谭恩美简介00000.docVIP

Amy Tan Two kinds I. Biographic Sketch A. Family Background and Education Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952, to John and Daisy Tan who immigrated to United States to escape from the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the communist took over the country. Born in Oakland, California, Tan lived and moved several times with her father, who was an electronic engineer and a Baptist minister, and her mother, a vocational nurse. When she was merely fourteen, Tan and her brother Peter moved to Switzerland with Mrs. Tan after John Tan and the eldest son of the family died of brain tumors. There in Switzerland, Tan managed to graduate from high school as a foreigner, striving to live with her mother through arguments and family turmoil. In 1969, the family moved back to States and settled down in Santa Clara, California. The constant conflict between Tan and her mother lasted for some time so that they did not contact nor communicate with each other for half of a year. Like many Chinese parents expectation of wanting their offspring to become medical doctors, Tans mother was no exception. Mrs. Tan has high expectation on Tan and hence she sent her off to Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, for her medical education. Despite faithfully committing to her mothers wish, Tan met Lou DeMattei and followed him to San Jose City College to continue her study. She changed her study subject to linguistics and graduated as a double major: BA of linguistics and English. San Jose State University granted her a master degree in linguistics in 1973, and after that, she was admitted as a doctoral student in linguistics with fellowship in University of California at Berkeley. Yet, she decided to quit the program after one year and began to work as a language development consultant. By then, she has become Mrs. DeMattei, and the family was prosperous with Lous tax law business and her own career of helping disabled children. The job later got her a position of editing a medic