What is it like to grow up as the children of immigrants in a country fueled by prejudice? How can a first-generation Chinese-American navigate the disparate landscapes of her parents' traditional beliefs and her country's ever-changing expectations? Chinese-American Maxine Hong Kingston (1940-present) delves deeply into themes of identity, oppression, and expression in her 1976 memoir The Woman Warrior.
Content warning: Mention of suicide.
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior
First published in 1976, The Woman Warrior is Kingston's first book. The memoir blends "talk-stories" told to Kingston by her mother with Kingston's experience as a Chinese-American woman in the United States. The Woman Warrior is a reflection of her family history and cultural heritage. It is often considered a feminist text, as it examines the oppression of women in both Chinese and American society.
Talk-stories are Chinese oral legends that combine mythology with history.
Kingston was born in California to Chinese immigrants in 1940. She was born during World War II as racial and political tensions were mounting. In China, Kingston's father was a respected scholar and teacher. He left the country in 1925, assuming he would find better opportunities for work in the United States. Unfortunately, employment in the United States was plagued by extreme racism, and despite his education and experience, Kingston's father could only find work doing odd jobs. Kingston's mother stayed behind in China until 1939, a few months before Kingston was born.
Fig. 1: Kingston's father eventually found work operating a laundry business.
Kingston was a straight-A student, but women in Chinese culture were expected to stay home and care for the family instead of pursuing a career or furthering their education. The Woman Warrior expresses her frustration and resentment at her parent's lack of support. After graduating from high school, Kingston attended the University of California, Berkeley on a scholarship.
After graduation, Kingston taught at a high school in California for a year before moving to Hawaii. The move and loneliness of life in a hotel room ignited a writing fervor in Kingston, and she soon penned The Woman Warrior. It was the first of three books and several nonfiction pieces.
Kingston's first published piece was an essay entitled "I Am an American."
The Woman Warrior reflects on Kingston's childhood, growing up as a first-generation Chinese-American. She expresses feeling stifled by the expectations of both cultures, as evident in several chapters. Kingston also struggles to fully empathize with her family's earlier experiences in China, as she feels removed from certain elements of their culture. Meanwhile, she struggles to fully fit into American society due to her family's heritage and customs. Kingston feels like somewhat of an outsider in both Chinese and American cultures.
The Woman Warrior Summary
The Woman Warrior is broken into five chapters, each of which tells its own story in relation to Kingston's life.
"No Name Woman"
"No Name Woman" centers around Kingston's aunt, whose name Kingston is forbidden from learning. The woman was married in China, but her husband left her behind when he moved to America for work. Kingston's aunt became pregnant with another man's child during his absence. Kingston imagines why her aunt would have the affair—maybe she was forced to, she was sexually scandalous, or she had unattainable visions of love. Kingston realizes she will never discover the No Name Woman's true motives.
When the villagers learned about the affair, they socially ostracized the No Name Woman and trashed her home. She gave birth in a pigsty but felt so ashamed and alone that she drowned herself and the baby in a well. Kingston is told she is not to speak of her disgraced aunt, but Kingston writes about her anyway, refusing to play into the family's erasure of this woman.
Fig. 2: The No Name Woman drowns herself and her child in the family well to escape society's prejudice.
"White Tigers"
Next, Kingston recalls her mother's story of Fa Mu Lan, a Chinese woman who took her father's place in the war. Fa Mu Lan began training with an elderly couple in the woods when she was seven years old, preparing herself for battle. Fa Mu Lan leads an army dressed like a man, even when she is pregnant. She eventually defeats the corrupt baron and barbarians that threatened her village and helps to restore the village to its original state. Fa Mu Lan then abandons fighting and gives herself fully over to the duties of wife and mother.
Kingston pictures herself as Fa Mu Lan, saving her people and making her nation proud. But Kingston struggles to see herself as a courageous warrior when she has trouble speaking up against her racist bosses. Kingston realizes both she and Fa Mu Lan are ultimately subject to the patriarchy, and their lives are not entirely their own.
Fa Mu Lan has been popularized in western culture as Mulan.
"Shaman"
"Shaman" tells the story of Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid, and her life before she immigrated to the United States. In China, Brave Orchid became a doctor and midwife after she already had two children. When she attended medical school, Brave Orchid didn't tell her classmates she was much older than them or she had children. Instead, she kept to herself and impressed her classmates by banishing ghosts attempting to sabotage her.
