The Role-Play of Chinese Women - Research Paper Example

The role play of Chinese woman, from the past till the present. The woman warrior is a brilliant book written Maxine Hong Kingston. The story is based on five women namely Fa Mu Lan; a mythical female warrior, Brave Orchid; Kingston’s mother; Moon Orchid, Kingston’s ; NO Name Woman, Kingston’s aunt; and Kingston herself. The moving stories are told in five chapters. These chapters incorporate Kingston’s experience with a number of talk-stories. These stories are told in a style that integrates Chinese myths, history and beliefs, which her mother narrates to her (Dickson 12). The first chapter, No Name Woman starts with a clever talk story about an Aunt Maxine Kingston had no idea whether she even existed. As the story weaves its self using the narrator’s voice, we learn that Kingston’s aunt killed herself and baby by way throwing herself into the family well. This was primed on the stifling knowledge that her aunt had begotten an illegitimate child out of wed lock. Getting a child out of wed lock was something that was prohibited in the Chinese culture, therefore, when one become such a victim was perceived an outcast, and thought to have brought disgrace to her family. Ideally, when Kingston had this story from her mother, it dawns on Kingston that she is not supposed to utter the name of her aunt by all standards. She thus decides to confine the memory of her aunt in her imagination only. In the same context, Kingston manages to rekindle the terrible experience of her aunt giving birth in a pigsty, but no one bothers to give her gifts as it is with the Chinese culture, after one gives birth (Kingston 12). The second chapter White Tigers is concerned with another story talk about the mythical female hero Fa Mu Lan. Fa Mu Lan. This story is told through first person narration. Fa Mu Lan practices thoroughly to become a hero when is only seven years old. He captains over men by way of pretending to be a man herself. She does this with a view to fighting against corrupt tycoon and monarch. After Fa Mu Lan wars are completed, she commits herself to the roles of both a wife and a mother. This revelation provides a sharp dissimilarity between Ha Mu Lan and Kingston different lives. Kingston stayed in America which had visible vestiges of racism. Her bosses were purely racist, and there was no she could stand up to them. So the resolutely resorted to fighting them using her own words as the sole weapon (Dickson 13). The third chapter threads through Kingston’s mother, Brave Orchid, and her senile traditional life back in China. Kingston’s mother was very influential doctor, midwife. Going by the story her mother was also a destroyer of ghosts. To Kingston, her mother’s past is as incredible as it is petrifying. Brave Orchid’s tales she regaled to her about the Chinese babies left to die; child traffic involving young girls disturb Kingston for many eons (Kingston 34). Towards the end of the chapter, Kingston comes home after being away for many years. Eventually, the two reconcile and mend holes that dented on their relationship after disagreeing and disputing over certain issues for a long time. The fourth chapter At the Western Palace is based on another of Brave Orchid’s talk-stories. These talk stories touch on the subject of an emperor who had married two wives. This story is somewhat intoned with analogy for Kingston’s sister Moon Orchid. When you delve dipper into the story, you learn that Moon Orchid’s husband, an accomplished doctor based in Los Angeles, had left her back in China and married a second wife in America. She goes later to America to claim her due as his wife. She hardly knows any English. Furthermore, things worsen for and she left to provide for herself in America. In the end, Moon Orchid goes mad and succumbs to her illness in a California state mental hospital (Kingston 145). Lastly, the final chapter A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe is matter of factly a memoir. This story talks in great lengths about Kingston herself and her experiences. This part is based on Kingston’s childhood and teenage life. It also speaks congruently about her anger and frustration with view to expressing herself, and an attempt at trying without success to please her mother, who comes out as quite an unappreciative. In as fundamental moment in this chapter, Kingston, after failing to express the outburst of her feelings, forms with inchoate anger, and thus explodes with frustration at her mother, whereupon she unlashes a flood criticisms and complaints at her mother. In the end, however, Kingston finally recognizes the stories her mother regaled to her, when she was growing up (Row 10). There are similarities between Hong Kingston and her mouth. Looking clearly at the two women, you can conclude that the two are brilliant, as the same time gifted storytellers. Maxine Hong recounts the way her mother used to regale her with stories that she used in her creative manner to tell a tale, as way of expressing herself. For example, Kingston uses her own encounters with Chinese traditions and cultures to tell her own tales. Kingston and her mother seem both to have knack for secrecy. Despite this cumbersome weight of secrecy, they both choose to keep it a secret in some things. For instance, Brave Orchid, seeming with shame, authorizes her daughter not to tell anyone about the story of her aunt, No Name Woman, who became impregnated through engaging herself in an adulterous relationship. This act had embarrassed their family after the villagers found out. He father tells Kingston that her father does not to hear the name being mentioned, because it angers him greatly. The other her mother prohibits her from uttering the name is because, No Name Woman tainted the family name by giving birth outside wedlock. So her family resorted to punishing her by stashing her name in secrecy, and by erasing her name from their memory. Kingston also carry’s herself with an air of secrecy. She does not reveal her feminine sexuality to anyone for fear of consequences thereof. She regards the precautions about what her mother told her about promiscuity only as a cautionary tale. Additionally, Kingston mother is well educated as her daughter. She went to school in China and trained as a nurse, while her daughter went to America for her further studies (Kingston 100). Kingston in his book, it appears, wants to free herself from manacles that chain