Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Paperback); 1989 Edition

The Woman Warrior can be a difficult to follow work. It is classified as a autobiography, but is actually something of a collection of experiences from Maxine Hong Kingston’s life synthesized with five “talk-stories,” spoken Chinese folk tales of ancient history, myths, and beliefs as told by Kingston and Kingston’s mother, into sections. As readers progress, they are lead through Kingston’s own coming-of-age experiences, vague in their placement in time while meticulously precise in their capturing of the development of Kingston’s understanding of her mother’s values, her personal beliefs, her heritage, and the world around her.
“No Name Woman” tells the tale of a nameless aunt’s death. She had had a child with a man that was not her husband under unspecified circumstances- her family bore the wrath of the village regardless. The aunt committed suicide with her newborn and was never spoken of by the family again. It is unclear whether this tale is truth or fiction, as Kingston was still young at the time her mother told it and had yet to learn to doubt and distinguish. She did, however, understand that girls were to avoid bringing dishonor rather than attempt to bring honor to their families, and struggled to accept this. She extrapolated possible circumstances leading to her aunt’s fate, but realized she wasn’t sure if she was paying homage to her aunt’s memory or is feeding her own resistance.
“Shaman” details Kingston’s mother’s, Brave Orchid’s, experiences from her past in China. At that time, she had worked as a skilled doctor, midwife, and exorcist. The talk-stories Brave Orchid told Kingston were dark and frightening, imparting both intended lessons and persistent nightmares to Kingston. In a jump to Kingston’s adulthood, she and Brave Orchid reached a certain understanding after decades of incompatibility. They live in two different worlds, and they are where the two intersect, but it is also better for them to stick to their own worlds, where they are comfortable and know how to live, than to attempt to force the other into their own. The worlds are contradictory, but they need not conflict over the differences.
“A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” recounts Kingston’s actual childhood. As she grew up, the list of things Kingston wished to tell her mother about herself continuously grew due to her inability to express herself. Matters came to a boiling point when Brave Orchid tried to arrange Kingston’s marriage. Kingston bursted out with her list of complaints and criticisms originating from her struggle to reconcile expected behavior, Chinese vs American. The talk-story at the end is a rendition of a tale of a Chinese warrior poetess captured by barbarians, who later returned to the Chinese with their songs. Similarly, Kingston traveled into the world of the Americans, struggled to adapt, and returned to visit her mother’s world with stories and reconciliation.
Kingston grows from taking her mother’s talk-stories at face value to becoming both defiant and confused at the lessons her elders taught, questioning their worth in modern American society, and finally deciding on and confirming for herself her own values. She takes strongly feminist stances due to her upbringing in and rejection of traditional Chinese gender roles as well as her ultimate reconciliation with her mother’s worldview. As there is no clear timeline and the five talk-stories are not arranged chronologically, it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint what point in Kingston’s life a reader is at a given moment, and thus what stage of mental growth she is at. As a Chinese young adult myself, I think that those without a certain level of knowledge of traditional Chinese customs and values would not be able to understand this book as deeply as otherwise, as there are some ideas taken for granted and lack of that knowledge makes it difficult to discern between the falsities and truths of the talk-stories, not unlike how Kingston experienced in her childhood. Despite this, the writing itself is masterful, detailed, and very much undiluted. Any disorientation comes from the cultural disconnect, such as the contradiction between Brave Orchid’s strong character and the celebration of the warrior woman Fa Mu Lan versus the portrayed traditional Chinese values of shy feminine obedience.

"The Woman Warrior" burst into my mind like a serpent slithering wetly across my skin, like a ninja attack, like an explosion of Chinese pyrotechnics. Maxine Hong Kingston writes of her own pain as a devalued Chinese daughter ("Feeding a daughter is like feeding your neighbor's pig" - traditional Chinese saying). She writes of Chinese traditional stories and myths (Fu Mu Lan, the girl who disguised herself as a son to replace her conscripted father.) She writes of her own family history (the aunt who threw herself and her illegitimate child into the family well) and her own sins (her torturing of a fellow Chinese-American girl who was even more repressed than she.) This writing is a mix of fantasy, myth, history, and personal memoir, and shows me how impossible it is for a writer to dis-entangle these in creating a personal world.

I personally am a white-bread vanilla person. Even so, I remember my father expressing wonder that his sons had disappointed him, while his daughters from whom he had expected nothing had excelled. It was hard for me to extricate the compliment from this. Maxine Hong Kingston's anger and resentment and sorrow echoes my own. And she writes so beautifully, evoking the childhood lived in a Chinese Laundry, the ghosts of disappointed relatives who haunt the corner of her home, the horrors of an American school playground. I think this book will be echoing in my thoughts for some long time to come.

The Woman Warrior is nothing like I have ever read before. This book was completely out of my comfort zone and I surprised myself by enjoying the read. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, took me to a place I have never been before, as I am not familiar with any of the Chinese traditions or their talk-stories.
The book contains five chapters about 5 different women, fictitious or real, in Kingston’s life that have shaped her. Each playing a crucial role in her coming of age as a first generation Chinese-American. Kingston begins with the horrific story of her forgotten aunt who commits suicide while simultaneously killing her newborn baby in her family well. Her aunt, the first chapter “No Name Woman” carried an illegitimate baby and brought extreme shame to the family that she killed herself to be free. The family pretends she never existed and denies her ever existing. Kingston, rationalizing this story, comes to the conclusion that “carrying the baby to the well shows love[,] mothers who love their children take them along.” She then closes her analysis of the “no name woman” that the baby “was probably a girl; there is more hope of forgiveness for boys.” Coming from a different generation and a different country it was hard for me to read this story. Kingston writing allows readers to vividly depict the details and feel as though we were there in that specific moment. Kingston relates this back to her own life growing up, as she had to live under the fact that boys are worth more than girls in the Chinese culture. She recalls being told when she was a young girl repeatedly that “there’s no profit in raising girls, [it is] better to raise geese than girls.” Stories like her aunt and stories that she later tells about other women being treated less than men shape Kingston to be the strong, independent women that goes to college and makes something of herself without a man.
As the story progresses it starts to get a little confusing because Kingston begins to tell a story of a famous Chinese woman warrior, Fa Mu Lan, and uses first person pronouns to imply that she is Fa Mu Lan. Once you figure out what is story-talking and what is Kingston’s actual memories the book becomes more clear and more engaging.
Kingston and her mother, Brave Orchid, share the role as protagonist in this book. Brave Orchid is portrayed as both a gentle and cruel mother. Kingston blames much of her struggles to fit in American schools on her mother. Her upbringing, traditional Chinese, left her confused as to who she was. Her mother pushing for the perfect Chinese girl and herself wanting to assimilate into the American culture to stop feeling ashamed of her background. Kingston throughout the book is attempting to find her Chinese-American voice and identity through different women in her life and through her own experiences.
This book is a powerful book that is inspiring and honest. It was fascinating to read about a completely different culture and to see her raw emotions down on the page. Definitely worth the read.

I would rate Maxine Hong Kingston’s autobiographical novel The Woman Warrior 4.5 stars because of its interesting use of storytelling and portrayal of internal conflict between
a young girl’s life as an Asian American immigrant and her family’s rich past rooted in China. As Kingston learns about her heritage through stories passed down from her mother, she learns more about where she came from and who she is meant to be. Despite living in completely different environments as the characters in her mother’s stories, Kingston relates to their shared experience carrying burdens. In one story, she notes that “the swordsman and I are not so dissimilar [...] what we have in common are the words at our backs [...] And I have so many words- “chink” words and “gook” words too- that they do not fit on my skin” (Kingston 53). Kingston can sympathize with a brave swordsman on the basis that she too carries “words on her back;” although her words are different in context, they weigh heavily on her as she tries to assimilate into American society while retaining the Chinese identity that she inherited. The Woman Warrior is an honest, introspective portrayal of a first generation Asian American trying to make sense of a constant culture clash and finding her own place somewhere in between her present life and her family’s heritage. Kingston’s story as described through her autobiographical novel is one that reaches any reader who has ever struggled to fit into more than one world or faced hardship for being different from the rest.

"Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on."

Oh this book.

This is the kind of book that builds and grows and can knock you off your feet. The prose is beautiful, it covers so many ideas about identity and family, and at times it borders on supernatural wonder. Full of anecdotes and warnings disguised as stories this is a great book about one woman's experience.

While it's relatively short and the writing is at times very flowery, it's worth the read.

I first read this as a younger woman and consider it a classic, especially for young women who may be struggling. Lyrical, poetic, stark in places, it teaches us to value ourselves and our prerogatives as women: to claim and act under our own authority and agency, even when young. Most of all not do do anything stupid, like get pregnant or otherwise squander your individual gifts. Basically it tells that a woman warrior can take off her uniform and come back and marry and raise her own family. A stunning and unique book as vital and necessary as when it was first published. I've given copies to many women. Not to be missed.

