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The Woman Warrior / China Men
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Here–for the first time in one volume–are two classic, brilliantly original works on the experience of Chinese immigrants in America. In both books Maxine Hong Kingston mines her family’s past and her culture’s stories, weaving myth and memory to fashion works of enormous revelatory power.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, is Kingston’s disturbing and fiercely beautiful account of growing up Chinese-American in California. The young Kingston lives in two worlds: the America to which her parents have emigrated, a place inhabited by white “ghosts,” and the China of her mother’s “talk stories,” a place haunted by the ghosts of the past. Her mother, who had been a doctor in China but in the United States is reduced to running a laundry, tells her daughter traditional tales of strong, wily women warriorstales–that clash puzzlingly with the real oppression of Chinese women. Kingston learns to fill in the mystifying spaces in her mother’s stories with stories of her own, engaging her family’s past and her own present with anger, imagination, and dazzling passion.
China Men, a National Book Award winner for fiction, is Kingston’s unforgettable imaginative journey into the hearts and minds of generations of Chinese men in America, from those who worked on the transcontinental railroad in the 1840s to those who fought in Vietnam. Mixing vivid fables and legends, personal stories from her own family, and details of the historical hardships faced by Chinese immigrants in different times and places, Kingston illuminates their long, arduous search for the Gold Mountain.
Here–for the first time in one volume–are two classic, brilliantly original works on the experience of Chinese immigrants in America. In both books Maxine Hong Kingston mines her family’s past and her culture’s stories, weaving myth and memory to fashion works of enormous revelatory power.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, is Kingston’s disturbing and fiercely beautiful account of growing up Chinese-American in California. The young Kingston lives in two worlds: the America to which her parents have emigrated, a place inhabited by white “ghosts,” and the China of her mother’s “talk stories,” a place haunted by the ghosts of the past. Her mother, who had been a doctor in China but in the United States is reduced to running a laundry, tells her daughter traditional tales of strong, wily women warriorstales–that clash puzzlingly with the real oppression of Chinese women. Kingston learns to fill in the mystifying spaces in her mother’s stories with stories of her own, engaging her family’s past and her own present with anger, imagination, and dazzling passion.
China Men, a National Book Award winner for fiction, is Kingston’s unforgettable imaginative journey into the hearts and minds of generations of Chinese men in America, from those who worked on the transcontinental railroad in the 1840s to those who fought in Vietnam. Mixing vivid fables and legends, personal stories from her own family, and details of the historical hardships faced by Chinese immigrants in different times and places, Kingston illuminates their long, arduous search for the Gold Mountain.
584 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
About the author
Maxine Hong Kingston
61 books669 followersBest known works, including
The Woman Warrior
(1976) and
China Men
(1980), of American writer Maxine Hong Kingston combine elements of fiction and memoir.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 10, 2013
4.5 stars
The Swordswoman of Words
'The Woman Warrior' is Maxine Hong Kingston's own story of growing up Chinese-American, an irreconcilable position for her as the two cultures would seemingly clash, unable to provide her with a stable sense of identity. She grew up confused by the ideas and behavior of her parents and the villagers who had settled in Stockton, California, who saw their American-born children as very strange - not really Chinese. Her parents hoped one day to return the whole family to China - yet the China they had left had since changed. All she knew of the place she had never been, was through the 'talk-stories' told by her mother; parables in the Chinese tradition of telling magical stories and incorporating them into their everyday life; of ancestors and relatives, and great tales of mythic and cultural heroines.
Her mother was exceedingly gifted in talking-story:
In 'The Woman Warrior', MHK constructs her own identity and the meaning of her life. She places herself as the primary narrator in stories artistically woven with Chinese myth and legend, including other women characters- some known and unknown, real and imagined. The stories are highly imaginative; the narrative flows with wondrous elements of magical-realism.
The book is sectioned into five chapters, illustrating MHK's American experience: 'No Name Woman' tells the story of her aunt who was ostracized for having an illegitimate child; 'White Tigers' weaves the story of Fa Mu Lan- the mythical character to whom MHK most relates- who goes to battle in her father's stead and saves a village; 'Shaman' tells the story of her mother, Brave Orchid, becoming a doctor in the old country and her immigration to America; 'At The Western Palace' covers her mother's sister, Moon Orchid, in her journey to California in the hope of reconciling with her estranged husband; 'A Song for A Barbarian Reed Pipe' reflects a poignant message of preservation of an ebbing culture and a melding of the current ones.
