Selling-Out the Asian-American Community in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club :: Joy Luck Club Essays

Selling-Out the Asian-American Community in The Joy Luck Club   i wish i could join in the everyday praise for amy tan and her best-selling novel the joy luck club. i wish i could find the latest Chinese-american literary dish as savoury as the rest of the american public does.  but i cant. before amy tan entered the scene, public images of Asian america had not developed since the middle of the century. the asian american male did not exist except as a barbaric japanese or vietcong soldier. the asian american female remained the adolescent suzy wong shout out dream, toyed with for a while and then deserted.   amy tan, a gifted writer, had the chance to change those images, to dispel the publics misconceptions and to forge a new asian american individuation. instead, she copped out on her obligations, meekly reinforcing every conceivable stereotype.   if you believe tans first novel the joy luck club, asian amerca is some mystical oddity, conforming to the masco t-culture view of the white thirtysomething women who predominated at tans reading. san francisco chinatown is filled with hysterical chinese women playing secret mah jong games. china itself is a dreamlik landscape, filled with secrets and traditions, all exuding a delicate, storybook aura. chinese mothers are all one-dimensional, superstitious and ignorant. their chinese phrases are delightful italics with quaint meanings. of course, what chinese comedy would be complete without a couple of garbled english words? when tan was late for her berkeley reading, her white husband directed the audience to mimic her mothers amusing syntax why so late? rimshot.   amy tans heroines are the white mother-in-laws dream come true. these china dolls reproof and have strong feminine sympathies. as one of tans heroines admits, i used to push my eyes on the sides to make them rounder. futile self-denial, but, oh, isnt it cute? tans heroines gain identity by separating themselves from and look ing down on their culture. when the heroine in the kitchen gods wife hears about her grand aunties spirit money, she sneers are her aunts attempt to bribe her way along to chinese-heaven instantaneously suggests a negative contrast to the truer western heaven.   the same dichotomy is used with men as well. asian american men are inadequate -- theyre either bothersome brothers or unsuccessful lovers who lead to apathetic boredom.   love with a white male, however, is different.