Selling-Out the Asian-American Community in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club :: Joy Luck Club Essays

Selling-Out the Asian-American Community in The Joy Luck Club   i proclivity i could join in the universal praise for amy tan and her popular figment the joy luck club. i wish i could check the latest Chinese-American literary dish as appetizing as the recline of the american human race does.  but i cant. before amy tan entered the scene, public images of asian america had not developed since the middle of the century. the asian american male did not exist except as a vicious japanese or vietcong soldier. the asian american female remained the adolescent suzy wong shrill dream, toyed with for a while and then deserted.   amy tan, a gifted writer, had the chance to smorgasbord those images, to dispel the publics misconceptions and to forge a new asian american identity. instead, she copped come in on her obligations, meekly reinforcing every conceivable stereotype.   if you believe tans first novel the joy luck club, asian amerca is some mystical oddity, co nforming to the mascot-culture deal of the white thirtysomething women who predominated at tans reading. san francisco chinatown is filled with hysterical chinese women playing riddle mah jong games. china itself is a dreamlik landscape, filled with secrets and traditions, all exuding a delicate, storybook aura. chinese mothers be all one-dimensional, superstitious and ignorant. their chinese phrases are delightful italics with quaint meanings. of course, what chinese comedy would be complete without a couple of garbled face words? when tan was late for her berkeley reading, her white husband directed the hearing to mimic her mothers amusing syntax why so late? rimshot.   amy tans heroines are the white mother-in-laws dream come true. these china dolls talk and have vigorous feminine sympathies. as one of tans heroines admits, i use to push my look on the sides to make them rounder. futile self-denial, but, oh, isnt it cute? tans heroines gain identity by separating them selves from and looking down on their culture. when the heroine in the kitchen gods wife hears about her reverend aunties spirit money, she sneers are her aunts attempt to bribe her way along to chinese-heaven straight off suggests a negative contrast to the truer western heaven.   the same dichotomy is used with men as well. asian american men are pitiable -- theyre either bothersome brothers or unsuccessful bangrs who lead to apathetic boredom.   love with a white male, however, is different.