50 Fun Facts About The Joy Luck Club

In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, which tile game do the four immigrant mothers meet to play?

Mahjong also shapes the book itself, which is arranged like a game in four parts of four stories each.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", which child star's films do Jing-mei and her mother study as a model?

Shirley Temple is the first template, and Jing-mei is even sent for a hairstyle meant to copy the star's blond curls.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", which TV program's young Chinese pianist inspires Jing-mei's mother?

The Ed Sullivan Show sets the plan in motion. Within three days of the broadcast, Jing-mei's mother has arranged lessons for her.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", why does Jing-mei's elderly piano teacher never notice her wrong notes?

He is deaf, and his eyes are too slow to catch the wrong notes she plays. Jing-mei learns she can keep the rhythm and get away with her mistakes.

In "A Pair of Tickets", which American meal do Jing-mei's relatives in China order at their hotel?

Hamburgers and fries, with apple pie à la mode, are what the family wants, just as Jing-mei is longing for her first real Chinese feast.

In Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets", which gadget does Jing-mei use to win over her young cousin Lili?

A Polaroid camera charms Lili with instant pictures. It returns in the final scene, when the reunited family watches one last snapshot develop.

In The Joy Luck Club, at which game is Waverly Jong a national champion by her ninth birthday?

Chess entered the Jong home by chance. Waverly's brother Vincent was given a set at a Christmas party, and she took to it at once.

In The Joy Luck Club, what do Lindo Jong and An-mei Hsu make at the factory where they both work?

Fortune cookies also help Lindo's courtship: she uses one of the paper slips to plant the idea of marriage in her boyfriend's head.

Which actress, later the voice of Disney's Mulan, plays Jing-mei in the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club?

Ming-Na Wen later played another Jing-Mei, Dr. Jing-Mei Chen, on the medical drama ER.

In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, in which American city do the four immigrant families settle?

San Francisco is where the women first met in 1949, and the film version was shot on location there before the crew moved on to China.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", what does Jing-mei's mother trade a retired teacher for piano lessons?

Housecleaning buys her weekly lessons and daily practice on the teacher's own piano. Her parents later save enough for a secondhand one to stand in the living room.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", at what kind of event does Jing-mei's piano playing fall apart in public?

A talent show is the setting for her debut, and all the Joy Luck Club families turn up to watch it go wrong.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", which piece does the adult Jing-mei find printed beside "Pleading Child"?

Perfectly Contented sits on the facing page, and Jing-mei realises the two short pieces belong together, which is how she comes to see her own childhood.

Which publication first printed Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", a month before The Joy Luck Club came out?

The Atlantic carried the story in its February 1989 issue, so magazine readers met Jing-mei and her piano lessons before the book reached the shops.

Which section of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club ends with the story "Two Kinds"?

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates covers the daughters' childhoods and is named after a Chinese book of dangers that a mother cites in its opening parable.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", where does Jing-mei's mother find the mental tests she gives her daughter?

In magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest she reads about amazing children, then tests Jing-mei on the same feats, with little success.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", what does Jing-mei's mother believe her daughter can become in America?

A prodigy is the goal, though the field keeps changing: first acting, then mental tests, and finally the piano.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", who alone cheers with enthusiasm after Jing-mei's disastrous recital?

Old Chong, her teacher, beams and cheers on his own while the audience claps weakly and her mother's face is stricken.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", which kind of daughter does Jing-mei's mother say may live in her house?

Obedient daughters are one of the title's two kinds; the other kind think for themselves, and that is the side Jing-mei picks.

In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, which English name does Jing-mei Woo commonly go by?

June is the name most people use for her, and she is the one asked to take her late mother's seat at the club's table.

In "A Pair of Tickets", which Chinese city is the first stop, where Jing-mei's relatives greet her?

Guangzhou comes first, and the grandeur of the hotel there dismays Jing-mei, who had asked her travel agent for something cheap.

In "A Pair of Tickets", what does Jing-mei's father say her mother's name, Suyuan, can mean?

Long-Cherished Wish is one reading. Written with different characters, he adds, the same name means Long-Held Grudge.

In "A Pair of Tickets", who is tending the sick on the truck where Suyuan wakes after collapsing?

American missionaries carry her on to Chungking, where she learns that her first husband is already dead.

In "A Pair of Tickets", what does Suyuan hide under her baby daughters' shirts before leaving them?

Jewelry and money go under the shirts, along with family photographs and a note, in the hope that whoever finds the girls will care for them.

In "A Pair of Tickets", who finds Suyuan's abandoned babies and raises them as their own?

A peasant couple take the girls in, seeing a pair of babies as a sign of double good luck, and bring them up as family.

In "A Pair of Tickets", where does a former schoolmate of Suyuan spot her lost daughters?

A department store in Shanghai is where the schoolmate recognises the two women by chance, but the sighting comes only after Suyuan has died.

