ing by dominant American culture. Another approach would be to show how
thematic issues in one work “speak to” or reveal similar issues in the other. For
example, how are characters in China Men subject to the same silencing as the
“no name” aunt and other characters from The Woman Warrior? How do they
eventually find voice? Also worth considering is the way male characters are
emasculated or feminized by mainstream American culture. Is this process
similar to the narrator’s in The Woman Warrior as she looks for ways to subvert
what is Chinese and/or American feminine? How do the brief vignettes in
China Men like “The Ghostmate” and “The Wild Man of the Green Swamp”
highlight concerns similar to those in The Woman Warrior, such as Brave
Orchid’s battle with a sitting ghost and the captivity story of Ts’ai Yen?- In her interview with Miel Alegre and Dave Weich, Kingston says: “I feel
that I have had to translate a whole Eastern culture and bring it to the West,
then bring the two cultures together seamlessly. That is how one makes the
Asian American culture.” This “fusion” of Chinese and Western images and
metaphors is a hallmark of Kingston’s style. Choosing one story from The
Woman Warrior, students can explore the ways she transplants and transforms
Chinese “talkstories” to make them relevant to an American setting. Alterna-
tively, students might consider how stories about China help her overcome
racial oppression. Useful approaches to this topic are suggested in the essays
by Cheung, Petit, and Winsbro. - The critical debate surrounding The Woman Warrior touches upon the book’s
generic status. Subtitled a “memoir,” it was initially published as nonfiction.
More-recent editions label it as fiction, acknowledging its blending of biogra-
phy and history with fantasy and myth. How do these labels impact the way
you read and understand the story? How do they create certain expectations
about the shape and content of the book? Students might alternatively wish to
examine another unstable boundary in The Woman Warrior: the one between
Chinese and American culture. Early in the work the narrator asks: “Chinese-
Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how
do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family,
your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese?
What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?” Students might also con-
sider the connection between Kingston’s blurring of genres and the narrator’s
confusion about what is Chinese (and American). How does one reflect the
other? Helpful discussions of shifting perspectives and genres can be found in
chapters about The Woman Warrior in Grice, Huntley, and Simmons.
RESOURCES
Primary Works
Miel Alegre and Dave Weich, “Powell’s Book Interview: Maxine Hong Kingston
After the Fire” http://www.powells.com/authors/kingston.htm [accessed
24 November 2009].
A 2003 interview in which Kingston discusses writing, touching on reasons for
the narrative style in The Woman Warrior.