Like Maxine Hong Kingston, I am a 2nd generation American (my parents are immigrants from India). When I was growing up I read no literature about Asian Americans. It just wasn't available then the way it is now. I either read novels about white or black Americans, or I read comic books of Hindu folk tales.

I had been writing fiction and poetry in high school and college, but had never written about my heritage. My characters had all been white girls (and oddly, none of my teachers mentioned this as being strange!)

I read The Woman Warrior when I was in graduate school, and I suddenly got that I could write about my own heritage. When I read this book, something clicked for me. I have been writing about cultural issues since then!

Maxine experiences a different kind of culture clash than I did. Her family's culture was quite different from my own. But fundamentally I think a lot of children of immigrants go through similar experiences, so I could relate.

Other books about 2nd generation Americans (children of immigrants) that I recommend include Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese; How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez; and Bernard Malamud's stories.

Written at the beginning of the Cold War, and during the Red Scare, Communist leader William Z Foster, gives the American Communist view on the struggle between Capitalism and Communism and what he and many other Communists thought was the imminent worldwide victory of Socialism. Foster, refutes American claims of the Soviet Union being akin to Nazi Germany and that socialist governments in Eastern Europe came to power solely due to Soviet armies. Foster points out the Democratic gains made in the Soviet Union since the October Revolution, the advances made by women and minorities and the huge increase in living standards and the build up of industry. Also, that Communists gained great credibility in Europe due to their leadership in resistance to the Nazi occupation and that of their collaborators. This was the cause of the increase of popularity of Communists parties in both Eastern and Western Europe after the war. He points out how the building up of a large military establishment in the United States, justified by the Cold War was being used to pump up the economy and prevent another Great Depression.

Foster overstated some of his claims in this book. I think he was exaggerating about British defense during the Battle of Britain and the conflict between Science and Religion. Foster accurately claims that the Soviet Union would be able to rebuild the damage from the war and that they would develop their own atomic bomb, which they did in 1949, the year the book came out. Foster underestimated the ability of the Capitalist economy in the United States and Western Europe to continue to grow over the next generation, staving off another Depression. While Foster was correct about the declining overall influence of religion around the world, especially in Europe, he underestimated the continued strength of religion, including fundamentalist religion, even though growth of the that influence, for good or ill in the United States.

Foster denied the claims that American Communists and the Communists of other countries were merely Soviet agents who sought to violently overthrow their governments and said that American Communists wanted greater democracy and would only use violence if when they or a coalition they were a part of, came to power and they had to use violence in self defense to defeat a counterrevolution.

It has been interesting reading these other reviews about The Woman Warrior. People have no problems in stating the obvious about how beautifully written it is and how it a new and fluid style of prose. However, not a single person has taken the time to talk about the signifigace of the ideographs, or the doubleness that the narrator exists in. She is either writing about being Chinese, or being American, thus eluding to the dichotomous structure of the novel. She is talking or she is silent. One of the most amazing aspects about this book is Kingston's ability to show how silence is a form of communication and how it shaped and molded her being. He rmother tells her to be silent, yet she goes against her cultural standards by talking about her aunt, which is an act of will on Kingston's part by offering us her ancestry. The ideograms that she tells us about are the connection between image and meaning, and the ideogram is a silent token of meaning. The notion of silence can be simplified into a sign of oppression where someone isn't allowed to speak. But silence can also be seen as a sign of respect, such as prayer or rememberance. Kingston mobilizes silence through themetizing subordination, will and semiotic silence. The silent birth from her no-named aunt furthers this idea, in the respect that both Kingston is speaking about her aunt when she is not supposed to, and her aunt is having a child that is banished by society.

Don't be misled, "Woman Warrior' is not a biography or 'memoir' as it is marketed. Her publishers expected her to win an award with this _novel_ (read: fiction) but didn't want it to compete with Toni Morrison in the fiction category so they changed 'Woman Warrior' into 'non-fiction' or biography or whatever and it did win a presitigous award. However, it is incredibly insulting to the intelligence and to Asian-American sensibilities to approach this work of fiction as a personal narrative. I think it was very involving and written in a non-linear and entertaining style. I appreciated the fact that Kingston voiced her intense anger and articulated the feelings that I'm sure many Asian-American women can identify with. (I sure could identify with boycotting house chores as a political statement.) In this sense, I think her book is refreshing as it features an UN-apologetically pissed off Asian-American woman as opposed to other authors who beat around the bush, use pseudo-artistic and obtuse metaphors, or apologize for any 'resentment' they may feel towards anyone or anything. From the rave reviews that I'd read about it I guess I was set-up for a let down. Kingston is just one Asian-American author writing about 'Asian-American matters' and this is not a definitive work of Asian-Ameriacan literature. In fact, I don't believe such a definitive work exists. While this book does delve into the matter of identity and race in a more complex and realistic manner than most books, it still falls short by my standards. The world view is still a bit too binary and it seems that the allusions to 'life back in China' is romanticized if not out-right exoticized. Otherwise, it's entertainment value is a good deal higher than most popular works of fiction. I think it's a good read for anyone, as it will at least make you think.

Maxine Hong-Kingston - The Woman Warrior
In the upper left hand corner on the back side of my edition of "The Woman Warrior" there are two words written to help classify this book: "nonfiction" and "literature." In a way, this seeming contradiction is a microcosm of "The Woman Warrior." At times "The Woman Warrior" is an autobiographical work, but at other times things happen in the book that have never occurred in Kingston's life, or anyone's life. Why has Kingston chosen to write her autobiography in the language of literature? The answer, like the book, is compelling.
"The Woman Warrior" opens with a graphic, but short, tale of life in rural China in which the narrator's aunt sees her family's estate destroyed because the aunt has had a child out of wedlock. No sooner has that harsh story ended then we are greeted with a thoroughly surreal story of a warrior princess ascending the heights of a fabled mountain to battle evil armies. One of these stories is biographical in the typical sense of the word whereas the other is biographical in a way more typical of "The Woman Warrior." In an altogether novel approach to autobiography, Kingston seems to want to give equal say to those things that she thought, as well as those that she did, often switching from one to the other with little or no warning.
Such an odd approach brings to mind two questions: is this an autobiography, and why has Kingston chosen such an odd format in which to tell her life story. The answers to both questions seem to revolve around the slippery concept of identity, a concept which is indeed dear to Kingston's heart. Believe it or not, both of the aforementioned stories are "autobiographical" in their own way, although clearly only the one about Kingston's aunt has to do with the "real" facts of Kingston's life. Just because something does not correspond to actual events does not mean that it cannot be illustrative of a person's personality, however; we all daydream and fantasize, so should it be that these thoughts and ideas have any less say over who we are than things that happen in the real world?
Kingston clearly thinks not and the result is that her autobiography that puts both fantasy and reality on equal footing. This makes "The Woman Warrior" a book that, despite its straightforward text, can be difficult to follow. It also makes it a book that is deceptively simple. "The Woman Warrior" appears simple because, although Kingston makes her "facts" equal parts fantasy and reality, she does stick to the facts (such as they are) and is not prone to deviating from her narration for long bouts of reflection. In fact, the most blatant introspection you will see in "The Woman Warrior" consists of ironic words and phrases sparsely sprinkled throughout the text in deadpan manner.
The trick is that Kingston is making substantial points by the very method she has chosen to present these seemingly simple stories. By acting as though fantasies and actions are equal parts of a person's life story Kingston is making an implied point: that a person's identity is not stable, is in fact open to all the caprices of an uncertain world and an all too human mind, the workings of which no one understands. True, Kingston never openly says as much, but the way she says what she does say speaks volumes. By so thoroughly mixing thought and action Kingston all but says to the reader, "you are seeing my identity, as confused and impossible to hold as it is." This chosen method of autobiography helps the reader to really "get inside" Kingston's mind; instead of simply telling us what she thinks, Kingston exposes us to her mind, lets us be her while we read her book.
Another result of Kingston's approach is that she has created a book that works best with an extremely active mind. In "The Woman Warrior" the line between reality and imagination is often tenuous and because of this it is up to the reader to decide what is really happening and how each piece fits in to the overall picture. "The Woman Warrior" is not a book that lays out everything in discreet, easily digestible lumps; rather it is a jumble, something of an inkblot where it is not only the author's job to create, but the reader's also. And perhaps all this is to the greater point which the author, in her autobiography, seems to lead us toward: that Maxine Hong-Kingston is not who she thinks she is but who we think she is.

