She had no part in the decision, and was very resentful and sad. Their relationship has many layers, one being built from the fact that Lindo parents married her off in an arranged marriage at an early age. The Jong’s are another family in The Joy Luck Club, Waverly is the daughter and Lindo is the mother. Jing Mei may fear abandonment from her mother because of her failure, and how she did not inherit her mother's culture. Jing Mei is failing to rise up and become the prodigy her mother sees in her. This type of interaction lowered Jing Mei’s self-esteem because she did not think that she could ever make her mother proud. However, Suyuan”s technique to help make her daughter a successful person may not be interpreted positively by Jing Mei, as Suyuan yells, “You never rise.

Suyuan raises Jing Mei by using the culture she knows best and how she was raised. You know, people rise to other people’s expectations and when you criticize, it just mean you're expecting failure (11)”. Jing Mei states,”That parents shouldn’t criticize children. The two rarely saw each other’s point of view, while Jing Mei believed her mother’s constant inquiry for some hidden ability was due to her dissatisfaction of her, thus always trying to improve her as though she was not good enough. This unrelentless search brought along an unhealthy relationship between the mother and daughter. Suyuan grasped at everything in attempts to find brilliance in Jing Mei. Suyuan says, “Of course you can be prodigy, too (Tan 132)”, symbolizing that she wants an accomplished child. This horrifying major event in her life, developed her desire for success. Suyuan life was greatly affected when the Japanese invaded. The stories that Jing Mei tells about her mother’s past establish how it directly affects and forms their relationship. Tan communicates Suyuan's story through Jing Mei.

The Woo Family, Jing Mei, the daughter and Suyuan, the mother are one of the families Tan uses to manifest the result of how cultural experiences of one generation affects the next.

Suyuan woo and jing mei relationship