Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston: Short Story Collections

Though Maxine Hong Kingston has written in several different genres, it is her autobiographical short stories for which she is the most famous. Her short story collections are The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976), China Men (1980), and Hawai'i One Summer (1987).

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976)

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a collection of autobiographical short stories by Kingston. The stories tell about the experiences of the women in her family. "No Name Woman," which was initially an essay published in 1975, is a well-known section of the book. It looks at how Kingston's identity as a woman is influenced by her Chinese-American heritage. To illustrate the cultural background of her experiences—as well as those of her family members—she wove Chinese folk tales into the book.

This gives the reader a look into the culture that informed the characters' choices and feelings by illustrating the thought processes, traditions, and values that were important to her Chinese family members. For example, in one section of the book, Kingston retells the traditional story of Fa Mu Lan. In the tale, a young woman takes her father's place in the army by disguising herself as a man; she goes in to serve a long and successful career protecting China. Kingston compares herself to the heroine of this story as a way of dissecting her Chinese-American values in relation to the traditional values held by her Chinese family that passed the story down to her.

China Men (1980)

China Men is another short story collection written by Kingston. It is a companion to The Woman Warrior. It focuses on the experiences of the men of her family, where The Woman Warrior highlights the women's stories.

Also like her previous memoir, China Men uses Chinese folk tales in order to give the reader a base understanding of Chinese culture to view the characters from. This also allows Kingston to discuss the experience of being Chinese-American from an inside view. Her readers are given a window of understanding into the culture and are therefore more able to understand the characters' experiences. More than this, the retelling of traditional myths gives Kingston a way to bring a more authentic representation of Chinese traditions into the book—and a way for her to connect her own identity and experiences as a Chinese-American to the Chinese identity of her ancestors.

Hawai'i One Summer (1987)

The stories collected in this book relate both Kingston's own experiences in Hawai'i and also tales of the islands and their inhabitants. Instead of attempting to create a complete painting of Hawai'i, Kingston chose to focus on small moments and experiences she had there. In this way, Maxine Hong Kingston attempts to get at the essence of her experience of Hawai'i. She weaves together stories from her time living in Hawai'i, scenes from the various natural environments around the islands, and the way these things interact with issues of politics, feminism, and environmentalism. In this way, Kingston creates a holistic and vibrant depiction of the Hawaiian Islands and life on them.

Maxine Hong Kingston: Other Books

In addition to her short story collection, Maxine Hong Kingston has written poetry, fiction, and other books.

Fig. 2 - San Francisco is the setting of Kingston's book Tripmaster Monkey.

• Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989), a novel about a Chinese-American man living in 1960s San Francisco.

• To Be the Poet (2002), an examination of poetry, being an author, and of Kingston herself.

• The Fifth Book of Peace (2003), a sequel to Tripmaster Monkey and memoir of some of Kingston's experiences intertwined together.

• Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), a work containing the stories of five veterans and how war impacted their lives.

• I Love a Broad Margin to My Life (2011), a book-length memoir written entirely in free-verse poetry.

Maxine Hong Kingston: Quotes

The following quote from Maxine Hong Kingston's novel Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book is an example of the book's theme of prejudice. The main character of the novel is a young American man of Chinese descent living in 1960s San Francisco. As he navigates politics, culture, and life, he thinks often on prejudice and discrimination.

Kingston's book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts delves into Kingston's own experience as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She illustrates in the following quote how the world of her parents' culture and understanding felt at odds with the American world they all physically lived in.

Along those same lines, Maxine Hong Kingston also writes in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts that:

This describes the feeling of holding two different cultures, heritages, or identities within herself at the same time.