Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1952. Her parents were Chinese immigrants. They lived in several communities in Northern California before finally settling in Santa Clara. John Tan was her father and he was an electrical engineer and a Baptist minister. He came to America to escape the commotion of the Chinese Civil War. Her mother, Daisy, lived a disturbing early life which motivated Amy’s novel ‘The Kitchen God’s Wife.’ Daisy had divorced an abusive husband but lost custody of her three daughters in China. She was forced to leave them behind when she escaped on the last boat to leave Shanghai before the Communist took over in 1949. She then married John Tan and they had three children, Amy and her two brothers. Amy’s father and oldest brother died from a brain tumor within a year of each other. Her mother moved to Switzerland with her surviving children. Amy finished high school in Switzerland but she and her mother were in constant conflict. Amy and her mother did not speak to each other for six months after Amy left the Baptist College that her mother had selected for her. Amy followed her boyfriend to San Jose City College. She then resisted her mother again by abandoning the pre-med course her mother had urged to pursue the study of English and linguistics. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at San Jose State University in English and linguistics. She married her boyfriend, Louis Mattie, in 1974. They lived in San Francisco. Her husband was an attorney who took up the practice of tax law. Amy studied for a doctorate in linguistics at the University of California in Santa Cruz and then later at Berkeley. She developed an interest in the problems of the developmentally disabled. In 1976, she left the doctoral program and took a job as a language development consultant at Alameda County Association for Retarded Citizens. Later she directed a training project for developmentally disabled children. She started a business writing firm with a partner. The firm provided speeches for salesman and executives for large corporations. She became a freelance writer after a dispute with her partner. Her partner believed that she should give up writing to concentrate on the management side of the business. She wrote a 26-chapter booklet called “Telecommunications and You” which was produced for IBM. Amy flourished as a business writer. She was able to buy a house for her mother after just a few years of being in business for herself. Amy and her husband lived well on their double income but the more that she worked the more frustrated she became. Her work had become a compelling habit and she pursued relief in creative efforts. She studied Jazz piano, hoping to feed the musical training forced on her by her parents in childhood into a more personal expression. Amy began to write fiction. Her mother fell ill just as she was beginning a new career. Amy promised that if her mother recovered then she would take her to China to see the daughter who she had left behind almost forty years ago. Her mother got better and they departed for China in 1987. The trip to China was an eye-opener for Amy. The trip gave her a new viewpoint on her often-difficult relationship with her mother. The trip motivated her to complete the book of stories that she had promised her agent. She published the book ‘The Joy Luck Club” in 1989. The book won passionate reviews and spent eight months on The New York Times bestsellers list. The paperback rights sold for $1.23 million. The book has been translated into 17 languages, including Chinese. She has written four novels and two children books since then. All of these have confirmed her reputation and enjoyed excellent sales. In 2003 she published an autobiography in which she disclosed her experience with Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a chronic bacterial infection contracted from the bite of a common tick. Her case went undiagnosed for years before she received the proper treatment. She suffered intense physical pain, metal impairment and seizures. For many years Amy was unable to continuing writing because of the disease. She has been able to control the worst symptoms of her illness with medication. She has resumed her writing but she spends much of her energy raising awareness about Lyme disease. She is promoting early detection and treatment for the disease. She is advocating for the rights of Lyme disease patients.
"Amy Tan Biography -- Academy of Achievement." Academy of Achievement Main Menu. 17 June 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2011.
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