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  • Required reading?

  • I can't remember if this was required reading, or I was just curious after watching the movie- but I had heard so many great stories about both the book and the movie- I needed to be exposed to both!

    I'm so glad I did, and I can't wait to read more of Amy Tan's writing. She is great at weaving ... Continue

    I can't remember if this was required reading, or I was just curious after watching the movie- but I had heard so many great stories about both the book and the movie- I needed to be exposed to both!

    I'm so glad I did, and I can't wait to read more of Amy Tan's writing. She is great at weaving a story, through different generations and the women who share them. It was very insightful into another culture that I had minimal exposure to, as I'm not Asian, or Asian-American.

    

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• ― Starladyatcl said on Sep 29, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • As a Chinese-American, I'm a little biased against books that attempt to describe the Chinese experience by Americans, of Chinese descent or otherwise. Even though some of the episodes were probably quite "authentic" - e.g., the man with the four wives and whose youngest wife swallowed opium, and t ... Continue

    As a Chinese-American, I'm a little biased against books that attempt to describe the Chinese experience by Americans, of Chinese descent or otherwise. Even though some of the episodes were probably quite "authentic" - e.g., the man with the four wives and whose youngest wife swallowed opium, and the stereotypical Chinese mother for whom nothing was ever good enough - I couldn't help but feel that Amy Tan chose the stories based on qualities that would appear exotic to a Western reader.

    Btw, I thought the movie was much worse than the book in this respect. Some of the dialogue that attempts to imitate the syntax and tone of Chinese speech made me cringe; it doesn't even sound like what a Chinese-born speaker of English would say. (Cantonese is my native language, so I think I can speak to this.)

    

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• ― Lucja said on Aug 20, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Amy Tan was born in America. She grew up in America. She writes in English.

    I was born in Malaysia. I grew up in Taiwan. Mandarin is my native tongue.

    So I the reason I got this book wasn't because I wanted to read about China or the Chinese people, but because I wanted to read about ... Continue

    Amy Tan was born in America. She grew up in America. She writes in English.

    I was born in Malaysia. I grew up in Taiwan. Mandarin is my native tongue.

    So I the reason I got this book wasn't because I wanted to read about China or the Chinese people, but because I wanted to read about Chinese people in America.

    To be fair, Amy Tan is brilliant for this part. But she instead chose to spend much more effort on the China portion of the story, something she doesn't have firsthand. And, alas, she failed as a consequence.

    

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• ― pthow said on Apr 8, 2007 about the School & Library Binding edition| Add your feedback

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