A Glimpse of Amy Tan
As one of the first Asian American cultural writers of her time, Amy Tan is also one of the most significant contemporary writers of Literature today. Amy Tan brings to life the struggles of dual cultural identity, generational clashes due to age and cultural gaps minority woman face in society. Many of her stories are based upon real obstacles her, her Mother and Grandmother had in their lives as young woman, facing not only the minority issues but the sexiest stigma’s of their times.
Born in Oakland, California in 1952, Amy Tan was born to immigrants that had left lives and family behind in China. As a teenager, Amy was faced with the tragic death of her Father and a few months later her Brother. Shortly after their deaths Daisy, Amy’s mother, decided “to cleanse the evil influence of their "diseased house". (Mote) And moved her family to New York, Washington, Florida and finally to Europe. At first they lived in the Netherlands and eventually settling in Monteux, Switzerland where Tan completed high school. Being considered an outsider by her peers, and the continuous feeling of anger and loss she felt from losing her brother and father, she began hanging out with a crowd of drug-dealing hippies and at sixteen was arrested. Her relationship with her Mother became increasingly strained and after a close encounter of almost eloping with a mental patient, Amy and her family returned to United States where her mother enrolled her in a small Baptist college in Oregon, and had her majoring in pre-med. After a year at Linfield Amy enrolled in San Jose University, moved in with her boyfriend and changed to a double major of English and linguistics. After accomplishing her Bachelors in English and Linguistics she continued her education at San Jose to receive a Masters in Linguistics. On 6 April 1974 she married long time boyfriend, Louis M. DeMattei, and began work on a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. After a year into the program she was faced with yet another tragedy when her best friend was murdered and her emotions of the past came back to haunt her, she took a position as a language-development specialist for disabled children. Only to become frustrated with the politics and in”1981 she became a reporter for the journal Emergency Room Reports (now Emergency Medicine Reports), rising to managing editor and associate publisher. In 1983 she became a freelance technical writer.”(Champion) Although, Tan found she was very successful as a writer she came to terms with the fact that she had allowed her it to consume her. In measures to relieve her of this stigma she began learning to play jazz piano and began reading contemporary fiction. Only to join a writer’s workshop in 1985, “where Tan's first literary efforts were short stories, one of which secured her a position in the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, a fiction writers' workshop, directed by the novelist Oakley Hall. At the workshop she met Hempel and Molly Giles, who helped her to shape her talent and find her voice.” (Champion) Tan’s hobby quickly took a change to a career when her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, was published
In 1987, Tan and her mother took a trip to China, although their relationship had been not come to an understanding she had the opportunity to meet relatives and connect with her Chinese roots. Shortly upon her return from China, her “experience, combined with several stories that she had previously written, became the basis for her first novel, The Joy Luck Club. The book, a critical and commercial success, garnered the Silver Medal from the Commonwealth Club at the California Book Awards, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award for Fiction, and the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults award. In the process Tan became one of the country's most popular authors, which prompted her to focus on creative writing full-time”. Tan’s belief that Chinese writers could not get their work published in the United States was now put to rest. She found writing about her experiences were actually therapeutic, and assisted in helping her emotions of always feeling inadequate in the face of her mother. Even when The Joy Luck Club was fourth on The New York Times best-seller list, Daisy remarked how Amy should have focused on being first, explaining that because she was so talented she deserved to be the best.” Tan wrote the The Joy Luck Club to pay homage to her grandmother, but also for her mother, Daisy, fulfilling a vow she made to her mother when she had nearly died and Tan was forced to realize the possibility of losing her mother. In Tan’s dedication of the book, she writes to reassure her mother that she and her stories will never be forgotten, "You asked me once what I would remember. This, and much more…" (Tan).
Tan’s writings “center on the love and antagonism between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American daughters. In real life Tan and her mother experienced similar emotional turmoil. Daisy Tan had high expectations for her daughter. Tan recalls that as a child she was expected to grow up to be a neurosurgeon by profession with the "hobby" of concert pianist.”(Feng) Tan uses this real expectation that her parents had of her, to bring to life the story Two Kinds, where a young Chinese American girl struggles with her mother on who she wants to be and who the mother expects her to be. It is a perfect example of the fictional writing Tan captures as she relays the experiences of Chinese American women. Most of her stories are of her own experiences as a Chinese American or the life of her Chinese, immigrant mother, Daisy. Tan’s stories range in conflicts from, opinionated mothers, growing to appreciate their pasts and understanding the strength it took for them to adapt to a new country. She also writes about the Chinese Americans and how they have found themselves alienated from not only their Chinese heritage but the American culture as well. Tan is also “recognized for her authentic and humorous dialogue, realistic depiction of the tensions and ambiguities of human relationships, and sensitivity to the power of cultural and historical forces on the individual and family.”(Unknown) Other themes used by Tan include husband and wife, mother and daughter, storytelling and memory, she also uses the relationship of past and present and uses narrators from two separate generations to show two separate points if view. This tactic enables the reader to understand the growth between past and present within the cultural history of the characters. Amy Tan has become an exceptional way of bringing the stories of her life and her families to the pages. It will ensure her vow to her mother that she will not be forgotten and neither will her stories as they reach around the world and tug at the heart strings of those like me that love her writing. Tan’s unique writing to capture the double narrative points of view is by far one of my favorites. Writer such as Jodi Picoult, use this technique to bring other character point of view into her controversial books, such as My Sisters Keeper.

Work Cited
Feng, Pin-chia. "Amy (Ruth) Tan." American Novelists Since World War II: Fifth Series. Ed. James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 173. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
McCarthy, Joanne. "Amy Tan." Magill’S Survey Of American Literature, Revised Edition (2006): 1-6. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
Piedmont-Marton, Elisabeth. "Overview of 'Two Kinds'." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011"
Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey Of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011
"Amy (Ruth) Tan." Contemporary Popular Writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
"Amy (Ruth) Tan." Feminist Writers. Ed. Pamela Kester-Shelton. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
"Amy (Ruth) Tan." Feminist Writers. Ed. Pamela Kester-Shelton. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
"Amy (Ruth) Tan." Contemporary Popular Writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011
"Amy Tan." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 257. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
“Amy Tan." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 257. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
"Amy Tan." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
"Amy Tan." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.