I.

TITLE: THE HUNDRED SECRET SENSES

II. BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Born in the US to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her
mothers expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She
chose to write fiction instead. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The
Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter,
and Saving Fish from Drowning, all New York Times bestsellers and the
recipient of various awards. She is also the author of a memoir, The
Opposite of Fate, two childrens books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The
Chinese Siamese Cat, and numerous articles for magazines, including The
New Yorker, Harpers Bazaar, and National Geographic. Her work has been
translated into 35 languages, from Spanish, French, and Finnish to
Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Ms Tan served as Co-producer and Co-screenwriter with Ron Bass for

the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club. She was the Creative Consultant
for Sagwa, the Emmy-nominated PBS television series for children, which
has aired worldwide, including in the UK, Latin America, Hong Kong, China,
Taiwan, and Singapore. Her story in the New Yorker, Immortal Heart, was
performed on stages throughout the US and in France. Her essays and
stories are found in hundreds of anthologies and textbooks, and they are
assigned as required reading in many high schools and universities. She
appeared as herself in the animated series The Simpsons. She performed
as narrator with the San Francisco Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl
Orchestra playing an original score for Sagwa by composer Nathan Wang.

Ms Tan has lectured internationally at universities, including Stanford,

Oxford, Jagellonium, Beijing, and Georgetown both in Washington DC and
Doha, Qatar. The National Endowment for the Arts chose The Joy Luck
Club for its 2007 Big Read program. Ms Tan also serves as the Literary
Editor for the Los Angeles Times magazine, West.

III. SETTING

The story moves seamlessly between China and California showing past
and present, new and old souls were also featuring widely. The detail of
everyday life is examined and explored. The dead and living come together
as Kwam and Olivia live the present and visit the past.
IV. CHARACTERS

A. MAIN CHARACTERS

1. PROTAGONIST

Olivia Laguni Olivia is half Chinese-American born. She tries to

retain a western outlook on life until the arrival of her half sister
Kwan. She was arrogant and self centered and she blames all the
negatives in her life on someone else. At the end, she realized the
importance of her sister in a dramatic and typical preserved Chinese
fashion.

Kwan Li Kwan speaks with a Chinese accent. She was the half sister
of Olivia that came from China to live with them. Kwans character
was the opposite of Olivia, she was an optimist, warm, and mysterious
mystical lady. Kwan reveals that she has yin eyes, she talks of the
yin people and her constant contact with them, of this character of
her, she becomes the mother to Olivia even Olivia hates her for it.
Kwan holds an unconditional love for her sister despite of all the
schemes that Olivia did to her.

2. ANTAGONIST

The mother of Olivia is not a very good mother. She breaks promises to
people who are close to her; she broke two of three vows made to her
husband and often breaks promises to Olivia as to when they will do
things together. She spends more time with charities and friends than
with her family. It is almost as if looking good in public is more
important to her than her family. When Kwan comes to live with them,
she gives up even more of her parental roles by passing them onto
Kwan.

B. SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Simon - husband of Olivia who continuously compared her to his dead

girlfriend Elsa
Du lili friend of Kwan
Big Ma grandmother of Kwan
Temmy younger brother of Olivia
Lester Olivia and Kwans friend
Ricky driver of Kwan and Olivia
Miss Banner - who has come to China as a translator for a group of
American missionaries at the time of the Taiping rebellion
 V. POINT OF VIEW

The story portrays the cultural differences of the ancient east and the
modern west, through the compelling characters of Kwan and her sisters Libby.
Kwan in the story is the protagonist who is described as a warm, charming and
overwhelmingly positive person. The storys point of view is first person
narrator. Because this is a novel, dialogues are very important which makes it
more understandable and convincing, it can also reveal character. This is
combinations of dramatic and an intriguing story for it centers on the
behaviors and feelings of each character.

