The Woman Warrior

Kingston’s The Woman Warrior has many stories that certainly appeal to me on a personal level. But out of all of them, it was the emphasis on family and the difference in cultures that directly affected me. The other things—the oppression of Chinese females, the heroic figures, and the underlying air of prejudice, all seemed to go into one ear and out of the other without consideration. I have read plenty of books dealing with heroes of all cultures and races and the oppression of certain groups of people. Instead of making this book about any of the aforementioned subjects, I chose to pick out certain examples that Kingston uses in her book to relate back to my life. I can easily identify with her struggle to discover herself as a Chinese-American.

1 Chinese American

Growing up in my household for about the first 10 years of my life, everything was dictated by my parents and family. Whatever they told me was gold. When they told me that the reason why I couldn’t get a dog was because it would maul me and my little brother, I believed them. And when they told me that I’d end up poor and impoverished if I didn’t finish every grain of rice in bowl at the dinner table, I would believe them. Everything that I did had to be governed in a specific way, or else I would be heavily punished. When an elder such as my grandfather, grandmother, aunt, or uncle came into a room or when I walked into a room with them in it, I was expected to address them individually by their proper titles. Regardless of how many people there were to address, it was mandated or else I would receive a swift beating from the dreaded bamboo stick conveniently and strategically located in an accessible location in each room. A simple “Hey guys” would never suffice. It’s really no wonder or surprise to me that receiving a bowl of rice with only one hand would result in a form of punishment: “A preoccupied child who took his bowl with one hand got a sideways glare.”(Kingston 11)

2 Oops,

Even though some of Kingston’s stories and examples such as the villager raid and old fashioned antagonist mother seem far-fetched, they really are not. In the old Chinese belief, everything on heaven and earth was governed by a natural law. Out of the many, one of these is that the family must always maintain unity regardless of what happens.

Breaking any of these laws would result in severe punishment and this was accepted by everyone. A common representation of unity in the family and in the Chinese culture is a circle with a square hole in the middle. The circular part represents the “whole” of everything, and the square represents the family. On each side of the square, a family member exists to carry out a specific task. This shape is briefly mentioned in the book:

The round moon cakes and round doorways, the round tables of graduated sizes that fit one roundness inside another, round windows and rice bowls—these talismans had lost their power to warn this family of the law: a family must be whole…”(Kingston, 13)

It was not until sometime during my freshman year of high school that my mom and dad finally took me aside to explain why I was raised the way I was. Like the “antagonist” mother in the book, my parents raised me on a set of certain ancient Chinese beliefs so I can carry on my culture. They warned me that in the upcoming years of my life, I would feel a kind of disconnection that would separate me from being both American and Chinese. They called it “being torn between east and west.”

In retrospect, I thank my family for raising me the way I was raised. As of today, I don’t really seem to care to belong to either the Chinese, American, or Chinese-American crowds. I am just myself. And I am able to choose specific things out of different cultures to apply to my personal being.