As I was scrolling through twitter, I've seen a tweet that says "You think you can hurt me? I'm the eldest daughter in an Asian household." it's kind of funny and bitterly relatable. I mean no offense, why am I even saying all of this? It's because I've just finished a new 1989 classic novel written by an Asian woman herself entitled, "The Joy Luck Club" which tells a gripping different stories of four Chinese women who are immigrants in San Francisco and how their past intertwined to the lives of their daughters born and raised in America. Somehow this book celebrates being an Asian woman and all the realities that comes into it.
The story is narrated in different perspective of characters in a sensitive and quite humorous way. Sometimes there is a bitter yet tender and deep connection between mothers and daughters. Reading this book, I felt how important for us to listen and unravel the truth in the lives of our mothers. Yet in the story, daughters felt misunderstood and forced to conform to the expectations of their mothers. I've noticed how difficult the lives of the mothers are. Their struggles, stories of survival and endurance just to live and give a much better future for their daughters. It is truly inspiring and yet, they expect the same way for their daughters. Mothers set high standards for their daughters to achieve and expect them to equal the level of their hardships. The level of trials and perspective of their daughters are just as valuable as theirs. Mothers and daughters have a complicated relationship. There are some things they quite understood and some things they've missed. I like how Amy Tan narrates the story in details involving differences in culture, assimilating to the new country, passing down the old traditions and giving the readers a different insight.
