What do we learn about the daughter's past in Chapter 1?

Whe June goes to the Hsus' house to take her mother's place in the Joy Luck Club, she feels out of place. She not only is one generation younger than everyone else, but she realizes that her mother has made excuses for her to the other members. For example, although June dropped out of college, her mother told them that she might go back for a degree. The men talk about stocks while the women play Mah Jong and gossip. The women tell June that her mother finally made contact with her lost daughters in China after trying for years to find them. They give June enough money to fly to China and meet them. They make her promise to tell her sisters about their mother's life, because she is responsible for her mother's legacy. Her mother's corner at the Mah Jong table is East, and Jing-mei puts forth that East is also "where things begin."