MHK would often rebel against the stringent Chinese-feminine model: "I refused to cook. When I had to wash dishes, I would crack one or two. 'Bad girl,' my mother yelled, and sometimes that made me gloat rather than cry. Isn't a bad girl almost a boy?" (p.50) She knew that she must become a warrior woman- strong, independent, a fighter, a burden to no one, she won't be silenced. She confessed to her mother that she, too, could 'talk-story'; and how immeasurably gifted she was at that!
Her power was wielded in language, her 'loosened tongue', her voice; her sharpened pen became her sword, her strength.
In an interview in the Atlantis publication jun-nov 1988, Maxine Hong Kingston explained that she took care to find the force of reason within her stories, the middle ground between the real world and the supernatural. 'The Woman Warrior' was a vehicle for the many voices MHK heard within herself. She hoped that her writings would give a voice to Chinese-American women, and that their everyday existence growing up in America within a traditional Chinese culture, would be seen with more compassion and understanding, with a bright look toward a balanced resolution. For MHK herself, 'The Woman Warrior' finally reconciled those clashes of the two cultures, to the formation of a beautiful, enduring, identifiable new one.
The Swordswoman of Words
'The Woman Warrior' is Maxine Hong Kingston's own story of growing up Chinese-American, an irreconcilable position for her as the two cultures would seemingly clash, unable to provide her with a stable sense of identity. She grew up confused by the ideas and behavior of her parents and the villagers who had settled in Stockton, California, who saw their American-born children as very strange - not really Chinese. Her parents hoped one day to return the whole family to China - yet the China they had left had since changed. All she knew of the place she had never been, was through the 'talk-stories' told by her mother; parables in the Chinese tradition of telling magical stories and incorporating them into their everyday life; of ancestors and relatives, and great tales of mythic and cultural heroines.
Her mother was exceedingly gifted in talking-story:
"Night after night my mother would talk-story until we fell asleep. I couldn't tell where the stories left off and the dreams began, her voice the voice of heroines in my sleep. And on Sundays, from noon to midnight, we went to movies at the Confucius Church. We saw swordswomen jump over houses from a standstill; they didn't even need a running start.
At last I saw I too had been in the presence of great power, my mother talking- story. After I grew up, I heard the chant of Fa Mu Lan, the girl who took her father's place in battle. I had forgotten this chant...given me by my mother, who may not have known its power to remind. She said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman". (p. 20-21)
In 'The Woman Warrior', MHK constructs her own identity and the meaning of her life. She places herself as the primary narrator in stories artistically woven with Chinese myth and legend, including other women characters- some known and unknown, real and imagined. The stories are highly imaginative; the narrative flows with wondrous elements of magical-realism.
The book is sectioned into five chapters, illustrating MHK's American experience: 'No Name Woman' tells the story of her aunt who was ostracized for having an illegitimate child; 'White Tigers' weaves the story of Fa Mu Lan- the mythical character to whom MHK most relates- who goes to battle in her father's stead and saves a village; 'Shaman' tells the story of her mother, Brave Orchid, becoming a doctor in the old country and her immigration to America; 'At The Western Palace' covers her mother's sister, Moon Orchid, in her journey to California in the hope of reconciling with her estranged husband; 'A Song for A Barbarian Reed Pipe' reflects a poignant message of preservation of an ebbing culture and a melding of the current ones.
MHK would often rebel against the stringent Chinese-feminine model: "I refused to cook. When I had to wash dishes, I would crack one or two. 'Bad girl,' my mother yelled, and sometimes that made me gloat rather than cry. Isn't a bad girl almost a boy?" (p.50) She knew that she must become a warrior woman- strong, independent, a fighter, a burden to no one, she won't be silenced. She confessed to her mother that she, too, could 'talk-story'; and how immeasurably gifted she was at that!
Her power was wielded in language, her 'loosened tongue', her voice; her sharpened pen became her sword, her strength.
