Amy Tan (1952-)

Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California. Her parents had migrated to the United States from China. When she was fifteen years old, she lost her father and one of her brothers to a fatal illness. After this tragedy, her mother took her and the remainder of her family to live in Switzerland. There she finished high school and later she returned to the United States where she attended San Jose State University. In 1985, Tan attended a writing workshop for which she wrote the story, "Rules of the Game," which served as the basis for her first novel, The Joy Luck Club.

Tan's books portray the lives of Chinese American daughters and their Chinese immigrant mothers. Tan's first two novels, The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife, focus on the relationships between mothers and daughters. In her work, Tan deals with the her characters' conflicting emotions which are associated with being native-born Americans of Chinese ancestry who live in American society. Tan's stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Grand Street, Lear's, McCall's, and other magazines, as well as numerous anthologies. Ms. Tan is married to attorney Lou DeMattei. The couple have homes in San Francisco and New York.

Related Links

Voices from the Gap

The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan Acclaimed best selling author

Anniina's Amy Tan Page

The Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection Amy Tan

The Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Sites about The Joy Luck Club

The New York Times on the Web

The Mother/Daughter Relationship in Young Adult Fiction

Amy Tan Best Selling Novelist Biography

Literature Online