Critic Orville Schell is recognized as an authority on China In his review of The Joy Luck Club, he provides some background on both the Chinese emigrants who came to America in what he calls the "great Chinese diaspora" and their children who were raised in the United States. In addition, he notes that "it is out of [the] experience of being caught between countries and cultures that writers such as ... Amy Tan have begun to create what is, in effect, a new genre of American fiction"

In 1949, when the Red Army marched into Beijing, America's "special relationship" with China abruptly ended, and so hostile did our two countries become toward each other that people on both sides of the widening divide seemed to lose the ability even to Imagine reconciliation.

Apart from the international crises, and even wars, there was another consequence, which, although more subtle...