Hong kingston's The Woman Warrior : Culture and Talk-stories

The Woman Warrior:Memoirs of a Girlhood

Among Ghosts

Maxine Hong-Kingston

Who are You?

A. I define myself with one culture

B. I define myself with more than one culture

I define m

yself w

ith one ...

I define m

yself w

ith m

or...

0%0%

Conflicting Cultures

• Culture

• Context

• High Context=China

• Low Context=United States

High Context Culture• Information comes from

-obedience to authority-observation-imitation

• Children are carefully trained• High Context Cultures are

--stable--rooted--slow to change

The U.S is a high context culture

A. TrueB. False

True

False

0%0%

Individual in these Cultures…

• Must know what is unexpressed

• Understand without detailsas explanations are insulting

The Bonds are strong

• Authority = responsibility

• No scapegoats

• Forms are important

• No individuality, minor disagreements or personality clashes

Clash of Cultures

• Mothers expect obedience from daughters--assume knowledge is innate

• In the U.S.—Warnings and instructions are

not supported

• Maxine’s conflict

Why don’t Brave Orchid and Maxine understand each other?

A. Brave Orchid is out of touch with reality

B. Brave Orchid doesn’t understand Maxine’s American culture doesn’t support her Chinese cultural values

C. Maxine is being stubborn refuses to listen Bra

ve O

rchid is

out of t

...

Brave

Orch

id doesn’t u

n...

Maxin

e is being s

tubborn

...

33% 33%33%

Talk Story• Oral tradition

• Passed on through generations

• Essential to family and community

Hong Kingston’s Talk Stories

• Overlapping

• Joint authorship

• Informal turn taking

*Strongly criticized

’You must not tell anyone,’ my mother said, ‘What I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself’”

“we have to do more than record myth. [. . .]The way I keep the old Chinese myths alive is by telling them in a new American way”.

Hong Kingston’s Methods

• Narrating parallel stories of different women from different times and places.

• Creating versions of both Eastern and Western fables.

• Presenting multiple versions of female ancestors.

• Dreaming up fantastical accounts.

Hong Kingston is highly regarded for her use of talk story

A. TrueB. False

True

False

50%50%

Storyteller and Biographer• Different women/times but similar

stories

• Five chapters reveal different traits

• Intertextuality

• Woman Warrior?

Two sets of traits

Weakness, passivity, voicelessnessvs.

Strength, action power and voice

• Woman Warriors are not born

• Pluralism/multiplicity

Works Cited

Black and white drawing of Chinese men. Logo. Chinoperl.osu.edu. 16 Oct 2013. Web.

Chan, Lai Sai Acón. “Talk Story of The Woman Warrior.” Researchgate.net. 12 Oct. 2013.

“Lady white.” Mystoryonline.com. 16 Oct. 2013. Web.

Lea Baechler and A. Walton Litz, eds, “Maxine Hong Kingston,” Modern American Women Writers, (NY: Scribner, 1991) 257.

Melani, Lilia.”Amy Tan: ‘The Joy Luck Club’”. Core Curriculum 10.07. City University New York. 13 Dec. 2004.

14 October 2013. Web.

Painting of Chinese rider on horse. 16 Oct 2013. https

://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNNIB2vCF9oGpPHMZPBO8FNbiIaSQFBJ0QkC5dJL3aX-k_sKKb. Web.

Painting of Mountains. 16 Oct 2013.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQy6ZDFd-Nrg4LFwnTrfH9132oTSTdTWeXx6OENCHe4yMQ4dfzQD

g

. Web.

Photo of Live Oak Trees. Lukemcreynolds.com . 16 Oct 2013. Web.

Photoshop template of Asian girl. Jpeg image. Fbox.org. 16 Oct 2013. Web.

“silence1”. Photo. Genderacrossborders.com 16 Oct 2013. Web.

“US-China-Flag.” Picture. Veteranstoday.com . 16 Oct. 2013. Web.

Yoshitoshi, Tsukioka. “Incomparable Woman Warrior: Han Gaku”. Painting. Flickr.com . 16 Oct. 2013. Web.