Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston (b. 1940) was born in the US after her parents emigrated from China. Growing up as a Chinese American and learning more about the stories of her family members inspired Kingston to write. Her works weave together multiple short stories and have consistently been considered significant contributions to literature.

Maxine Hong Kingston: Biography

Maxine Hong Kingston was born Maxine Ting Ting Hong in Stockton, California. Her parents, Tom and Ying Lan Hong, immigrated to the US from China. When her parents came to the US, educated Chinese immigrants often couldn't get good jobs. Because of this, Tom became the manager of an illegal gambling operation.

Maxine Hong Kingston showed interest and talent in writing from a young age. She even won a prize from Girl Scout Magazine for an essay she sent in. Later, Kingston attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received a degree in English. At Berkeley, she met and soon fell in love with actor Earll Kingston. They married in 1962. Soon thereafter, Maxine Hong Kingston began working as a teacher in a California high school. A year after they married, Kingston and Earll had a child they named Joseph.

Fig. 1 - Kingston lived in Hawaii when she wrote her first book.

Maxine Hong Kingston continued teaching in California through 1967. After this, however, she and Earll moved to Hawaii. The isolation she felt after this move prompted her to write The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, published in 1976. Kingston took a teaching job at the University of Hawai'i that same year. Kingston's second book, China Men, was published in 1980. The following year, she took a teaching position at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kingston has continued teaching at Berkeley ever since and also has continued writing. Most of her writing is based on her own experiences, including the novel Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989).

Maxine Hong Kingston's works are considered important both within Asian-American literature and feminist literature. Her books often explore the Chinese-American experience and highlight issues faced by women. She continues to be recognized for her contributions and was awarded the 2013 National Medal of Arts.

On the other hand, Maxine Hong Kingston's works have also faced much criticism. A common accusation claims the Chinese folktales she incorporates into many of her works are not actually traditional stories; instead, Kingston creates her own to suit the books. This raises questions about authenticity. Additionally, Kingston has been accused of promoting stereotypes of both Chinese and Chinese-American culture. These accusations are against some of Kingston's characters, who some critics believe rely on racial stereotypes to appeal more widely to a Western audience.

Maxine Hong Kingston: Short Story Collections

Though Maxine Hong Kingston has written in several different genres, it is her autobiographical short stories for which she is the most famous. Her short story collections are The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976), China Men (1980), and Hawai'i One Summer (1987).

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976)

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a collection of autobiographical short stories by Kingston. The stories tell about the experiences of the women in her family. "No Name Woman," which was initially an essay published in 1975, is a well-known section of the book. It looks at how Kingston's identity as a woman is influenced by her Chinese-American heritage. To illustrate the cultural background of her experiences—as well as those of her family members—she wove Chinese folk tales into the book.

This gives the reader a look into the culture that informed the characters' choices and feelings by illustrating the thought processes, traditions, and values that were important to her Chinese family members. For example, in one section of the book, Kingston retells the traditional story of Fa Mu Lan. In the tale, a young woman takes her father's place in the army by disguising herself as a man; she goes in to serve a long and successful career protecting China. Kingston compares herself to the heroine of this story as a way of dissecting her Chinese-American values in relation to the traditional values held by her Chinese family that passed the story down to her.

China Men (1980)

China Men is another short story collection written by Kingston. It is a companion to The Woman Warrior. It focuses on the experiences of the men of her family, where The Woman Warrior highlights the women's stories.

Also like her previous memoir, China Men uses Chinese folk tales in order to give the reader a base understanding of Chinese culture to view the characters from. This also allows Kingston to discuss the experience of being Chinese-American from an inside view. Her readers are given a window of understanding into the culture and are therefore more able to understand the characters' experiences. More than this, the retelling of traditional myths gives Kingston a way to bring a more authentic representation of Chinese traditions into the book—and a way for her to connect her own identity and experiences as a Chinese-American to the Chinese identity of her ancestors.

Hawai'i One Summer (1987)

The stories collected in this book relate both Kingston's own experiences in Hawai'i and also tales of the islands and their inhabitants. Instead of attempting to create a complete painting of Hawai'i, Kingston chose to focus on small moments and experiences she had there. In this way, Maxine Hong Kingston attempts to get at the essence of her experience of Hawai'i. She weaves together stories from her time living in Hawai'i, scenes from the various natural environments around the islands, and the way these things interact with issues of politics, feminism, and environmentalism. In this way, Kingston creates a holistic and vibrant depiction of the Hawaiian Islands and life on them.

In addition to her short story collection, Maxine Hong Kingston has written poetry, fiction, and other books.

Fig. 2 - San Francisco is the setting of Kingston's book Tripmaster Monkey.

• Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989), a novel about a Chinese-American man living in 1960s San Francisco.

• To Be the Poet (2002), an examination of poetry, being an author, and of Kingston herself.

• The Fifth Book of Peace (2003), a sequel to Tripmaster Monkey and memoir of some of Kingston's experiences intertwined together.

• Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), a work containing the stories of five veterans and how war impacted their lives.

• I Love a Broad Margin to My Life (2011), a book-length memoir written entirely in free-verse poetry.

Maxine Hong Kingston: Quotes

The following quote from Maxine Hong Kingston's novel Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book is an example of the book's theme of prejudice. The main character of the novel is a young American man of Chinese descent living in 1960s San Francisco. As he navigates politics, culture, and life, he thinks often on prejudice and discrimination.

Kingston's book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts delves into Kingston's own experience as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She illustrates in the following quote how the world of her parents' culture and understanding felt at odds with the American world they all physically lived in.

Along those same lines, Maxine Hong Kingston also writes in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts that:

This describes the feeling of holding two different cultures, heritages, or identities within herself at the same time.