Born on 19th February 1952 in Oakland, California, to Chinese immigrants, Amy had several jobs at school, such as a switchboard operator, carhop (waitress), bartender, and pizza maker, before she began her writing career. She began writing fiction in 1985 and published her first short story, “Rules of the Game,” in 1986. In 1987, Amy took her mother to revisit China, and for the first time, Amy met two of her half-sisters. This inspired part of her first novel, 1989’s The Joy Luck Club, which details the experiences of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters and the struggles of the two disparate cultures and generations relating to each other. “Rules of the Game” was one of the stories interwoven into the narrative, and the perspective switches between eight women. The Joy Luck Club became a success and was named as a finalist for a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

In 1993, The Joy Luck Club was adapted into a film, and Amy wrote the screenplay alongside Ron Bass. Their script was nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Writers Guild of America Award. Amy’s second novel, 1991’s The Kitchen God’s Wife, was inspired by her mother’s history. It follows a Chinese mother who clumsily accepts American ways and her relationship with her thoroughly Americanised daughter. The novel narrates a historical period of China between the 1930s and 1940s, including the Nanjing Massacre.