In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, the
reader learns that names are very important. They are not haphazardly chosen for a
Chinese child, but are believed to reflect the true essence or nature of the person who
is "carrying" the name. This information is shared in the chapter entitled, "A Pair of
Tickets."
As June (Jing-Mei) advances along in her trip
through China, she finds herself on a journey to discovering more
about her mother, her sisters, and, most importantly—and surprisingly for
her—herself.
The names of the mother and her daughters are
symbolic to the story: June's mother's name meant "Forever Never Forgotten."
However, as her mother chose to write
the characters of her name, it meant "Long Cherished Wish," reflecting her desire to
find again in June what she had lost in being separated from her twins: a
daughter.
In that June's
mother chooses to write her name this way, we can infer that this
form of her name reflects who she became after losing her twins. And this must have been
in her mind when she named June. "Jing" means the "pure essence" of something valuable
(like gold) after the impurities have been removed. "Mei" is from "meimei (a common
name), used to mean "younger sister." So Jing-Mei's name is to reflect the pure essence
of the younger sister. Amy Tan writes:
I think about this. My mother's long-cherished
wish. Me, the younger sister who was supposed to be the essence of the
others.
At the same time in
the story, June's father notes that her sisters' names (the twins) are Chwun
Yu and Chwun Hwa, which mean (respectively): "Spring
Rain" and "Spring Flower," names of "newness" (as in "spring") and beauty—rain
and flower. Perhaps their mother saw that one existed for the
other—they could not be complete with the other.
With the
use of these names, June's mother has shared not only her
perceptions of, and hopes for, her daughters, but also what was
important to her—her daughters and a "long cherished wish" that
they might one day be united (even though she did not know for sure that the twins had
survived). She dreamed about all of them existing completely—only
by being connected in some way—which occurs when June travels with her father to China,
fulfilling her mother's wish.
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