In an interview in the Atlantis publication jun-nov 1988, Maxine Hong Kingston explained that she took care to find the force of reason within her stories, the middle ground between the real world and the supernatural. 'The Woman Warrior' was a vehicle for the many voices MHK heard within herself. She hoped that her writings would give a voice to Chinese-American women, and that their everyday existence growing up in America within a traditional Chinese culture, would be seen with more compassion and understanding, with a bright look toward a balanced resolution. For MHK herself, 'The Woman Warrior' finally reconciled those clashes of the two cultures, to the formation of a beautiful, enduring, identifiable new one.
December 5, 2013
The Woman Warrior tells the story of Maxine Kingston, a young woman who learns about her family's past through stories of folktale and herself. The book is set on different places and time ranging from each story to story, like when she lives her life as Fa-Mulan, training in the mountains of China in the chapter,"White Tigers." Telling mystical stories of her family's lives, Kingston immerses you within each folk-tale with a different story of it's own each time. In one of them, She listens as her mom tells the story of the "No Name Woman", her aunt who has been convicted of adultery but was actually raped and became pregnant. Being raided by the villagers, getting stones thrown at them, and horrifyingly forced to throw the baby into the well. The book is essentially creepy, eerie, and excitingly different, with each story reavealing more about Maxine Kingston.
I enjoyed Chapter 2, "White Tigers" because it was exceptionally vivid and interesting. I thought Fa-Mulan was just a Disney Movie but actually was actually a Chinese folk-tale. It was pretty interesting how she dreamt of this and how it related to the Book Title. So far, I enjoy this book and would continue reading.
Ultimately, the story of Maxine and her mom, "The Woman Warrior" or also known as Brave Orchid is a story of her family living in China, transporting their lives to America, adapting their ways, and the stories that came with it. It all adds up to a tale of cultural differences, and example of how an American born girl must learn to live with her cultural-tied family. The Woman Warrior tells that story very well, showing us how growing up and everyday challenges can be difficult but conquered.
I enjoyed this book, but again, it was would be pretty creepy to young readers. I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoys fiction or something different/ out of the norm. Each story is different with it's own unique way.This book could be challenging to understand at first, but once you do, it will unfold well. In all, I would reccomend reading it if you're up for an interesting, different kinda book.
I enjoyed Chapter 2, "White Tigers" because it was exceptionally vivid and interesting. I thought Fa-Mulan was just a Disney Movie but actually was actually a Chinese folk-tale. It was pretty interesting how she dreamt of this and how it related to the Book Title. So far, I enjoy this book and would continue reading.
Ultimately, the story of Maxine and her mom, "The Woman Warrior" or also known as Brave Orchid is a story of her family living in China, transporting their lives to America, adapting their ways, and the stories that came with it. It all adds up to a tale of cultural differences, and example of how an American born girl must learn to live with her cultural-tied family. The Woman Warrior tells that story very well, showing us how growing up and everyday challenges can be difficult but conquered.
I enjoyed this book, but again, it was would be pretty creepy to young readers. I would reccomend it to anyone who enjoys fiction or something different/ out of the norm. Each story is different with it's own unique way.This book could be challenging to understand at first, but once you do, it will unfold well. In all, I would reccomend reading it if you're up for an interesting, different kinda book.
October 6, 2016
When I was an Undergraduate I read Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, but had almost no memory of anything specific about it, except that the second chapter of her memoirs involved a creative re-telling of the Mu Lan Fan story. In partially re-reading The Woman Warrior I was both drawn to the beautiful prose style but often found myself counting pages, each chapter of dense and descriptive prose in about fifty pages full of Chinese ghost stories, Women swordsmen who use either language or actual swords to redress wrongs and depose corrupt emperors, immigrant labor in a Chinese laundry or in the fields picking tomatoes, and anecdotes about gender in traditional and immigrant Chinese cultures. Maxine Hong Kingston has composed the creative memoirs of her relationship with her mother as an ambassador of a culture that both celebrates a woman warrior while praying for the birth of sons instead of raising daughters for the family of their husbands. What is compelling about the Woman Warrior is that you walk away from these memoirs with less chronologically biographical information about the author, instead you get an empathetic and creative identification with the cautionary tale of a dishonored Aunt the family pretends never existed because she committed suicide in the well after giving birth to the child of a lover, who Kingston speculates probably raped the Aunt and then organized the masked mob that ransacked the family home in order to repudiate any responsibility. This chapter is followed by a first person re-imagining of the Mu Lan Fan story, a story that was used to denigrate the academic achievements of the author. There is a chapter about her indomitable mother (Brave Orchid)'s medical training as a midwife in China contrasted with her life in America as a laundress and immigrant working in the California fields. The subsequent chapter where I eventually lost interest was about how Brave Orchid's sister arrives in California seeking the husband who left China thirty years ago who continued to financially support his distant bride and daughter, but married another woman in the States and had sons. Brave Orchid wants her sister to assert herself as the privileged First Wife and reduce her rival to a servant while claiming ownership of the sons. While the Woman Warrior is vividly written and does provide enough background about Chinese culture, I just found myself distracted throughout this re-reading and felt that subsequent chapters lost focus.
