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My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten.

Amy Tan

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Amy Tan
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: February 19
Essayist
Film Writer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Oakland
California
Amy Ruth Tan
Parent
High
Time
Kindergarten
Straight
Expected
Expectations
Parents

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Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden.
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Whenever my mother talks to me, she begins the conversation as if we were already in the middle of an argument.
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To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing. -Jing-mei
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I always thought it mattered, to know what is the worst possible thing that can happen to you, to know how you can avoid it, to not be drawn by the magic of the unspeakable.
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Only two kinds of daughters, she shouted in Chinese. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!
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I began to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.
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I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?
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With each passing day, I didn't lose hope. I fought to have more.
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But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. -Jing-mei
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People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.
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Then she told me why a tiger is gold and black. It has two ways. The gold side leaps with its fierce heart. The black side stands still with cunning, hiding its gold between the trees, seeing and not being seen, waiting patiently for things to come. I did not learn to use my black side until after the bad man left me.
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We are living in a world where everything is false. The society is like bright paint applied on top of rotten wood.
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That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.
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