Woman Warrior

A picture I found of Kingston portrayed as the story-tale woman warrior, Fa Mu Lan.


Happy New Year guys! I am about a day late, but I am glad to say I am finally finished with The Woman Warrior. I admit, I slacked again during the beginning of the vacation, but it is vacation after all. Overall, I think I would have liked the book more if I did not rush to finish it and also because sometimes I feel that I was trying to analyze a passage that might not be all that important. All in all, it was a good, book, thought slow at times. It has its funny moments and others that touch deeply and go hand in hand with Chinese culture. I did enjoy the book, but I also wished at times it was a faster read. Hopefully if I am lucky I would be able to finish a good amount of the second book before school starts again. I am questioning on the amount of books I am suppose to read. It says two books worth, and since my author is a memoir writer, do I just read two books? I have tried to look for other writings such as essays or articles, but there are very little and I am also unsure of some. Kingston does have a blog, but the last time I checked, there were only two posts. So I am a little confused on where to go next after the other book. Any suggestions?



About the book:
I do feel a little stupid, I reread the title after finishing the book and realized in smaller print under the main title, there was a line that says "Memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts." which I now find very funny. For most of the second half of the book, Kingston used the noun ghosts to refer to any race other than Chinese. Kingston merges and argues for herself growing up as a female in an Asian American family which see women as subordinate to males. I feel that her most important and overarching argument is to establish a place for Asian American females growing up. At the very last moment, Kingston pinpoints a lot of problems that she has with there mother. The culture and beliefs of her Asian parents contrasts so much with that of American culture, that Kingston at first, does not know how to adapt to how to react towards it. Eventually the anger builds, and Kingston discovers on her own, the true meaning of become and Asian American. She is constantly defending the acts of women. At times I feel that Kingston is actually blaming her parents, or Chinese culture in general, for her childhood sufferings and misunderstandings. The book started with Kingston as a young girl just starting menstruation, and goes through her teen life, the part of discovery, and she continues to show herself lost and confused as an Asian and also as an American.

The next book:
I am still debating between reading China Men which is almost a sequel to The Woman Warrior, or Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book. As of now, the second book sounds more interesting because after reading Woman Warrior, I do not want a book that has the same feel towards it considering that both of the choices I have now are three hundred pages plus. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book seems a lot more interesting, not a memoir though comopared to China Men, which is a memoir. But I do believe we are allowed to read fiction and I thought about comparing her roles of women and men, since in Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, the main character is a male Asian American facing stereotypes. What do you guys think?