AMERICAN RULES, CHINESE FACES: THE GAMES OF AMY TAN S THE JOY LUCK CLUB

Transcription

1 AMERICAN RULES, CHINESE FACES: THE GAMES OF AMY TAN S THE JOY LUCK CLUB TARA FICKLE Bruce McCall, Miami Mah Jongg (2012)

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3 She and Auntie An-mei were dressed up in funny Chinese dresses with stiff stand-up collars and blooming branches of embroidered silk sewn over their breasts. These clothes were too fancy for real Chinese people, I thought, and too strange for American parties. In those days... I imagined Joy Luck was a shameful Chinese custom, like the secret gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or the tom-tom dances of TV Indians preparing for war. The Joy Luck Club

4 Table page of Contents xi ix Table of Contents page xi THE JOY LUCK CLUB THE MOTHERS THE DAUGHTERS FEATHERS FROM A A THOUSAND LI AWAY JING-MEI WOO: The Joy Luck Club AN-MEI HSU: Scar LINDO JONG: The Red Candle YING-YING ST. CLAIR: The Moon Lady THE THE TWENTY-SIX MALIGNANT GATES WAVERLY JONG: Rules of the Game LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: The Voice from the Wall ROSE ROSE HSU JORDAN: Half and Half JING-MEI WOO: Two Two Kinds AMERICAN AMERICAN TRANSLATION LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Rice Rice Husband WAVERLY JONG: Four Directions ROSE ROSE HSU HSU JORDAN: Without Wood JING-MEI WOO: WOO: Best Best Quality Rules of the Game QUEEN QUEEN MOTHER MOTHER OF OF THE THE WESTERN WESTERN SKIES SKIES AN-MEI AN-MEI HSU: HSU: Magpies Magpies YING-YING YING-YING ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Waiting Waiting Between the the Trees Trees LINDO LINDO JONG: JONG: Double Double Face Face JING-MEI JING-MEI WOO: WOO: A A Pair Pair of of Tickets Tickets : W Suyuan Woo An-Mei Hsu Lindo Jong Ying-ying St. Clair S N Jing-mei June Woo Rose Hsu Jordan Waverly Jong Lena St. Clair

5 Table page of Contents xi ix Table of Contents page xi FEATHERS FROM A A THOUSAND LI AWAY JING-MEI WOO: The Joy Luck Club AN-MEI HSU: Scar LINDO JONG: The Red Candle YING-YING ST. CLAIR: The Moon Lady THE THE TWENTY-SIX MALIGNANT GATES WAVERLY JONG: Rules of the Game LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: The Voice from the Wall ROSE ROSE HSU JORDAN: Half and Half JING-MEI WOO: Two Two Kinds AMERICAN AMERICAN TRANSLATION LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Rice Rice Husband WAVERLY JONG: Four Directions ROSE ROSE HSU HSU JORDAN: Without Wood JING-MEI WOO: WOO: Best Best Quality Rules of the Game QUEEN QUEEN MOTHER MOTHER OF OF THE THE WESTERN WESTERN SKIES SKIES AN-MEI AN-MEI HSU: HSU: Magpies Magpies YING-YING YING-YING ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Waiting Waiting Between the the Trees Trees LINDO LINDO JONG: JONG: Double Double Face Face JING-MEI JING-MEI WOO: WOO: A A Pair Pair of of Tickets Tickets : WW THE JOY LUCK CLUB THE MOTHERS Suyuan Woo An-Mei Hsu Lindo Jong Ying-ying St. Clair S S NN THE DAUGHTERS Jing-mei June Woo Rose Hsu Jordan Waverly Jong Lena St. Clair EE

