Two Kinds

This story was published in 1989 as part of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club and is under copyright. It is presented here as a summary and analysis for educational purposes. The full text is available in The Joy Luck Club, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Historical and Literary Context

Two Kinds first appeared in 1989 as one of the interconnected stories that form The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan's phenomenally successful debut novel. The novel is structured around four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters in San Francisco, with each character narrating stories that illuminate the cultural gulfs and fierce bonds between generations. "Two Kinds" belongs to the section narrated by Jing-mei (June) Woo, the daughter who serves as the novel's central figure and whose mother, Suyuan, has recently died as the novel opens.

Tan's novel arrived at a pivotal moment in American literature. The late 1980s saw a surge of Asian-American voices entering the mainstream, and The Joy Luck Club became a landmark — spending over forty weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and earning nominations for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The 1993 Wayne Wang film adaptation further cemented the novel's place in popular culture. Of all the stories in the book, "Two Kinds" has become the most widely excerpted and anthologized, appearing in high school and college literature textbooks across the United States.

Plot Summary

The story is narrated by Jing-mei Woo, looking back on her childhood in San Francisco's Chinatown. Her mother, Suyuan, arrived in America in 1949 after losing everything in China — her home, her family, her first husband, and, most devastatingly, her twin baby daughters. Despite these losses, Suyuan carries an unshakeable belief in the promise of America: "You could be anything you wanted to be in America," she tells her daughter. "You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous." For Suyuan, America is the land where her daughter will achieve the greatness that was denied to her.

At first, the young Jing-mei is swept up in her mother's enthusiasm. Suyuan subjects her to a series of prodigy tests, inspired by stories of child wonders she sees on television — Shirley Temple, children who can recite the capitals of every country, who can multiply enormous numbers in their heads. Jing-mei practices identifying world capitals, performing card tricks, standing on her head. Each night, mother and daughter sit before the television, watching The Ed Sullivan Show for new ideas. But Jing-mei consistently fails to demonstrate exceptional talent, and she watches her mother's face sag with disappointment after each attempt. Gradually, the daughter's initial excitement curdles into resentment. Looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, she sees a powerful, angry girl and makes a private vow: she will not let her mother change her. She will not become what she is not.

The crisis arrives when Suyuan sees a young Chinese girl performing piano on The Ed Sullivan Show. Suyuan arranges piano lessons for Jing-mei with Mr. Chong, an elderly retired piano teacher who lives in their building. Mr. Chong is deaf, a detail that becomes crucial: because he cannot hear what Jing-mei is actually playing, he praises her enthusiastically as long as she keeps the correct rhythm and posture. Jing-mei quickly realizes she can cheat — playing wrong notes, skipping whole passages — and still receive his approval. She makes no real effort to learn. Meanwhile, her mother arranges a talent show at the local Joy Luck Club gathering, confident her daughter will shine. The recital is a catastrophe. Jing-mei, who has barely practiced, stumbles through a simplified version of Robert Schumann's "Pleading Child" (from Scenes from Childhood), hitting wrong notes throughout. The audience sits in stunned, pitying silence. Jing-mei sees her mother's devastated expression and, in a moment she will regret for years, feels a cold satisfaction.

The story's emotional climax comes two days after the recital, when Suyuan quietly tells Jing-mei it is time to practice. Jing-mei refuses. Suyuan insists. The confrontation escalates until Jing-mei shouts the cruelest thing she can imagine: "I wish I were dead! Like them" — meaning the twin daughters Suyuan lost in China. The words land like a physical blow. Her mother's face goes blank, and something between them breaks. The piano lessons end. The piano sits untouched for years. The subject is never raised again.

The story then jumps forward many years. Jing-mei is now an adult and has, by her own assessment, failed to become anything remarkable — she dropped out of college, drifted through jobs. For her thirtieth birthday, Suyuan offers her the piano as a gift, a gesture of peace and perhaps a final hope. Jing-mei sees it as a "shiny trophy" she has won. It is only after her mother's death that Jing-mei has the piano tuned and sits down to play. She stumbles through "Pleading Child" and finds it is not as difficult as she remembered. Then she notices the piece on the facing page: "Perfectly Contented." Looking at the two pieces side by side, she realizes with a shock that they are two halves of the same song.

Themes and Analysis

The American Dream and Immigrant Expectations. Suyuan's faith in America as a land of limitless possibility is both inspiring and oppressive. Having lost everything in China, she channels her grief and hope into her daughter's future. For Suyuan, Jing-mei's success would redeem her own suffering. But the daughter experiences these expectations not as love but as erasure — her mother wants her to become someone she is not. The story asks whether the American Dream liberates or entraps, and whether a parent's sacrifice creates obligation or resentment.

Mother-Daughter Conflict and Cultural Identity. The central conflict operates on two levels simultaneously. On the surface, it is a universal battle between a parent's ambitions and a child's desire for autonomy. Beneath that, it is a specifically Chinese-American story about the collision between Confucian values of filial obedience and the American ideal of individual self-determination. Suyuan sees obedience as love; Jing-mei sees it as submission. Neither is entirely wrong.

Forgiveness and Understanding. The story's final image — the two halves of the same song — is its most powerful symbol. "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented" are not opposites but complements. The rebellious daughter and the hopeful mother are not enemies but two aspects of a single relationship. Jing-mei can only understand this after her mother's death, when grief strips away the defenses of adolescent anger. The ending suggests that understanding comes too late and just in time — a paradox that gives the story its emotional weight.

Literary Devices

The Piano as Symbol. The piano embodies the entire mother-daughter relationship. It represents Suyuan's dreams, Jing-mei's resistance, the silence between them, and ultimately, reconciliation. That it sits untouched for years mirrors the unspoken distance between mother and daughter. That Jing-mei has it tuned after her mother's death is an act of belated love.

The Title's Double Meaning. "Two kinds" refers to the mother's ultimatum — "Only two kinds of daughters: those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind" — but also to the two halves of the Schumann piece, the two cultures Jing-mei inhabits, the two kinds of love (demanding and accepting), and the two women themselves, who are more alike than either can admit during Suyuan's lifetime.

First-Person Retrospective Narration. Jing-mei narrates from adulthood, looking back on childhood events. This creates dramatic irony: the reader understands what the child could not, and the adult narrator's tone of rueful self-awareness colors the telling. The distance between the child's defiance and the adult's regret generates the story's emotional complexity.

Why "Two Kinds" Is Taught in Schools

"Two Kinds" is one of the most frequently assigned short stories in American high school and college curricula. It appears in virtually every major literature anthology because it operates on multiple levels that reward close reading: the universal theme of parent-child conflict makes it immediately relatable to students, while its exploration of immigration, cultural identity, and the American Dream connects to broader social and historical discussions. The Schumann piece provides a rich symbol for literary analysis, and Tan's accessible, emotionally direct prose makes the story approachable without sacrificing depth. For many students, it is their first encounter with Chinese-American literature and a gateway to understanding the complexity of the immigrant experience.