In the novel, The Woman Warrior, Kingston addresses several themes including the relationship of boys vs. girls in the Chinese culture, the process of naming, a warrior spirit within women, ghosts as representative of people, the symbolism of talk-stories, and the significance of a voice for speaking as well as writing. While Kingston explores these various themes, she also incorporates her own memoir and testimony. As a Chinese-American, she reveals the complex duality of an identity shaped by two cultures. As a woman, she reveals her fears and struggle to maintain her freedom, along with her desire to earn love from her Mother. As a writer, she reveals a voice she constantly silenced during her youth -- a voice which empowers not only her own identity through writing, but also acknowledges the identity and existence of an aunt who dared to be an individual.
Language provides Kingston an avenue into rebellion and strength and yet at the same time, through her language, she inevitably separates herself from her traditions and heritage. Throughout her memoir, Kingston struggles to assert her own identity and liberate her voice. "I shut my mouth, but I felt something alive tearing at my throat, bite by bite, from the inside" (200). This soreness within her throat grows with time along with the need to not only release her identity, but furthermore, to share this identity with her mother. "Maybe because I was the one with the tongue cut loose, I had grown inside me a list of over two hundred things that I had to tell my mother so that she would know the true things about me and to stop the pain in my throat" (197). Kingston needs her mother to help release the language inside her. By giving voice and language to these confessions she inevitably separates herself from her family and actualizes her individuality. To be released and to be separated from traditions become one and the same. Indeed, she learns to finds a place where ghosts cease to exist and where reality becomes a multitude of modern paraphernalia. "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" (204). Kingston reminds readers of the power within language and the need to understand this same power. Within this understanding is the necessity to understand what we say and be careful with our words, lest they come true unintentionally. She urges women to fulfill the role of a woman warrior particularly through writing or speech, because if women do not search for strength within language then this language will most certainly be used against them.

The novel The Woman Warrior gives a personal and relatable account of growing up with a mix of different cultures and entering into a new culture. It presented Kingston’s experiences growing up as a Chinese-American in an interesting manner, with the stories that she grew up hearing. The novel showed what it was like growing up in a sexist Chinese community and the influence of all the stories she was told, along with new interactions in American society. It presented the sexist and oppressive community as something Kingston constantly tried to escape and move away from, but still showed the large impact of her upbringing and childhood stories on her life as she attempted to create her own identity between cultures. On top of this, it illustrated the struggle and strangeness of living in a new foreign culture and the clash of these two cultures, present in her actions and interactions with others. The cultural differences created situations where she was unable to speak, even with a list of over 200 confessions she wished she could tell her mother. I most enjoyed seeing how Kingston’s upbringing in her time and culture was similar and different to that of mine as a Korean male rather than Chinese female. It was also interesting to see that although we are both from an Asian-American background, the differences in being raised as Chinese-American and Korean-American, especially in the myths and life lesson type stories that were told to children.

Maxine Hong Kingston grew up in America as a Chinese-American in the shadow of the Chinese Revolution. Her life, though very American, was deeply influenced by Chinese culture. Through her memoir, Maxine combines Chinese folklore with her own interpretations and her own life in America.

Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir isn’t a typical memoir; rather, it’s a collection of memoirs intertwined with old Chinese folktales, like the story of Fa Mu Lan (arguably the most interesting part of the whole book). The book is divided into five chapters, each reading almost like a collection of short stories. The book opens with Kingston’s mother telling a story about Kingston’s aunt, the “no name woman” after which the chapter is named. The story is a very dark way to begin a book, but it’s a great way of grabbing readers’ attention. After that, though, my interest faded and I pretty much just read the book because I have to. Honestly, the book didn’t even seem like a memoir to me. I thought the memories Kingston chose to share were very random and oftentimes it seemed like the book was written by her mother. Kingston had so many details seemingly from her mother’s point of view, and at times even from her dead aunt’s point of view. How could she even know these things? I guess it just threw me off, but then again, it’s not supposed to be a typical memoir — it’s more of a work of creative non-fiction. The stories of Chinese folklore were easily the most interesting parts to read about. In general, though, I’m just glad to have finished it…

As always with memoirs, I’m not quite sure what to write about here, seeing as I cannot judge people as I can fictional characters. I have to say I disliked most of the people in this book, though. I did not like Kingston as a narrator. I was not captivated by her recollection of her life and I did not like her personality. She was very honest about herself, though, so I’ll give her credit for that. I hated her mother. I guess there’s this divide between myself and these people because I’m just a white American, but there’s my opinion anyway.

Kingston’s writing wasn’t necessarily bad. I suppose it was a little hard to follow along, but I didn’t have a problem with her writing so much as I did with the content and the structure. I know this is a very popular, critically-acclaimed book, but I did not enjoy it. I appreciate it, of course, and I sympathize with Kingston’s experiences, but I would not read this again. Harsh, but I just could not get into it.

Allow me to qualify this review by saying although I am a white male, I am married to a Filippino woman, I have worked alongside students from China for years, and have gained a moderate knowledge of the Mandarin Chinese language and its culture.
All of that said, this book opened my eyes somewhat to the Chinese immigrant experience in America, the views of Asian women and parents, and of the Chinese mindset in general.
Like the Joy luck club, this book leaves the reader with a powerful and vivid view of early-to-mid 20th century Chinese life both back in China and in America. This view is particularly detailed in its view of its women and the parent-child experience. Unlike the Joy-Luck club, this book does not glorify the chinese experience. Although you expect, and receive, a certain amount of ethnic pride and ethnocentrism (particularly from such an all-inclusive "members only" group) in Maxine's writing, the reader also sees that even this exclusive group and culture has as many unique shortcoming and problems to deal with as it does things to be proud of.
The book often rambles, and is often confusing as to who is narrating, but complete comprehension is not necessary to enjoy this book. True understanding - and enjoyment- in this book comes from the viewing the forest rather than the trees. Pay attention to the style of the writing, the hidden subtleties and overlooked intricacies that the author deftly uses(so common to the Chinese culture), and you will see what I mean.

If you are satisfied only with a tabloid, exotic or a sensationalist's view of Chinese culture, then go ahead and read this book. Otherwise, you do yourself a favor by passing it up. I am not denying that Chinese Americans are struggling with identity problems, but the "old" China she depicts doesn't capture the kaleidoscopic complexity of the China that is fast changing and emerging. The Woman Warrior plays into the same Orientalist prejudice shared by such recent journalistic works as The Coming Conflict with China: anything that demonizes China or presents China as the exotic Other (thereby justifying the cultural superiority of the West) will have eager following. Frankly, the author has done a disservice to the Chinese American community because she fails to provide a balanced understanding of the Chinese culture with all its complexity. To those who are misled to believe that what she presents in The Woman Warrior is representative of Chinese culture, I can only suggest that you disabuse of these (mis)impressions by reading more indepth works on Chinese culture rather than regaling in such surrealistic kisch. This is postmodernism without responsibility in one of its worst incarnations. A good critical study on Maxine Hong Kingston and also Amy Tan would be Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures, by Sheng-mei Ma (New York: SUNY Press, 1998). Make sure you check Ma's work out if you decide to read Kingston or Tan. (I don't know Ma personally. Nor do I have anything to gain by recommending Ma's book.)

Much to my dissapointment, I find that many people who have read Kingston's "Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts" do not understand the underlying theme and meaning. If you didn't like the book, that's okay. However, if you just thought that Kingston shouldn't "mess" with your mind, then you shouldn't even be reading "Woman Warrior" in the first place. "The Woman Warrior" attacks the themes of finding a place in American society and being both a Chinese-American and an American-Chinese. Kingston writing is powerful and full of vivid imagery and anecdotes that made me laugh outloud and relate her personal experiences with those of my own. Besides that point, Kingston makes a powerful statement about the empowerment of women and their ability to find a "voice" both gender-wise and culture-wise. I am glad to see that this book has made it to countless institutions of higher learning around the nation and has also made it to the "required reading" lists of many high schools in the country.

I don't think that "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts," by Maxine Hong Kingston, is an easy book to categorize. It's a blend of Chinese-American family saga, heroic fantasy, ghost story, and first-person account of growing up Chinese-American. The book is divided into five sections: "No Name Woman," "White Tigers," "Shaman," "At the Western Palace," and "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe." Although each of these sections could stand as an independent unit, together they form a coherent and compelling whole.
"Woman Warrior" features a number of compelling characters. They include a female warrior (whose story might remind you of the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), a Chinese woman doctor, and a Chinese-American girl who is navigating her way between her two cultures. Along the way Kingston addresses many issues: multilingualism, dragon lore, cross dressing, magical transformation, ghost fighting strategy, Chinese polygamy, mental illness, family relationships, and women's roles in traditional Chinese culture.
Although at times a bit grim, "Woman Warrior" is also often quite lively and colorful. For some interesting companion texts that deal with comparable subject matter, try Eric Liu's essay collection "The Accidental Asian" and David Henry Hwang's play "Golden Child." For a marvelous complementary text from a Japanese-American female perspective, try Yoshiko Uchida's "Desert Exile."

Reading an excerpt from "A Woman Warrior", was astonishingly different from reading an exert from another story. Reading "White Tigers" in my 3rd period English class was one of the more enjoyable assignments. The descriptive phrases that were used to weave the scenery were exceptionally well written. I especially enjoyed the section in the story that says, "I saw two people made of gold dancing the earth's dances. They turned so perfectly, that together they were the axis of the earth. . . Manes grew tall into feathers that shone - became light rays." Another feature of the story which I enjoyed, were the allusions used. "I touched the Long Wall with my own fingers." This is one of the most memorable of all of the allusions in the story. I believe this story is one the best I have read so far.

