Luck and Fortune

They were showing Joy Luck Club this evening. I probably hadn't seen this in quite a while. It's about 15 years old, covering the stories of four Chinese mothers and their daughters in the US. It's basically a tear-jerker of a film, about the suffering of mothers, and the wishes they bestow on their daughters for a better life.

This film was directed by Wayne Wang. As perhaps with many directors of Chinese descent, it's not particularly profitable to make films about the Asian American experience. As well know as M. Night Shyamalan and his films are, they've never really chronicled the Indian American experience. Ang Lee grew up in Taiwan, so he would not properly be considered Asian American, even though he studied film in the US. He's made one film that is vaguely Asian American, which is The Wedding Banquet.

There was some commentary afterwards, where a Chinese American man laments Chinese men were generally not portrayed as well as white men, which he felt perpetuates some stereotypes. Having said that, I'm sure Amy Tan thought, at the very least, she was covering stories that were not generally told. Her books were bestsellers in their day, and so allowed readers to find out more the Asian American experience.

One key part of the story is luck. It's interesting how luck plays an important role in the more ancient societies. Both Chinese and Indian societies rely on the importance of luck and fortune, to the point that there are experts in the society that determine luck.

For example, Americans generally pick wedding dates hoping the weather is nice, and the desired location is available. Indian wedding dates (and presumably Chinese weddings at some point in the past) are picked with the assistance of fortune tellers who indicate which dates are auspicious and which times are auspicious. Apparently, such help is even taken to naming of children, at least, from those who believe in the luck of a well-chosen name.

Now, when I say Indian, I should be more specific, and say that this refers to Hindus, though I suspect, at least from the choice of wedding dates, that Hindu traditions rub off onto Christians and Muslims who may also pick their dates based on auspicious times.

Indeed, males are generally given a name, and lack a family name, instead, taking on the name of the father. Sometimes, names refer to locations. Sometimes to a caste designation. Lest this seem unusual, think about names like Anderson, Johnson, Thompson, etc. These names suggest that even Europeans followed the tradition of giving a boy a name, plus his father's name, and only, after time, did a name like Anderson become a family name.

This isn't to say Americans don't believe in some luck. Some are superstitious against bad luck, whether this be avoiding black cats, not walking under ladders, and so forth. Many athletes, especially baseball players, have a lot of weird habits that come from thinking that they will have good luck in a game. Though rather than having good luck, they are trying to avoid bad luck.

There are certainly well wishes of "Good luck", even if, on most occasions, the person would rather not have luck, but good preparation. Thus, if you take an exam, should you be wished luck? Should not your study and knowledge preclude the need for luck? Should you not wish, instead, for a fair exam? But since such exhortations are particularly difficult to phrase, a simple "good luck" is given, for lack of anything more reasonable to say in its place.

There is also the "deals with God", where people say "if I get some thing I want, then I promise to do X for God". Thus, if I get into Stanford University, I promise that I'll go to church more often. It seems every faith has these kinds of luck deals. In India, a similar deal might involve shaving one's head if one gets admission into an IIT, a prestigious university with very selective standards.

Some people take their chances with things like lotteries, mostly because they don't realize just how bad their odds are at winning lotteries. They figure their chances are zero if they don't attend, and not zero otherwise.

There are also people who believe in various conspiracy theories. This isn't so much about luck, but about speculating some weird theories that isn't given real evidence, but only because they feel certain things seem suspicious. It feeds the need of some to find that there are grand plans behind certain things.

Is it considered progress in society where notions of luck are considered quaint or not even thought of at all? Or is simply a cultural difference?