Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California after her parents had immigrated to the United States during the Forties. She was named En-Mai, which means Blessing of America, but as it turns out her blessings were few and far between. Amy's older brother dies of brain cancer in 1967, and only months later her father dies of the same disease. Because of this, Amy, who was only fifteen, and her younger brother John, moved to Europe with their mother. While in Europe, Amy rebelled against society and made friends with drug-dealing hippies and was arrested at the age of sixteen. As proof of her lack of judgment, later that year she nearly eloped to Australia with a mental patient who claimed he was a German army deserter. Only after returning to the United States did she meet the man who would become her husband. She was working hard and doing well in school until her best friend was murdered and the sense of anger and loss she had as a child returned to her. As a technical writer, her work consumed her and she was putting in ninety hours a week. Eventually, Amy joined a writing club where she realized that writing was theraputic and beneficial for her. She wrote many short stories, many of which she tried to avoid her Chinese heritage in, but finally, she discovered her true passion was in writing from a Chinese prospective. With this newfound talent, she wrote the Joy Luck Club and many other books about the relationships between Chinese mothers and daughters.
Amy Tan's writing is extremely reflective of her life. Many of the situations she writes about are drawn from her own experiences. Her sorrowful family history and painful personal traumas greatly influence her writing. Throughout the book, The Joy Luck Club, the immigrant mothers are afraid that the younger generations will lose their Chinese heritage and thereby forfeit their faith in joy and luck. Tan used to distrust joy and luck for obvious reasons.
