Amy Tan was born in
Oakland, California, in 1952. Her parents,
both Chinese immigrants, lived in various towns in California before
eventually settling in Santa Clara. When Tan was in her early teens,
her father and one of her brothers each died of a brain tumor within
months of each other. During this period, Tan learned that her mother
had been married before, in China. Tan’s mother had divorced her
first husband, who had been abusive, and had fled China just before
the Communist takeover in 1949. She left
behind three daughters, whom she would not see again for nearly
forty years.
After losing her husband and son, Tan’s mother moved her
family to Switzerland, where Tan finished high school. During these years,
mother and daughter argued about Tan’s college and career plans.
Tan eventually followed her boyfriend to San Jose City College,
where she earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English and
linguistics, despite her mother’s wish that she study medicine.
After Tan married her boyfriend, Louis DeMattei, she began
to pursue a Ph.D. in linguistics. She later abandoned the program
in order to work with developmentally disabled children. Then she became
a freelance business writer. Although she was successful, she found
writing for corporate executives unfulfilling. She began to write
fiction as a creative release.
Meanwhile, Tan’s mother was suffering from a serious illness, and
Tan resolved to take a trip to China with her mother if she recovered.
In 1987, after her mother returned to health,
they traveled to China, where Tan’s mother was reunited with her
daughters and Tan met her half-sisters. The trip provided Tan with
a fresh perspective on her mother, and it served as the key inspiration
for her first book, The Joy Luck Club. Soon after
its publication in 1989, The Joy
Luck Club garnered enthusiastic reviews, remaining on the New
York Times bestseller list for many months. It won both
the National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book
Award in 1989.
Tan continues to publish popular works. In response to
the widely held opinion that she writes with a social aim—to portray the
Chinese American experience—Tan often emphasizes that she writes
first and foremost as an artist. She argues that her bicultural upbringing
is her work’s source of inspiration but not its primary subject.
Through her writing, Tan approaches issues that are universally
applicable to all groups of people. She explores themes of family
and memory, as well as the conflicts of culture that arise in so many
American communities.
