The Joy Luck Club

 The Joy Luck Club 

Sias University 

Henan Province, China

Spring 20102

We meet every Wednesday at 12:30 at Loa Bing (The Old Soldier) restaurant which is just a big room with 20 different food kiosk stationed around the perimeter of this large space.  Each kiosk sells something ever so slightly different from the other.  But to me, I think they all sell the same thing.

And every week, one of my students will say to me, “What do you want to eat today?”  And it is so hard to answer because I still can’t see or taste the differences in the foods.  But I do know that I have to remind them to order something that isn’t too spicy.  And every dish contains either noodles or rice.

My students don’t really like Loa Bing.  They think it is too crowded, too noisy and too dirty.  I tell them I like it because it is so Chinese.  Fortunately for me, they think “the food here, it is very delicious”.  So they sacrifice cleanliness and noise for the food and me.

Every one of my students in invited to join us but only about 8 come faithfully.  Sometimes Owen, a Muslim student from Kurdistan joins us.  He’s lonely and wants anyone’s company.  He quickly learned to keep his mouth shut about the role of women as he sees it.  “Women”, he told us can never achieve the status of men because, “they are afraid of men.”  Fortunately, he picked up on the responses of my students and he has not made that statement again.  He told me recently, “I am learn how to speak with heart too, not just head.”

I named the club.  The women had never heard of Amy Tan and I told them about her long list of books.  “She Chinese?” and out came their little notebooks.  Every statement I made for the next five minutes was written down and cross references with some other list of authors or movies and American culture page.

So the next day, Susanna came in to class, bragging, “Ok, I watch it last night, The Joy Luck Club.  It make me cry a little bit.”  That set off a little bit of competition to see who could watch it as quickly as possible.  I had to write the title on the board so those who were interested could go on line and download their pirated copy of the movie.  And the next day, more had watched it and several  are searching all of their piracy sites for “The Kitchen God’s Wife.”  But I understand, “NO, not in Chinese. We don’t have it now.”

Some of my students bring a roommate or two to our Joy Luck Club and after the introduction I am told, “I never eat with a foreigner before.  It is my honor.”  And I think to myself, “Just wait until you watch me eat rice and noodles with chopsticks.  You will definitely think less of me.”

If one of my regulars can’t make it, she makes a point of stopping in to see me.  “Hello Bridget, I am very sorry I cannot have lunch to day.  I have class.  So sorry “, and off she will go, running across campus to get to her class on time.

We talk about all sorts of things.  Last week, we had a discussion on the US immigration laws.  “You think your country give me a visa?”   “Nope”, I tell them honestly. We talk about environmental issues and the need to educate everyone and who has the best noodles.  And everyone stares at us because I am the only Caucasian in the restaurant and people stop over and interrupt and tell me that they speak English.   Sometimes they will sit down with us. But they don’t join in the conversations as they feel too intimidated.  And then we leave with all of them telling me each week, that we have to change our location.  “It’s too loud, too dirty in there.”  I just ignore them and walk away, looking forward to next week’s meeting of the Joy Luck Club.