The Joy Luck Club: Film vs. Book The novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, tells the story of four Chinese women who gather in San Francisco to play a game of mah jong and tell stories from the past. These four women and their families all lived in Chinatown and belong to the First Chinese Baptist Church. They were not necessarily religious, but they found that they could improve their native China. This is how the Woo, Hsu, Jong and St Clair met in 1949. The first member of the Joy Luck Club to die was Suyuan Woo. Her daughter, Jing-mei "June" Woo, is asked to sit down and take her mother's place by playing mah jong. Memories of the past are shared by the three remaining women, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St Clair. June Woo discovers the real secret her mother took to the grave from her mother's friends. The twins, her half-sisters, pushed Suyuan in a wheelbarrow as she ran away from the Japanese. Due to illness, Suyuan can no longer carry her children in her arms and is forced to leave them on the side of the road. He lives his whole life without knowing whether they are alive or dead. In the book, the Woos leave for America to build a better life. Suyuan Woo wanted to have a daughter like her and no one would look down on her. It was important that he spoke perfect English and hopefully did not share the same tragedies and pain that he had known. The film brought out this concept very vividly. You were able to imagine the time, place and emotions of the characters. Their anger in the early years, the way women and children were treated like possessions. The book was about Rose Hsu Jordan, daughter of An-mei Hsu, who had seven brothers and sisters. A very tragic moment in her life when her brother Bing drowns at the age of 1 while she was in charge of watching him. The film does not touch on this tragic event and highlights the wealthy family Rose marries into and the immediate rejection by her fiancés. mother. Rose's unhappiness in her marriage to Tod is similar to the unhappiness her mother had throughout her life. Lindo Jong was a special character in the book, referring to the promises he made to his mother when he was young and keeping them throughout his life..