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1、（1988） after returning to California with her husband. In 1990, Kingston began teaching at Berkeley.received wide praised from critics and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. Its appeal cut across a wide variety academic disciplines, attracting both those interested in postmod

2、ern techniques of autobiography and those interested in stories of cultural displacement and alienation. For scholars of autobiography, Kingstons story represents an important break from past writings; her complex, multi-layered and quasi- fictional narrative flies in the face of traditional autobio

3、graphies, which tend to follow a linear-chronological pattern and maintain a stable narratoran Ithroughout. Kingstons memoir, on the other hand, is a blending of voices and styles, often contradictory, that use many of the techniques of postmodernism: ambiguity, incoherence, pluralism, and irony.Kin

4、gston has received some criticism for purporting to represent the typical experience of Chinese-Americans, and in other cases for taking traditional material and changing it to suit her own needs. One source of the latter criticism is the story of Fa Mu Lan, a traditional Chinese myth about a girl w

5、ho took the place of her father in battle. In the White Tigers section ofThe Woman WarriorKingston adds and incorporates elements from other myths to create an entirely new fantasy from the story of Fa Mu Lan. For her part, Kingston claims that she never intended such stories to be either representa

6、tive or accurate. Furthermore, we must keep in mind thatis not a chronicle of Chinese culture or traditions, but simply a reflection of the experience of one Chinese-American far removed from the culture and traditions about which she is writing.Though Kingstons work may not be universally represent

7、ative, it does offer a glimpse into the realities of life for many Chinese emigrants to America and their children. As early as the 1840s, Chinese immigrants had been arriving in America in search of better lives, driven from their home country by widespread poverty and attracted by possibilities in

8、 the new American West. However, like many other ethnic groups entering America at the time, the immigrants faced social, economic, and legal discrimination that limited their rights and opportunities, keeping most of them living together in pockets of Chinese communities such as the area in Stockto

9、n where Kingston grew up. Women such as Brave Orchid, who had once been a doctor in her own country, were forced to toil in sweatshops or become laundry workerssome of the few jobs available to Chinese-Americans well into the twentieth century.Kingstons memoir finds its way onto the syllabi of many

10、womens studies courses for the gender issues it raises, especially regarding the role of women in traditional Chinese society. Brave Orchid embodies an archetypal Chinese attitude of self-denial and self-abnegation for the good of the communitythe very qualities that No-Name Woman lacks. Kingstons m

11、emoir is further peppered with references to the subjugation of women in Chinese culture and tradition, such as the oft-repeated phrase better to have geese than girls.is as much about Kingstons finding voice and strength as an independent woman within this tradition, and how to reconcile the notion

12、 of Chinese wife-slave with the talk-stories about swordswomen and shamans.Thougheasily stands on its own, Kingston did intend it to be read in conjunction withChina Men,her companion piece published four years later. While the first work tells the stories of the important women in Kingstons life, w

13、ith the men relegated to the background, the second focuses on Kingstons father, and thus completing the picture of Kingstons childhood. Kingston also believes that she finds more of a voice inand that in order to appreciateit is helpful to read what she feels is her more accomplished text. Still, i

14、t is the first memoir that usually appears on high school and college syllabi or in anthologies. The most popular chapters in anthologies tend to be the first two, and White Tigers.focuses on the stories of five womenKingstons long-dead aunt, ; a mythical female warrior, Fa Mu Lan; Kingstons mother,

15、 Brave Orchid;s aunt, Moon Orchid; and finally Kingston herselftold in five chapters. The chapters integrate Kingstons lived experience with a series of talk-storiesspoken stories that combine Chinese history, myths, and beliefsher mother tells her.The first chapter, No-Name Woman, begins with one s

16、uch talk-story, about an aunt Kingston never knew she had. Because this aunt had brought disgrace upon her family by having an illegitimate child, she killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well in China. After hearing the story, which is told to her as a warning, Kingston is never a

17、llowed to mention her aunt aloud again, so she decides to create a history of her aunt in her memoir. She imagines the ways that her aunt attracted a suitor, comparing her aunts actions of quiet rebellion against the community to her own rebellion. Kingston also recreates her aunts horrible experien

18、ce of giving birth in a pigsty and imagines her aunts ghost walking around with no one to give it gifts, as was Chinese custom. In the end, Kingston is unsure whether she is doing justice to her aunts memory or just serving her own needs. is based on another talk-story, one about the mythical female

19、 warrior Fa Mu Lan. Fa Mu Lan, whose story is told through Kingstons first-person narrative, trains to become a warrior from the time she is seven years old, then leads an army of meneven pretending to be a man herselfagainst the forces of a corrupt baron and emperor. After her battles are over, she

20、 returns to be a wife and mother. The story of Fa Mu Lan is contrasted sharply with Kingstons own life in America, in which she can barely stand up to her racist bosses. Kingston realizes, however, that her weapons are her words.Shaman focuses on Kingstons mother, Brave Orchid, and her old life back

21、 in China. Brave Orchid was a powerful doctor, midwife, and, according to the talk-story, destroyer of ghosts back in her village. To a young Kingston, Brave Orchids past is as astounding as it is terrifying, and many of the images from her mothers talk-storyChinese babies left to die, slave girls b

22、eing bought and sold, a woman stoned to death by her villagershaunt Kingstons dreams for years to come. At the end of the chapter, Maxine visits her mother after being away for many years. The two arrive at some kind of understanding after many years of disagreement and conflict, and Brave Orchid is

23、 warm and affectionate towards her daughter for the first time in the memoir.The title of At the Western Palace refers to another of Brave Orchids talk-stories, about an emperor who had four wives. It is an analogy for her sister Moon Orchids situation: Moon Orchids husband, now a successful Los Ang

24、eles doctor, had left her behind in China and remarried in America. Brave Orchid urges her sister into a disastrous confrontation with the man to demand her due as his wife. As a result, Moon Orchid, who does not speak a word of English, is left to fend for herself in America. She eventually goes cr

25、azy and dies in a California state mental asylum.The final chapter of the memoir, A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, is about Kingston herself. This section focuses mainly on her childhood and teenage years, depicting her anger and frustration in trying to express herself and attempting to please an

26、unappreciative mother. There are a number of characters whose personalities highlight many of her Kingstons own characteristics, including a silent Chinese girl whom Kingston torments as a little girl. In a pivotal moment in the chapter, Kingston, after unsuccessfully trying to express her feelings

27、one at a time, erupts at her mother with a torrent of complaints and criticisms. Later in her life, however, Kingston comes to appreciate her mothers talk-stories. At the end of the chapter she even tells one herself: the story of Tsai Yen, a warrior poetess captured by barbarians who returns to the

28、 Chinese with songs from another land. It is a fitting conclusion to a text in which Kingston combines very different worlds and cultures and create a harmony of her own.Character ListMaxine Hong Kingston- The author and narrator ofThe Woman Warrior.Kingston relates both her own memoir and the stori

29、es of women related or linked to her in some way: her mother, her aunt （Moon Orchid）, No-Name Woman, and mythical characters such as Fa Mu Lan. Though Kingston is the narrator, she shares the protagonist role with her mother. Her memories of own life do not figure prominently until the final chapter

30、, in which she grows out of the frustrations of her childhood and finds her own voice.Brave Orchids mother, whose talk-stories about Chinese life and traditions haunt Kingston like ghosts from another world. Brave Orchid is a proud and intelligent woman who comes off as both gentle and cruel in equal parts in the memoir. She appears throughout the book but figures most prominently in Shaman, which depicts her life in China as a doctor and a woman