As World War II began, Brave Orchid operated a hospital from inside a cave, where the Chinese sought shelter from Japanese attacks. She fled to America after watching the cave-dwellers stone a mentally-ill woman they accused of being a spy. In America, Brave Orchid and her family encountered even more ghosts: the white people they didn't understand. At the end of the chapter, Kingston visits Brave Orchid, and the two connect in a way they never had before.
"At the Western Palace"
The title "At the Western Palace" refers to a Chinese emperor who had four wives. Kingston uses this legend to introduce the tragic story of Moon Orchid, Brave Orchid's sister.
Moon Orchid and her husband lived in China until he emigrated to find a job in America. Moon Orchid has never heard from him and has spent the last several years alone. Brave Orchid invites her sister to stay with the family in California until she can be reunited with her estranged husband.
Moon Orchid reluctantly agrees to go with Brave Orchid to find her husband, now a wealthy doctor in Los Angeles. When Moon Orchid finds him, she discovers he is married to his receptionist, and he tells Moon Orchid he wishes she never came to the United States. Moon Orchid's mental health deteriorates, and she is admitted to a mental hospital. She finds a purpose in caring for other mentally ill women there, but she dies shortly after.
Fig. 3: Moon Child is devastated to learn her husband has left her behind and started a new family for himself in the United States.
"A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe"
The final chapter centers around Kingston's childhood, especially her clashing identities as a Chinese-American. Brave Orchid reveals she cut the skin under Kingston's tongue when she was a child to help her talk more, but Kingston is suspicious Brave Orchid didn't want her to talk at all.
Kingston remembers being mean to a girl who didn't talk and rejecting a mentally challenged boy she thought her parents were trying to marry her off to. In a heated outburst at dinner, Kingston told her parents she would not conform to their cultural expectations. She compiles a list of 200 things she wants to tell her mom, but Brave Orchid is not interested in listening to Kingston.
The book ends as Kingston reflects on the Chinese poet Ts'ai Yen. Ts'ai Yen was abducted by barbarians, but she fell in love with her captor. When she gave birth, she taught her children Chinese, and after twelve years she returned to her village with songs from the barbarians.
The Woman Warrior Critical Analysis
Kingston has been accused of catering to white audiences and reinforcing racist stereotypes in The Woman Warrior. Members of the Chinese-American community especially have criticized Kingston for altering authentic Chinese legends and myths to appeal more to white readers. She has also been accused of exaggerating misogyny in Chinese culture for shock value. Kingston has denied these claims in interviews.
Fig. 4: Kingston has been accused of manipulating Chinese culture to make it more palatable to white society.
Throughout The Woman Warrior, Kingston reframes tradition to tell her personal story and reflect on her family history. Kingston pictures herself as Fa Mu Lan and Ts'ai Yen to help her connect with Chinese culture and her place in it. As a Chinese-American, Kingston expresses feeling somewhat like an outsider looking in. She is not entirely a part of the traditional Chinese culture her parents belonged to, and her immigrant identity also separates her from mainstream American culture. Like Kingston's identity, the talk-stories are a hybrid mix of tradition and personal understanding.
The Woman Warrior Themes
The main themes in The Woman Warrior are the oppression of women in patriarchal cultures, the contrasting identities of a Chinese American, and silence vs. expression.
The Oppression of Women in Patriarchal Cultures
In both the talk-stories her mother has told her about China and Kingston's own life experiences in the United States, Kingston struggles to come to terms with the oppression of women at the hands of the patriarchy. Kingston learns of her aunt committing suicide to avoid violence and ostracism after having an illegitimate child. The No Name Woman's actions are considered so disgraceful that no one, not even a family member, is allowed to say her name. In the United States, Kingston notices women are given far fewer opportunities than their male counterparts and are expected to play the quiet, modest role of a supporting character in their husbands' lives.
In traditional Chinese culture, bloodlines pass through males, while females become part of their husbands' families in marriage. This has resulted in a son preference dating back thousands of years.
