Amy Tan

Amy Tan was born in 1952 to first-generation Chinese-American parents. At her birth, Tan was given the Chinese name An-Mai, meaning “Blessing of America.” Her […]

Characters

A Cleo Brandt Cleo is Pearl and Phil’s three-year-old daughter. She calls her Chinese grandma “Ha-bu.” B Pearl Brandt Pearl is Winnie’s forty-year-old daughter. She […]

Themes

A Duty A central element in Eastern culture is duty, and Winnie exhibits this sense of responsibility throughout her life. When Wen Fu proposes marriage, […]

Further Reading

Patricia P. Chu’s Assimilating Asians: Gendered Strategies of Authorship in Asian America (New Americanists) (2000) explores the increasingly important role of Asian authors in America […]