learn weeping songs among other skills that a girl
needs to possess in order to land a profitable mar-
riage arrangement for her family. Learning from
the fate of Yun Yun, whose family has been duped
into contracting her into an abusive marriage, the
three protagonists vow to live a life of freedom
and self-reliance. In an era in which a woman’s
hairstyle determines her status in society—girls
have two pigtails, brides require assistance to
comb their hair into a bun on their wedding days,
and nuns shave their hair—the spinsters create
an alternative identity for themselves by combing
their own hair into a single long plait, which sym-
bolizes both their maturity and independence.
Even though the three protagonists are ostracized
by their families and sneered at by other villagers,
they are determined to become self-sufficient. By
selling their embroideries and planting their own
garden, they eventually make enough money to
not only support themselves but also help their
families. Sneers and jeers of the villagers soon turn
into praise and approval as Mei Ju and Shadow
use all their savings to pay for an expensive doctor
visit when Shadow’s brother falls ill. The spinsters
become role models for other girls in the village
by creating and successfully achieving a life that
does not entirely rely on marriage.
In this novel, McCunn explores the theme of in-
dividual and collective identity. Like the mythical
dragon that chases after the much coveted moon
pearl, the spinsters pursue their own dreams of
freedom. However, they do not perform this task
alone; instead, they form a nurturing and sup-
portive female community to voice their dissent
against patriarchal control. For example, when her
husband’s abuse becomes life-threatening, Yun
Yun turns to other women for help. As the girls
sing songs of Yun Yun’s sorrow, the rural commu-
nity becomes enraged by the cruelty of Yun Yun’s
husband and in-laws, and Yun Yun is able to gain
better treatment. McCunn shows that a woman’s
identity is at once individual and communal.
Through the formation of female communities,
women are able to find a voice for themselves and
resist patriarchal domination.
Nan MaMori, Kyoko (1957– )
Born in Kobe, Japan, Mori studied as an exchange
student in Mesa, Arizona, for one year before leav-
ing Japan at age 16, four years after her mother’s
suicide. After receiving her B.A. from Rockford
College, Illinois, she went on to graduate school,
earning a doctorate from the University of Wis-
consin, Milwaukee. She was an associate professor
of English and writer-in-residence at St. Norbert
College in DePere, Wisconsin. She currently serves
as a Briggs Copeland lecturer in Creative Writing
at Harvard. She has written six works to date, in-
cluding two young adult novels, a volume of po-
etry, one novel, a memoir, and a book of essays.
Her first publication was a young adult novel,
Shizuka’s Daughter (1993). The following year,
she published a collection of poetry, Fall Out.
A memoir, The Dream of Water, and her second
young adult novel, One Bird, were both published
in 1995. An essay cycle, Polite Lies: On Being A
Woman Caught Between Cultures, appeared in
1997, and her latest work, an adult novel, is en-
titled Stone Field, True Arrow (2000). Mori is cur-
rently at work on a new novel, tentatively entitled
The Glass Ark.
Mori’s work is autobiographical, yet she reworks
events in her life creatively in order to explore larger
themes including the relationship between life and
art, childhood trauma, emotional scars and their
effects on later relationships, and the bicultural ex-
perience of immigrants in the United States. The
latter is treated in greatest detail in Polite Lies, in
which she examines the relationship between her
Japanese cultural heritage and her midwestern life,
covering topics such as the role of women, lan-
guage usage, and body image. She questions from
a variety of angles the “advantage” that many be-
lieve comes along with being bicultural, but which
for her has often made life more complicated. Her
work also draws on her background in and knowl-
edge of a variety of art forms including weaving,
which figures prominently in Stone Field, True
Arrow. This novel explores a middle-aged weaver’s
relationships with her mother and husband as they
are influenced by her childhood departure from
Japan and separation from her artist father. Simi-
larly, Mori’s interest in birding adds texture to thatMori, Kyoko 199