Hero to Some Degree

Perhaps my favorite part of reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior is her beautiful descriptions of the Chinese culture. In my previous post, I discussed how Asian-Americans are losing their identity and their culture in attempts to fully assimilate into American culture.

In my opinion, Kingston can be considered somewhat of a hero with a tragic flaw. Her depictions of the beauty of the Chinese culture in addition to its stark inequalities are moving. However, Kingston, to me, cannot be considered a hero or role model for younger Asians in her loss of her own culture.

The dragon is an important symbol in the Chinese culture. We briefly discussed this in our DB about Gwain and The Green Knight. Kingston beautifully personifies the dragon as one that “lives in the sky, ocean, marshes, and mountains, and the mountains are also its cranium. Its voice thunders and jingles like copper pans. It breathes fire and water; and sometimes the dragon is one, sometimes many” (Kingston 29). Her beautiful characterization of the dragon is powerful because of my affinity for dragons. By describing dragons as one with nature, Kingston encourages me to be more ecologically friendly and more conscious of my affect on destroying nature. Additionally, reading her work causes me to become more in tune with my culture. Dragons are very symbolic to me because I was born in the year of the dragon. Also, every time I think of a dragon, I am reminded of my trips to Hong Kong and China and also of my childhood when I used to go to Chinese New Year celebrations with lion and dragon dances. Even today, I am fascinated with Chinese dragons.

Additionally, Kingston can be considered a hero because of her honesty in her writing. In describing China, she writes “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). However, Kingston admits that not all could become warriors because of the rich-poor gap. “I watched powerful men count their money, and starving men count theirs” (Kingston 30). Thus, Kingston realizes that anyone can be a warrior if they put their mind to it, but one still is constricted by money. For me, this emphasizes my passion and desire to alleviate the world of suffering by quelling the rich-poor gap.

Kingston can be considered a hero because of her writing and way of characterizing Asian women and their struggles. However, Kingston, like Amy Tan, have one tragic flaw in that they married white, Caucasian men. Now, I don’t mean to come off as racist or against inter-racial love. However, I feel that if Kingston is going to write a book about minority women overcoming struggles and talk about preserving their culture, then, marrying outside of the race does nothing to help pass on the culture. In fact, such a child is neither full Chinese nor is it full Caucasian. I do not have a problem with mixed race couples or their offspring, but it seems counterintuitive to the causes she describes in her book. Especially having taken up the last name Kingston, I feel having an “American” name detracts from her credibility.

Nevertheless, Kingston can be considered a hero or at least a role model. Like Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston has portrayed her culture and struggles in a way that the reader can identify with and become more aware about. In that way, Kingston is a role model.