Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California, on February 19, 1952. She grew up in Fresno, Oakland, Berkeley, and the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been married to her husband, Lou DeMattei, for over twenty years, and they have a cat named Sagwa and a dog named Mr. Zo. (John Tonies) Tan wrote many novels, including The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife. Her first novel was published in 1989, known as The Joy Luck Club, was her first work of fiction, and it was on the New York times bestseller list for longer than any other book in that year. Both books are about Chinese-American culture, but different in may ways. .
First of all, Amy Tan attended Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. She received a bachelor's degree in English and Linguistics; University of California/Santa Cruz, and University of California/Berkeley. Originally, Amy Tan had not planned to be a writer. After graduating from college, she worked as a language development consultant to programs serving developmentally disabled children and as a freelance business writer for big-name corporations. In 1985, Tan wrote the story "Rules of the Game" for a writing workshop, and the story became incorporated into The Joy Luck Club as part of Waverly Jong's story. It was a finalist for the National Reviewers Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Club Gold Award, and it won the L.A. Times Book Award in 1989. Her other two books, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses, have also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and all her works have been translated into many different languages. She has also written other stories, narratives, and even childrens' books. (Steven Higents) .
Next, Tan based her works on the own life. She uses incidents and facts from her past, and in some cases, her parents and ancestors pasts, and interweaves them into her stories. For example, June's mother from The Joy Luck Club, June's mother left behind her two baby daughters when the Japanese attacked Kweilin, as did Ms.