From Silence To Song

The general topic in Chinese American immigrant literature is the interplay within the double consciousness of Chinese Americans. In The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston explores the dilemma of the Chinese American immigrants' straddling in two cultures. In talking Chinese stories, Maxine breaks the stereotyped silence; in transforming and displacing Fa Mu Lan's story into an American myth, she in effect accomplishes her cultural mission of converting the gender and race hurt into the hope of Chinese American immigrants; in the song of Ts'ai Yen at the end of the book, Maxine eventually finds a reconciliation of the Chinese and mainstream cultural reintegration.