China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
**Overview of "China Men" by Maxine Hong Kingston**
"China Men" is a seminal work by Maxine Hong Kingston that explores the experiences of her male Chinese ancestors who immigrated to America. Through a blend of folklore, historical narrative, and personal reflection, Kingston seeks to challenge the predominant Eurocentric narratives of American history by highlighting the contributions and struggles of Chinese immigrants. The book begins with "Our Fathers," where Kingston invites readers to consider the rich tapestry of her family's history and the broader Chinese immigrant experience.
One significant theme is the marginalization faced by Chinese men in America, illustrated through the story of Tang Ao, a figure representing the emasculation that resulted from racism and the societal roles imposed upon them. The narrative also addresses systemic injustices, including discriminatory laws that excluded Chinese immigrants from family reunification and basic rights, culminating in a stark portrayal of their labor on projects like the transcontinental railroad.
Kingston’s recounting of her family's journey—from her great-grandfather's arduous work on a sugar plantation to her father's aspirations and eventual disillusionment—underscores the complex interplay of hope and despair throughout generations. The work concludes on a contemplative note, recognizing the duality of being a Chinese American citizen amidst the questioning moral landscape of American culture. Overall, "China Men" serves as a vital exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on personal narratives.
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Subject Terms
China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
First published: 1980
The Work
InChina Men, Maxine Hong Kingston tells the stories of her male relatives who came to America. The opening chapter, “Our Fathers,” signals her intention to embrace the community of Chinese immigrants. She challenges readers to reconsider the Eurocentric version of American history by bringing to their attention the contributions of Chinese to the building of America.
Kingston weaves her narrative from a poetic association of folklore, fantasy, and fact. In “On Discovery,” she relates a Chinese legend: the arrival in North America of Tang Ao during the reign of the Empress Wu (694-705). Captured and forced to become a transvestite, feet bound, face powdered and rouged, ears studded with jade and gold, Tang Ao was forced to serve meals to the court. The bewildering experience of this precursor is a metaphor for the emasculation of Chinese men in America as racism disempowered them, forcing them to perform women’s tasks: laundering and cooking.
In America, Kingston’s forefathers find themselves off center as they are marginalized by U.S. laws. A chapter on laws, in the middle of China Men, documents the legislation and court decisions that, beginning in 1868, systematically excluded Chinese immigrants from normal treatment until 1958. Particularly dehumanizing was the law prohibiting the immigration of the wives and children of Chinese men working in America.
Through the portraits of her many forefathers, Kingston describes a multitude of immigration experiences. Great-grandfather Bak Goong sails to Hawaii in the hold of a ship and works for endless years under the whip on a sugar plantation. His dream of saving enough money to reach Gold Mountain is a mirage. The story of grandfather Ah Goong details the courage and skills of the Chinese who built the most difficult and dangerous section of the transcontinental railroad. They worked for lower wages and endured longer hours than white laborers but were denied the right to own property and become citizens. Nevertheless, Ah Goong prophesies: “We’re marking the land now. The tracks are numbered.”
Kingston’s father, Baba, a man of scholarly accomplishment in China, enters America full of hope, only to be reduced to washing other people’s clothes. Then, demonstrating the changing status of the Chinese in America after World War II, his son, drafted into the U.S. Navy to serve in the Vietnam War, receives the highest level of security clearance. “The government was certifying that the family was really American, not precariously American but super-American.” Kingston’s brother declines the invitation to attend language school, however, because he fears his improved Chinese will be used by intelligence to “gouge Viet Cong eyes, cattleprod their genitals.”
Kingston thus ends her chronicle of Chinese American history on a questioning note. The Chinese American is now a full citizen but must share in all that is questionable in American culture.
Bibliography
Broner, E. M. Review in Ms. IX (August, 1980), p. 28.
Chan, Jeffrey Paul, et al., eds. The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Cheung, King-Kok. “The Woman Warrior Versus the Chinaman Pacific: Must a Chinese American Critic Choose Between Feminism and Heroism?” In Conflicts in Feminism, edited by Marianne Hirsch and Evelyn Fox Keller. New York: Routledge, 1990. Considering sexual politics in the contexts of the immigration experience and racial relations in the United States, the author questions not only the use of antifeminist heroism to combat racism but also the reification of feminism per se. Observing that Kingston reveals similarities between the sufferings of Chinese men under racism and those of Chinese women under sexism, Cheung calls for negotiation rather than opposition between feminism and heroism.
Gray, Paul. Review in Time. CXV (June 30, 1980), p. 67.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. “Talk with Mrs. Kingston.” Interview by Timothy Pfaff. The New York Times Book Review, June 18, 1980, 1, 26-27.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. “San Francisco’s Chinatown: A View from the Other Side of Arnold Genthe’s Camera,” in American Heritage. XXX (December, 1978), pp. 36-47.
Li, David Leiwei. “China Men: Maxine Hong Kingston and the American Canon.” American Literary History 2 (Fall, 1990): 482-502. An in-depth analysis of China Men as a work that engages major issues in the formation of the American literary canon. The term “China men” is placed on equal footing with “the American Adam” to highlight how, in and against the American grain, Kingston has revised and expanded the horizons of American literature.
Neubauer, Carol E. “Developing Ties to the Past: Photography and Other Sources of Information in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men.” MELUS 10, no. 4 (Winter, 1983): 17-36. An evaluation of the various sources used in the writing of China Men; discusses how the mixture of fact and fiction contributes to “autobiographical truth.”
Pfaff, Timothy. “Talk with Mrs. Kingston,” in The New York Times Book Review. LXXXV (June 15, 1980), pp. 1, 26.
Rabine, Leslie W. “No Lost Paradise: Social Gender and Symbolic Gender in the Writings of Maxine Hong Kingston.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12, no. 3 (Spring, 1987): 471-492. Distinguishing between symbolic (psychoanalytic) and socioeconomic approaches to gender theory, Rabine argues that their differences are reconciled in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and China Men, where gender dichotomies are transformed into a proliferation of “gender arrangements” rooted in the social experience of the Chinese who crossed cultural boundaries,
Wakeman, Frederick. “Chinese Ghost Story,” in The New York Review of Books. XXVII (August 14, 1980), pp. 42-44.
Wang, Alfred S. “Maxine Hong Kingston’s Reclaiming of America: The Birthright of the Chinese American Male.” South Dakota Review 26, no. 1 (Spring, 1988): 18-29. An analysis of China Men with close attention to social and historical contexts, the essay points out three distinctive patterns of emasculation of the China men, and argues that the book is an assertion of their birthright as Americans.