May 2, 2016
Only finished "The Woman Warrior" section, but I'd like to return to read "China Men." Hard sledding as it's multilayered: Memoir, truth, facts, talk-story, anti-nostalgia, China, America, mother, daughter, family, the immigrant tale in first generation and second, plus the power of expectations, especially in the place of boys and girls within a family.
August 17, 2019
Although I found The Woman Warrior and China Men to be absorbing family history and memoirs, at many times I had to plow through pages just to finish the book. Sometimes the myths seemed like a detour or distraction and I had trouble following the threads of the family story. In order to give a fair review of this compilation, I would need to read it a second time and I think it would be worth the effort. I learned about the immigrant experience in America from a point of view that is different from my own, and Hong Kingston writes with honesty and a spirit of philosophical questioning.
China Men held my interest more than Woman Warrior. Maybe this is because after reading Woman Warrior, I was used to the writing style and was more familiar with the family story or maybe the China Men is more tightly written and action oriented.
For me, the most compelling parts of Warrior Woman are the story of an aunt who causes a village riot with an unwanted pregnancy and the portrait of Hong Kingston’s mother’s heroic strength and energy which helped her get through medical school in China while separated from her husband and survive the many hardships endured as an immigrant in America. While her courage and energy make her successful in China, they seem exaggerated in America and cause harm to her family members even if they help her cope with the overwhelming burdens of draining laborious work and caring for her own family as well as extended family. The story of Fa Mu Lan, the girl warrior, gives a positive theme to the narratives of Hong Kingston’s female ancestors even though I found it distracting. Women were devalued and had limited agency in Chinese culture, but Hong Kingston’s female ancestors and Hong Kingston herself have a brave, fighting spirit similar to that of Mulan.
In China Men, I especially enjoyed the stories of Lo Bun Sun, a fictional Robinson-Crusoe type of character, the story of the grandfather who survived the brutal conditions of working on the transcontinental railroads in the 1840s and that of a brother who navigated the ethical, psychological and physical perils of the Vietnam War when serving in the Navy.
Mary Gordon’s introduction, which I read last, provides a brilliant analysis. I also thought I saw influences of Cannery Row in the descriptions of winos and hoboes in Stockton, CA and of Taming of the Shrew in Hong Kingston’s attempts to discourage potential suitors. I also saw parallels between the treatment of Chinese immigrants and that of Mexican and Central American immigrants.
China Men held my interest more than Woman Warrior. Maybe this is because after reading Woman Warrior, I was used to the writing style and was more familiar with the family story or maybe the China Men is more tightly written and action oriented.
For me, the most compelling parts of Warrior Woman are the story of an aunt who causes a village riot with an unwanted pregnancy and the portrait of Hong Kingston’s mother’s heroic strength and energy which helped her get through medical school in China while separated from her husband and survive the many hardships endured as an immigrant in America. While her courage and energy make her successful in China, they seem exaggerated in America and cause harm to her family members even if they help her cope with the overwhelming burdens of draining laborious work and caring for her own family as well as extended family. The story of Fa Mu Lan, the girl warrior, gives a positive theme to the narratives of Hong Kingston’s female ancestors even though I found it distracting. Women were devalued and had limited agency in Chinese culture, but Hong Kingston’s female ancestors and Hong Kingston herself have a brave, fighting spirit similar to that of Mulan.
