does anyone know what war Suyuan Woo (June's mother) was in? im pretty sure June said her mother was leaving for ChungKing after a war ruined her home or something like that...
shareWorld War II
I much prefer men with ordinary shoes and honest trousers.
(Japanese invasion, Generation X daughters, 1930's fashion in the mothers' young adult flashbacks, etc.)
shareWorld War II since its the most obvious setting. She goes into more detail about the Chinese is WWII in Tan's follow-up The Kitchen God's Wife
"Revenge is a dish best served cold."
[deleted]
Yes, it is World War II, but that can be somewhat confusing because World War II was a much longer conflict than many realize (many Americans don't realize the conflict began before Pearl Harbor). For example, I believe the Japanese had already invaded China in 1931. And I think China was continually at war from that point until 1949 (the Chinese invasion led to a civil war eventually won by the Communists).
shareIt's unlikely to be the WWII conflict with the Japanese. The scenes where Suyuan is fleeing (with other refugees) is titled "Escape from Guilin" in the musical score. Guilin is in the way far south of China -- way outside the areas of China occupied by the Japanese in WWII. More likely Suyuan and the other refugees were fleeing battles of the Chinese Revolution (1949).
shareGood point, sthorton, but it is sometimes hard to entirely disentangle these things. Take Yugoslavia in World War II as an example. Germany and Italy invaded Yugoslavia, but that international conflict sparked both resistance to the invaders and simultaneously a civil war that had both its ethnic (Croat v. Serb) and ideological (communist v. old regime) aspects to it. So, I suppose you could say that the Chinese Revolution was separate from WWII, but really this all went on at the same time, it is just that Mao did not emerge victorious from that conflict until 1949. The date you give is somewhat deceptive because that is the end date, but not the only year in which that conflict took place. Actually it began even before World War II, but the need to repulse the Japanese invader put it on hold.
share