tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. first, a conversation with best- selling author amy tan. her best-selling book is set in shanghai. it is called "the valley of amazement." it explores the territory of intergenerational stories of mothers and daughters caught and cultural clashes. burtonn we turn to levar , encouraging young people to read through reading rainbow and has put him at the forefront of the digital revolution. we are glad you have joined us. coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. seen every ones of her novels reach the bestseller list, beginning with the joy luck club and her latest "the valley of amazement."

the territory of mothers and daughters as they try to navigate cultural expectations and limitations. good to have you back on this program. where have you been? >> i have been working. i was doing in opera and i was building a house and i was writing. i wrote one story for about five years and i started a new one. tavis: you were writing during that entire time. eight years between books like this. do you ever wonder or fret that the gift might just up and disappear? >> i fear brain disease. the place where you wonder what is going on with your brain. it is always gratifying when you finish a book. the reviewers don't say that she must've been brain-damaged. we will get to the new book in just a second.

back story, what is it about mothers and daughters that fascinates you? fieldsu find such rich to mine? >> i like writing about self- identity. how we become who we are. so much a part of that for women are our mothers. mothers have such a huge influence and they are always teaching us. what to be afraid of and conscious of. and then we spend half of our life trying to be not like them. and we reach another part of our lives where we see things we can't get rid of. how much of your own experience works its way into these notions of identity? about my mother and my grandmother. it is not just my mother.

you can see this continue. a string of independence that was honed their for certain reasons historically. and it has come down. it is something my mother always said. you can't let people's opinions determine how you think about yourself. there is a difference between identity and self-identity. that is definitely part of what i put in the novel emotionally. tavis: what do you see is the distinction between those things jack? >> for example, popularity is given to you. they could be a real crash when you find the popularity goes down. or you might think that somebody dislikes you in high school. you're not popular.

people don't like you. and you you are rich lose your money. out do people deal with these changes? some things you don't give up or you're too prideful. is a good thing? maybe it's a bad thing. that is what i look at and my mind. i never find the answer because if i did, i probably wouldn't have books to write. we will talk about the valley of amazement. in one of these characters is the struggle for white and the the chinese part -- i don't want to give the story away. tell me about the valley of amazement.

>> the dichotomy between white and chinese was very present in shanghai during the early 20th century. there was an international settlement and the whites really looks down on chinese even though they worked with them. a chinese girl in a white school, you have that as well. the valley of amazement shows that through a girl who thinks and shell-american comes to realize she doesn't know who she is. wonders what she can take with her. it certainly not her american privilege. housether ran a courtesan , she was white from san francisco. in the chaos of the overthrow of the ching dynasty, mother and daughter separate.

girl --ely, the young she left china. they are fascinated and puzzled about a emotional development. tavis: how did your mother, as best you can tell, or as best you were told, how did she come to terms with that?

>> she made it seem like she had no other choice. she tried to leave her abusive husband and he had her thrown into jail. she left thinking she could come back or send for them, but the u.s. and china closed down and she could not see them for the next 30 years. that girls always believed they would be happy if she came back. and they blamed her. they were, in part, sent down because mother left for america. punishment for the mothers crimes. up -- myy mother ended

mother effectively abandoned her when she killed herself. she would've been happy, all the problems she had. so i think that the same emotional crisis allowed her to say, sometimes that happens. back to the book now, when i read your books, i always have the distinct feeling that the locations are as much characters as the individuals. that the cities are as much characters. >> during that time, it was booming. it was very cosmopolitan. of money off a ton of the opium trade. all of them coming together. it was a very sophisticated city. there was a lot of poverty.

i think that prints itself on people that went there. that is part of the character. they are good negotiators. in an atmosphere like that, very competitive. it becomes part of your personality. just like new yorkers. let me jump away from the text and back to real life. i wonder whether or not to your mind, these kinds of identity crises are issues that the current generation of chinese americans deal with. we all know this is nothing new.

there is more intermarriage in this country than ever before. it is the case that so many of us are wrestling with identity questions that are multiracial, multiethnic. you can't ways that imagine. i wonder if there is anything about the book that is relatable to the identity crisis that many of you are struggling with today? of that wouldome have dissipated or have gotten much better. i continue to meet young people that read that book or the joy luck club and identified with it.

is everybody getting the same opportunities? it is a myth. people think the chinese people are the model minority and they get everything. but the greatest poverty in san francisco, for example, second to african-americans, it is the chinese. or elder abuse or suicide rates. there is a hidden part of the .roblems tavis: is that a complement to you or does it concern you when people relate to certain parts of it? >> i am touched. you see a guy with a nose ring or something that said i really love your book and i really identified with it. i understand my parents better. i am really touched. i think it is because they are identifying with how they deal

with their identity or their parents coming from another country. i don't feel alone as much. because we feel a loneliness. they come away feeling a little less lonely. that is your contribution. making us feel a little less lonely. the new book is called "a valley of amazement." everything she writes goes on the top of the list, starting with "the joy luck club." this is called "the valley of amazement." i hope it won't be eight years before we see each other again. >> i hope so, too. up, a conversation with actor levar burton. stay with us. years, levarr to burton has devoted much of his

time to making sure kids experience the joy of reading. reading rainbow was, just until a few years ago, a statement on public television. it did not mean leaving the mission. a new delivery system is appropriate for this age. an app that puts together 72,000 books a week. i was joking about the fact that we always find a way. >> you have to be creative. reading rainbow out of the ready to learn lineup thing butt was a sad it became an opportunity for my business partner. it may not have breathed its last breath.

