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Roughly 95,000 foreigners arrive each day in the 

U.S but most do not intend to stay very long. More 

than 90,000 are non-immigrant tourists, business 

people, students, and workers who are welcomed at 

airports and border crossing.   Another 3,000 are 

immigrants or refugees who had been invited to 

become a permanent resident of the U.S. More than 

1,000 are unauthorized foreigners, usually 

Mexicans, who evade border control and enter the 

U.S and settle. More than 9 million foreigners were 

admitted as legal immigrants to the U.S between 

1991 and 2000, an average of 900,000 a year. 

Suyuan Woo started the San Francisco Joy Luck 

Club in 1949 because she wanted to make things 

better and find joy during the war. She thought 

this would be a good way to handle the hard times 

and thought it would help get them through it.

Although Suyuan loved her daughter Jing-Mei very 

much, they didn't seem to have the best 

relationship because Jing-Mei didn't really know 

much about her mother. She learned a lot of 

things about her from the "Aunties." When people 

said that they were alike by the hand gestures, 

same girlish laugh, and sideways look, Suyuan 

was not very happy.

When Suyuan heard this, she said to Jing-Mei, 

"You don’t even know little percent of me, how 

can you be me” (Tan 27)? Therefore, this shows 

that Suyuan and Jing-Mei didn't have the best 

relationship for a mother and daughter to have.

Immigration is caused by push and pull 

factors. Sometimes a person is pushed out 

of their country due to war or political 

persecution. Other times, immigrants want 

what another county has to offer. In this 

case, it was the push factors instead of the 

pull factors that caused Suyuan to leave 

China and come to America. She was forced 

out by the Japanese invading China and so 

it was not her choice to leave. Suyuan does 

not like it in America because she says it is 

really hard. 

Suyuan has heard people say, “Every time people 

come out from foreign country, must know rules.” 

And the judge says, "You not know the rules, too 

bad, go back. You don’t know why, you find out 

yourself” (Tan 94). She says you have to figure 

everything out on your own and no one is there to 

help you. 

Suyuan tried to make the best out of things by 

starting the JLC. Her goal was to bring happiness 

through the war and hard times. She thought that 

in America you could be anything you want to be. 

She told Jing-mei that she could be a prodigy at 

age 9. 

Suyuan lost everything in China: her parents, family 

home, first husband, and twin baby girls but she 

never looked back with regret. She said “There were 

so many ways for things to get better” (Tan 132).

Suyuan valued Jing-Mei and her other daughters (the 

half sisters) very much. Auntie Ying said to Jing-Mei, 

“Your mother loved you very much, more than her 

own life. And that’s why you can understand why a 

mother like this could never forget her other 

daughters. She knew they were alive, and before she 

died she wanted to find her daughters in China” (Tan 

39). 

Her family was very important to her and I think 

her daughters were what she valued the most 

from her Chinese culture even though she kept 

the story of her twin daughters hidden from her 

daughter for a long time and was that upset her. 

She worked very hard in her final years to find 

her twin daughters but sadly, she died shortly 

after she discovered they were alive and still 

living in China.

Style of writing:

Tells stories throughout the book

In the first chapter Waverly tells a story about her 

mother, then within the same chapter Waverly’s mother 

tell   a story about herself. 

In the last chapter Jing-mei Woo tell a story about the 

transformation of becoming Chinese and even about 

her past when her mother was still alive 

Uses metaphors and similes in a creative way.

“My father said she died by her own thought “ (Tan 19). 

"She had a new idea but died before it could get out" 

(Tan 19).

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