Amy Tan

1. Amy Tan By KarimBadran

2. Amy Tan • Amy Tan is an Asian American writer that was born on February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. • Although both of Amy’s parents were Chinese Immigrants, she didn’t learn Chinese until she was grown up because her parents believed that she must speak fluent English in order to do well in the United States.

3. Family • Amy’s father John Tan married her mother Daisy after she escaped China leaving behind her three daughters to her ex-husband. • John and daisy had three children Amy, her older brother, and her younger brother. • John Tan, a Baptist minister and an electrical engineer, died from a brain tumor in 1966. • A year later, Amy’s older brother also died from a brain tumor at the age of sixteen. • After the tragic death of her brother and father her mother moved Amy and her younger to Montreux, Switzerland.

4. Life • Since Amy was six years old her mother was pressuring her into becoming a doctor. But when Amy received her high school Diploma, she rebelled against her mother and returned to the United States to attend San Jose City College to study English and linguistics instead of taking her pre-med course.

5. Life(Cont’d) • Later, Tan earned her Bachelor's and Master's in English and linguistics at San Jose State University. • Amy married Louis DeMattei in 1947 and settled in San Francisco. • Following her marriage, Tan put aside preparing her Ph.D. in linguistics to work as a language development consultant for the Alameda County Association for Retarded Citizens.

6. Writings • In 1989 Tan published her first novel The Joy Luck Club that was on New York Times bestseller list for eight months that year. This novel talks about the struggles of Chinese women and their daughters that were raised in the United States. • Later, Amy published two children books The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese, and four more novels The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001), and Saving Fish from Drowning (2005).