summary

By Chelsea!

=​**__Feathers from A Thousand //Li// Away__**=

Jing-Mei is a 36 year old first-generation American citizen whose mother just recently passed away. Her mother and father immigrated to America from China, where they had a really bad home life. Her mother was married once before marrying her father; Jing-Mei's mother had two children with that man before she married Jing-Mei's (who's American name is June) father. June's mother tells her stories when June is a little girl, about her own life in China. Things were very bad there, the Japenese had invaded, and life in Kweilin was almost unbearable. June's mother's stories give her nightmares, scaring June for life. When June asks what happened to her two half-siblings, June's mother simply tells her that "you are not them", meaning she left them back in China. June's mother starts the Joy Luck Club when she stilled lived in China, to help her and three of her friends get through the tough times. The tradition is carried on with her when she arrives in America with her new family. But since June's mother has died, June's father asks if June would take her mother's place at the Joy Luck Club with her three "aunties" and their families. June reluctantly agrees, because her and her mother didn't have the best relationship. At each Joy Luck Club meeting there is a big feast, stock market investments, and announcements from each family, sort of like a family reunion, though none of these families are blood related. After playing a Chinese betting game with the three other members, June feels so uncomfortable that she asks to leave. Before she can get out the door, her three "aunties" tell her they have received letters from her sisters back in China--and that June must tell them she exists and also tell them of their mother's death...
 * Jing-Mei Woo: The Joy Luck Club**

An-Mei grew up in a bad family in China. Her mother had been a disgrace to the family, and her grandmother forbode An-Mei to resemble her mom even in the slightest. They all faught a whole lot. One night she spilled hot Chinese soup on her neck and got a really bad burn. Her scar always reminds her of what her homeland was like and how much better America is. She is one of the 4 members of the Joy Luck Club.
 * An-Mei Hsu: Scar**

Lindo has a marraige arranged when she is just two years old to a boy who is a year younger than her. When she is twelve, a great flood of the Fen River destroys their home in Taiyuan, and everyone in Lindo's family moves except her, who goes immediately to live with her arranged husband's family. Her mother-in-law, Huang Taitai is especially harsh and teaches her to be a good wife to her son, Tyan-yu. After a few months of living there they arrange a wedding date, but hardly anyone in town goes to the wedding because the Japenese have invaded, and they are very scared. It is traditional Chinese custom to light two ends of a red candle and let it burn all night, symbolizing the marriage. If the candle is completely burrned through in the morning, the marriage is sealed and can never ever be broken. Even if Tyan-yu died, Lindo Jong could not remarry. But Lindo HATES Tyan-yu. She is extremely unhappy with her new family; they treat her terribly. She thinks of Tyan-yu as an annoying cousin or even brother (pg. 57). Before getting married, she looks in the mirror and makes a promise to herself that even though she is being forced into this life, she will never lose who she truly is. She blows her side of the candle out that night so it doesn't burn all the way through, and her marriage is not sealed. even thought the matchmaker tells her in-laws in the morning that it did burn all the way through. She eventually learns to love Tyan-yu, but only as a brother. They sleep together, but they never have sex, though they tell Huang Taitai they do, because she is expecting grandchildren. When Lindo's belly never gets rounder, they sentance her to bedrest so they baby that they believe she's carrying. Lindo eventually tells the family that she's cursed to not have children, and escapes to America.
 * Lindo Jong: The Red Candle**

Ying-Ying falls off a boat in China. She almost drowns but another boat picks her up, and drops her off for her family to find her. She makes a wish to the moon lady to be found, and she eventually is. =**__The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates__**=
 * Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady**

Waverly's brother got a second-hand chess set from the church Christmas party, and he doesn't want to play it. But Waverly picks it up and before you know it she is winning every tournament she goes to. She becomes a national chess champion at just nine years old. She spends all her free time practicing. Her mother brags about her SOOO much and tells people that SHE (Waverly's mom) is the genius behind the chess-champion child star.
 * Waverly Jong: Rules of the Game**

Lena's mother falls into a deep depression, it seems as though she's a ghost. When Lena feels as if she has it the worst, she hears voices from the other side of the wall in their appartment. It's a mother and daughter, fighting, and someone is being beaten. Lena is very thankful that her life isn't that bad. Except one day, the girl from the appartment next door comes over, with no bruises or anything, and jumps off the fire escape in Lena's room, with her only explaination being "my mom locked me out, we do stuff like this all the time." This leaves Lena very confused.
 * Lena St. Clair: The Voice From the Wall**

Rose's marriage is falling apart because of Rose's meekness. She can never make decisions. Her husband Ted always decides everything. But her Chinese mother tells her not to give up Keep trying, don't lose faith. Rose finds this ironic because her mother gave up faith in God long ago after losing Rose's youngest brother, Bing, at the beach after he falls in the water. Rose and her mother search very hard the next day, rely on luck, and pray to God very hard, but they never find him, and Rose's mother doesn't believe anymore.
 * Rose Hsu Jordan: Half and Half**

Jing-Mei's mother wants her to be a child prodigy. They try everything from being a Chinese version of Shirley Temple to tap-dancing. Finally, her parents enroll her in piano lessons from Old Man Chong in the appartment upstairs (he is crazy and deaf). She hates playing and messes up terribly at the recital at the First Chinese Baptist Church, even though she went into it very confidently because she wanted to be known as a prodigy like Waverly with chess, with whom she has a rivalry. The other parents and kids of the Joy Luck Club make fun of her. She fights her mother when she tries to make her go back to lessons, and she says she wishes she was never born like the two twin girls her mother lost in China. Jing-Mei and her mother basically stop talking after that. After years of not being what her mother wanted, Jing's mom gives her the piano for her 30th birthday. She plays the song she played at the recital, realizing how easy the notes come back to her, and then realizes there's a second half to the song. =__American Translation__=
 * Jing-Mei Woo: Two Kinds**


 * Lena St. Clair: Rice Husband**


 * Waverly Jong: Four Directions**