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 mothers 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 mothers
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-Meis 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 mothers goal in life - to
find the twins.
An-Mei Hsu
Roses 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 daughters 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
Waverlys 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
Lenas 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.