History Literature / TheJoyLuckClub

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: (InUniverse) Lindo's mother-in-law cannot understand why her son hasn't [[IWantGrandkids sired any children yet]]. He and Lindo are not physically intimate at all (he has not hit puberty) and appears intimated at the idea, but he lies to his mother and says he has lots of sex.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: (InUniverse) Lindo's mother-in-law cannot understand why her son hasn't [[IWantGrandkids sired any children yet]]. It's because he hasn't hit puberty; in other words, he's ''physically too young'' to be a father.
** No, it's because him and Lindo *aren't having sex*. Did you even read the book?

The novel was [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted into a 1993 film]], executive produced by Creator/OliverStone and directed by Wayne Wang. It starred Creator/MingNaWen, Creator/TamlynTomita, Creator/LaurenTom, and Creator/RosalindChao as the daughters, and Lisa Lu, Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, and France Nguyen as the mothers.

* BabyFactory: An-Mei's mother fills this role in her loveless marriage. [[spoiler:It's revealed that Second Wife arranged her rape so she could pass off the ensuing son as her own.]]
* BaitAndSwitch: Ying-Ying's first adult book entry hints that she was kidnapped and forcibly impregnated as a young girl, since Lena's father claims that he saved her from "a fate too horrible to talk about" in China, and Ying-Ying absent-mindedly babbles to her young daughter that she fears she might get kidnapped and forced to have a baby by strange men. Her second entry disproves this: [[spoiler:She willingly married a friend of her rich father's, but he turned out to be a crass philanderer who abandoned her a few months after their marriage, and she hated him so much that she aborted his child out of spite.]]
* BaldOfEvil: Lena's boyfriend Harold's baldness is a visual cue to his cold soullessness, along with the grey clothing and furniture. His replacement in the film version is notable for having thick, luxurious hair, symbolic of his warmth and goodness.
* BatmanGambit: Lindo's plan of getting out of her first marriage. Having spent a long time observing her in-laws and watching over a maid that had become pregnant, she tells her mother-in-law about a dream that a man with a mole (one of their ancestors) touched both her and her husband to cause their bodies to rot if they continued with their marriage as well as plant the seeds of a child into a maid who was actually of royal blood. Lindo manages to not only successfully get out of her marriage with money to go to America but she helped the maid be able to go on to a better life for both her and her child.

* BrokenBird: Young An-Mei, and Lena's mother Ying-ying.

* CultureClash: When Waverly brings her American fiance over for dinner, he horrifies her parents by unknowingly committing every Chinese culture faux pas during the meal. Protip: When a Chinese cook says the food they've made probably isn't very good, that means they actually think it's ''awesome''.

* DefiledForever: An-mei's widowed mother is raped by a strange man, and is then forced to marry him because she is considered defiled. Even worse, the Second Wife spreads a rumor that the intercourse was ''consensual.''

* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: Poor Ying-ying.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the book, the first sign that Ted is a terrible person is when Rose tells him about his mother's racist statements and he's angrier at Rose for not standing up for herself than at his mother's racism. Notably, due to his [[LighterAndSofter nicer]] and redeemable portrayal in the movie, he is present when said racism is directed at Rose, and he rightfully calls his mother out [[spoiler: and he and Rose are eventually able to reconcile their marriage]].
* EvilMatriarch: Huang Taitai in "The Red Candle" is pushy and demanding toward not only a young Lindo but her own son in an effort to gain a coveted grandson despite them being too young to have children, especially Tyan-yu. Second Wife in "Magpies" makes her look like a saint in comparison with her manipulative behavior and bouts of pretend suicide to get what she wants and making sure no one else can get the benefits that she does. Both of them do get humbled in their own ways by the end of each story.

* JadeColoredGlasses: As an adult, Waverly blames her mother Lindo for making her view her life this way. She laments that she realized her first husband's faults after her mother met him, and always views her house, clothes, and life in a more negative light after her mother comments on them. It takes her finally confronting her mother to learn that Lindo never intended to make her feel bad about herself or her life -- that it was Waverly projecting her insecurities onto her mother.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Rose grows to realize that Ted is self-centered, often blames the brunt of his issues on her, and ultimately tries to kick her out of her house, expecting her to react well to the news of his cheating and asking for divorce. In the film, they communicate and reconcile; in the book, they don't.

** Waverly spends most of her life thinking of her mother Lindo as this, due to the latter telling her the story of how she tricked her way out of her awful first marriage in "Red Candle," and teaching her how to play chess. Waverly imagines her mother as this cunning, manipulative woman who deliberately makes passive-aggressive comments to try to shatter her confidence and ruin her life. It takes until near the end of the book for Waverly to realize that her mom never had any of the sinister motivations she imposed on her -- she just has no filter.
** Second Wife in An-Mei's mother's story, in ''spades''. [[spoiler:She got First Wife addicted to opium to keep her [[AddledAddict docile and compliant]], and arranged his marriage to Third Wife in the hopes of passing off their eventual son as her own, knowing the girl's poverty ensured she'd be too grateful to cross Second Wife and homeliness ensured Wu-Tsing would never favor her. When Third Wife also only had daughters, Second Wife befriended An-Mei's widowed mother to arrange her violent rape and marriage to Wu-Tsing to pass off the ensuing son as her own. On top of this, Second Wife constantly fakes being DrivenToSuicide in order to scare Wu-Tsing into giving her her way all the time.]] HarsherInHindsight when you read Amy Tan's autobiographies and realize that this stuff all actually happened.
* MeaningfulName: Loads. "Rose," in reference to her demureness in her marriage. And Lindo's intentionally invokes this with "Waverly."

