“The Joy Luck Club”

Librarian Deborah Takahashi thanked everyone for coming out to visit the library and to enjoy the film “The Joy Luck Club”.

She thanked Foster Hirsch for coming in from New York to share this film with all of us. She also shared some of the upcoming library events with the audience.

A Classic Film Discussion was held on August 12th in the Friends Room of the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library. It was co-sponsored by the Monterey Park Historical Museum.

Carol Sullivan passed out flyers and reminded the guests that on October 13^th the Monterey Park Library Foundation will be  holding a Gala honoring the Monterey Park Fire and Police Departments.

The event will be held at Luminarias that is located at 3500 W Ramona Blvd in Monterey Park.

The Reception will begin at 6PM with Dinner at 7PM

Individual tickets will be $85. All of the will benefit the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library.

For more information, please call 626-307-1269 or visit www.montereypark.ca.gov/Library

Mayor Jose Sanchez thanked the library for all of their services to our community.  Please save the date 10-13-2023 and join all of us the Library Gala. Our library has events for the residents all of the time. We have the best library in the San Gabriel Valley. He thanked all of the guests for their participation.

Foster Hirsch said he loves Monterey Park. He attended Mark Keppel High School and graduated in the Class of 1961. He is currently a noted film historian in New York.

He and Beryl Walker Williams met when they were 4 years old.  They attended school together and have remained friends.

One day Beryl asked Foster if they could have Classic Movies screened at the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library with the Historical Society of Monterey Park.

So today we are featuring “The Joy Luck Club” which is a story about 4 Chinese woman who were born and raised in China and their 4 daughters who were born and raise in the United States of America.

The movie displayed the way women were treated in the old county and the way their daughters are treated in our country.

The movie is very sad but it shows how much women have progressed in our world.

It is a film about Asian women and taken from the book published by Amy Tam.

France Nuyen entered the room and was greeted with happy applause.

Mayor Pro Tem Thomas Wong joined the 100 guests to enjoy the movie while eating popcorn and drinking cold water.

After the movie there was a short intermission so I took a picture of Carol Sullivan, France Nuyen and Shirley Hwong as they shared pictures for France to autograph for them.

Foster Hirsch thanked the audience to joining him to enjoy this movie. He thanked France Nuyen for her wonderful performance.

France Nuyen thanked Foster Hirsch for showing this movie as it has been some time since she had viewed it. She hoped the audience enjoyed it.

Foster Hirsch and France Nuyen discussed her participation in this movie.

France Nuyen said that to create a person she researched her life for moments of joy, pain or sorrow to build up her acting character. She was born in 1939 to her French mother and her Vietnamese father. She recalled living in France in World War II.

Her character in the movie Ying-Ying had a very hateful husband who did not treat her with respect so she killed his son.  She was depressed as the baby was born without a brain.

This scene of the movie was very upsetting but France explained to the audience that violence does happen in real life.

She has been working for 35 years as psychological counsellor to help abused women and children.

She said that Jack Lemmon performed in “Days of Wine and Roses” as a drunk. She said the Jack felt he had become an addict.

She said it is really great to see women in their own culture to share their feelings with their mothers, daughters and grandmothers.

Foster Hirsch said this movie is in the National Register.

France Nuyen said that she acted in “South Pacific”, “The World of Susy Wong” and “The Joy Luck Club”.  She said that these movies have helped to open the eyes of the viewing public that people are all alike in their feelings.

She also played as “Elaan in the Star Trek Series”.

France Nuyen said that she enjoys acting and helping people with their problems.

France Nuyen is a very interesting person who explains her life as she sees it.

Librarian Deborah Takahashi thanked the audience for attending this very special event.

Foster Hirsch posed for a picture with two women who also graduated from Mark Keppel High School.