A Study Of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club And Its Film Adaptation

Amy Tan, as one of the most influential Chinese American writer, contributes a lot to the popularizing of Chinese American literature. Her debut The Joy Luck Club (1989) gains great popularity and wins high acclaim both among the academic circle and the ordinary readers. Tan’s other major works, including The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter’s, Daughter (2001) and Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), also appear on the best-selling lists. It is said that Tan knocked the door of the American publishers for the Chinese American literature.Two factors contribute to the popularity of the novel. Firstly, the theme—the love between mothers and daughters and self-realization correspond to the current American value. Besides, a large number of detailed descriptions of China and Chinese people arouse American mainstream’s interest and curiosity about China. These are also the main reasons for Hollywood to choose this novel as screenplay. Chinese elements have always served as a guarantee for the good box office. The one hundred history of Hollywood witnesses the creation of stereotypes of Chinese men, which falls into two categories, Yellow Peril and Model Minority, while Chinese women are depicted as China Doll who are obedient, submissive, helpless and in need of rescue.Based on the novel, the adapted film is very popular among the audience, which arouses another wave of Amy Tan Phenomenon, together with the debate of the images of China and Chinese people. This thesis will apply Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism. Through a careful comparative study of the novel and the film, the thesis attempts to point out that the film The Joy Luck Club (1993) inherits the Hollywood’s tradition in stereotyping China and Chinese people. Moreover, through the changing of plot, the mothers’say is greatly reduced and the hardships the daughters endure when they strive to assimilate to the American mainstream are overlooked. This conveys to the audience a misleading message of the spirit of the original novel. The film aims to cater to the mainstream psychology, which turns out to be a commercial success. The fact that the film, different from the novel, is audience-oriented contributes to this change.