33 Facts About Amy Tan

Amy Ruth Tan was born on February 19,1952 and is an American author best known for her novel The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a 1993 film.

Amy Tan is known for other novels, short story collections, children's books, and a memoir.

Amy Tan has written several other novels, including The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement.

Amy Tan has written two children's books: The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, which was turned into an animated series that aired on PBS.

Amy Tan is the second of three children born to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan.

Amy Tan's father was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who traveled to the United States, in order to escape the chaos of the Chinese Civil War.

Amy Tan learned how her mother left those children in Shanghai.

In 1987, Amy Tan traveled with Daisy to China, where she met her three half-sisters.

Amy Tan's mother wanted Amy to be independent, stressing that Amy needed to make sure she was self-sufficient.

Amy Tan later found out that her mother had three abortions, while in China.

Amy Tan met him on a blind date, and she married him in 1974.

Amy Tan, later, received bachelor's and master's degrees in English and linguistics from San Jose State University.

Amy Tan took doctoral courses in linguistics at University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California, Berkeley.

Early in 1985, Amy Tan began writing her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, while working as a business writer.

Amy Tan joined a writers' workshop, the Squaw Valley Program, to refine her draft.

Amy Tan submitted a part of the draft novel as a story titled 'Endgame' to the workshop.

Author Molly Giles, who was teaching at the workshop, encouraged Amy Tan to send some of her writing to magazines.

Stories by Amy Tan, drawn from the manuscript of The Joy Luck Club, were published by both FM Magazine and Seventeen, although a story was rejected by the New Yorker.

Dijkstra advised Amy Tan to send her another story; "Waiting Between the Trees" arrived, written as an experiment to decide whether the stories collectively become a novel or a book of short stories.

Dijkstra signed up Amy Tan and asked Amy Tan to write a synopsis for the book, along with an outline for other stories.

Amy Tan thought that most first novels meet that fate, within that time.

Amy Tan's second novel, The Kitchen God's Wife, focuses on the relationship between an immigrant Chinese mother and her American-born daughter.

Amy Tan, later, referred to this book as the "much more" that she remembered, as mentioned in the dedication page of her first book.

Amy Tan's third novel, The Hundred Secret Senses, was a departure from the first two novels, in focusing on the relationships between sisters, inspired, partly, by one of the half-siblings Amy Tan sponsored to the United States.

Amy Tan's fourth novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter, returns to the theme of an immigrant Chinese woman and her American-born daughter.

In 2024, Amy Tan published The Backyard Bird Chronicles, her illustrated account of birding as a coping mechanism during the divisive 2016 US Presidential election.

Amy Tan's work has been adapted into several different forms of media.

Amy Tan's writing has been praised for its bravery in exploring both the personal struggles and triumphs of immigrant families.

In 2021, Amy Tan was presented the National Humanities Medal for her contribution to expanding the American literary canon, and in the same year won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award.

Amy Tan received the Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service for her contribution to world community.

Amy Tan said that every year, for ten years, on the anniversary of the day she identified the body, she lost her voice.

Amy Tan believes she developed chronic Lyme disease, a condition unrecognized by medical science, in 1998.

Amy Tan co-founded LymeAid 4 Kids, which helps uninsured children pay for treatment.