Very challenging book to read. The author seamlessly weaves her own experiences in with the fantastic tales passed down by her mother. Sometimes you forget what's real and what's not. By the end, the reader really gets a sense of how alienated the narrator felt, growing up amid the old Chinese traditions in America.
Kingston's writing is different from anything I've read. She makes no bones about describing how badly girls were regarded or treated. Her stories are angry and powerful. One of my favorites was the retelling of the legend of Fa Mu Lan (THE woman warrior), but even the stories of the author's mother as a medical student, the sad story of the aunt coming to America to reclaim her husband, were very exciting. The end of the book was a very emotional chapter, and I loved how the author tied the entire book together. I couldn't put this book down.

Kingston's book has some fantastic passages that tie you tightly to the page, but, unfortunatly, inbetween these gripping moments, her thoughts and words drift in a random fashion that makes it difficult to pay attention.
The book is divided into four sections, interweaving myth, reality, history and present day (well, the present day of the narration)into a fragmented portrait of Chinese/Chinese-American culture.
At times, the narrative is amazingly insightful, I found myself learning a lot about Kingston and her families displacement. At other times I felt lost, and had a difficult time digesting the words. (I would get to the bottom of the page and realize I had been thinking about something else).
I recommend this book; when her narrative sticks to the story at hand, it's a wonderful, thought provoking account. The parts that drag or more to the point lose themselves don't by any means weigh out the good.

I'm astonished to read so many virulently negative reviews. I read this book just after it came out, as a high-school student, and loved it for the strength of the writing and the vivid images, also the mix of fantasy and reality.
I do recall being a bit surprised at her anger, but up until then the only stories of Chinese-American girlhood that were available (all one or two of them, I think; this was the mid-70s) portrayed very dutiful, very quiet, very "good" girls. So this was an eye-opener and a stereotype buster, and should be welcomed for that. We have to remember that this was written nearly 30 years ago, when the whole multi-cultural debate was really just getting going; perhaps some things in it would be different now. But the trailblazers in any society often have to be angry to get their messages heard -- and taken seriously. And people like Maxine Hong Kingston laid the foundations that allowed literature by people like Amy Tan to be published. She deserves credit for this.
I can definitely see that aspects of the book could be annoying to Asian-Americans who find people taking this as gospel about Chinese culture, though.
But I'd also like to suggest that some of the negative responses might also come from people uneasy with the idea that non-white people are angry about the racism they've experienced in the United States. It's easy to think this anger is exaggerated if you've never experienced racism.

I thought that The Woman Warrior was an okay book. I learned a lot about the Chinese culture. At first I was pretty interested but it took a little getting use to because it was told in a strange way. I thought it was kind of jumpy and hard to follow. Towards the end of the book it seemed to drag on, and it was tough to stay focused. There was a lot of stuff that I didn't know about the Chinese culture. I learned a lot about the beliefs and the way of life. I think the author did a great job expressing both of these aspects. I don't think I would read this book again, because it wasn't too interesting to me. But, anyone wanting to learn more about the Chinese way of life, this is a great source.

There are marks all over the inside pages of this book. I can't even completely erase some of the pencil marks since they're so old, and I am using one of the best erasers (staedtler mars plastic). I require this book for study purposes and am using my father's account. I will never buy from MoonXscape Books again.

I was very moved by this account of immigrant Chinese family life and a young girl's internal struggle. Maxine Hong Kingston has established herself as the leading Asian-American woman writer of enduring, serious fiction. The only other writer I find that comes close is a Chinese woman writer living in the U.S. who writes in Chinese. That writer, Geling Yan, recently published an English-language book called "White Snake and Other Stories." I think Maxine Hong Kingston and Geling Yan, coming at similar circumstances from different directions, are the shining lights of Chinese-American women's fiction in our generation.

Although the book was written well, it does not represent Chinese. I couldn't get over the fact that Kingston made Mulan a victim of Chinese male misogyny. Look up the Ballad of Mulan yourself and see if there is anything about Mulan being abused. Bear in mind, Mulan never had a tattoo. And, the Chinese character for "woman" and "slave" are not the same. And, there is no "forbidden stitch" in Chinese literature. And, Kingston misuses the word "ghost".
Many feminists like this book, but don't forget, Kingston is doing this in spite of Chinese people (specifically, males)! Sure, this isn't a book of history (Kingston says she is not perserving Chinese myths and fairy tales), but I don't think it's fair to ruin the Ballad of Mulan doing it and making up phony stories about Chinese. If anybody uses this book for a term paper or a dissertation, beware! You are using a book from an author who doesn't know Chinese literature.

This read was at first very confusing but throughout the novel you begin to see everything fall perfectly into place. I would definitely encourage anyone to read this if you would like to gain perspective of Asian culture, expectations, and how the author interpreted her mothers stories. As a college student who doesn't often read this book kept me reading all 250 pages!

I read _The Woman Warrior_ in my AP English Class and my English teacher was wonderful in explaining the book, as my teacher has a degree in Literary Analysis, and explained that this book is more fictional then it is truthful. Maxine Hong Kingston's writing style and elaborate way of explaining about her memories puts a twist on her memories that turns them into a sort of fictional or fantasy dream. One gets enraptured into her own memories, with some truth about Chinese history, and one feels as if they are in an entirely new world. Though the history seems a bit far fetched in some instances, there is still some accurate history, as she is of a Chinese family that came from China. One should remember that this is a book written based off of her life from childhood, but as every child has, their imaginations change things, which Kingston does in the telling of her life with some fictional things in it.

I read through some of the reviews, particularly those posted by highschool students puzzled by why they had been 'assigned' to read this book, and was stirred to write something as well that would hopefully communicate what I love about this book.
I read it for the first time in highschool too. At the time, I was a bookworm (and still am) - but nearly all the books I had read and liked were by white men. I'm only thirty, but when I was in highschool, even reading The Bluest Eye, another modern classic, was considered a controversial move for AP English. Amid important works by Renaissance writers like Shakespeare and Marvell, Victorian novelists, a little poetry and drama standby's like Hedda Gabler and An Enemy of the People (ok, I went to a great highschool) -- we were occasionally tossed a modern American writer, but always a white and male one. There was nothing wrong with those writers - I read Catcher in the Rye in a few afternoons and enjoyed it - but I felt something was missing. My highschool was 60% "minority" - a melting pot of Asians,African American, Latino, recent immigrants from Poland, Russia, a mix. It seemed only reasonable to broaden our reading - not to crowd out the Shakespeare, William James, John Donne, John Steinbeck in any way at all -- but to give us evidence that there were writers in the world who had been able to interpret their own distinctive cultural and religious experiences using the tools of the classical 'AP English' canon.
Writers like Maxine Hong Kingston proved that the master's tools can be used to dismantle the master's house - to build a new house. She introduced me to the notion of 'talkstory'; she explored a language between the English she was hearing and the Chinese she was still dreaming in. The language she uses is different; was completely new at the time. She was inventing the genre of 'immigrant literature'.
There are a lot of writers who can teach you things you can't learn from THe Woman Warrior; but there is something there, dreams communicated, a compressed language vibrating with rage and passion, that you can't ignore either. The 'flatness' of the voice criticized by one highschool student is, on another view, the numbness of someone violated, again and again, by everyday acts of racism and sexism. Someone beyond the point of pain from "the centuries of insults carved into her skin." The fact is, it's going to continue to be taught; Maxine Hong Kingston has made it into the canon. So to the highschool students who posted some really negative reviews, I would say: wait a while. Come back to the book. Think it over. Above all - don't get so angry (at the fact that you had to read the book for class, etc). The book may have outraged you because it didn't attempt to entertain or apologize; in it, the writer is most concerned with telling the truth.It's a political book. But there's a human story there, and magical elements - even if you do not feel you can relate to the social justice and anti-discrimination movements that this book nurtured, we are all living here in the US, "the immigrants" aren't going anywhere, and this might be a story that tells you a new truth if you give it a chance to draw you in.

As a first generation Chinese in America, I was annoyed by the whininess of this book. Kingston seems to have been an especially naive and empathetic child, but what she experienced is not unique, and certainly not as cruel as she makes it seem.
In Chinese, are Caucasians referred to as ghosts? Yes, literally speaking 'ghosts' one of the derogatory terms. But we also call a bad person a bad egg, and a bastard, the egg of a toad and turtle. And I certainly would find a book titled "Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Eggs" more interesting.
I think Kingston manipulated cultural shock to gain sympathy. And I am annoyed that stories like this dominate American literature, which creates a misshapen view of a generation of Chinese women. That is, the older women of Kingston's novel all have misogynistic tendencies.
Most Chinese women between 50-60 years old went through the Cultural Revolution in China, and many are extremely politically minded, and full of feminist ideals. Many Chinese women older than that, fought in World War II, and the Chinese Civil War.
So, perhaps I am just bias, but I personally felt that this novel does a great disservice to older Chinese women.