In China Men, I especially enjoyed the stories of Lo Bun Sun, a fictional Robinson-Crusoe type of character, the story of the grandfather who survived the brutal conditions of working on the transcontinental railroads in the 1840s and that of a brother who navigated the ethical, psychological and physical perils of the Vietnam War when serving in the Navy.
Mary Gordon’s introduction, which I read last, provides a brilliant analysis. I also thought I saw influences of Cannery Row in the descriptions of winos and hoboes in Stockton, CA and of Taming of the Shrew in Hong Kingston’s attempts to discourage potential suitors. I also saw parallels between the treatment of Chinese immigrants and that of Mexican and Central American immigrants.
March 1, 2016
Both "memoirs" of Hong Kingston's family are harrowing and gripping at times. Parts of The Woman Warrior are magical and amazing. Both are filled with the struggles and horrors that Kingston's ancestors and family faced as they searched for a better life in the Golden Mountain. Both often have painful stories of the brutal treatment of Chinese and Chinese-American women and girls by men. Yet their is hope, as symbolized by the astounding "woman warrior" of the first book.
November 15, 2013
The writing in this memoir was stellar, but the author's memories of girlhood as a Chinese-American were so disturbing that it was hard at times for me to read.
December 8, 2014
Read in High school and really remember liking it.
October 5, 2019
My review in Dutch on https://stukgelezen.wordpress.com/201...
July 19, 2024
I almost don't know where to start or how to review these two books. My daughter was a big fan of The Woman Warrior, which she read in high school, so when a local book club wanted to read I joined them. I found a used copy of the Everyman's Library volume which also includes China Men.
Neither book is an easy read although China Men probably more so than The Woman Warrior. An exploration of the experiences and thoughts of a first generation Chinese American are both fascinating and difficult, both heartbreaking and with a sort of dark humor. Add in the elements or fiction, folklore, history and memoir and it is hard to get a sure handle on what you are reading.
I'm glad I read these books if only for the exposure to the literary and cultural elements they contain. I am still unsure of my reaction or understanding of them however. But there is also a sense that I can't really fully understand it because the language, culture, experiences, etc. are just so different from my own. But it is a unique work and I am glad I have a better understanding of the author and her work.
Neither book is an easy read although China Men probably more so than The Woman Warrior. An exploration of the experiences and thoughts of a first generation Chinese American are both fascinating and difficult, both heartbreaking and with a sort of dark humor. Add in the elements or fiction, folklore, history and memoir and it is hard to get a sure handle on what you are reading.
I'm glad I read these books if only for the exposure to the literary and cultural elements they contain. I am still unsure of my reaction or understanding of them however. But there is also a sense that I can't really fully understand it because the language, culture, experiences, etc. are just so different from my own. But it is a unique work and I am glad I have a better understanding of the author and her work.
April 25, 2021
A talk-story memoir of a 1st generation Chinese girl. Lyrical, mystical but real details of her life growing up & her life that flows from her mother. Beautiful but difficult to follow & understand
December 19, 2022
The Woman Warrior (1976)
A semi-autobiographical novel that uses a few Chinese folk-tales to relate Kingston’s struggles of an American-raised woman conflicted by her heritage. Her mother was a doctor in China – an eminent position - before escaping the Communists and fleeing to her husband in the United States, where she earns a livelihood in a laundry and by picking tomatoes. Struggling against the overwhelming influence of her unsympathetic mother, Kingston chronicles her determination to go her own way.
China Men (1980)
China Men is similar in form but from a male dominated perspective. The cultural influence of the homeland drags upon the determined male seeking to achieve the American dream.
A semi-autobiographical novel that uses a few Chinese folk-tales to relate Kingston’s struggles of an American-raised woman conflicted by her heritage. Her mother was a doctor in China – an eminent position - before escaping the Communists and fleeing to her husband in the United States, where she earns a livelihood in a laundry and by picking tomatoes. Struggling against the overwhelming influence of her unsympathetic mother, Kingston chronicles her determination to go her own way.
China Men (1980)
China Men is similar in form but from a male dominated perspective. The cultural influence of the homeland drags upon the determined male seeking to achieve the American dream.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews