Some passages from Buddha and Confucius were read by children to start the play. The mothers and other Chinese family members (immigrants) were seated in the first three rows, and the women were all given corsages as they came into the auditorium in the Chinese community center. They did not know in advance what the play was about, only that their daughters were involved. The plot of the play involved a young American female student attending the University of Beijing. She befriended two male Chinese students but they were not willing to listen to her interest in starting a movement to promote multi-cultural understanding. The third young man she met, however, was eager to bridge the cultural and barriers and he forged a relationship with her based on making the world a better place.
The dialogue touched the hearts of the Joy Luck Club mothers. They cried at the end, when their daughters appeared on stage and one-by-one apologized to their mothers for all the times they did not show enough respect. They spoke in perfect Chinese. They pledged to hold creative sessions with their mothers...
After the curtain closed, the mothers were escorted back stage and given gifts and hugs by their daughters. It was the beginning of a new kind of relationship between mothers and daughters that would change how all of them related to change, to cultural differences, and to peace within a family.
Works Cited
Coleman, James William. (2001). The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Dylan, Bob. (1963). The Times They Are a-changin. Columbia Records.
Nelson, Nancy Owen. (1995). Private Voices, Public Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life.
Dallas: University of North Texas Press.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2007). Confucius. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2008, at http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/confucius/.
Tan, Amy. (1989). The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putman's.