The women ancestors of a geeky Chinese-American girl pile up impressive resumes, no worries ! They are kungfu heroines, joining peasant armies that overthrow the very Imperial throne. They are doctors who brave ghosts and come to America. They are mothers and grandmothers who remain staunchly Chinese in the face of the full press of American culture. They are sisters or aunts in Chinatown apartments or unknown relatives killed for following their hearts instead of the rules back in village China. Slowly, slowly, the background of the author (maybe) is depicted. You need some patience to realize what the author is doing. She doesn't give quarter. Readers who like everything spelled out will be disappointed. Ghosts play a big role in every section of the book. Ghosts train the warriors, ghosts oppose the student and the laundryworker. All Americans even appear as ghosts of a vast variety. Yes, it's one way of looking at the experience of immigration. You leave home, where everything is known, and come to a very foreign land where nothing is comprehensible. You understand nothing of the language or customs, but you have to make your way, earn a living, survive. Daring to sit and struggle with ghosts in a haunted Chinese classroom is similar to fighting with aliens in an alien land. So, you might interpret everyone around you as a `ghost'--scary, but propitiated or turned aside each in its own way. Women in China are treated like chattel, she says, but here women take control, control ghosts, control lives, control themselves. Is it a dream ? Is it another way of looking at Chinese women ? You will decide this for yourself after reading this highly original, lyrical book of tales of immigration, tales of women in a strange land, tales of "how I got to be me". It's got to be one of the most creative immigrant novels yet written.

The women ancestors of a geeky Chinese-American girl pile up impressive resumes, no worries ! They are kungfu heroines, joining peasant armies that overthrow the very Imperial throne. They are doctors who brave ghosts and come to America. They are mothers and grandmothers who remain staunchly Chinese in the face of the full press of American culture. They are sisters or aunts in Chinatown apartments or unknown relatives killed for following their hearts instead of the rules back in village China. Slowly, slowly, the background of the author (maybe) is depicted. You need some patience to realize what the author is doing. She doesn't give quarter. Readers who like everything spelled out will be disappointed. Ghosts play a big role in every section of the book. Ghosts train the warriors, ghosts oppose the student and the laundryworker. All Americans even appear as ghosts of a vast variety. Yes, it's one way of looking at the experience of immigration. You leave home, where everything is known, and come to a very foreign land where nothing is comprehensible. You understand nothing of the language or customs, but you have to make your way, earn a living, survive. Daring to sit and struggle with ghosts in a haunted Chinese classroom is similar to fighting with aliens in an alien land. So, you might interpret everyone around you as a `ghost'--scary, but propitiated or turned aside each in its own way. Women in China are treated like chattel, she says, but here women take control, control ghosts, control lives, control themselves. Is it a dream ? Is it another way of looking at Chinese women ? You will decide this for yourself after reading this highly original, lyrical book of tales of immigration, tales of women in a strange land, tales of "how I got to be me". It's got to be one of the most creative immigrant novels yet written.

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is truly a remarkable book. The style of writing is simple and easy to understand. It is a very important book for all women to read and learn from. This book was given some bad reviews on this site but don't listen to them. This is an inspiring story about the life of a magnificant woman. The lessons that she learns are critical to understanding the Chinese-American women. I have read this book three times and I plan to read it many more times. It has truly changed my perspective on the Chinese-American culture.

Maxine Hong Kingston the author of The Woman Warrior is a woman of many stories. Kingston talks of her childhood accounts growing up as a Chinese American. She speaks about her understanding of Chinese culture and American culture. Her family's way of life and her mothers story myths. The Woman Warrior is the author herself; she is a warrior because of what she learns throughout the book. The stories told by the author are meant to display the author's courage and bravery. As a Chinese American she persevered to overcome what she had been told she would become. She became what she wanted to become, a female member of her family who was independent and able to be self-sufficient. She transformed from her mothers Chinese traditions to her own standards of living.
The memoir starts out with great detail and flow, the detail remains eminent throughout the book but the flow does not. The first chapter of the book is the easiest to follow, the following chapters are much harder to understand what Maxine is trying to tell the reader. "Her fingers and palms became damp, shrinking at the ghost's thick short hair like an animals coat, which slides against warm solidity as human flesh slides against muscles and bones."(115) The book is full of captivating sentences, which seems to be a problem because there is almost too many of them at times. The author seems to go into such a magnitude of detail it makes the memoir hard to follow. Throughout the stories the author learns many valuable lessons, which have had impact on her life. Kingston wants the readers to understand how she feels and thinks, yet it seems she can't describe her feelings in a simple manner. Although this is not a bad thing, for an average reader it is hard to put the descriptive mood into meaning. An avid reader should be able to translate the book easier.
This piece of writing is great for those looking for a story that they may be able to relate to, only if the reader has the patience to piece some of the puzzle together. Readers looking for an easy reading book would not want to look here. The structure of the book is set for an advanced level of understanding. If someone is looking for a personal account of a Chinese American younger childhood, this book is the one.

Wow, the negativity of some of these reviews is overwhelming. As a Taiwanese-American teenage girl, I found a lot of value in this book. I can easily relate to Kingston's struggle to come to terms with the duality of her background - she can never expect to belong in Chinese culture, nor can she be fully at ease in American culture. I think anybody whose parents grew up in a completely different environment can relate to these difficulties. A lot of the time when I communicate with my parents we are hear each other but do not understand each other - we come from different worlds.
In response to all the readers who complained that the book is diluted and hard to follow, I do agree to some extent. The way the different story lines overlap, with no regard to chronological time, can be confusing. However, that doesn't mean that you should give up on the book altogether; I think Kingston weaves these stories together to add depth to the story. She is trying to stress the common struggles of all women, which span all times and places. This is a book that requires patience. I might re-read it, because I think I'll gain even more from it the second time around.
I also empathize with those who say that Kingston's portrayal of mainland China is biased, only shedding light on some of its more negative aspects, namely the harsh treatment of women. But, it's difficult for any one story to completely capture the full richness of a country. No one can deny that crimes against women, such as those presented in this book, DID happen. Kingston is not claiming that ALL women were mistreated and that ALL men were pigs, she's just presenting a few examples of the hardships some of the less fortunate women had to endure. Remember, Kingston also writes about women who do achieve success, like Brave Orchid and Fa Mulan. These women serve as a message of hope for the young Kingston, helping her realize her own strength. But, if the one-sideness of this story truly bothers you, try reading China Boy, another Asian-American coming of age story, but from the persepective of its male author, Gus Lee. It's a truly witty, touching book.

Reading part like a page ripped from the Brother's Grimm Fairy Tales and part like "The Asian-American Female's Handbook for Life in the U.S", The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston explores the underbelly of female Asian-American culture in the 20th century.
Some of the stories, although fictitious in their presentation, give those normally unexposed to Asian culture insight into Asian women's rights within their culture, or lack thereof.
Most of the book is based around the fact that Kingston is seemingly unwanted by her family because she is a girl. From the first few chapters we can sense this as Kingston tells stories about Chinese families killing their baby daughters as if it was their divine right--because girls were useless compared to boys, who could be educated.
The book also demonstrates this attitude by showing how Kingston's grandparents favor her brothers over her and her sisters, who he calls names and regularly degrades at family get-togethers.
However, Kingston seems to play a sympathetic role towards her parents, as demonstrated in the chapters in which Kingston narrates her mother's experience in medical school in Asia. Although her mother learned unorthodox techniques that weren't of merit in the United States, Kingston never fails to mention the hardships her mother went through to accomplish school while her husband was away in America.
Although Kingston's family history is interesting, the book would be incomplete without the metaphors, imagery, and fairy tale-like comparisons Kingston provides in almost every chapter.
The first chapter of the book is like a direct text from an ancient Chinese folktale scroll, the story of a young girl sent away from home to train to be a warrior, to nurture the fighting spirit inside her.
The theme of the strength of the spirit within echoes throughout the rest of the story. In once instance Kingston literally struggles to find a voice for herself, as her tongue is partially cut off, impairing her speech. Although she learns English in America, she really puts her new language to use years later when she communicates with her siblings about the ignorance of her grandfather and elders.
Although some references are made to male relatives, little emphasis is placed on males as being chief characters in the book.
The three main characters in the book are Kingston, her mother, and her aunt. Through her mother, Kingston masters the art of "talk-story", which leads Kingston back to China, where things were somewhat more stable and less frightening than America.
The talk-story influence reigns supreme throughout the book, which is almost a tribute to talk-story itself. Borrowing the ideas of ghosts, imagery, and fantasy that make talk-story so entertaining and successful, Kingston manages to wield her own type of writing that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.
However, Kingston truly flourishes when describing her mentally-unstable aunt who arrived to America from China in her senior years. The aunt is used in the story to almost resemble the type of woman warrior Kingston writes about in the book's first chapter--the woman who is not afraid to be herself, no matter how insane her family believes her to be.
The book's other main characters are `ghosts', which have two distinctly different meanings in the book. In her mother's world of talk-story, ghosts are supernatural beings, while they are non-Chinese Americans in Kingston's version.
However, ghosts often have similar goals, no matter what their role: to destroy potential success.
In China, ghosts try to smother Kingston's mother in medical school, while the ghosts in America (police ghost, social worker ghost), all keep a watchful eye on the Hong family.
Although the constant metaphors, setting changes, and character names can be confusing, the book gives a rewarding ending.
The entire premise of The Woman Warrior is to switch back and forth between Old-China talk-story, told by Kingston's mother, and America talk-story, narrated by Kingston.
The differences in the stories communicate the idea that women are treated unequally in Chinese culture, yet, they hit a deeper chord, as well. The stories showcase the differences in talk-story over the ages, they highlight the Chinese supernatural vs. the American reality, a world in which fictitious ghosts are given a body.
While Kingston presents her mother as an almost obsessive student in China, we are at the same time painted a portrait of her mother as a sweaty old woman working in a laundromat.
The differences in the two stories make up the core of the book, exploring both the old and the new, while taking time to equally appreciate both.