her. In this respect, these manacles have a symbolic interpretation of the rigid Chinese culture. She is determined to get rid of them, but her adamant mother want her to adhere strictly to the prescriptions of Chinese cultures and traditional. When her mother told her the story about her Aunt No Name Woman, was a warning to her against any promiscuity. But the cultures between America were completely different, with America coming out as more cosmopolitan than China which still reels from strict cultural practices amid other things. At a great length, No Name Woman has a symbolic interpretation of Brave Orchid’s trepidation towards American Culture. Brave Orchid had once tried to acknowledge the American way of life, but she was nevertheless perpetually worried by the marginalization against women back in China. This made her prone to fear that Kingston would surrender to the social pressures associated with being an American teenager. Additionally, this story was to Kingston to adhere to Chinese morals. However, this story told to Maxine Hong only served to terrorize her, at the same time sidetrack Hong from the Chinese cultures because of vestiges of disgust and confusion (Row 11). Being an American citizen herself Maxine Hong found no reason is sideling a woman because of her infidelity. The ghosts that haunted her were the stringent Chinese cultural values and morals. Kingston thoughtfully decided to free herself from these ghosts by using written word as her sole weapon. Ideally, when one is raised in a culture different from it more often presents a different point of view. Maxine Hong Kingston masterfully integrates the phenomenal storytelling in China with her present and past knowledge in the United States. By doing so, she is cleverly able to point out using different angles issues of culture clash. She is also able to address issues concerning the roles that women play in the society. She also presents marvelously the general resistance exhibited towards cultural change. In the same context, she addresses these issues in flow of consciousness arrangement which allows her disappear in and out of setting without officially notifying the reader (Napikoski 13). In America where Kingston went to school, she encountered vestiges of challenges. Ideally, she at first thought that some cultural methods of doing things were undermining her sense of self-worth. Since he thought that she was somewhat misunderstood, she resorted to keeping quite. By way of doing this, she somewhat formed a protective wall around herself. She was solely bent on this deep silence, despite it being a lonesome and a dejected escape, because she thought it was better than the frustration she received when she spoke. The American community had tendencies of misunderstanding her. Her mother too was a cause of frustration for Kingston, more often than not; her mother compelled her, although she felt reluctant, to translate to non-Chinese speaker, which in most cases resulted in embarrassment. While in China, Kingston was challenged by the rigid Chinese cultural practices and traditions (Nostro 1). Kingston’s mother Brave Orchid was faced with a culture shock when she and her husband migrated to the United States. They left behind in China very lucrative jobs, and since jobs never interpret between cultures, they landed on manual jobs in the United States, different from their distinguished jobs. They felt completely separated from American culture. This vestige of cultural alienation gave them the idea that their neighbors were ghosts, because they did things way too far different from them (Kingston 67). Brave Orchid is a master story teller no doubt. She is overly concerned by her daughter welfare, and silences her with a view to making her eloquent. Brave Orchid does this because she wants her daughter to spell well. Her adeptly told stories serves as buffer against her daughter Kingston fancy that is primed on sexy things she hear most of the time from other emigrants. In the Woman Warrior a lot more can be said about tradition being a basis for both pride and discomfiture. Brave Orchid values old Chinese values with certain alacrity. In the same context, Brave Orchid passes off as the bastion of tradition. Kingston mother does not recognize her exemplary performance at school, or her ambition to become a scientist. Brave Orchid rather tells her daughter matter of factly to imitate other neighborhood girls who have informal jobs as typists. Given, the differences Kingston and her mother often led to disagreement and conflict. Brave Orchid comes out as a selfish. She only wants things done according to her way (Kingston 104). While reading The Woman Warrior, it emerges that women are seen in the Chinese culture and tradition as objects of getting children, and attending to their needs of their husbands on their whims. It appears that Chinese women were deprived of all freedoms and rights. In most cases, women were chosen their husbands by their parents. In the book, Kingston parents almost had chosen her a husband. They never appreciated her love for education, and or ambition to succeed. They thought that it was befitting for Hong Kingston to not advance his education but instead get married. There were traces of discrimination against women. There was gender equality. This clearly emerges when wrongs such as adultery, and or infidelity are only directly linked to women who face such consequences. For instance, when No Name Woman was found with the wrong of infidelity, she was stigmatized against by her community. Clearly, nothing was, or rather no action was taken against the woman she was associated with. In the present, we now see that Chinese are allowed equality as same as those of their male counterparts. For instance, Kingston’s noble decision to fight her silence with word demonstrates that he had chosen to emancipate herself self from the old Chinese cultures and practices. In sum Chinese are enjoying equal opportunities that the economy avails (Nostro 2). Work cited Row, Jess. “Maxine Hong Kingston’s Secrets and Lies.” Slate 27 Mar.2007: 10-11. Print. Nostro, Rit. “Changing Role of Women in China.” Hyperhistory Nov. 2001: 1-2. Print Napikoski, Linda. “The Woman Warrior.” Women’s History Apr. 2006: 13. Print Dickson, Cohen. “The Genius of Maxine Kingston.” Rev. of The Woman Warrior, ed. Sharon Lucas. New York Times 24 Feb. 1990: 12-13. Print. Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print Read More