The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts (1976) by
Maxine Hong Kingston(湯婷婷, born 27th October, 1940)
Why is the book important to American Chinese literature?
 identified as perhaps the most frequently assigned 20th-century
literary text by a living author on American high school, college & uni
campuses by the Modern Language Association
 required reading in many levels across a wide spectrum of academic
areas, e.g. in literature, sociology, anthropology, history and political
science classes
 critiqued by feminist theorists, poststructuralists, sinologists,
geographers
analyzed as biography, autobiography, fiction, history, ethnography,
memoir
 popular not only among American-Chinese readers but also among
mainstream readers
awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Miriam Greenspan, “Maxine Hong Kingston captures the pain of an
American-born child who inevitably rejects the expectations and
authority of her family in favor of the values of the new land” (Greenspan,
108)
Susan Currier, “The Woman Warrior is a personal narrative that
represents Kingston’s effort to reconcile American female identities”
(Currier, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, 235)
Brief introduction to the book
published by Vintage Books in 1975
semi-autobiographical, incorporating many elements of fiction
 an example of postmodernism in American Literature
 divided into 5 chapters:
 Ch. 1 “No name woman”: desciption about the suicide of Kingston’s aunt
after she gave birth to an illegitimate child
 Ch. 2 “White Tigers": a fantastic allegory in which Kingston describes her
childhood and imagines herself as the legendary Chinese woman warrior, Fa Mulan
 Ch. 3 "Shaman": Kingston describes her mother's experience in Chinese
medical school; mixes fantasy and autobiography, detailing her mother's physical and
mental battles with spirits and ghosts
 Ch. 4 "At the Western Palace": Kingston describes her aunt Moon Orchid's
mental breakdown after she emigrates to the United States from China
 Ch. 5 "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe": description of Kington’s
childhood experiences in the California public school system, and her parents'
attitudes toward her
PLOT DEVELOPMENT
5 short prose narratives in general:
 illustrate the cultural tensions that shape the lives of immigrants &
their families
 constitute the reclaimed voices of generations of immigrants whose
silence has kept their stories being told
 interrelated in shared focus on the construction of both individual &
group identity
center on issues that are complicated by gender & ethnicity
shaped by the cultural narratives of both China & the U.S.
Each narrative:
elaborates the situation of the women in Kingston’s extended family
 epitomize the contradictions in the cultural messages with which a
young Chinese American woman must grapple
The Woman Warrior: "No Name Woman"
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What is the Gold Mountain? What is the origin of this name?
Why does Kingston's mother tell her the story of her aunt? What message does
it send? Why is the aunt a "No Name Woman"?
Kingston writes: "Those of us in the first American generations have had to
figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods
fits in solid America" (5). Consider this statement and the subtitle of the book:
"A Girlhood Among Ghosts."
"Talk-story," a phrase Kingston borrowed from a Hawaiin pidgin language
(Brownmiller 214), describes a practice very important in this book. What is
"talk-story," and what role does it play in Kingston's life?
What is the status of a woman in the Chinese culture Kingston describes?
Defend your answer with examples from the book. Consider the importance of
appearance, usefulness, and self-discipline.
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How does Kingston tell the story of her aunt? Why do you suppose she tells it
this way?
What is more important in the Chinese culture Kingston describes, the
individual or the community? Why might this question be particularly
interesting to a woman who grew up in the United States?
Analyze Kingston's description of space in her description of her aunt. Why
does she focus on space?
Why does Kingston say that she has participated in her aunt's punishment?
The Woman Warrior: "White Tigers"
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How does the warrior woman change after she gives birth? Why?
Why does Kingston say, "My American life has been such a disappointment"?
Consider the importance of language in this section. For example, analyze the
act the warrior woman's parents perform on her back, the "Chinese word for
the female I," and the last paragraph of the section.
"Night after night my mother would talk-story until we fell asleep," Kingston
writes. "I couldn't tell where the stories left and the dreams began, her voice
the voice of the heroines in my sleep" (19). What is the significance of this
passage in relation to the novel itself?
Why do you suppose the notion of the woman warrior figures so prominently
in Kingston's imagination?
How does the woman warrior develop? What does she learn to do?
Kingston writes: "Unlike tigers, dragons are so immense, I would never see
one in its entirety" (28). How might this statement serve as a metaphor for
something larger or more significant than dragons?
"In the beginning, she seems to be writing about herself. I think that she is
using the story of the woman warrior as a metaphor for her struggles in the
United States, particularly her battle to establish an identity" (Hundley
11/20/96).
"Her upbrining as a swordswoman also displays her desire to have as much
power as men because she attempts, successfully, to attain the respect and
success in life that men are too easily given the opportunity to achieve"
(Daugherty 11/21/96).
"The depth to which [Kingston] explained the training she experienced from
the elderly man and woman on the mountain suggests a more metaphysical
approach to the issue of empowerment. Rather than overcoming adverse
reaction by society, and her community in particular, to the advent of an
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independent, strong, and free-thinking Chinese-American woman, Kingston
accomplishes the aforementioned transformation in the dream sequence of the
narrative. The narrative and its connection to the subconscious cannot be
overlooked. Kingston deals with empowerment and status, but also defines the
immense resistance expressed by the Chinese community in America, and by
the male component of the power structure in America. By using the dream to
arrive at her independence, Kingston speaks to the subsconscious awakening
of women who break through society's conventions" (Premakumar 11/19/96).
Kingston "goes into a story of a great warrior woman who fought for revenge
and also became a mother. This is a life that Kingston herself would like to
have lived" (Aron 11/19/96).