22 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, “Reading Back, Looking Forward: A Retrospective Inter-
view with Maxine Hong Kingston,” MELUS, 33 (Spring 2008): 157–170.
A 2006 interview highlights Kingston’s development as a writer.
Bill Moyers, “Bill Moyers Interview,” Bill Moyers Journal (25 March 2007)
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05252007/transcript1.html [accessed
24 November 2009].
An interview in which Kingston and participants of her writing workshops for
veterans discuss how writing facilitates healing and helps them “come home”
from war.
Paul Skenazy and Tera Martin, eds., Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston
( Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998).
Collection of sixteen interviews with Kingston, from 1977 to 1996, dealing with
The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey. The chronology and
introduction provide a concise summary of all the interviews.
Criticism
King-Kok Cheung, “Provocative Silence: The Woman Warrior and China Men,”
in Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 74–125.
An essential discussion of Kingston’s varied uses of silences.
Frank Chin, “Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake,”
in The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American
Literature, edited by Jeffrey Paul Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson Fusao Inada,
and Shawn Wong (New York: Meridian, 1991), pp. 1–92.
Essay in which Chin defines “real” Asian Americans in opposition to those who
are “fake.” According to Chin, the latter are assimilated and mirror “white racist”
stereotypes.
Lan Dong, “Writing Chinese America Into Words and Images: Storytelling and
Retelling of the Song of Mu Lan,” The Lion and the Unicorn, 30 (April 2006):
218–233.
Useful essay that compares three re-creations of the Chinese story: Jeanne Lee’s
The Song of Mu Lan (1995), Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and the Disney ani-
mated film Mulan (1998).
Helena Grice, Maxine Hong Kingston (Manchester, England & New York: Man-
chester University Press, 2006).
An overview of Kingston’s life with attention to her development as a writer and
activist; includes a summary of the debate concerning the genre of The Woman
Warrior and chapters about each of Kingston’s works through The Fifth Book of
Peace.
E. D. Huntley, Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2001).
Critical overview of thematic and stylistic issues in Kingston’s first three works:
The Woman Warrior, China Men, and Tripmaster Monkey; includes an overview