The woman warrior focuses on 5 women in the book. Maxine Kingston's long dead aunt, the no name woman, a female warrior, Fa Mu Lan, Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid, Kingston's aunt, Moon Orchid, and Kingston herself the author. This book is about Kingston's story and focuses on Chinese history, myths, and beliefs that her mother tells her. The first chapter was about Kingston's aunt that she never knew she even had. This aunt brought disgrace to her family by having a child, then she killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well that they had in China. Kingston is never allowed to mention her aunt again so she decides to create a history of her aunt in her book.

“White Tigers” is based on a mythical female warrior Fa Mu Lan. She trains to become a warrior from the time she was seven years old. Then, she lead an army of men and she also pretended that she was a man herself against the forces of a corrupt barron and emperor. After that was over she returned to be a wife and a mother. “Shaman” focuses on Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid, and her life back in China. She was a powerful doctor, midwife, and destroyer of ghosts back in her village.

“At the western Palace” was about an emperor who had 4 wives. Moon Orchid's husband had left her behind in China and remarried in America. Moon Orchid is left to fend for herself in America and then she went crazy and dies in a California State Mental Asylum. At the end of the book

“A song for a Barbarian Reed pipe” is about Kingston. It focuses on her childhood and teenage years showing her anger and how she was frustrated in trying to express herself. She was attempting to please her mother all the time. Later in Kingston's life she comes to appreciate her mother's talk stories, then in the end she takes after her mom and starts her own talk stories.

"White Tigers" was a strong and inspirational story about woman. The great themes such as having `voice' and the detailed imagery made a deep impression in my mind. The visuals were really rad. We loved the images of darkness and the similes that were used, such as the time when the mountains were described as the tops of dragons heads. The idea of Fa Mu Lan becoming a warrior instead of a slave of the house gave women the strength and option to become what they want. -Jenny Kimhan & Charlotte Sim

Kingston combines the use of allegory, fantasy, and real life elements of her childhood to explore the social status of Chinese American women from the 1940s to the present in The Woman Warrior. While at first all of her stories may seem random, they all connect to Kingston's point of view as to how not just being a minority but also being a female made life difficult for her in both cultures. Her interwoven stories were so fascinating, as she brilliantly compares what she truly wants and what society is willing to allow her to do. It is crucial that the reader pay close attention to when her stories shift. My one problem with her plot organization is that she focuses on one story, and then suddenly shifts to another story. I couldn't understand until I was at the middle of the plot to comprehend each story's purpose in the bigger picture. But once the reader succeeds in getting over that one flaw, the rest is amazing. Kingston develops a unique style all on her own as she somehow connects the fantastical parts of her dreams to what she is forced to experience in everyday reality. In the backdrop of her personal experience, Kingston describes America's problems with racism and sexism different women in her lives are hurt by this. Kingston needed to maintain her flow; but the intriguing connections involving fantasy and reality work effectively to enhance her purpose.

Probably most intriguing about the structure of Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior, beginning with "No Name Woman" and ending in A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe," is that it characterizes Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir, told in the interesting format of non-sequential episodes, as one that begins in oppressed silence but ends in universal song.

When looking at the three woman warrior figures in the book - her aunt, the No Name Woman; the rewritten legendary warrior in "White Tigers" (based upon the Mulan legend); and the poet and barbarian captive, Ts'ai Yen - the characteristics that unite them all are their determined attempts at asserting their own kinds of power, femininity, and individuality in patriarchal Chinese society.

The methods through which they do so revolve around words written, spoken, or not spoken: from the silence practiced by No Name Woman, to the words written on the warrior's back, to the songs created by Ts'ai Yen and, finally, to the stories that Kingston as the author uses to find the marks of the woman warrior within herself, and to do so in a way that allows the readers insight into a life that even the narrator is grappling to understand.

The words that open Woman Warrior, which begins with the story of No Name Woman, are quite interestingly an admonition of silence: "'You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, `what I am about to tell you'" (3). This admonition signifies a promise, and a breaking of a promise: The narrator's mother Brave Orchid is showing courage and confidence in her daughter by sharing something that should not be remembered, yet at the same time, her mother is breaking the silence surrounding her sister-in-law, the titled No Name Woman. This is one of the first of many of the narrator's mother's talk-stories, ones that were told with a purpose to aid her children in life events, while sealing the bond between child and mother.

The story of the woman warrior, who is the protagonist of "White Tigers," is created in history and then transformed by the narrator into one of triumph through the breaking of silences. Inspired by Kingston's childhood and the stories of Yue Fei and Mulan, the chapter becomes another way for the narrator to celebrate the breaking of silences, something that continues throughout the book.

This union between mother and daughter the novel can be seen as the compromise of generations, an idea carried out in Kingston's appropriation of myths and stories seen in the retelling of these woman warriors. Her mother, in fact, is the narrator's guide of the methods in which to appropriate talk-stories for her own purposes. Kingston's retellings are part of the idea that a culture growing up in one country can appropriate the lessons of their parents, who grew up in another. It is the idea and the hope that stories created by a patriarchal culture can still make room for its daughters, ultimately one the most important ideas Kingston communicates in her beautifully rendered book.

It's surprising you can reach Advanced Placement English III in America without the literary perception of understanding SOME merit of "The Woman Warrior".
The most obvious merit of this book is its profound juxtaposition of Chinese and American culture. Maxine Hong Kingston is in the perfect position for this; she's attended Chinese school yet her English is good enough to get her into Berkeley (no doubt SHE got more out of her AP English class) so she understands both languages, and thus both cultures. She is aware of the profound gap between the two worlds (as Amy Tan etc. are not, I love Amy Tan, but she just isn't as bicultural) and she SHOWS this, by the passage about the "too-loud" Chinese against their whispering American counterparts, by her juxtaposition of a reworking of the Fa Mulan epic and her "disappointing" life in America.
I'm sorry for being rude about the AP English III reviewer, but this book has so much OBVIOUS merit for me... I realize the other reviewer may have had a seriously limited, anglocentric literary education (but even a good anglocentric education would've helped in seeing the merits) or may be used to having his hand held by the writer through every description and plot turn, but for those of you who are interested in coming into awareness, an awareness of how DIFFERENT the Chinese are (and how similar they are in some respects, but I think it's the difference that's emphasized), "The Woman Warrior" is a fascinating, paradoxically illuminating book in that respect.
I didn't enjoy this book as I enjoyed, say, Joy Luck Club, but I THINK about it a lot and I think it's IMPORTANT... it expands awareness, really, because it constantly hints of lands beyond the English language, and you get such a sense of what's OUT THERE.

this book was Chinese culture and although I found it interesting, it was disturbing. It brought to light many things I'd heard about the culture, for myself it was difficult rather than entertaining. but that is why books are assigned in an English Lit class, right?

If only this book had been fiction. The stories were so intense and heart wrenching, it was like a near death experience where one sees their entire life flash before their eyes, able to feel and experience every joy and pain that we have caused another to feel. Maxine's characters were described with such detail that I was there with them.
It has been said that our lives appear as a chess game seen from above , with all of our life times being lived in unison. The power of each story within the book felt like that, with each position on the chess board representing a different story.
A bold artist to have created this intense collection.
I am only sorry that I have learned of atrocities that actually happened and are happening right now to my fellow human beings and other living creatures. Such a painful reminder that we are not here to inflict pain upon others. I wanted to scream out to the soldiers as they were brutalizing the pregnant women until they miscarried their babies only to have them be murdered in front of them. I felt like a ghost , watching as I read and unable to help the women. Each turn of the page was like taking another breath that I wanted to give to the women and their babies to help them not to die.
...

