A look at the theme of mixed identity and senses in Tan’s novel.
This paper discusses the way in which Amy Tan manages to weave the theme of cross cultures and identities in most of her works, focusing on The Hundred Secret Senses. It describes the main character of Kwan who also represents this confusion and uncertainty of her identity.
As is suggested by its title, The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan’s work of fiction suggests that there are senses that go beyond the five customary ones individuals think of when analyzing the ways that human beings perceptually relate to the world. Tan is a writer primarily interested in how individuals located between cultures conceptualize their identities. She suggests that identity and truth, are mutable and constantly in flux, dependent upon perceptions that lie deeper than the material world. Two of three main characters in the text are bi-racial, the half-white and half-Chinese Olivia Yee and her half-Hawaiian husband Simon.