Biography Essay

Amy Tan's roots are in a sorrowful family history and painful personal traumas. Her father, John Tan, immigrated to the United States in 1947. He worked as an engineer and served as a Baptist minister. Amy's mother, Daisy, came to the United States in 1949, leaving behind three daughters from a previous marriage. When Amy was born in Oakland, California, her parents chose the Chinese name En- Mai, meaning Blessing of America. The blessing seemed inadequate when Amy's elder brother, Peter, died of brain cancer in 1967, and only months later John Tan died of the same disease. After consulting a Chinese geomancer, Daisy Tan decided to move to Europe with fifteen-year-old Amy and her younger brother, John, to cleanse the evil influence of their "diseased house" in Santa Clara. They went first to the Netherlands and finally found affordable housing in a hundred-year-old chalet set amid fourteenth-century houses...