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: An-mei's mother, trapped into a horrific marriage to her rapist, commits suicide by poison, but does so two days before the new year. Folklore states that the third day after death is when a spirit returns to settle old scores -- and you do ''not'' want a spirit angry with you on New Year's Day. An-mei's mother ensures her daughter and son will be cared for.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Rose might have eventually gotten around to cashing Ted's $10k check and divorce papers had he asked nicely, rather than show up in person to berate her for making him wait, angrily declaring that he's been cheating on her and wants her to move out so he and his new wife can move into the house. This pushes Rose to finally [[GrewASpine grow a spine]] ([[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor like he wanted]]) and declare that she ''will'' fight him to keep the house and get a better divorce settlement.

** An-Mei's mother, due to her circumstances. She takes An-Mei so she could live a better life in a wealthier household, ironically committing this again by abandoning An-Mei's younger brother. It's explained in the book that taking her son to a house where she serves as a concubine would rob him of a future, since it would cut him off from his father's family yet never belong or be treated well in the new one.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Mr. St. Clair could never understand his wife fully because of this, resulting in a marriage run mostly by tolerance than true love. Even Lena realizes that her father can merely "put words in her mother's mouth." Also a common case between the mothers and daughters.
** This is played tragically in the case of Canning and Suyuan Woo just before her death. Suyuan discovered that her abandoned daughters were still alive and a friend found them shopping together and wrote her a letter about this which reignites the hope that had faded away over decades. She tries to encourage Canning to go to China but neglects to mention the reason ''why'' she wants to go and he refuses because he thought she just wanted to go on a vacation at the time and they were getting too old to be tourists in their seventies. Not long after this, she dies from an aneurysm and only too late does Canning realize the meaning of the words when he receives a letter from his wife's daughters. He confesses to his aunt and Jing-Mei that it's one of the biggest regrets of his life.
* PrecisionFStrike: In the film adaptation, Ted gives this to his own mother after she makes remarks towards Rose. Likewise, Rose later gives Ted this when calling out on his emotional neglect of her.

** Tyan-yu and Lindo in "The Red Candle." Huang Taitai enables and condones this because she wants an heir. However, nothing happens anyway. In the film, Tyan-yu thrusts something at Lindo and makes her scream -- but it's only his pet lizard! His mom is in SelectiveObliviousness.
** Poor An-Mei's mother gets this in spades. [[spoiler:Second Wife arranged her violent rape in order to trap her into concubinage. Being the degraded Fourth Wife of her rapist is one of many things that drives her to suicide.]]

* RichBitch: Ying-ying in her youth before she was broken by her terrible first marriage. The Second Wife in An-mei's story is this to a T.
* TheRoaringTwenties: In the sequences with the mothers' childhoods. More evident in An-mei and Ying-ying's stories, given how they were raised in wealthy families with some Western influence.

** Linda and Harold's marriage is not-so-subtly symbolized by the bedside table he made in college: a huge slab of granite on spindly little legs that'll collapse under the slightest pressure. She finds it ugly and useless yet keeps it around because he likes it (much like the terms of their marriage), and often has to tiptoe around it. Around the same time that her mother's ArmorPiercingQuestion makes Linda aware of how dysfunctional their marriage is, his pitiful table collapses in the guest bedroom her mother is staying in.
** Rose and Ted's garden. Her inability to make any choices means he decides everything, including the house's carefully trimmed yard. After they separate, she lets the garden become overrun with weeds due to her indecision. When he comes over to browbeat her into signing the divorce papers so he can remarry and move his new wife in, he declares his intention to rip up the yard to put in something new. This helps Rose find the strength to tell him "no." She declares that she likes the wild look of the yard and will fight him to keep the house, since she refuses to be a weed that he can just pluck up and throw out of his life.
* SexlessMarriage: Lindo's and Tyan-yu's marriage, being he has no interest in her and is downright terrified at the idea of consummating the marriage. Also, there's the fact they're ''children'' when they're married.
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: An-Mei's mother, whose beauty attracted Wu-Tsing enough that [[spoiler:Second Wife was able to convince him to rape and marry her against her will.]]

* YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX: Again implied by Mrs. Jordan to Rose.

* AdultFear:
** Being forced to abandon your baby girls to the elements in the ''desperate'' hope someone will find and take care of them because you simply ''can't carry them anymore.''
** Waverly running away from her mother in a busy street as a child.
** 4-year-old Bing's death. While at the beach, he is left unattended for a moment and ends up accidentally drowning.
** Having to make a bargain that when your four-year-old child turns 15, she will leave and marry a SpoiledBrat, and you will never see her again.