Woman Warrior is quite an interesting book. I absolutely enjoyed reading it. Although it would be exaggerating if I compared it to Black Elk Speaks, to a lesser degree, it is redefining a culture. Not Chinese culture (even though its accuracy is superb on this), but Chinese-American culture during post-World War II. In White Tigers, Kingston's myth about a heroine, she pieces together different legends to create her woman warrior. It becomes her source of strength in a dual society that both rejected her sex as well as her race. Perhaps times have changed now. (excuse me if this is so cliché, but you'll agree with me that...) Nevertheless Woman Warrior lives as a testimony of an era that, although is way past us, greatly influenced our lives. Her stories, grievances carved into her back, show us our mistakes and push us forward, correcting them. They are her way of revolting against oppression, following the spirit of the 60's. And as to its style, it is a little difficult to keep track of the settings as she goes along in the essay. But believe me, she seems to have a lot more coherence than some who write. I don't even think her essays (this book is a collection of essays) are considered segmented compared to say, Annie Dillard or Virgina Woolfe, whom are great segmented essayists, and whose essays require deep concentration and thought. The Woman Warrior is written in beautiful prose, with intelligent diction (that keeps me running to the dictionary once in a while), and it is well organized. Although there are jumps in content, the essay seems to flow smoothly and logically; the reader just has to be conscious and active when reading. (I would suggest reading it again, for enjoyment, after you've done the papers, and theall-nighters are over: you'll find more patience with the book when you're not wringing out a five-page essay from it.)

With all of the literature that has been written, you would be hard-pressed to find many innovations in the past few decades. This book is the exception: a clear innovation of the basic, chronological autobiography and a clever mix of fact and fiction. I recommend that this book be included on the syllabus of any course on autobiography, modern american literature, women's literature, or multi-cultural literature. It is a must-read!

MHK doesn't need anyone to tell her how wonderful her book is, but obviously some people out there do. If I could give this book 10 stars I would, just to neutralize some of the off-the-mark reviews on this page. The Woman Warrior far outshines anything from the memoir-craze it helped spawn; it is a classic of inspired, poetic writing. That so many (apparently younger) readers can't see this is a disturbing indictment of our educational system.

Woman Warrior is among the most gripping lyrical-memoirs I've read. It is author Maxine Kingston's Chinese ancestry that teaches her that girls are half-ghosts that walk a tight wire: one wrong step and they transcend into full-pledged ghosts, with all memory of their existence erased from time. Girls in the history of her Chinese culture are regarded much the way Middle Eastern women are regarded today: burdensome and dangerous. The Chinese saying "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls," conveys a message repeated to Kingston throughout her girlhood.

Kingston is eternally haunted by one particular "no-name" ghost: her dead aunt, a woman shamed by her village, a woman forgotten, a woman whose name and memory are not uttered. Haunted by her nameless, faceless aunt, Kingston also finds herself displaced and alienated as she attempts to put together two worlds: her Chinese ancestry, and her new American life.

Resentment builds in Kingston as she struggles to put together the secrets and hushed words of her ancestry. The only stories her elders will elucidate to her are ones meant to haunt her, but even these are not fully in truth. How is she to form an identity when she is refused knowledge of her past? When she can't define her self as being a solid part of any given culture? Without proper definition of place, one merely floats along, trying to make sense of it.

Kingston also faces the difficult challenge of becoming an American female, which is much different than a Chinese female. Caught between what she's been taught gives a female value in Chinese culture, and what she is learning gives a female value in American culture. Her feeling of alienation deepens as she realizes that she no longer holds an authentic, cultural identity. No longer native Chinese, not quite American either. Even amongst her fellow Chinese-American Immigrants, she finds herself displaced as they all melt into the pot at different consistencies. "No other Chinese, neither the ones in Sacramento, nor the ones in San Francisco, nor Hawaii speak like us."

The only refuge Maxine Kingston finds is in the archetype of the Woman Warrior, Fa Mu Lan. Fa Mu Lan is used as a metaphor for female choice, female purpose, female strength and power. Fa Mu Lan assumes both the traditional Chinese female role, and the American, career-minded female role. Fa Mu Lan returns homes to assume traditional domestic roles, only after she has been out in the world fighting, first! She fights, she is warrior woman, and then at the end of it all, she returns to her duties at home. Fa Mu Lan is a survivor of both worlds, and because she faces such danger outside of her home, the inside of her home may seem relatively less dangerous--the home of Kingston's past being a symbolically dangerous place, as it was for her no-name aunt.

Ms. Kingston My class read White Tigers for an assignment, and I learned a lot about the Chinese and their ideals. White Tigers is a powerful story, and sends a powerful message of individuality and strength. I can identify with Fa Mu Lan in her quest to right all of her wrongs. There are some beautifully vivid sections, and if your entire "Woman Warrior" is like this story, it is a wonderful book.

Although Maxine Hong Kingston does jump around from chapter to chapter (which seems to confuse most), she does a great job at explaining her life growing up as a Chinese-American. I can really relate to some of the aspects of the books. Kingston recalls constantly being filled with ridiculous stories. These stories, though, become a part of who she is and what she believes. The sub-title of the book, "Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts", explains a lot of what the author has to deal with. She has to deal with hearing that her friends and her are ghosts, because they are American. All of the people that surrounded Kingston's family were ghosts, except for the Chinese people who lived on the Gold Mountain, Chinatown in San Francisco. The children's teachers and coaches were ghosts. Kingston feels like a ghost herself: "...we had been born amonth ghosts, were taught by ghosts, and were ourselves ghost-like. They called us a kind of ghost."
This book is truely a page turner. There's always something to learn or laugh about in each turn. Wonderful book.

This is a tremendous novel. The author threads the stories her mother told her when she was a child, through the retelling of her own life, using them to draw you into her own imagination. As she grows up, living half immersed in traditional myth and half in gritty reality, where mothers and daughters are only human, the reader grows up with her. The first person telling of her childhhood stories puts the reader directly in the shoes of a child/young adult working through the stories she has been told, using them to form her hopes and dreams and her understanding of the world.

(N.B. You may not think that your childhood stories influenced the way you live, but if you think for a minute, I am certain some will come back to you and you'll realize that just the other day you did something based on or combatting that belief. Maybe you even still wish on stars?)

Judging by the extremes of the other reader comments, it appears that this book is either very much your cup of tea or absolutely not - there's not much in between. However, given that most of the negative (and, tellingly, ungrammatical and misspelt) comments seem to come from school students, this is perhaps understandable. I remember having D.H. Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' forced on me at school and loathing it. I guess the moral is that this is not a book for teenagers -- it's rather too deep; I almost certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it myself at that age. However, for anyone who has spent any time abroad, or has any interest in Chinese culture it will be a fascinating and moving experience. If you like this, you might want to try 'Talking to High Monks in the Snow' by Lydia Minatoya, which covers a similar theme but from a Japanese-American point of view.

The Worrior Woman was a very interesting and exiting book for me. I think that it was written very well and that the stile of writing that Maxine Kingston used was very uniqe.
The majority of the book really used alot of details and really appealed to the imagination. I strongly recomend this book for anyone who is looking for a good book to read.
A.F.B.

The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, captures readers with her own interpretation of what it was like to grow up as a female Chinese American. As a little girl, she came to America with her family. Despite being in a new country, she had to deal with the old traditions from her homeland. Kingston hears different legends which she pieces together to create her woman warrior. It becomes her source of strength in a society that rejected both her sex as well as her race. The book, divided into five interwoven stories, is at times confusing as it jumps around. Nevertheless she does a great job explaining her life while growing up. The first story, called "No Name Woman," tells of her paternal aunt who bears a child out of wedlock and is harried by the villagers and by her family into drowning herself. The family now punishes this taboo-breaker by never speaking about her and by denying her name. However, Kingston breaks the family silence by writing about this rebel whom she calls "my forebear." The next story is called "White Tigers." It is a myth about a heroine named Fa Mu Lan, who fights in place of her father and saves her village. This story became the Disney movie, Mulan. "Sharman" is a story of Kingston's mother. It explores what it was like to study as a woman to become a doctor in China. "At the Western Palace" is about Kingston's aunt who comes to America and discovers that her husband has remarried in America. Finally, the last story, "A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe" is about Kingston's own experience in America when she first arrived. She explains what it was like to be a newcomer in a strange culture. Kingston constantly mentions that her friends and she are ghosts because they are American. All of the people who surround her family are ghosts, except for the Chinese people who live on the Gold Mountain, a section of Chinatown in San Francisco. Kingston feels like a ghost herself, " .... We had been born among ghosts, were taught by ghosts, and were ourselves ghost-like. The Americans call us a kind of ghosts" (p.183). The interpretation of what ghosts mean in this book is difficult to figure out. It could show how some people view a person from a different culture with ignorance as if she doesn't exist. Kingston's The Woman Warrior has some similarities with The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. First of all, both stories are written by Chinese American authors about their cultural heritage. Both novels deal with major concerns faced by Chinese American women. Living with their traditional culture in American society, Chinese-American women suffer problems of cultural conflicts. However, there are differences that make each work distinct. The Joy Luck Club is fiction and is not personal. It is also more likely to be read for pleasure. The Woman Warrior portrays a first hand view of the cultural differences between the United States and China. Also, Kingston succeeds in combining her emotions with her experiences. The Woman Warrior is a fascinating book. One of the most amazing aspects of this book is Kingston's ability to show how silence is a form of communication and how it shaped her being. Her mother tells her to be silent, yet she goes against her cultural standards by talking about her aunt. This act of will on Kingston's part offers the readers her ancestry. The expectation of silence can be simplified into a symbol of oppression. As a Korean-American, I felt the emotions and understood how Kingston felt for being a stranger to a new culture. Her internal struggle to fit into two different societies is difficult. I personally recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the experience of one Chinese-American woman. It is not the definitive story of Chinese-American women's experience, but it is a very vivid and well-written account of one woman's life. Pg. 209. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York

I had to read Woman Warrior for my college English class. If it wasn't for that reason I would have never picked it up. I must admit that MHK is a wonderful writer, however this book moves between fantasy and reality within a blink of an eye. If she would have taken more time to explain things I believe my entire English class would have appreciated this book.

