me.

It is important that readers of The Joy Luck Club understand that the author, Amy Tan, had a lot of difficulty in honestly portraying China as it truly is. Originally from Oakland, California, it seems as though Tan has misunderstood Chinese culture and she has lost her sense of Chinese belonging. In fact, in a comment she made, she admits that in her teenage years “Anything that was Chinese about me made me feel ashamed. I wanted to bury it so that the stronger, more independent American side could come out.” (www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tan0int-1). As a Chinese native, I feel that she has done an injustice to our country by rendering a time in our history that she has dramatized to satiate a broader appeal.

The book is not completely out of Chinese context. Tan, herself admits that she experienced a turning point in 1987 after a trip back to China with her mother when she started to see things with new eyes. “Having felt that spiritual sense of geography in China,” Tan carefully listened to the stories her mother relayed about old China, asking for details, which certainly had an impact on the final copy of the book. Tan’s new eyes on China appear in the book with the daughters’ attitudes about their mothers’ miserable lives in Old China once they had learned of their plight.

Tan’s objectives are obvious and sincere. Sympathetic on the one hand to the conditions under which mothers lived during the early decades of the 20th century, she also felt obligated to allow them to cry out and shout their rage - very un-Chinese. Rebellion against the society heightens her drama for the reader and her characters behave and do things that are not typically Chinese. The women in this book bravely challenge the family hierarchy and their society and what results is an unauthentic view into Chinese culture.

Neither Tan nor I lived during the times she writes about in her book and I recognize how hard it is to write about such difficult times without personal experience. So many Chinese values are preserved and passed down from the ancients to each generation, and this is what causes the book to fall short in credibility. Actual knowledge of the times is hard to get at due to an influx of Western culture that poured into China after 1978. I, admit that most of the knowledge I have about the generation Tan describes in The Joy Luck Club is from TV and other forms of mass media.

Overlooked in much of what is written or seen on TV is one of the most valued virtues with the Chinese people: tolerance and adaptation first, fight or revolt last. Powerful strength is often hidden inside, deep inside our veins. It is like the power of Tai-ji, the Chinese martial art that hides a great force under slow but smooth movements and sometimes, even stillness.

Unwritten rules have been deeply inscribed in every Chinese heart and mind. And while strong wills are in every Chinese heart, these wills very often give up their chances to be heard. It is a virtue to sacrifice one’s own good for others in the family so that the family can be harmonious, which in turn brings harmony to the society. And this virtue has contributed greatly to the unity of the country throughout its history of 5,000 years. Despite overwhelming Western influences during the past 100 years, China’s society is one large family and the Chinese people willingly give up their own interests for the benefit of their family. These are social moralities that are passed down from generation to generation. This is what makes us Chinese who we are.

I think Western influences in the mass media have caused many Chinese-Americans to wrangle with their identity. They must question who they are and where they belong. Some of them are unappreciative of their Chinese heritage and sometimes they try to deny their connection with China.

The history of China, especially modern China is often a harsh one, but like the history of any other country, it is unique. It shouldn’t be met with shame or dismissal; it should be embraced. Authors like Amy Tan or any others who are looking for their identities should know that the only way to learn about themselves and influence the future is to understand their past.