Why haven’t I read Maxine Hong Kingston yet? Wikipedia says:
The Woman Warrior has been reported by the Modern Language Association as the most commonly taught text in modern university education. It has been used in disciplines as far reaching as American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, composition, education, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies. In addition, it has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and has been named one of Time Magazine’s top nonfiction books of the 1970s.[1]
But there’s a reason one shouldn’t quote the wikipedia (which is why I tell students that quoting wikipedia is like telling people you pee in the shower- it’s gauche). While the quote is not sourced in any honest or effective way, I want it to be true.
Woman Warrior has been used enough though to have substantial resources – and a thriving market of essays.
- Spark Notes
- Wikipedia
- Companion book on Kingston – partially free on google books
That should make things more fun. Because the novel is composed of short stories, and because in the first story we have suicide, taboo sex, secrets and betrayal, served up with sexual repression and ghosts, told by an astute adolescent American born Chinese girl/woman, this might resonate with our students.
Niether “girl” or “woman” seem right. The Narrator’s voice is a problem. Seem to have read somewhere some in the Chinese writing community – men exclusively it seems – take umbrage with the term “non-fiction.” But This was published in 1975. Personal Historical fiction is now common as we’ve shifted the boundaries of our willing suspension of disbelief.
In addition to the themes identified by the conventional sources listed above, I’d like to explore the following themes
- truth and honesty – will shed light on the “Voice” problem that vexes so many. The narrative voice asks, “why do Chinese people lie so much” [sic] (find page). I’ll say this is a complicated question that western people may misunderstand – for the Chinese, truth is more socially created – or they are aware of the social creation of knowledge more – than it is for Western audiences. Remember when Pres. Clinton famously advised someone on dealing with the far Eastern people that “for them yes sometimes means no” or something to that effect. Picked up major flack for that, but he understood something.
- The tricky and fertile intersection of feminism and Asian Race. I’ll have to tell the story of the first TV show I remember watching as husband and wife – in America – with my Taiwanese wife, a documentary on Chinese women in America. A California Ivy-leaguish educated Chinese American woman spoke of participating in a NOW meeting in the 70’s and seeing black and white women separate into groups. The groups then told the Chinese-American woman (en) that she had to choose whether she was black or white. That didn’t sit well with either her or my wife.
