The Joy Luk club by Ian Moy

The joy luck club is a book that was written and published in 1989 by amy Tan. Later in 1993 the book was made into a motion picture. The Joy luck Club tells the story of four chinese women who immigrated to america and they raise their 4 daughters as american and chinese entities. The four mothers Suayan, An Mei, Lindo Jong, and ying Ying. These four women all hold different traits in the movie because they stress the chinese calender symbols for their character. For example Ying ying was born during the year of the tiger while Waverly an mei's daughter was born during the year of the horse and exhibiting its matching traits. The four daguthers are June, Waverly Jong, Rose, and Lena. The joy luck club itself is actually a womens club founded in China but was resurrected in San francisco, where the mothers play mahjong, as the movie opens June's mother Sueyan passes and June is asked to take her place in the joy luck club. It was my understanding from the movie that June was always thought higher then the other girls because she was more thoughtful in her approach to her respect for their chinese culture. While Waverly is living with an caucasioan boyfriend and has a child from a previous relationship, in chinese culture those aspects are looked down upon. Overall the main plot behind the story is seeing all the sacrifices and hardships that these imigrant chinese women persevered through world war two and the invasion of China by the Japanese. Their lives under the tytrannical systems of female oppression in china, where they often and commonly practice the one child policy. Mainly keeping their first son and disregarding daughters because they were viewed as a hindrance on the house. You can see this first hand in the movie whereLindo is married to a young man and his evil mother demands a grandson, she is almost in a forced state of slavery to produce progeny for a family not of her own. I feel the biggest sotry in this movie was that of Sueyan and her daughter June. June's ascension is paramount in setting up the climax of June finding her lost sisters (twins) whom her mother had been searching for up until the time of her death. But in many cases June feel uncapable of fullfilling her mothers wishes.

One Major knock on women is how thy are percieved in Chinese culture, they are treated as second class in many cases, especially if they are the second daughter or not the oldest child in the family. In one case Lena who is married to a caucasioan man, they are partners in a business because he believes in equality, but he gets paid more in their partnership, how does that work? Another knock on the women in this story is that in many cases the daughters don't respect or realize thei ntentions of their mothers. The mothers realized what they escaped the systems of oppression in china by coming to america. they did not escape that for their children to be sucked into it again, they realize that thei rdaughters are only being pushed into the american system of female oppression. I think that by the end of the film it is very empowering when all the wdaughters in the film fina ahealthy balance between their Chinese train of thought and their American way of life, and they realize what all they have overcame. I think in some respect you could consider this an feminist film because tese women were raised in a arena none of us could imagine, all of their trials and hardships are not blown out of proportion, they then come to america and realize their daughters are in the same position. But the daughters find their peace by getting past the fear and the feeling of being trapped behind a masquerade whter it be a failed marriage you're holding onto, or doing something just to make someone happy even though you know it to be wrong. They finally overcome the roadblocked by the 8 ball and find their healthy balance.


I thought that this movie was reallly good. I actualy have seen it before many years ago, I am 50 % chinese so this movie definitely strikes home, much of my family was slaughtered during world war 2 by the Japanese invading China. besides this also, i have overheard my father tell stories of many children especially little girls would often get left on the beaces of the rivers and set afloat becausse they were just deemed unneccessary by the family It is very sad, but also i kindo f get offended reading what people who have no idea what chinese culture is all about hav to say. In one case i read a post onlin that said " the chinese depictions in this movie were totally steroetypical. Well if this ignorant person would have read their history books or even viewed a chinese society, they will see that more often than not these stereotypes are true.

If you wanna check out more info on The Joy Luck Club see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joy_Luck_Club

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlUNjTyN0EI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n8zaq4bahU