Novelist Amy Tan will join four actors from the film adaptation of her novel The Joy Luck Club in a virtual reunion next week, Variety reports.
Actors Rosalind Chao, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, and Ming-Na Wen will participate in the event along with Tan, venture capitalist Aileen Lee, and Janet Yang, one of the film’s executive producers. The reunion is being hosted by Gold House, a nonprofit group “dedicated to forging stronger relationships that empower Asians to have more authentic, more successful, and healthier lives to, in turn, advance all of society.”
Tan’s novel, about four Chinese women living in America and their adult daughters, became a publishing phenomenon shortly after its release in 1989. The 1993 film adaptation featured an all-Asian cast, a rarity in Hollywood.
“I remember reading Joy Luck Club and being amazed by Amy Tan, the only Asian author I’d ever heard of,” Aileen Lee said in a statement. “And then seeing the movie shook me. At the time, I didn’t realize it was because representation matters so much.”
Janet Yang said that the book and movie are “gifts that keep on giving.”
“Gold House’s choice of this title to launch its book event to better connect us amidst physical separation gives me the opportunity to share the beautiful spirits of my Asian sisters with the world,” Yang told Variety.
The reunion will be broadcast on June 9 at 9 p.m. EDT on Gold House’s Facebook page.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
