Amy Tan Where does Creativity Hide?

Amy Tan was born to US immigrant parents from China.  She rejected her mother’s hopes of her being a doctor or pianist, but rather she decided to write fiction.  Her books have been translated into 35 languages.  

Tan talks about, “Where does Creativity Hide?”  There are many aspects to this topic.  Tan talks about how do we create?  All the while standing next to bag black bag.  But I get ahead of myself.  She tells how we get it from our past live and childhood trauma.  Tan tells us of how her bother and father both died from a brain tumor within six months of each other.  She even talks about how VanGogh himself had a brain tumor as researchers now believe.

She tells of how she once wrote a book about a woman who overdosed and as it turns out her grandmother had killed herself.  Her mother did not believe in randomness.  Which goes back to how her brother and father died.  Her mother thought she was next as well as Tan herself.  That there is moral ambiguity in life and as artist we need to be aware of this and make sure we don’t fall into it’s trap.

Tan asks questions like, “Why am I Here,” and “What is the Meaning of Life?”  She talks a lot about serendipity and what we can get from the universe.  She has to let go of certain beliefs when she is writing.  Certain western beliefs and think more about cultures that are uncommon to us.  She has to create something out of nothing and that there is so much uncertainty in life.  Tan tells that she has to become the story.  

At the end of her presentation she again asks the question again.  Where Does Creativity Hide?  She tells us what is in the bag and lets out a small dog. Which shows that creativity hides in life.