The last completed film from director James Redford (1962-2020), Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir is an intimate portrait of the groundbreaking writer whose hit debut novel, “The Joy Luck Club” (1989), catapulted her to commercial and critical success.
Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” describes how Amy Tan was the first Asian American writer he read and how she paved a way forward for other writers of color to tell their stories.
The title of Amy Tan’s hit debut novel was also the name of an investment club made up of Tan’s parents and friends. Sandy Bremner, one of Tan’s childhood friends, describes how powerful it was for their parents to build a community of fellow Chinese immigrants.
Vanessa Hua reflects on Amy Tan’s impact on countless writers like her who read stories focusing on Chinese American characters for the first time in Tan’s work. Hua writes that holding Tan’s books in her hands made her believe she could be a writer too.
American Masters is an award-winning, signature PBS series, created by The WNET Group, the parent company of New York's PBS stations, and supported by the community we serve.
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter, Judith & Burton Resnick, The Cheryl & Philip Milstein family, Vital Projects Fund, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Seton J. Melvin, Philip & Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen & James S. Marcus, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation and public television viewers.
