ily a poet. She has published individual poems in
numerous journals and anthologies: Ploughshares,
The Paris Review, Parnassus, The Norton Introduc-
tion to Poetry, and Asian-American Poetry: The
Next Generation. Chin has published three collec-
tions of poetry: Dwarf Bamboo (1987), The Phoe-
nix Gone, The Terrace Empty (1994), and Rhapsody
in Plain Yellow (2002).
Since 1987, Chin’s poetry has received both
popular and critical attention. Intense, angry,
ironic, confrontational, and cynical are the terms
most commonly associated with her work. Chin’s
poetry erupts with emotion and intelligence. Her
poems are rich with references to both ancient
Chinese culture and American popular culture.
Like the confessional poets of the 1960s (Rob-
ert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton), Chin
mines her personal and familial history as a basis
for poems about loss, betrayals of trust, and love.
Furthermore, in the tradition of Gary Snyder, Adri-
enne Rich, and Denise Levertov (her instructor at
Stanford), Chin believes that a true poet must be
involved in political and community issues. To that
end, Chin calls herself an activist and exercises her
craft to forward her political and social concerns.
Many of Chin’s poems explore the conditions
of exile. The outsider persona is often, but not
always, marginalized as a result of immigration.
Chin’s most anthologized poem, “How I Got That
Name: an essay on assimilation,” is composed of
four sections that reflect the immigrant experience
in America. Chin begins by explaining how “Mei
Ling” was transliterated into “Marilyn” due to her
father’s obsession with beautiful white women. In
the second section, she excoriates the stereotypes
so-called experts disseminate about the “Model
Minority.” She wonders idly in the third section
what her first ancestor would say about his descen-
dants, and finds she cannot rouse herself to fight
his judgment. In the last section, the author pres-
ents a final snapshot of this person called Marilyn
Mei Ling Chin. In desolation she imagines her leg-
acy after death and concludes that she was “neither
cherished nor vanquished” (line 83, The Phoenix
Gone, the Terrace Empty). The experience of the
immigrant of color in America as detailed in this
poem begins within the family and its assimilation
of Caucasian standards of beauty and success. The
immigrant must then confront the assumptions of
the academy and the general public while she si-
multaneously defends herself against the perceived
disappointment of her ancestors. In the end, the
immigrant is reduced to the contents of an obitu-
ary, adrift without a firm cultural identity.
Marilyn Chin’s poetry also incorporates her
experiences in an extended Chinese-American
family. Like the poets Lucille Clifton and JANICE
MIRIKITANI, Chin was powerfully affected by her
parents’ marriage. In “Family Restaurant,” an in-
tense 10-line poem, Chin exposes the reality of her
family life by portraying a mother in the kitchen
peeling shrimp while a father coos over the phone
to his current lover. Chin writes, “His daughter
wide-eyed, little fists / Vows to never forgive him”
(lines 7–8, Rhapsody in Plain Yellow). George Chin
abandoned his wife, Rose, for a Caucasian woman,
and his daughter returns repeatedly to this autobi-
ographical figure to condemn the oppression and
exploitation of women.
While Chin’s treatment of fathers is almost
universally negative and angry, her references to
mothers in her poems are more varied. “Turtle
Soup” from 1994 includes a mother who has la-
bored for 12 hours to make the delicacy. The voice
of the young daughter, assimilated into Western
ways, mocks the mother for her unenlightened ef-
forts. Her mother’s sobbing chastises the daughter,
and she prepares to honor her mother by con-
suming the soup. The poem ends with a ques-
tion; the daughter continues to be torn between
her mother’s traditional Chinese culture and her
own Americanized identity. In 2002’s Rhapsody
in Plain Yellow Chin mourns the passing of her
mother and maternal grandmother. Both “Blues
on Yellow” and “The Cock’s Wife” from 2002 con-
vey anger and resentment. The wife / mother fig-
ure is confined; her future is sacrificed while her
children and husband sail through life, uncaring.
The haunting “Hospital Interlude” (Rhapsody in
Plain Yellow, 2002) describes a daughter’s visit
to a hospital where she is confronted only by an
“empty sickroom.” In stunned silence she looks
out at the full moon and hears the cicadas crying.
She turns to go, vowing not to forget her motherChin, Marilyn Mei Ling 43