Amy Tan — author of the best-selling novel “The Joy Luck Club,” retired singer from Rock Bottom Remainders and most recently a bird watcher — visited UC Irvine’s Barclay Theatre on April 18.
Tan spoke about her recent book release, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” with moderator Maria Hall-Brown, a PBS SoCal journalist and director.
The Barclay’s lobby was crowded with guests both human and avian. Volunteers from the Orange County Bird of Prey Center each held a local bird: one red-tailed hawk, one western screech owl and one great horned owl. Clutching their handlers’ gloved wrists, the birds were present to draw attention to the nonprofit’s conservation efforts and to represent the awe Tan felt when she began her bird-watching journey.
“When you are in nature, you are in a place of wonder,” Tan said during the discussion. “The thing you should do is ask questions. That is how you end up knowing nature and yourself.”
Since its release in April 2024, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” has received enthusiastic praise from readers with a 4.06-star rating on Goodreads. But Tan did not set out to write or even publish the book, which is made up of entries and drawings she kept in nine personal journals. Her discoveries about herself and the birds provided not only practice in meditation but also a different approach to writing.
Seeking reprieve from anti-Asian racism, Tan took up bird-watching in 2016. She turned to nature — more specifically, her lush backyard in Sausalito, Calif., where she installed bird feeders. She became “obsessed” with bird-watching and eventually found herself spending $240 on 20,000 live mealworms after learning what the birds liked to eat. She hand-fed hummingbirds, made connections with deceased loved ones and reconnected with her inner child.
The newfound hobby coincided with another interest: drawing, which she abandoned when she was younger after a teacher criticized her for, “a lack of imagination.” Tan watched the feathered animals float in and out of her yard and used colored pencils to create detailed portraits and stories about how the birds might see themselves, each other, humans and life itself. Her book features these drawings.
“I meditated on the life of each bird I drew,” Tan wrote on her website. “To draw portraits of the birds, I had to feel the life within and see what the bird was seeing, feeling and planning as its next move. I imagined what it thought about me. I thought about survival.”
Tan’s work is deeply personal. Her recent book differs from her previous style of semi-autobiographical fiction, which largely focuses on Chinese immigrant women and how they navigate tumultuous familial relationships. She writes about mother-daughter relationships, having experienced a difficult one herself, as her mother repeatedly threatened suicide to a young Tan. Her life is also marked by the passing of her father and brother, who died within six months of each other from brain tumors.
But early in her writing career, Tan did not focus on writing as a form of expression. She started as a technical writer, creating product manuals and company-specific user guides. Hall-Brown joked that some may know Tan from the “Telecommunications and you” literature she wrote for International Business Machines Corp.
Attendee and UCI alum Brian E. McCaleb was one of the audience members who was familiar with Tan’s early writings. As a technical writer himself — who at one point worked for the same company as Tan at Northern Telecom — his support spans across genres.
“I read ‘The Joy Luck Club’ when it came out, and then I saw the movie,” McCaleb told New University. “It made an impression on me. She co-wrote the screenplay for the movie, and it shows — it’s terrific. The brotherhood and sisterhood of technical writing also brought me here.”
After speaking about “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” Tan closed the event by answering pre-selected questions from the audience. She discussed how she finds joy, the themes in her writing and how to deal with self-doubt. At the end, Tan thanked the birding community for attending her discussion and supporting her newest obsession.
“I am amazed by how many people adore their birds,” Tan said. “I feel like I found my community.”
Cassandra Nava is a Layout Editor. She can be reached at cassan2@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon and Jaheem Conley