In The Joy Luck Club, in what kind of place in Chungking does Suyuan meet Jing-mei's father?

A hospital is where the two meet, after Suyuan arrives sick and exhausted from the road. They leave for America together in 1949.

In "A Pair of Tickets", how are Jing-mei and her father travelling when they cross into China?

By train they roll into Shenzhen, and it is at that border crossing that Jing-mei first senses she is becoming Chinese.

In The Joy Luck Club, in which wartime Chinese city does Suyuan start the very first club?

Kweilin was crowded with refugees when Suyuan gathered three friends for weekly games and small feasts, a way to keep their spirits up.

In the opening parable of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, which bird does a woman carry toward America?

A swan bought in a Shanghai market is taken from her by immigration officials, leaving a single feather to pass on to her daughter.

In The Joy Luck Club, what illness kills Suyuan Woo shortly before the story opens?

A brain aneurysm takes her without warning, and only afterwards does a letter arrive from the daughters she lost in China.

In The Joy Luck Club, at which Chinese festival does young Ying-ying fall into a lake?

Mid-Autumn is the night of the Moon Lady, and the lost Ying-ying is crushed to find that the goddess she sees on stage is played by a man.

In The Joy Luck Club, what does Lindo Jong secretly blow out to help end her arranged marriage?

A candle lit at both ends stood for the marriage bond, so Lindo snuffs her husband's end and later blames the wind in a made-up dream.

In The Joy Luck Club, which gift from Second Wife does An-mei's mother reveal to be worthless glass?

A pearl necklace wins An-mei over until her mother crushes one bead under her shoe to prove the truth. An-mei later crushes the whole string underfoot in front of Second Wife.

In The Joy Luck Club, what does Suyuan give Jing-mei after Waverly humiliates her at dinner?

A jade pendant that Suyuan calls her life's importance is the gift, and Jing-mei never gets to ask what the name means before her mother dies.

In Amy Tan's "Best Quality", which seafood does Suyuan Woo serve for Chinese New Year dinner?

Crab is the centrepiece, and Suyuan notices that Jing-mei reaches for the worst one on the plate, the one with a missing leg.

In The Joy Luck Club, what kills Rose Hsu Jordan's youngest brother Bing on a family outing?

Drowning at the beach takes four-year-old Bing while Rose is meant to be watching him, and the loss shakes her mother's faith in God.

In The Joy Luck Club, what does An-mei Hsu's widowed mother become to the rich merchant Wu Tsing?

A concubine in Wu Tsing's household, she is disowned by her own family, who warn An-mei never to speak of her.

Which director, known for Chan Is Missing, made the 1993 film of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club?

Wayne Wang approached Amy Tan about a film in 1989, the year the book came out, and later shot it in California and China.

Which Oscar-winning director served as an executive producer on the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club?

Oliver Stone had once clashed with the film's director over how each portrayed Chinese people, then backed the project through his company Ixtlan.

Which institution selected the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club for its National Film Registry in 2020?

Library of Congress selection marks a film as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, and this one earned it 27 years after reaching cinemas.

In which California city was Amy Tan, the author of The Joy Luck Club, born?

Oakland was her birthplace, but after her father and older brother died she finished high school far away, in Montreux, Switzerland.

Which Amy Tan novel followed The Joy Luck Club and drew on her own mother's life in China?

The Kitchen God's Wife came out in 1991 after her mother, who liked the first book, asked Tan to tell her real story next.

For which major American literary prize was Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club named a finalist?

National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award shortlists both included it, and the novel became a lasting bestseller.

In The Joy Luck Club, which Chinese zodiac sign do Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter Lena share?

Tiger spirit is what Ying-ying says she willingly gave up, and she resolves to win it back and pass its fierceness on to Lena.

In The Joy Luck Club, what is the profession of Lena St. Clair's penny-counting husband, Harold?

Architect Harold started his own firm at Lena's urging and built it on her ideas for themed restaurants, yet he keeps their money strictly separate.

In The Joy Luck Club, what job does the adult Jing-mei Woo hold at a small advertising firm?

Copywriter Jing-mei is reduced to tears when Waverly announces that the ad text she wrote for Waverly's firm was not good enough.

In The Joy Luck Club, which country's invading army forces Suyuan to flee with her baby daughters?

Japan and China had been at full-scale war since 1937, and Suyuan fled on foot, pushing her babies in a wheelbarrow until its wheel broke.

In "A Pair of Tickets", what does the "mei" in Jing-mei's name mean, as her father explains?

Younger sister is the sense of mei, and jing means pure essence, so her mother named her as the essence of the girls she had lost.

In The Joy Luck Club, which American name does Clifford St. Clair give his wife Ying-ying?

Betty is the name he chooses for her, one of several ways Clifford speaks for his wife and mistranslates what she says.