Rules of the Game by Amy Tan

“Rules of the Game” is one of the stories making up Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989). It is also Tan’s first written story, originally entitled “Endgame” in manuscript. Although the story was originally published as an independent work, it also contains several thematic motifs of the book.

The central subject of “Rules of the Game” is power. Although pure power itself is immaculate and invisible, the effects of power can be seen manifested in a mother-daughter struggle, a male-female tug-of-war, a conflict between Asian and American values in an immigrant family, and the opposition between black and white in a chess game.

The mother-daughter struggle for psychological ascendancy between Lindo and Waverly is the most prominent manifestation of Tan’s theme of power. Lindo wants Waverly to be dependent on her for the fulfillment of Waverly’s wants (salted plums), her physical and psychological well-being (home and nurturing), and even her unique, defining mental power (her chess talent). If Waverly admits her dependence, she is her mother’s creature. If Waverly succeeds in asserting her independence by claiming individual credit for her chess powers, she will be her own person. Implicit in this mother-daughter struggle is a conflict contrasting Asian values, which emphasize familial and communal honor, against American values, which reward individual achievement. Asians more readily attribute a person’s achievement to familial and communal nurturing (hence Lindo’s claims), whereas Americans more readily give this credit to an individual’s own efforts and talents (hence Waverly’s assertions).

The story also portrays a male-female rivalry between Waverly and her brothers. This rivalry also intersects with the contrast between Asian and American values. By Chinese rules, the big brothers, significantly named Winston and Victor, should be the main achievers of the family, whereas the feminine “little sister”—Waverly’s diminutive Chinese nickname—should be merely a decorative background figure. Here, however, it is the young girl who appropriates the chess set originally intended for a brother and who achieves victory and fame through mastering the rules of a game long considered a male preserve.

Chinese Americans
Most of the characters in ‘‘Rules of the Game’’ are Chinese Americans, and much of the conflict is derived from Waverly’s attempt to navigate both the traditional Chinese culture and the divergent melding culture of Chineses Americans. When she is younger, Waverly is mainly in touch with her Chinese side. She lives over a small Chinese bakery in Chinatown, where ‘‘by daybreak, our flat was heavy with the odor of fried sesame balls and sweet curried chicken crescents.’’ Outside her home, Waverly is drawn to other Chinese establishments, like the Ping Yuen Fish Market, with its ‘‘doomed fish and turtles’’ and a sign that informs tourists, ‘‘Within this store, is all for food, not for pet.’’ Most importantly, however, is the Chinese philosophy that Waverly’s mother teaches her when she is six years old. ‘‘The art of invisible strength,’’ a collection of Chinese ‘‘daily truths,’’ is a ‘‘strategy for winning arguments [and] respect from others.’’

As she gets older, however, Waverly becomes more influenced by American culture, becoming so overjoyed when she receives ‘‘a twelve-pack of Life Savers’’ at her church’s annual Christmas party that she spends ‘‘the rest of the party arranging and rearranging the candy tubes in the order of my favorites.’’ The biggest American influence on Waverly is the chess set her brother, Vincent, receives as a gift at the same Christmas party. Waverly learns to play chess on her brother’s board, quickly becoming very good at the American game, but relying on her Chinese ‘‘invisible strength’’ to do so: ‘‘A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I...