Dec 11, 2009

Rules of the Game | Introduction

In 1989, Amy Tan’s first book, The Joy Luck Club, sold 275,000 hardcover copies in its first Putnam publication, paving the way for other first-time Asian-American writers. Although Tan has since written other critically acclaimed books, such as The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses, many still feel that Tan’s first effort was her most important. The Joy Luck Club is hailed for its discussion of both Chinese Americans and motherdaughter relationships. Set in San Francisco in the 1980s, the majority of the book is told in flashback, and is organized into sixteen separate tales, all narrated by either a Chinese-born mother or her American-born daughter. ‘‘Rules of the Game,’’ narrated by one of the daughters, Waverly Jong, details Waverly’s rise and fall as an American chess champion when she is a child.

Tan had many inspirations for writing the book. The most direct influence was her first trip to China in 1987, where she met her two Chinese half-sisters for the first time. In the book, the very similar story of Jing-Mei Woo, who is preparing to go see her two half-sisters in China shortly after her mother’s death, provides the narrative structure upon which the other stories are hung. Tan was also inspired by Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984)—a multiple- narrator novel that details the experiences of Native Americans in the United States. The Joy Luck Club was adapted as a critically acclaimed film in 1993, where Tan served as both co-producer and co-screenwriter. As one of the linked stories in The Joy Luck Club, ‘‘Rules of the Game’’ can be found in any edition of Tan’s book. The most widely available version is the current paperback edition, published by Ivy Books in 1995.

Rules of the Game Summary

The Art of Invisible Strength
‘‘Rules of the Game’’ is one of the interconnected stories in Tan’s book, The Joy Luck Club. At the beginning of this story, the narrator, Waverly Jong, explains how her mother taught her the art of invisible strength when she was six years old, saying that it is a strategy for winning arguments, respect, and chess games, although she was unaware of the last one at the time she learned the art.

Waverly Place
Waverly describes her home in San Francisco’s Chinatown, on a street called Waverly Place. She lives over a Chinese bakery, and as a result, her family’s flat always smells good. Although Waverly and her two brothers like to play on the sandlot playground at the end of their alley, they are most fascinated by the alley itself, which contains a number of traditional Chinese businesses like a medicinal herb shop, a fish market, and a Chinese café. The Chinese and American worlds collide on occasion, as when a Caucasian man with a camera takes a picture of Waverly and her friends in front of Hong Sing’s, the Chinese café. Waverly’s official name is Waverly Place Jong (named after her street), but her family calls her Meimei, meaning ‘‘Little Sister,’’ since she is the youngest and the only daughter.

The Chess Set
When Waverly and her family go to the annual Christmas party at the First Chinese Baptist Church the next year, the children get to pick out gifts that have been donated by another church, which are given out by a Chinese Santa Claus. One little boy gets a globe-shaped coin bank, but he is distressed when he finds only pennies inside. The boy’s mother slaps him for his lack of humility, which is a very un-Chinese way to react to a gift. Waverly notes from the other gifts that size does not necessarily equal quality, and when it is her turn, she picks a heavy, compact gift that turns out to be a twelvepack of Life Savers candies. Her brother Winston gets a model of a World War II submarine, while Vincent,... » Complete Rules of the Game Summary