The Woman Warrior had a captivating beginning, but it was very difficult to finish. The writing style was clear and simple, but little action took place throughout the length of the novel. I finished it not really understanding the ending because very little happened. Some sections were interesting, however, but as a whole, the novel was not very engaging.

The book by Maxine Kinston is based on five different stories about different Chinese women. The novel is filled with Chinese folktales and culture. This is a story that one as a Chinese or any other culture could relate to because throughout the novel shows ancestry and tales about myths and legends. The novel will take you through stories of deception and haunt that is told through the eyes of Kingston herself. Starting with long lost aunts followed by so-called ghost warriors and ending with stories about her mother's life back in china; this book will keep you reading until the end. I recommend this story to anyone who is interested in story tale and culture of a different sort, that of Chinese. I enjoyed reading the novel myself and it kept me reading in interest on the twist and turns of Kingston's life.

I was quite irritated by how Kingston seemingly tried to use Chinese mythology, but did not stay true to the story. I don't want to hear her life story! The only life story I would ever want to hear about would be of my own, my pet gerbil Foo-foo, and possibly the Dukes of Hazzard. I was forced to read this for a Writing class at UC Santa Cruz whose writing faculty most likely consists of a bunch of zit-brains. My suggestion to anyone who is required to read this book is to pretend you've read it and make stuff up as needed.

I just finished reading this book as a requirement for my research in Folklore and Mythology class. At first, I wasn't exactly thrilled at the opportunity to read it, for I'm sure that anyone can relate with the pains that go with required reading. However, I was truly blown away.

Although the autobiographical account is questionable, for the narrative perspective seemed to veer into that of fantasy (I, personally, would catagorize this book as a 'fictionalized autobiography'), it was, nevertheless, an enjoyable read.

It went well with the course I was taking, in respects to other cultures and their customs, traditions, and superstitions, and it also allowed me some much needed leisure reading.

This book is thoroughly wonderful and exceptional.

"A Woman Warrior", by Maxine Hong Kingston opened our eyes to the traditional Chinese lifestyle and culture. It focuses on the tight family ties and strict values trying to maintain certain traditions in America, and expressing conflict between the races. "A Woman Warrior", demonstrates the horrible conditions that women had to overcome since birth. Not being wanted or desired, babies killed or stoned to death just to name a few. Once they began to grow, their feet were bound,and many other aspects to put them at the bottom of the social triangle. As far as the actual reading of "Woman Warrior", it moved slow, with too many details. The plot seemed to move in circles and be repetitive. However, this book was a cultural lesson and we now feel informed on the chinese values.

The Woman Warrior is a compelling and intense narrative, depicting the struggles of a young Chinese-American girl trying to establish her identity in America. Maxine Hong Kingston takes her readers on a twisting journey through her struggles with perception, tradition, and alienation. Maxine fights to define herself in a country that has already "etched words onto her back," while attempting to understand the only thing that binds her immigrant-family together: their tradition preserved through her mother's "Talk Story." As Maxine learns to distinguish the truth from the stories, she becomes empowered to fight the "ghosts" that haunt and alienate her and comes to grips with her identity, heritage, and relationship with her mother.

The Woman Warrior is a beautifully written story about a girl growing up in America, torn between the culture of her Chinese family and the culture of the country in which she lives, told through five short stories. Throughout the novel, this is the major conflict that the main character faces. I would give this novel a rating of four stars because of the way in which the book is written, switching point of views between the main character and her mother. Also there is a great conflict that exists in most places around the world. The story also provides a theme that everyone can relate to.

The main character is a girl who holds an extremely powerful imagination in her hands. She is not named within the book. In the first two short stories, she is told different legends and throughout the story, develops them into something that pleases her imagination. In the first story, she is told that her father had a sister, though she was never informed of this before in her life. Her parents never mentioned her because she committed the crime of adultery, becoming pregnant while her husband was away. Like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, she is ridiculed because of this, which eventually causes her to kill herself, along with the baby. Within this vignette, our main character is only given a brief summary of what happened. Then the reader witnesses her thinking deeply about the situation. She takes what her mother told her and imagined that she was in her aunt's shoes from the time she realized she was pregnant to the time in which she committed suicide.

Another great example of the imagination of the main character is in the second story where she gives the reader information about a legend about Fa Mu Lan, who was a great warrior in Chinese legend. The main character talks about how the adults would talk-story, meaning they would tell the children legends. This was something she loved as a child. When she heard the legend about Fa Mu Lan, she sees herself as a girl who climbs a mountain and meets an old couple. They train her as a warrior and she becomes famous for her feats, disguising herself as a man. This really shows how the main character gets carried away in her mind. It also hints that she might wish she was someone else, or that her life was more exciting.

The main character grows up in America and is conflicted between the two cultures surrounding her. At times she talks about how she wishes she were "American pretty" instead of "Chinese pretty" because they are two different things. She also shares how the Chinese act differently at school, by being quieter than the others in the class. Although she shows a lot of the Chinese characteristics, she is ridiculed because she still in influenced by Americans, as her mother says. We see this distinction a lot through one of the stories where her mother's sister comes to America. She is not welcomed like Chinese normally welcome family. She isn't treated the same either. The children are occupied with their own lives to notice most of the time.

The main character's mother is another powerful figure shown throughout the story. We find her name is Brave Orchid. Brave Orchid went to medical school in China while her husband was in America, trying to make money while Communism began to take over China. She finished medical school and was a well known doctor in her village. She also believed heavily in ghosts and spirits. Throughout the novel, she calls the Americans and foreigners ghosts, when she finally travels to America. When in America, she is unable to be a doctor because the training is different. Instead, the family invests in a Laundry. Brave Orchid is a strong person, working full time at the Laundry and raising her children, trying to keep them within the Chinese culture, though they are in America. She is a loving parent, as well, even though her children are so different than she is.

Not only does she love her children, but her entire family, especially her sister. Her sister, Moon Orchid, comes to America to visit and find her husband, who left the house to make money in America. Brave Orchid is very brave, as her name says, forcing her sister to see him, though they don't know whether or not he wants to see her. Eventually, they do see him and he doesn't want to see his first wife again, sending her away and thrusting her into a deep depression that lands her in a mental institute.

One major conflict in the story lies with the main character and her growing up in America while her parents try to raise her in the Chinese culture. She is torn between the culture she is growing up in and the culture that exists around her. Although she is torn between the two cultures, she tries to embrace both. It is apparent that, at first, her and her parents go through culture shock because of the difference. This is similar to the culture shock some people face in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In this novel, the Africans are forced to integrate with British, which cause many to revolt. Although there are no revolts to the culture in The Woman Warrior, some of the character's reactions are similar. Brave Orchid is similar to Okonkwo in the fact that she is forced to embrace the new culture, but tries her hardest to keep her Chinese ways.

A theme within the novel is to never forget your culture, no matter where you are. Although you may be growing up within a different place, your culture is a part of you. The main character's culture is a split between her Chinese parents' cultures and the culture of the America she grows up in. This is different from her mother's culture which is her Chinese history. Although their cultures differ, along with many characters' cultures in the novel, it is important to live within your culture, because it is who you are. We see this in the end of the novel, where Brave Orchid begins a story to tell her daughter, the main character. Then the main character ends the story with her imagination. It is within Brave Orchid's culture to talk-story and to share legends and even invent new stories that reflect the ways of the Chinese. The main character grew up in America, where imagination is treasured. She also grew up with the Chinese influence, which causes her to finish the story with her own adaptation, though there are Chinese elements to it. This shows how she is mixed between American culture and Chinese culture.

I would recommend this book to any woman, especially young adolescents. It is a great story to show a mother/daughter relationship. It is also a great book to show the progress of a girl growing up within a world that holds many differences than she is brought up to believe. The Woman Warrior gives a glimpse of a girl's life through her point of view and her mothers, while giving stories from both of their lives, to give perspective on their personalities. It is also five different stories molded in to one, this creates an easy read, though the concepts are intricate. I would recommend the book to someone who is searching for a novel that really makes you think and also anyone who is interested in different cultures, especially the Chinese culture.

This book is very different than many out there, but the passion within the characters and their relationships give it true life, creating a masterpiece worth reading.