Title: A Delicate Balance: An Interview with Wayne Wang about the Joy Luck Club
Abstract: Born in Hong Kong in 1949, Wayne Wang grew up in a bilingual household. His father, an engineer, was fluent in English and imparted to him a passion for American movies; and his mother, a painter, encouraged him to pursue painting. After graduating from a Jesuit high school in 1967, Wang went to Oakland, California, where he earned a B.F.A. in painting and a master's degree in film and television from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He plunged into film making, dividing his time in the next decade between film making in San Francisco and Hong Kong. Chan Is Missing, which he co-wrote, produced, directed and edited on a budget of $22,000 in 1982, was his breakthrough picture. An edgy, seriocomic account of life in San Francisco's Chinatown, it played in many mainstream theaters and garnered critical praise. With Dim Sum, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director's Fortnight section in 1984, he consolidated his growing reputation as a spokesperson for Chinese-American generational conflicts. It told a sensitive story of the problems between a Chinese mother and her American-born daughter. It was nominated for a British Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category. Subsequent films include Slamdance in 1987, starring Tom Hulce, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Harry Dean Stanton; Eat a Bowl of Tea in 1989, a screwball comedy shot in Hong Kong; and Life Av Cheap . . . but Toilet Paper is Expensive in 1990, a film he refers to as an experimental mix of the samurai and thriller genres. The Joy Luck Club has been dubbed by Richard Corliss as a film of epic radiance. Based on Amy Tan's 1989 novel, the title refers to a mahjong-playing group of four Chinese women-Suyuan (KieuChinh), Lindo(TsaiChin), Ying Ying (France Nuyen), and An Mei (Lisa Lu)-who live in San Francisco with their American-born daughters-respectively, June (Ming-Na Wen), Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita), Lena (Lauren Tom), and Rose (Rosalind Chao). The stories of these eight women unfold in a complex series of interlocking flashbacks, and the action ranges from past to present, generation to generation, from Imperial China to San Francisco. The relations among these women are just as complicated-nourishing, suppressive, selfless, and self-centered. It's a tour-de-force of voices, each seamlessly joined to the other, each contributing its thread to the huge tapestry. The following remarks from Wayne Wang are excerpted from an interview with this writer on September 6, 1993, in Kansas City, Missouri. Despite a grueling promotional tour, Wang was fresh, enthusiastic, and in a high good humor. His youthful appearance made him seem at least ten years younger than his forty-four years. He obliged me at the beginning by speaking for a few minutes in Mandarin Chinese for a broadcast I was preparing for Voice of America. He explained that Mandarin is the common language of China. During the Mao regime it had been selected as the language that would be spoken by everyone. He explained that his knowledge of the language and his background in Hong Kong stood him in good stead for making The Joy Luck Club. John C. Tibbetts University of Kansas WANG: Well, any director could shoot in San Francisco's Chinatown, I guess, and even in the Chinese locations, like Beijing, the Shanghai Film Studio, and to remote country villages. Although I speak Mandarin, I had lots of problems communicating with the people there. But at the same time, I understand the Chinese culture. It's part of my consciousness, part of my history. If anybody else had wanted to do this, he would have had to spend a lot of time researching the subject, and even then the subtleties of the culture would have been too confusing. QUESTION: This isn't your first film to deal with several generations of Chinese and Chinese-Americans, is it? WANG: Dim Sum, obviously, comes to mind, because that one's also about a mother-daughter relationship. …
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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