6 Table page of Contents xi ix Table of Contents page xi THE JOY LUCK CLUB THE MOTHERS THE DAUGHTERS FEATHERS FROM A A THOUSAND LI AWAY JING-MEI WOO: The Joy Luck Club AN-MEI HSU: Scar LINDO JONG: The Red Candle YING-YING ST. CLAIR: The Moon Lady THE THE TWENTY-SIX MALIGNANT GATES WAVERLY JONG: Rules of the Game LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: The Voice from the Wall ROSE ROSE HSU JORDAN: Half and Half JING-MEI WOO: Two Two Kinds AMERICAN AMERICAN TRANSLATION LENA LENA ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Rice Rice Husband WAVERLY JONG: Four Directions ROSE ROSE HSU HSU JORDAN: Without Wood JING-MEI WOO: WOO: Best Best Quality Rules of the Game QUEEN QUEEN MOTHER MOTHER OF OF THE THE WESTERN WESTERN SKIES SKIES AN-MEI AN-MEI HSU: HSU: Magpies Magpies YING-YING YING-YING ST. ST. CLAIR: CLAIR: Waiting Waiting Between the the Trees Trees LINDO LINDO JONG: JONG: Double Double Face Face JING-MEI JING-MEI WOO: WOO: A A Pair Pair of of Tickets Tickets : W Suyuan Woo An-Mei Hsu Lindo Jong Ying-ying St. Clair S N Jing-mei June Woo Rose Hsu Jordan Waverly Jong Lena St. Clair E

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8 To end the evils of gambling and its tragic history of harming generations of people will give new life to mahjong, enabling it to develop the people s mental powers, strengthen their will, mould their sentiments, benefit future generations, rectify social trends, and eliminate familial tragedies. Healthy mahjong will cleanse a gem from within the vast repository of Chinese culture, permitting it once again to gleam brightly and enrich the physical culture and everyday life of people at home and abroad. Qi Sheng, Majiangxue ( The Art of Mahjong ), 1999

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11 I thought up Joy Luck on a summer night that was so hot even the moths fainted to the ground, their wings were so heavy with the damp heat. Every place was so crowded there was no room for fresh air. Unbearable smells from the sewers rose up... At all hours of the night and day, I heard screaming sounds. I didn t know if it was a peasant slitting the throat of a runaway pig or an officer beating a half-dead peasant for lying in his way on the sidewalk. I didn t go to the window to find out. What use would it have been? And that s when I thought I needed something to do to help me move.

12 Popular mahjong opens a window on the Chinese notion of individuality. Westerners invented bridge, which... requires a considerable degree of coordination among partners that is fixed and determined by the rules... In mahjong, on the other hand, any form of cooperation among players is prohibited and speaks poorly of a person s game character (paipin). Indeed, one important measure of skill and talent in mahjong... is precisely the degree to which one player is able to impair the game of another and the victim will then turn around and praise the victor. Paul Festa, Mahjong Politics (2006)

13 Entirely different kind of playing, [Lindo] said in her English explanation voice. Jewish mah jong, they watch only for their own tile, play only with their own eyes. Then she switched to Chinese: Chinese mah jong, you must play using your head, very tricky. You must watch what everybody else throws away and keep that in your head as well. And if nobody plays well, then the game becomes like Jewish mah jong. Why play? There s no strategy.

14 My mother patted the flour off her hands. Let me see book, she said quietly. She scanned the pages quickly, not reading the foreign English symbols, seeming to search deliberately for nothing in particular. This American rules, she concluded at last. Every time people come out from foreign country, must know rules. You not know, judge say, Too bad, go back. They not telling you why so you can use their way go forward. They say, Don t know why, you find out yourself. But they knowing all the time. Better you take it, find out why yourself. She tossed her head back with a satisfied smile.

15 We used to play mah jong, winner take all. But the same people were always winning, the same people always losing... You can t have luck when someone else has skill. So long time ago, we decided to invest in the stock market. There s no skill in that. Even your mother agreed... We got smart. Now we can all win and lose equally. We can have stock market luck. And we can play mah jong for fun, just for a few dollars, winner take all.

16 Liu Yi, Beijing 2008 (2005)