VI. THEME

The story is written in first person through Olivias eyes. On the first chapter
of this novel there is a mention of a grasshopper, it is brought by Kwan from
China as a pet. The grasshopper incident signifies the fact that Olivia has no
appreciation for Kwan and her Chinese heritage. The story becomes dramatic
when Kwan reveals that she has yin eyes. The yin eyes symbolized the
ancestry of Kwan and Olivia. Kwan arrives from China following the death of
their father and shakes Olivias world. She tries to push Kwan away,
embarrassed by Kwans ability to make unconscious fool of her self. The fact
that Olivia does not like Kwan is a symbol of her indifference toward Chinese
culture. The story encounters irony in Olivias life experience. Olivia wants her
mothers attention more than anything, but she does not received it. Kwan
becomes mother and Olivia hates her for it. Things are not always what they
seem.

VII. CONFLICT

The Hundred Secret Senses story explores the psychological and emotional
bonds between sisters. Still, the novel displays several characteristics common
to Tan's fiction: conflict between generations in immigrant families; multiple
points of view; a strong grounding in Chinese culture and history; and
compelling narratives.
 VIII. PLOT

A. EXPOSITION

Kwam and Olivia Yee, one wholly Chinese, the other half but apparently
all-American, are forever linked in sisterhood. When Olivia is five and Kwam 17
years old, they meet. A deathbed promise, extracted by their father, means that
Olivia's American mother goes through international hoops to bring his
Chinese daughter to live with the family in California. There are two brothers
there, but it is Olivia, who Kwam calls Libby ah, to whom Kwam is linked and
who she adores and cares for. The caring is mostly mothering, as Olivia's
mother first finds a new husband and then a series of 'exotic' boyfriends, being
more involved with her own happiness than that of her daughter's.
Though the younger girl finds her half-sister irksome and strange,
especially as Kwam has what she calls 'yin eyes', meaning she sees and talks
with ghosts as if this were the most natural thing in the world, they are bound
together forever. When Olivia tells the adults of Kwam's strangeness, sadly
Kwam is put into a mental facility and given electric shock therapy. The guilt
experienced by the child prevents her ever telling again and Kwam never ever
holds the incarceration against Libby ah. Instead, her love continues unabated.

B. RISING ACTION

As their lives progress in modern day America, frequent past events in

China are relayed by Kwam. There is much evidence that the Karmic Wheel is
in motion, as it appears that the two were bound together in love and
sisterhood in an earlier life. There are hints that Olivia too has 'yin eyes' but
fears to acknowledge these secret senses.
The story moves seamlessly between China and California, past and
present, new and old souls featuring widely. The detail of everyday life is
examined and explored. The dead and living come together as Kwam and Libby
ah live the present and visit the past. Olivia is often unkind and annoyed where
Kwam is concerned, while Kwam's love and devotion never wavers. In
particular, when Olivia's marriage is failing, Kwam is convinced she can bring
them back together, believing that these two are soulmates. Olivia's husband
Simon, part Hawian, reflects the lover in the stories of Miss Banner and
Nunumu, i.e. Olivia and Kwam. Simon and Olivia have a commission to visit
China, she as a photographer and he the writer of a cookery book. Kwam sees
this as Fate, she wants them all three to go back to her home. Despite Olivia's
refusal to go, Kwam orders tickets, telling Olivia who wants to change back to
her Chinese name, to wait to do that until after they visit and get some
answers. It transpires that their father had taken another's identity and fled to
America to escape the Communists. Kwam rightly says that to find out the
right name, they need to talk to her aunt back in Changmian.
 C. CLIMAX

When Olivia's marriage starts to fall apart, she reluctantly takes a trip to
China on assignment with her estranged husband and Kwan as an interpreter,
this is the site of the previous tragedies, relayed in the ghost stories which
Olivia has grown up with. The old friends of Kwam take them to their hearts,
but old auntie is killed. In fact, the three travellers witnessed the bus crash in
which she died, on their way to the village.

Here, Simon becomes lost in the caves, which Kwam/Nunumu had taken
him to for safety from the Manchus, in that earlier life when he was Yiban
Saunders, the lover of Miss Banner. She blames herself for his death, as she
was unable to lie enough to prevent him going back to save Miss Banner.
Simon is missing all night and Olivia realizes she still has strong feelings for
him. The following day, Kwam insists on going alone to search for him in the
caves. She never returns. The village is inundated with police, media, and
geologists and becomes manic and spoiled. Locals charge visitors to go to the
caves and sell coins as ancient artifacts. Neither Simon nor Olivia can stand it
and return home, having brought Kwam's husband George and his cousin
Virgie over. Kwam is declared dead.