Ironically, the stories Kingston grows up hearing and the lifestyle she's told to strive for are completely contradictory. While the talk-stories and her family's history depict strong women, Kingston is told to be demure and submissive. She hears stories of physical warriors like Fa Mu Lan and emotional warriors like Brave Orchid, but Kingston is told not to strive for equal greatness.
In China and the United States, the patriarchy limits a woman's power through strict social expectations, unequal job opportunities, and the devaluation of traditionally female roles (such as child-rearing, tending the home, etc.). Whereas men are celebrated as the providers of a family, women are expected to support their husbands but never overshadow them. Each of the five chapters centers around women and their powerful experiences, with men notably absent. Despite being the more present and prominent figures in these stories, women themselves are complicit in upholding the status quo. Kingston rejects the expectation she will just be her husband's wife instead of an individual with autonomy and purpose.
Contrasting Identities of a Chinese-American
Throughout the book, Kingston struggles to reconcile her clashing identities as a first-generation Chinese-American. She feels somewhat like an outsider in both Chinese and American cultures since she cannot completely conform to either one. Each culture demands differing values that Kingston feels unable to reconcile. For example, Chinese culture values loud women, but American culture prefers quiet, demure women.
Kingston often clashes with her parents because they hold traditional beliefs, whereas her own are a hybrid. When her parents try to arrange a marriage for her, Kingston scares all the suitors away. She finds it impossible to navigate the truth from the talk-stories her mother tells her, and eventually Kingston is forced to leave home to define her identity for herself.
Fig. 5: Kingston struggles with her identity as a Chinese-American.
Silence vs. Expression
Kingston struggles to define her identity amidst society's attempts to silence her. This theme first appears in the opening chapter when Kingston is forbidden from discussing the No Name Woman but writes about her anyway. Kingston admits to feeling slightly tormented by her aunt as she dedicates pages and pages to her memory. In this form of expression, Kingston breaks her family's vow of silence and acknowledges her aunt's plight. Kingston imagines what has really happened to her aunt, thereby giving her the voice and story she has long been denied.
Fig. 6: Kingston fights against her society's attempt to silence her as she redefines her identity.
The battle between silence and expression continues throughout the book as Kingston builds her own identity outside her culture's limitations. When Brave Orchid admits to cutting the frenulum under Kingston's tongue to encourage her to speak more, Kingston believes her mother secretly did it so Kingston wouldn't talk at all. The entire memoir follows Kingston as she finds her voice and refuses to be silenced.
The Woman Warrior Quotes
Below are some of the most important quotes in The Warrior Woman.
'You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born.'" (No Name Woman)
In the opening lines of the memoir, Brave Orchid reveals some of the novel's central themes: the oppression of women and silence vs. expression. Chinese culture dictates Kingston cannot talk about her disgraced aunt, who has been erased. Throughout the novel, though, Kingston attempts to give voice to the women in her family who have been silenced and forgotten. From the No Name Woman to Moon Orchid, who couldn't fit into life in America, to Kingston herself as she struggles with her clashing identities, Kingston gives a voice to the oppressed and voiceless.
Be careful what you say. It comes true. It comes true. I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing. I learned to think that mysteries are for explanation. I enjoy the simplicity. Concrete pours out of my mouth to cover the forests with freeways and sidewalks. Give me plastics, periodical tables, TV dinners with vegetables no more complex than peas mixed with diced carrots. Shine floodlights into dark corners: no ghosts." (A Song for Barbarian Reed Pipe)
In the final section of the memoir, Kingston reflects on how her identity has evolved and redefined itself over the years. She states she had to leave her family and Chinese traditions to find the logical world she now inhabits. Although her American world is much more simple (made of plastic and TV dinners), part of Kingston laments the magical, fantastic element of Chinese culture she had to leave behind.
The Woman Warrior - Key takeaways
- The Woman Warrior was written by Maxine Hong Kingston and published in 1976.
- The memoir contains a blend of traditional Chinese stories, Kingston's family history, and Kingston's own experiences as a Chinese-American.
- The memoir is broken into five chapters, each containing a story relating to Kingston's identity.
- Throughout each chapter, Kingston tries to discover her own identity and give a voice to the women in her family who have been oppressed and silenced.
- The main themes in The Woman Warrior are the oppression of women in patriarchal cultures, the contrasting identities of a Chinese American, and silence vs. expression.
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