History YMMV / TheJoyLuckClub

** Creator/MingNaWen would achieve more recognition for ''{{Series/ER}}'', being the voice of {{WesternAnimation/Mulan}} and of course as Melinda May in ''Series/AgentsOfShield''.

** Creator/LaurenTom (Lena St. Clair) is now better known as a voice actor, such as Amy in ''WesternAnimation/Futurama'' and Numbah 3 in ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''

-->"Lindo, will you spouse me?"

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Tyan-yu Huang in-universe. He's a SpoiledBrat bullying his child bride but he's also eleven years old and under the thumb of his EvilMatriarch who is pressuring him for a grandson when he hasn't even hit puberty yet. If Lindo hadn't performed her BatmanGambit, he would have been just as miserable as she was. His book counterpart hints that he's just as scared into silence as Lindo is and possibly lies to his mother not only for himself but also to spare Lindo from his mother's wrath.

** Ying-Ying is perhaps the biggest Woobie out of the mothers. She starts off as a CheerfulChild that grows into a RichBitch who ends up marrying an awful man prone to womanizing that got her pregnant. After her husband dies and [[spoiler: she gets an abortion]], she has to start her life all over again. Her relationship with Clifford St. Clair is not portrayed as being loving but formed out of tolerance and she slowly starts falling victim to depression and hears voices which only gets worse [[spoiler: when her second son is born without a brain]]. Ying-Ying is also the only one of the mothers whose husband is dead and she feels as though she can only love him as a ghost.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Ming Na Wen would achieve more recognition for ''{{Series/ER}}'', being the voice of {{WesternAnimation/Mulan}} and of course as Melinda May in ''Series/AgentsOfShield''.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Every main character, especially mothers, all have messed up lives. [[SarcasmMode Everybody loves it.]]

* SophomoreSlump: If one considers this the second part in the trilogy of Hollywood films with all Asian casts, ''The Joy Luck Club'' was only a modest Box Office success and isn't as remembered as ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'' or ''Film/CrazyRichAsians''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Ming Na Wen would achieve more recognition for ''{{Series/ER}}'', being the voice of {{Disney/Mulan}} and of course as Melinda May in ''Series/AgentsOfShield''.

** All the main characters in the film. [[AllAbusersAreMale Most males are either abusive or clueless]], with the possible exception of Suyuan's husband and Lindo's husband, so the women are even more sympathetic.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Rose's line "it was right out of some horrible, racist movie like ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong''" when a mother doesn't want her son marrying an Asian. ValuesDissonance aside, ''Suzie Wong'' is a film with an ''anti''-racism moral and comes down in favour of interracial relationships (the characters who protest these relationships are shown to be in the wrong). Nancy Kwan, who played Suzie, in fact turned down a role in this film purely because of this line. Specifically she said she would do the part if they cut it from the script. They didn't, and she walked.

** Ying-Ying is perhaps the biggest Woobie out of the mothers. She starts off as a CheerfulChild that grows into a RichBitch who ends up marrying an awful man prone to womanizing that got her pregnant. After her husband dies and [[spoiler: she gets an abortion]], she has to start her life all over again. Her relationship with Clifford St. Clair is not portrayed as being loving but formed out of tolerance and she slowly starts falling victim to depression and hears voices which only gets worse [[spoiler: when her second son is born without a brain]]. Ying-Ying is also the only one of the mothers whose husband is dead and she feels as though she can only love him as a ghost.
* UnfortunateImplications: While being one of the biggest novels to feature predominantly well rounded Asian characters, it's also subject to criticism for perpetuating Chinese stereotypes and framing China as a sexist, uber-Confucionist country. Criticisms include pushing the "exotic" Chinese woman stereotype, the American-born daughters ridding themselves of the "backward" Chinese culture and embracing the "modern" Western culture, as well as painting Asian men as abusive and not as masculine. Of course, many still point out that this was Tan taking inspiration from her family's stories (for example, An-mei's mother's situation was based on Tan's grandmother's), and it's still debated if this is the [[YouAreACreditToYourRace audience perceiving a few people's experiences as everyone else's]] or if Tan really does push harmful stereotypes.

** Ying-Ying is perhaps the biggest Woobie out of the mothers. She starts off as a CheerfulChild that grows into a RichBitch who ends up marrying an awful man prone to womanizing that got her pregnant. After her husband dies and [[spoiler: she gets an abortion]], she has to start her life all over again. Her relationship with Clifford St. Clair is not portrayed as being loving but formed out of tolerance and she slowly starts falling victim to depression and hears voices which only gets worse [[spoiler: when her second son is born without a brain]]. Ying-Ying is also the only one of the mothers whose husband is dead and she feels as though she can only love him as a ghost.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Tyan-yu Huang in-universe. He's a SpoiledBrat bullying his child bride but he's also eleven years old and under the thumb of his EvilMatriarch who is pressuring him for a grandson when he hasn't even hit puberty yet. If Lindo hadn't performed her BatmanGambit, he would have been just as miserable as she was.

** All the main characters in the film. [[AllAbusersAreMale Most males are either abusive or clueless]], with the possible exception of Suyuan's husband and Lindo's husband, so the women are even more sympathetic.