D. FALLING ACTION

Olivia has been childless; it seemed that Simon was infertile. But nine
months after she returns, a baby girl years later, though she and Simon are
not together they share the joy and love of their daughter Samantha. Olivia
reflects on what Kwam has given her and taught her about life. She believes
she has been shown the value, vastness and timelessness of real love, which
can encompass many worlds. To believe in ghosts is to know that love never
dies and that those who have died are still with us, where we can only find
them by using the secret senses we keep so well hidden.

E. RESOLUTION

Olivia learned to appreciate Kwan greatly just before she died. The idea
expands on the theme that people must always be thankful for what they have,
especially their relationships. These are all very universal changes that all
people experience, which makes the main story so relatable despite its details
concerning Chinese history.
 IX. SUMMARY

The Hundred Secret Senses follows Chinese-American life. Before Olivia's

Chinese dad dies, he tells his white wife that he has another daughter living in
China. His wife makes three vows to her husband: to never remarry, to uphold
the family name, and to find his daughter Kwan and take care of her. Olivia
and her family prepare to meet Kwan. The mother is expecting Kwan to be
skinny and shy and is surprised to find Kwan chubby and outgoing.

Kwan is much older, almost 18 to Olivia's perhaps 6. They share a bedroom,

and Olivia's mother is happy to let Kwan take care of Olivia while she spends
her time with whomever her boyfriend-of-the-moment happens to be. Kwan
speaks English poorly, but speaks a lot. She also teaches Chinese to Olivia.
But Olivia at best only tolerates Kwan in her life, and often finds her annoying.

As Olivia grows up, Kwan tells stories about ghosts. Olivia tells her mother
and current step father, and Kwan ends up in a psychiatric ward for a while.
Olivia is more discreet after this.

The stories Kwan tells center around a young girl in Changmien name
Nunumu, whose life changes when missionaries and a woman named Miss
Banner come to her village. It becomes clear the Kwan believes she is the
reincarnation of Nunumu.

As the story progresses, we also find out about Olivia's eventual marriage to
Simon, who is also a Chinese-American. His former girlfriend has recently
passed away when Olivia meets him, and she haunts their relationship for the
next fifteen years. They live and work together as photographer and writer until
the weight of their issues pulls them apart.

After starting divorce proceedings, they get another job for a travel magazine
about travelling to China. Kwan had been bothering Olivia to make a trip to
Changmien with her, and wanted to go with Simon. However, Simon and Olivia
want to reject the offer. Kwan eventually convinces them to go on a friend
basis.

The remainder of the book chronicles their adventures in Changmien, as the

three are drawn deeper and deeper into the ghost stories told by Kwan, and
Olivia has to come to terms with her half-sister's seeming craziness and the
distance between her and her husband.
 X. MORAL

Hundred Secret Senses tells about a question about love, unconditional

love. I thought this is a story about sisters and the about the peculiar
relationships of families,' but as I was reading the book, I realized that the kind
of love that Kwan was providing was this unconditional love that felt very
comforting to me, and I thought that part of me is always looking for that.
Somebody who seems sort of annoying because they're intrusive and care
about everything that's happening in my life, Im talking about my parents but
who continues to give this ceaselessly and without expectations of anything in
return.

XI. VOCABULARIES

Yin eyes one who sees those who have died and now dwell in the World
of Yin, ghosts who leave the mists

Tai means Great, Ping means Peace, so the city of Taiping means "Great
Peace"

Loathed - to feel disgust or intense aversion for

Pragmatic - of or pertaining to a practical point of view or practical

considerations.

Superstition - a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or

of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance,
occurrence, proceeding, or the like.

Kuli boatmen native boatmen

Annoying - causing annoyance; irritatingly bothersome

Proletarian - belonging to the lowest or poorest class of the people

Scrutinize - to examine in detail with careful or critical attention

Quarantine - a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease

Tantamount - equivalent, as in value, force, effect, or signification

Prosaic - commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative

Submitted By:
Denzel John C. Mendoza
I Abad Santos

Submitted to:
Mrs. Alma P. Linsangan