When was amy tan considered a success as a writer

It Happened in History! Go to It Happened in History Archives. Amy Tan is not your typical American writer success story. Born in Oakland, California, on Feb. All that moving around was rough on the young girl, who later said, "I moved every year, so I was constantly adjusting Born to Chinese immigrants, Tan led an atypical life. Her father, John, was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who came to America to escape the turmoil of the Chinese Civil War.

In China, Daisy had divorced an abusive husband but lost custody of her three daughters. She was forced to leave them behind when she escaped on the last boat to leave Shanghai before the Communist takeover in Her marriage to John Tan produced three children, including Amy and her two brothers.

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When Amy's father and oldest brother died of brain tumors within a year of each other, Daisy moved her surviving children to Switzerland, where Amy finished high school, although mother and daughter were constantly squabbling. The two stopped speaking for six months when Tan left the Baptist college her mother had selected for her to attend.

Tan abandoned the pre-med course her mother had wanted her to pursue in exchange for English and linguistics classes. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in these fields at San Jose State University. DeMattei, an attorney, practiced tax law while Tan studied for a doctorate in linguistics, first at the University of California at Santa Cruz and later at Berkeley.

She left the doctoral program in to pursue a job as a language development consultant to the Alameda County Association for Retarded Citizens.