American Literature

Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

Women

Asian Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore Maxine Hong Kingston&#39;s *The Woman Warrior*.

A photograph of Maxine Hong Kingston (left) with Phyllis Manocchi, 1990s. 

An illustration of a Chinese family in China, ca. 1905.

A photograph of a seated Chinese woman who has undergone foot binding, ca. 1925. 

A pair of women’s embroidered Chinese foot-binding shoes displayed at the 1904 World’s Fair.

A drawing depicting folk warriors in Chinese culture.

The poster features a black and white drawing of five Chinese warriors wearing traditional armor and holding weapons, an emperor riding a dragon, and a woman dressed in a costume that represents various sea life creatures. “East Sea” is written in Chinese characters on a banner that is held by the largest warrior.

A photograph of an actor in Chinese theater portraying a woman warrior character with a weapon, 1920s.

A photograph of actors performing a Chinese theater scene in which a woman warrior in a wintry setting comes upon a woman, 1920s.

A photograph of the actor Ch'i-hsing-teng as a woman warrior holding a whip, 1920s.

A photograph of a newly-arrived Chinese “refugee” family at Los Angeles Airport, June 12, 1962. 

The original photograph description reads: “Members of the Chang family. They are the first Chinese refugee family under the newly-raised immigration quota for refugees from China that arrived to Los Angeles from Hong Kong. The Changs were being sponsored by her mother Mrs. Anna Wong, who has resided in the nation's capital for the past 15 years. From left, rear: Chang Sun Ying, 14; the father Chang, 36, holding 2 year old Chang Shang Ying; the mother Chang Kan Tai, 34, holding 1 year old Chang Lun Ying. Front row: Chang Tse Ying, 9; Chang Li Ying,12; Chang Tse Say, 7; and Chang We Ying, 4. Mr. Chang had been a typist with the U.S. Army Advisory Group in Nanking during WWII, where he gained his hopes for a life of freedom and opportunity at that time. The Chang family will continue on to Washington D.C.”

A photograph of a group of Chinese Americans holding signs that say "Please help Chinese refugees" in English and Chinese. 

A photograph of the Lee family preparing to leave Hong Kong to fly to the US, ca. 1968. 

A photograph of the Lee family enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner, ca. 1970.

A poster by the Committee for True Representation of China for a protest rally in San Jose, California, 1974. 

“Chiang’s regime” refers to Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. This poster was created by the Committee for the True Representation of China, which operated in the San Francisco Bay area. 

A poster announcing a celebration of International Women’s Year, 1975.

A photograph of President Nixon meeting with the chairman of the Communist Party in China, Mao Zedong, February 29, 1972.

Questions

1. Using the [illustration of the Chinese family](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/785) as a starting place, consider Kingston’s depiction of womanhood, especially for her own character and for No Name Woman. What does it mean to be a woman in *The Woman Warrior*? A mother? A daughter? 
2. Using the images of the [foot-binding shoes](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/787) and the [seated woman with bound feet](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/786), consider the practice of foot binding for Chinese woman. What was the experience like physically? How does Kingston use footbinding symbolically as part of her commentary on women’s roles in Chinese culture? Consider generational differences as well as the story of the foot-bound in “White Tigers.”
3. Folklore plays a huge role in *The Woman Warrior*. Using the [drawing depicting warriors](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/788), consider the power of myth as a device in this memoir. What does it allow Kingston to say that might be impossible to say in a more traditional memoir?
4. Compare the images of woman warrior characters in 1920s Chinese theater to the memoir’s description of Fa Mu Lan. How do poses and costumes give insight into characters’ particular powers? How do these compare to Fa Mu Lan’s? What is the cultural power of woman warrior “avenging” myths in Chinese culture?
5. Use the image of the [refugee family](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/792) and [refugee protest](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/793) to consider the experience of Chinese arriving in the US in the 1960s. How do these photographs relate to Moon Orchid’s arrival story in “At the Western Palace”? Why would these immigrants be described as refugees? What, according to Kingston’s narrative, were they seeking refuge from?
6. Look at the photographs of the Lee family [before](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/794) and [after](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/795) immigration. What evidence to do you see of their Americanization? How does this process of cultural assimilation resonate with Kingston’s experiences as an American-born Chinese woman growing up in San Francisco in this period?
7. *The Woman Warrior* was published among a number of conversations about voice and representation, represented by posters in this set. How did Kingston’s memoir fit in with contemporary debates about representation of Chinese immigrants and of women?

Activity

The [photograph](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-woman-warrior-by-maxine-hong-kingston/sources/798) of US President Richard Nixon meeting China’s Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong represents a watershed moment in the history of US-China relations that occurred just four years prior to the publication of *The Woman Warrior*. Divide students into three groups to do follow-up research about the history of China during this period and make connections to the novel. Group one should do research about the Great Leap Forward, group two the Cultural Revolution, and group three Nixon’s visit to China. After synthesizing their findings and developing connections to the immigration experiences described in the memoir using textual evidence, each group should give a brief presentation to the class that explains how each historical event provides an important backdrop to *The Woman Warrior*.

Teaching Guide: Exploring *The Woman Warrior*

Resources

1. “[Stockton-born Maxine Hong Kingston Receives National Medal of Arts](http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/07/28/stockton-born-maxine-hong-kingston-receives-national-medal-of-arts/),” KQED. 
2. Jess Row, “[The Woman Warrior at 30](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/memoir_week/2007/03/the_woman_warrior_at_30.html),” Slate. 
3. [Bill Moyers Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston](http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05252007/transcript1.html), 2007, PBS. 

Overview

Maxine Hong Kingston’s *The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among the Ghosts* (1976) weaves together elements from traditional Chinese folktales and incidents from the author’s experiences or family stories in five interconnected chapters. These chapters follow the lives of several women while they lived in China and/or after immigration to the United States: Kingston, her mother Brave Orchid, and her aunts, Moon Orchid and No Name Woman. Kingston, a first-generation Chinese-American, was born in Stockton, California, in 1940. The book uses recurring consideration of voices, stories, and ghosts to develop its various themes, including the transmission of culture across generations and the importance of gender and memory to the immigrant experience. *The Woman Warrior* won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of the top nonfiction books of the 1970s by *Time*. This source set includes photographs and other items useful for exploring the book’s context, contents, and impact.

English

*The Woman Warrior* by Maxine Hong Kingston

woman-warrior-maxine-hong-kingston_13_aa219cc1ab2ad97f767988c6ee41b660.jpg

Courtesy of UC Santa Barbara, Special Collections via California Digital Library.

“Committee for true representation of China,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/9f99dfe2074adb2a40125f73d1f2ce54.

A poster by the Committee for True Representation of China for a protest rally in San Jose, California, 1974.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 13 of 15 in the Primary Source Set The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston