Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston, "Silence"

Maxine Hong Kingston (1940- ) was born in Stockton, California, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She grew up speaking Cantonese and English, and graduated from the University of California with an A.B. in 1962. Her work combines myth and history, folk tale and fact, and is often autobiographical. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976) uses the "talk stories" of her female relatives to tell the tale of her early life. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award. China Men (1980) tells about her male relatives, with a female point of view still prominent. She's also written a novel, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989), with a protagonist bearing a name with a distinctly literary pedigree: Wittman Ah Sing. Her work also appears in periodicals such as the New York Times and Ms. magazine. "Silence," her remembrance about seeking a voice back in grade school, is an excerpt from The Woman Warrior.

CONTENT

1. When did "school become a misery" for this author? What was it like before this point?
2. What distinction does Kingston make between speaking and reading out loud?
3. Why do you think the author refers to her sister as "second-born"?
4. How does the author's experience in her Chinese school differ from that in her American school?
5. Why does the young Kingston believe that her teacher from Hawaii "should have understood about us"?
6. What are some of the differences the author mentions between English words and Chinese ideographs? What effect did these differences have upon her use of language?
7. What reasons can you come up with for the fact that the author's parents "never signed anything unnecessary"? Use specific evidence from the reading in your answer.

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. Kingston uses dialogue quite sparsely in this piece. How can you relate this notion to her presentation of her history of speaking in the classroom?
2. Reread the first and last paragraphs. What is different regarding their timeframe of them as opposed to the timeframe of the body of the essay? Why, do you think, the author made this choice? What effect does it have?
3. In paragraph twelve, the author uses a metaphor to compare her voice to an animate object. What is the object and what is the effect of this comparison?
4. List the types of people mentioned in the first paragraph. Into what category can you put them? Why might have Kingston used this group for her examples?

1. Do you like to speak out in class, or do you wish you were invisible most of the time? How can you relate these feelings with your reading? Is English your first language? Is there any relation to your classroom behavior in that regard?
2. Think about the sound of your own voice. Do you like it? Do you recall hearing it from a recording for the first time? If so, how did you react? How does Kingston use the word voice referring to more than just the physical act of speaking?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. Trace the use of the color black throughout this essay. In what parts of the essay does the author mention black, and to what effect? How does the use change over the course of the essay?
2. Kingston's father poses these questions: "Why is it I can hear Chinese from blocks away? Is it that I understand the language? Or is it they talk loud?" Address and answer them as completely as you can.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Do some research to answer these questions: Statistically, which group of students speaks more in college classrooms, men or women? Is there any evidence to suggest that this trend has changed or is changing over time? Does the subject of the class matter? What role does ethnicity play? Are similar patterns evident in grade school and high school?

WEB CONNECTION

Kingston compares Chinese music to Western music to underline some the difficulties she and others have had in multicultural interactions. Take a visit to this Chinese music archive and listen for a while. If you're not familiar with Chinese music, does this help you understand the essay better? If you are, does this site present a good sampling of the form? Explain in either case.

LINKS

Biographical

Here's a very good general start page about Kingston at Voices From the Gaps. There, you'll find a photo, a biography, two bibliographies, and some links to get your research going.

An interesting way to see the scope of Kingston's work is to browse through the list of her citations at the Library of Congress. What did you find there that you didn't know before your visit?

This blurb draws parallels between Kingston's life and work, making interesting comparisons to the "talk-stories" of her youth and her major writings.

Bibliographical

You can find Kingston reading excerpts from The Women Warrior and China Men by searching here. What do you find interesting about her reading?

You can search for some quotations by Kingston here. Did you come up with one you might be able to use in your own writing?

This is an interview from the journal Manuscript in which Kingston discusses both her familial and literary influences in some depth.

Cultural

If it's important to your research to put Kingston's work into a broad historical context, this wealth of introductory info about Chinese Immigration to the U.S. will provide you with some help.

If it's important to your research to put Kingston's work into a literary context, check out these Chinese Mythology links.

Would you like to focus on one Chinese heroine? This is an annotated FAQ with links about Mulan, a character which you probably already know something about.

Interested in what other Kingston enthusiasts have to say? Here is a message board discussing Kingston's life and work.