CHARACTERS

The Daughters 

Jing-Mei “June” Woo The narrator who opens the novel. She introduces The Joy Luck Club of San Francisco.

Although Jing-Mei is good-natured and large-hearted, she lacks ambition and is content to be a

copywriter in a small advertising firm. She ends up in China, meeting her long lost half-sisters

and fulfilling her mother’s dying wish. 

Rose Hsu Jordan Another daughter of the Joy Luck Club and the wife of Ted, a physician. Because Rose is timid

and accepting, she is often taken for granted. When Ted asks Rose for a divorce, her mother

inspires her to stand up for herself. As a result, she refuses to let Ted walk all over her and take

away her home. 

Waverly Jong Another daughter of the Joy Luck Club. As a child, she was a prodigy at chess. As an adult, she

is a successful tax-consultant and an ambitious, selfish, and strong-willed woman. She has a

daughter, Shoshana, and is about to marry her second husband, Rich Shields. Waverly has

confused ideas about her mother and her Chinese heritage; she is also afraid of her mother’s

disapproval. 

Lena St. Clair Another daughter of the Joy Luck Club and the wife of a successful American businessman,

Harold Livotny. He exploits her, refusing to share his wealth with her. Although she is a talented

interior decorator, she suffers from her unhappy marriage, is anorexic, and feels she leads a

hollow existence. 

The Mothers 

Suyuan Woo Jing-Mei’s mother and the founder of the Joy Luck Club. As she tires to survive war-worn China,

she abandons her twin infant daughters, hoping their lives will be spared. After she marries

Canning Woo and comes to America, she desperately tries to locate her daughters in China. At

the opening of the novel, Suyuan has died, and Jing-Mei carries out her mother’s goal in life - to

find the twins. 

An-Mei Hsu Rose’s mother and a member of The Joy Luck Club. An-Mei witnessed the sufferings of her own

mother, who killed herself in an effort to insure her daughter’s freedom. At a young age, An-Mei

managed to escape to America, where she married and had seven children. She considers

herself to be an independent and strong woman. 

Lindo Jong Waverly’s mother and a member of The Joy Luck Club. As a young girl in China, Lindo was

married off to an impotent husband. She manages to escape her husband and his mother and

come to America, where she marries Tin Jong and has three children. 

Ying-ying St. Clair Lena’s mother and a member of The Joy Luck Club. Unlike her friends who came out of poverty

in China, she hails from a wealthy Chinese family. When she was a young woman, she married

and became pregnant. When her husband abandoned her, she aborted the baby. She later

married an American named Clifford St. Clair, whom she grew to love.