* BatmanGambit: Lindo's plan of getting out of her first marriage.

The novel was [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted into a 1993 film]], directed by Wayne Wang. It starred Creator/MingNaWen, Creator/TamlynTomita, Creator/LaurenTom, and Creator/RosalindChao as the daughters, and Lisa Lu, Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, and France Nguyen as the mothers.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joyluckclub_5219.jpg]]

''The Joy Luck Club'' is an 1989 novel by Creator/AmyTan.

The novel was adapted into a 1993 film, directed by Wayne Wang. It starred Creator/MingNaWen, Creator/TamlynTomita, Creator/LaurenTom, and Creator/RosalindChao as the daughters, and Lisa Lu, Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, and France Nguyen as the mothers.

* CultureClash: When Lindo brings her American fiance over for dinner, he horrifies her parents by unknowingly committing every Chinese culture faux pas during the meal.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Rose grows to realize that Ted is self-centered, often blames the brunt of his issues on her, and ultimately tries to kick her out of her house, expecting her to react well to the news of his cheating and divorce.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: The extent of Lindo's relationship with her first husband.

** Second Wife in An-Mei's mother's story, in ''spades''. [[spoiler:She got First Wife addicted to opium to keep her [[AddledAddict docile and compliant]], and arranged his marriage to Third Wife in the hopes of passing off their eventual son as her own, knowing the girl's poverty ensured she'd be too grateful to cross Second Wife and homeliness ensured Wu-Tsing would never favor her. When Third Wife also only had daughters, Second Wife befriended An-Mei's widowed mother to arrange her violent rape and marriage to Wu-Tsing to pass off the ensuing son as her own. On top of this, Second Wife constantly fakes being DrivenToSuicide in order to scare Wu-Tsing into giving her her way all the time.]]

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Ted in the film is depicted as redeemable, thus [[spoiler: being attentive enough to save his marriage with Rose]]. Harold is a more blatant emotional abuser in the film, whereas the book counterpart is just unintentionally condescending.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Lena goes through the motions of her marriage, splitting all the costs with her husband "equally" despite him making seven times what she does. When her mother asks why they do this, she tries to think of a way to explain it in a way for her mother to understand, only to give up and realize she doesn't know why they still do this.

* BabyFactory: An-Mei's mother fills this role in her loveless marriage. [[spoiler:It's revealed that Second Wife arranged her rape and marriage to her husband so she could pass off the ensuing son as her own.]]

* FinancialAbuse: Lena's husband Harold does this to her. Despite making seven times her salary (and being the CEO of the company she's an employee at), he makes her split all the costs "fifty-fifty" and acts as if it's fair. He also gets rich off her ideas for his company without giving her payment or credit. It takes her mother questioning why she has to pay for ice cream that she doesn't eat for her to realize this.

** Waverly spends most of her life thinking of her mother as this, due to the latter telling her the story of how she tricked her way out of her awful first marriage in "Red Candle," and teaching her how to play chess. Waverly imagines her mother as this cunning, manipulative woman who deliberately makes passive-aggressive comments to try to shatter her confidence and ruin her life. It takes until near the end of the book for Waverly to realize that her mom never had any of the sinister motivations she imposed on her--she just has no filter.
** Second Wife in An-Mei's mother's story, in ''spades''. [[spoiler:After First Wife went catatonic with grief from giving birth to two deformed girls, the Second Wife wasted no time ensuring her place as EvilMatriarch in her new husband's household. She got First Wife addicted to opium to keep her docile and compliant, arranged his marriage to the poor and homely Third Wife in the hopes of passing her son off as her own, since her poverty ensured she'd be too grateful to cross Second Wife and homeliness ensured he'd never favor her. When Third Wife also only had daughters, Second Wife befriended An-Mei's mother just to trick her into being violently raped by the husband, to pass off the ensuing son as her own. On top of this, Second Wife constantly fakes being DrivenToSuicide in order to scare the husband into giving her her way all the time.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Rose might have eventually gotten around to cashing Ted's $10k check and divorce papers had he asked nicely, rather than show up in person to berate her for making him wait, angrily declaring that he's been cheating on her and wants her to move out so he and his new wife can move into the house. This pushes Rose to finally [[GrewASpine grow a spine]] ([[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor like he wanted]]) and declare that she ''will'' fight him to keep the house and a better divorce settlement.

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Rose admits she got pregnant "for the worst reason" in order to keep Ted from straying. It doesn't work, though they both do love their daughter.

* BrokenBird: Young An-Mei, Lena's mother, Ying-ying.

** Well... it's a long story in the case of An-Mei's mother.

** An-Mei's mother, due to her circumstances. She takes An-Mei so she could live a better life in a wealthier household, ironically committing this again by abandoning An-Mei's younger brother (it's implied that taking her son to a house where she served as a concubine would be frowned upon).

* RapeAsDrama: Tyan-yu and Lindo in "The Red Candle." Huang Taitai enables and condones this because she wants an heir. However, nothing happens anyway. In the film, Tyan-yu thrusts something at Lindo and makes her scream -- but it's only his pet lizard! His mom is in SelectiveObliviousness.