Maxine Hong Kingston

Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies? (Kingston 5-6).

It is clear that Kingston seeks to demolish the idea that Chinese in general and Chinese women particularly are raised to be docile creatures who do not make trouble. Referring to the Chinese tradition of "talk-stories," she writes that Chinese girls are raised to see "that we failed if we grew up to but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family" (Kingston 19).

On the other hand, Kingston recognizes that such stories of Asian bravery and action do not easily translate into the reality of America, particularly for immigrants. For example, the author's mother, after telling her of an aunt who was ost

. . .
s into the most minute details of life in America. When Chinese-American children are given a gift of paper dolls, they begin to play with them: "How greedy to play with presents in front of the giver. How impolite ('untraditional' in Chinese) her children were" (Kingston 121). The narrator's mother is a woman who is stuck between the Asian and American ways of life. She rejects the old ways with bitterness, which may be in part a mask to hide her confusion and hurt, and yet is clearly not made happy by her life in America. Her daughter asks her questions which cause her great pain and bring up the fact that she is, indeed, neither fully American nor Chinese any longer: We belong to the planet now, Mama. Does it make sense to you that if we're no longer attached to one piece of land, we belong to the planet? Wherever we happen to be standing, why, that spot belongs to us as much as any other spot (Kingston 107). Kingston sees her mother's misery, her "inconsolable" eyes as she suffers in the midst of the two cultures, a true part of neither: "The gods pay her and my father back for leaving their parents. My grandmother wrote letters pleading for them to come home, and they ignored her. Now they know how she felt" (Kingston 108
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Referring Chinese, Asian American, America Kingston, Despite Kingston, Chinese-Americans Kingston, American Chinese, Moon Orchid, Chinese' Kingston, America Chinese-American, Girlhood Ghosts, life america, chinese tradition, example kingston's, kingston 5, kingston 136, american chinese, difficult fit, america kingston, american life, brave orchid,
Approximate Word count = 1564
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Maxine Hong Kingston