Where the Mothers Came to Start a New Life: San Francisco, CA

This novel, The Joy Luck Club was set in a few places, and one among them was San Francisco, CA, specifically in the 1950s. The setting adds to the book's context, which was the relationship between American and Chinese cultures, through mothers and daughters. The mothers migrated to the United States to run away from the violence they were facing in China as the country was fighting in a war at that time, and embarked on a new lifestyle with their families. The immigrants all lived in San Francisco's Chinatown, in houses that were adorned with traditional Chinese furniture and on the walls they had paintings of their ancestors whom their mothers came to obey.

At this time in the America there were many laws passed that benefited incoming immigrants, such as the mothers in this novel. With these laws, they were able to live peacefully with their incoming generations.