My Thoughts on The Woman Warrior

Phew! Just finished the book for the third time today.

It took a while to read, because I don't agree with everything Kingston says about Chinese-American culture. I get the impression that she is almost at times ashamed to be Chinese and prefers her American influences. She portrays the older generation as ignorant, loud, uncouth, and steeped in wild notions and remedies. It is true--there are many Chinese people whose lives revolve around superstition and the notion of ghosts, but Chinese people are far classier, higher-educated, and more dignified than how Kingston represents us.

The Chinese are very humble, perhaps too humble, and their ignorant American-born children take their humility for shame and often mock their elders and heritage. My mother's family is very Chinese, we love what we are, never losing sight of our rich culture, but I know many friends of family who are flippant towards their heritage.

Kingston and her siblings remind me of all these stupid little ABC (American-Born-Chinese) brats who though are aware of who they are and where they come from have no respect and pride for their 5,000 years of elaborate history.

I have no clue what Kingston means by American-feminism versus Chinese-feminism. She portrays the latter as almost bestial and unrefined and an embarrassment and desires to be feminine in the classical sense--like American women. Is she just kissing ass? Apologizing for her beauty that she mistakes as vile, because she lives in America and does American things, and wants desperately to wash herself of her Chinese blood?

My impression of Chinese-feminism is the essence of grace, class, gentle, refined speech, small, slow movements, dignity, and always thinking about serving others and being humble and bowing down. Chinese people are not like Brave Orchid who is an abomination. They do not push family against their will as Brave Orchid so stupidly does to her dearest sister, Moon Orchid. Chinese people have class and style (in the words of Amy Tan), and it's a shame that Kingston doesn't accurately portray that.

But there are things that strike a positive chord with me, things that I can relate to. I really enjoyed Kingston letting her imagination run wild with the vignette on Fa Mu Lan. I like the whole idea of Chinese-American women being strong avengers who don't always fall into the stereotypes of being meek and mild-mannered.

And it's true what Brave Orchid says at the bottom of page 203--the Chinese always say the opposite, meaning that though we are beautiful, we call ourselves ugly. With Western influences as of the last few decades, Chinese people are becoming arrogant and vain, but in the old tradition, Chinese people never drew attention to themselves and lived a very austere, abstemious lifestyle. They subsisted on very little, with the belief that less is more. And the old school humility mesmerizes me, because I, like all Chinese brats, could never be what my predecessors were. I am just like a vacuous, sometimes-shallow Valley girl.

I like The Joy Luck Club better, but am saddened that there are so few popular frames of reference for being a Chinese-American female. It makes me want to go out and write another book from another angle, a much more reverent perspective.

The best thing, however, is the woman warrior theme, the female avenger, the Chinese voice and fight. So often Chinese people are the target of overt racism, because the rest of America does not feel threatened by us, they see us as the perfect targets who decline to speak up and raise hell. Well, that's changing everyday, there's power brewing, pride overflowing, and soon we will show everybody not to mess with us. We fight just as hard and we often win.