making a deal in buffalo new york, the pbs station that owns the rights. worldwide rights to the brand and the reading rainbow app is our first product. tavis: tell me more. >> it is a mobile library for tablets for kids. we are on the ios platform and kindle. we want to get to the web as soon as we can so that our product can be enjoyed ubiquitously. a library of 300 books and growing. new video content. we deliver it all and it departments that people are really excited about exploring. one book closing and

--ther opening, if we see it oftentimes we don't see it that way. it seems that this may be the wave of the future anyway. >> in the 80s, television was to technology that we used reach kids. you have to be on a mobile device. the television screen is just one that you use in the course of the day. therel like we are right at the intersection of education and technology and opportunity. how do parents make the connection for their kids? believe, and our sign-up process is designed to encourage the parent and child together. the entry-level age child. four to eight, but we bleed a

little on either side. we assume they are signing up together because we require a parent's e-mail address. we are a subscription. $10 a month buys you unlimited content from all of our books and videos. your30 for six months, child can have access to the finest quality video and literature i think we can possibly provide. i assume this means there is new video. is all new content. it we are all over the place. we were the first cameras allowed into the national archives after 9/11. tombve been underneath the

of the unknown soldier. we met the guards, we tell the story of the men that do that duty. reading rainbow has always been famous towards the all access backstage experience of life as it relates to the literature that we read. we always connect the real world for kids to let them know that nothing is beyond their limits. tavis: your audience is considerably younger. there is a movie out now getting controversy because of some sex scenes between these young kids. you know the controversy that exists about this film and whether or not kids ought to go see this movie where two young girls are lovers. we live in a world where kids and young people are exposed to

more now than ever before. your age bracket couldn't see this movie even if they wanted to, but i am getting to a point. as you curate material for the kids, how do you go about knowing what is appropriate for kids in this era? does that make sense? >> it absolutely does. i am writing my first book to children in response to all of these situations where there are shootings in public places, tornadoes, tremendous loss of life and property. these events are scary for us as adults and i really wanted to address, for a noddy and sick for an audience of children, why sometimes bad things happen to good people. there are not all that many things that you should not express to children in an age-

appropriate manner. as a parent, it is your job to be discerning as to whether or not your child can handle the information provided you have the ability to express yourself in that age-appropriate way. you can break down anything for a child. you have to know what your child is ready for and what they are not. nowadays, that is an individual parent all decision. because parents are all over the map about what their kids should and should not be exposed to, i wonder how difficult it makes your job to curate stuff that people can agree on. >> a good children's book is a good children's book. is curator in chief. i am the last and final authority about whether or not it goes then. -- i goes in. to have youe glad

want to celebrate that reading rainbow has a life post pbs. if i can put it that way, quentin tarantino won best original screenplay for django. now 12 years a slave. you were first with roots. suspect it didn't make you happy. >> i don't think that he dissed it by making it, just saying it was more real than roots. i took umbrage. django is not real.

it is satire. i enjoyed it. i laughed at all the funny places in them movie but i was under no illusion. tavis: 12 years a slave. >> a beautiful and remarkable film. tavis: what do you think is causing this -- i am scared to use the word "renaissance" in the slave narratives and if you think that is justified. >> i will be honest with you. toeel like i have been able notice throughout the incremental march of history during the course of my own lifetime thomas patterns emerging. it, there is a rubber band effect that happens where social change is concerned, and i think the last snap of the band was the election of barack obama and in the intervening years, there is

that reverberation what we are feeling. the retrenchment of all the sense. and so, i just think that' it's part of the inevitable march of history. there are steps forward and backward. tavis: retrenchment because there is a black man in the white house? >> as a result thereof, yes. because it is a point of focus. for everything you want to complain about and make wrong. tavis: in light of all of these new films, when you look back on what?," yo utu think >> i'm proud. it was the first time that it

had been told from the point of view of the africans in america. we now have a different frame of reference when we talk about slavery. radio show, i interviewed a young lady that a slavetsy in 12 years and i raised your name on the conversation with her because she is just out of yale. -- your daughter is >> and acting major at the university of michigan. she is a sophomore, the same age i was when i was cast in roots. particularly thrilling for her father. it is costing us enough. [laughter] always delighted to have levar burton on the show. that's your camera. >> the reading rainbow app is available on the ios, kindle

fire, and the apple ipad. it is a mobile library for your kids and curated by us. tavis: congratulations. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with scotter prize winner a. berg. , we will see you then.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more.

>> the following kqed production was produced in high definition. >>tonight on quest: the hunger for longevity is almost as old as the human race. but research is offering some new ideas about the fountain of youth. interested in living to the ripe old age of 120? find out what you can do to improve your odds. and meet one of our viewer-photographers and learn about the method behind these beautiful images. and "the big one." since 1906, californians have been living in a state of suspended fear. when will the next catastrophic earthquake occur? some new research and technologies may one day help tell you. [ ♪music ]