Who Am I?--Kingston's Searching For Identity

Maxine Hong Kingston is the most distinguished Chinese American writer in contemporary American literature. Like many Chinese American women, she is positioned as a "double outsider" by both the mainstream culture and the Chinese American patriarchic culture. The process of finding her identity, therefore, is not only difficult but also important.The year 1976 witnesses the publication of Kingston's The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, a book that changes forever the face and statue of contemporary Chinese American literature. This book depicts the anger and frustration of a young girl striving to find her identity. In her next book China Men, Kingston lends her narrative voice to the collective Chinese American community, and makes special efforts to claim her forefathers' epical achievements in the building of America. Tripmaster Monkey centers on a young, literary-minded Chinese American young man's odyssey for the renascence of his culture.A common thread that runs through these three books is the discovering and reconstructing of identity. For a marginalized ethnic woman, the first step towards identification is to articulate her suppressed voice. Kingston's articulation, however, draws immediate criticism from such Chinese American writers as Frank Chin and Jeffery Paul Chan. In order to advocate her voice, Kingston invents an original writing technique-"talk-story", by transforming Chinese classics and legends into American context. With this sword of words, Kingston fights against the injustices done to her and her family and creates a tentative Chinese American identity.