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• Q & A with Ms. Tan

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Tavis: Amy Tan is an award-winning author whose best-selling books include 'The Kitchen God's Wife,' 'The Hundred Secret Senses,' and of course, 'The Joy Luck Club.' That became a critically acclaimed film back in 1993. The book itself, though, spent more than 40 weeks on the 'New York Times' best-seller list. Her latest book is called 'Saving Fish from Drowning,' which arrives in bookstores this month. Amy Tan, an honor to have you on the program.

Amy Tan: Oh, good to be here. Thank you.

Tavis: Does it seem like - what is it now? That many years ago for 'The Joy Luck Club?' Does it seem that long ago for you?

Tan: 1989.

Tavis: '89 when you wrote it, exactly.

Tan: Yeah, and when I have people coming up, and they look like they're my age and say, "Yeah, I read you when I was a kid.' And I'm thinking, "oh, my God."

Tavis: (laughs) Did you have any idea that that - I shouldn't say everybody. I don't want to speak for every writer, but I know there are a lot of people, obviously, who write books and would love to see what they put on paper become a major motion picture. Did you ever expect that that movie would...

Tan: No, no. Especially because it was 12 short stories really, originally. It was so many different people. It just seemed inconceivable to me that they could make a movie out of it.

Tavis: Yeah. But they did, and it worked.

Tan: Yeah. Well, I was a co-producer and a co-screenwriter, and I knew - nothing about making a movie. But you know the people were so great. They said, "We want you to be part of it.'

Tavis: What did you learn about that process, looking back on it now?

Tan: Well, how you make a scene, and how you keep the scene moving and that you have to earn the motions, you know, really tightly in the movies, and keep the story moving, 'cause you only have so many minutes to tell the story.

Tavis: Aside from the latter point of the fact that you only have so many minutes to tell that story and you got as much time as you need in a book, beyond that, what struck you as the most fundamental, distinct difference between writing a book and doing the screenplay?

Tan: Well, obviously, it's a collaborative effort, and that the really important part on the practical end is to have the same vision with the director and the other people involved. And the other is just to find what the heart of the story is and be true to that. You know, just that every scene, you're working towards something and have some things that are surprising to you so that they're also surprising to people as discovery.

Tavis: I want to get into 'Saving Fish from Drowning' in just a second. But before I do that, let me just ask off the bat whether or not there are too many, although a novel, whether or not you think there are too many political themes, notions, ideas, particularly controversial themes, issues, ideas in this book for this ever to become a movie, or certainly to become a movie in the short-term?

Tan: You know, I did hear something that was very interesting to me which is, you know, there's a lot of Chinese - money around for making movies, and somebody said, "Well, they'll never make a movie out of this with Chinese money," because it seems to be controversial, even though I don't think I say anything negative about China.

But just because it has something to do with Burma, and Burma is close to China both geographically and, you know, economically, that they thought maybe it was controversial. But what's a book of fiction if not to be controversial and provocative?

Tavis: For those who don't know - and from your perspective specifically, why is that subject matter so sensitive?

Tan: Well, it's sensitive because Burma is a country that was taken over by a military regime in 1990, and overturned the democratic elections. And ever since then, people have - there's a certain number of people there who have been persecuted.

We have a controversy in our country about what to do about that country, whether or not we boycott it or we do constructive engagement, you know, do business there - be a guiding hand to them. Whether we go simply to view the culture and the art and help the people by giving our dollars there. It's an - to me, an irresolvable situation, and we don't know what to do, and people are suffering there.

Tavis: Tell my why you think it's irresolvable, though. That's a strong word to say it's irresolvable. That it's - intractable.

Tan: Yeah - in the last 10 years, or actually since 1990, people have tried different things there. To me, you know, the more I looked at it, there are people who have gone in different directions as to what to do, and nobody's really unified. And the government has, right now, has a way of doing things and they seem to be more in line with what Asian - the group of Asian countries in that area sort of agree with. Many of the countries like China, where we might look to them as an ally to help us there, they have sort of a non-interference policy with other countries.

And so there we are, as western countries, wanting to help and looking at people who wanted a democracy, overwhelmingly elected a democracy, and yet what can we do on the outside? It's a very impoverished country. It's very hard to get into. Journalists are not allowed there from the outside. Not even writers. I managed to get in - but, so it's very difficult. And because there's been very little movement either way with no matter what kind of policy, to me, at this point, it seems irresolvable.

Tavis: To the book, 'Saving Fish from Drowning,' the more I learned about why you titled it this, or what the title meant, the more fascinated I became by the book. So why don't we share what the title means? 'Saving Fish from Drowning.'

Tan: Well, I had seen this expression 'saving fish from drowning' in reference to the Buddhists in Burma. You're not supposed to take lives, yet people have to eat. And there's the fishermen especially in this bind that they don't want to increase their karmic debt, so they change their intention. They're not killing the fish. They're taking them out of the water and saving them from drowning, and unfortunately they die and then at that point they can actually use them for food.

You know, there's - every one of us does justification of something unpleasant that we have to do, and oftentimes they are good. They might lead to bad intentions or I mean bad consequences. Some of them are bad intentions cloaked as good ones. And so it's the whole question of - the whole spectrum of intentions and consequences, moral response, responsibility, and I was uncomfortable with how I felt about certain things. And part of it was ignorance; that I didn't have knowledge enough to know whether my intentions and my actions were in fact sound.

That I could do something like a boycott or go to Burma, as one example, and maybe I wouldn't make that big of a difference, but how would I know that what I was doing was not damaging, how would I know that it really was helpful? So it's difficult. It's difficult to know, and I think part of it is to try and understand as much as we can. And maybe ultimately the only thing we can do is have compassion.

Tavis: That's a fascinating notion, though, to explore in the pages of a novel. Even more fascinating when you put your name to it and your pen to it and - build that story around a number of characters. So tell me more about the characters.

Tan: Well, the characters are Americans who are fairly well-to-do and cultured. They're educated people, and yet they don't understand a lot about Burma, just as I didn't when I decided to go. And they all, you know, become aware and they feel compassionate, but they also don't know what to do. There was an idea that perhaps you give money to people who are suffering, which sometimes many of us do in response to seeing somebody who's homeless on the street.

Others feel that we have to do a more activist approach to help. And some activism leads to exactly what you want, and sometimes it backfires. And again it was that notion we can't guarantee what the outcome is going to be that can be so disturbing and calls upon us to just try to understand on a humanitarian level the conditions, if we can't help. I was - the Americans in the book have varied responses. They start off a place of not really knowing that much.

Different ones feel grateful for what they have as Americans; others want to help; others want to take action. One, a young woman named Wendy, she's, you know, doesn't know that much, but she wants to become the activist, and you hope that she understands a little bit more before she does that. One man in the book, Harry Bailey's kind of a comic figure, but he believes that perhaps shining the media light on the situation will call attention, world attention to that, and lead to keeping the people in their - within the consciousness.

And that's true, you know. The media does that. And yet there's a possibility it could lead to other consequences as well, you know, whether you cast light and then the - evil party ends up getting a lot of attention, too, for their purposes.

Tavis: It is a fascinating notion that we all deal with every day in our own lives. 'Saving Fish from Drowning,' the decisions we make, the choices that we make, the justifications for those decisions. A wonderful story by Amy Tan. Again, 'Saving Fish from Drowning,' the new book from the 'New York Times' best-selling author. Amy Tan, nice to have you here.

Tan: Thank you so much.

Tavis: My pleasure. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and, as always, keep the faith.