The Joy Luck Club Quizzes

The Joy Luck Club Quiz 1

By Tania Asnes · Edited by Adam Kissel · Last reviewed May 12, 2006

1 What does the swan in the prologue represent?

The effects of the cruelty of American immigration officials.

The mothers' expectations for their American daughters.

The beauty of China, now lost through assimilation.

The daughters' vanity in trying to become more than their mothers would ever be.
2 Who were the original members of the Joy Luck Club?

Suyuan and three other women who lived in Kweilin.

June, An-mei, Lindo, and Ying-ying.

Four legendary women in Kweilin, about whom Suyuan read.

Suyuan, An-mei, Lindo, and Ying-ying.
3 Why was the Joy Luck Club begun originally?

To pass time in the caves during bombing raids.

To create a Chinese legacy for the daughters to continue.

To maintain good spirits despite the horrors of the Second World War.

Because all the other residents of Kweilin had similar clubs.
4 What do the mothers give Jing-mei at the end of the meeting?

A Mah Jong set of her own.

Good-luck foods and money to take home to her husband.

Enough money to visit her long-lost sisters in China.

Enough money to start a new Joy Luck club with the other daughters.
5 Why doesn't Jing-mei know her Chinese sisters?

Her mother never tried to look for them, and she told June never to speak of them.

She never knew they existed.

Her mother only recently managed to find them.

They are not her real sisters but old friends of Suyuan's from Kweilin.
6 Why must there always be four members of the Joy Luck Club?

One for each season of the year.

One for each week of the month.

One for each corner of the Mah Jong table.

One for each of the four elements of the soul.
7 According to Jing-mei, what defined her mother's relationships with the other members of the Joy Luck Club?

Acceptance.

Competition.

Exclusivity.

Consolation.
8 Why did Jing-mei think that her mother's Kweilin story was a fairy tale?

She told it to her in Chinese, like all other fairy tales.

She always changed the ending.

She could not believe such a painful story was real.

She told it to her at bedtime.
9 How did An-mei get the scar on her neck?

She was born with it, causing disgrace in her family.

In the midst of a family argument, hot soup accidentally spilled all over her neck.

Popo spilled hot soup on her neck to spite An-mei's mother.

She cut flesh from her neck in an attempt to cure her mother's illness.
10 Why did An-mei's mother cut flesh from her arm?

To make a curative soup for Popo.

As a debt for disgracing her family.

To make a sacrifice to the spirits of her ancestors.

To make An-mei feel better about the scar on her neck.
11 What did An-mei understand when her mother cut flesh from her own arm?

That her mother understood nothing about loyalty.

That enduring pain is the only way to pay one's spiritual debt.

That our flesh and pain connect us intractably to our mothers.

That flesh is worthless, and only spirit is of importance.
12 Why does Lindo tell Waverly the story of the red candle?

Now that Waverly is a mother, it is important for her to know the story.

She wants Waverly to have a red candle ceremony with Rich.

She thinks Waverly does not understand the meaning of a promise.

Waverly has been bothering her to tell the story since she was a girl.
13 Why did Lindo move in with the Huangs?

Huang Tai Tai's youngest daughter died, and Lindo took her place.

She was already married to Tyan-yu.

Her family's land was destroyed in a flood.

Huang Tai Tai tricked Lindo's mother into making her do so.
14 Why did Lindo blow out Tyan-yu's end of the candle?

She conspired with Tyan-yu to wreck the ceremony so they would not be married.

She wanted to get out of marrying him.

The ritual was bad luck in her clan's belief system.

She thought the custom was foolish and that it undermined their marriage's sanctity.
15 Why didn't Lindo and Tyan-yu consummate their marriage?

Huang Tai Tai insisted that she did not want any children.

Tyan-yu had no interest in having sex with Lindo.

Lindo was afraid of having sex.

Lindo refused flatly every time Tyan-yu acted amorous.
16 How could Lindo manage to get what she wanted while keeping her parents' promise?

She used superstition to trick Huang Tai Tai into making her leave.

It was done for her, because Huang Tai Tai did everything she could to force Lindo to leave.

She did not keep her parents' promise; she sacrificed their honor for her happiness.

It was done for her, because Tyan-yu was cheating on her.
17 What belief of Huang Tai Tai's did Lindo take advantage of in order to get what she wanted?

Her belief that matchmaking was a thing of the past.

Her belief in the ghosts of ancestors.

Her belief in her son's righteousness.

Her belief in Japanese supremacy.
18 What was the purpose of the red candle?

It symbolized the bond between daughter and mother in-law.

It symbolized the permanence of marriage.

It warded off evil spirits on the wedding night.

It was an omen of fertililty.
19 According to Ying-ying, why did she turn into a ghost?

Because she learned to honor her family without thinking of the government.

Because she learned to think only of others and forget her own hopes and desires.

Because she married an American.

Because on the streets of America, people acted as though she were invisible.
20 When is the last time Ying-ying remembers being fully alive?

The day Lena was born.

The day she married Clifford St. Clair.

When she was a girl, on the day of the Moon Festival.

When she was a girl, on the day her mother left.
21 Why could Ying-ying tell only the Moon Lady her secret wish?

Because the Moon Lady would not tell her mother.

Because the Moon Lady was the only person who spoke the same dialect.

Because if she told it to anyone else, she would be beaten.

Because girls were supposed to keep their wishes to themselves.
22 Who was Amah in relation to Ying-ying?

Her aunt.

Her mother.

Her nanny.

Her mother-in-law.
23 How did Ying-ying end up on shore by herself?

She swam from the boat to shore.

She fell overboard and was saved by fishermen.

Amah punished her by leaving her on the shore.

Amah let her go back to land to see the Moon Lady.
24 What is the moral of the story of the Moon Lady?

Women represent darkness and require men to show them the light.

Men and women are meant to miss one another perpetually.

Women are bright and illuminate their families.

Wishes are best kept to oneself.
25 What does Ying-ying realize when the Moon Lady takes off her costume?

That men have made her miserable.

That she looks exactly like Ying-ying.

That she is really a man.

That she is Ying-ying's own father.

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