The Art of Invisible Strength

"Rules of the Game" is one of the interconnected stories in Tan's book, The Joy Luck Club. At the beginning of this story, the narrator, Waverly Jong, explains how her mother taught her the art of invisible strength when she was six years old, saying that it is a strategy for winning arguments, respect, and chess games, although she was unaware of the last one at the time she learned the art.

Waverly Place

Waverly describes her home in San Francisco's Chinatown, on a street called Waverly Place. She lives over a Chinese bakery, and as a result, her family's flat always smells good. Although Waverly and her two brothers like to play on the sandlot playground at the end of their alley, they are most fascinated by the alley itself, which contains a number of traditional Chinese businesses like a medicinal herb...