“A Song for a Barbarian Reedpipe” by Maxine Hong Kingston

Web resources:  Click here for information on the novel, The Woman Warrior, from which our reading is taken prepared by Glendale Community College of Arizona.  Go here for biographical information about Kingston from a “women in modern literature” site.  You can also find an interesting teacher resource guide on Kingston and her works at James Madison University in Virginia.

Background:  Maxine Hong Kingston was born in 1940 in Stockton, CA, the daughter of Chinese immigrants.  Her fiction depicts the struggles of Chinese immigrants to integrate Chinese traditions into their everyday lives in American society.  Many of her stories were influenced by the legends of a Chinese woman, Fa Mu Lan, whose strength and success as a warrior were unusual.  She drew upon such legends in her critically acclaimed autobiographical work, The Woman Warrior, which was filled not only with actual people from her past, but also with characters whose existence she only knew through the stories and traditions handed down in her family.  It garnered a general non-fiction award from the National Book Critics Circle.

Discussion questions:

Why does Kingston discuss the story about her mother cutting her tongue? (184)  What purpose does it server in her narrative?  Do you think her mother “really” did this?  What is a “ghost”?  Can you surmise how “ghosts” function in Chinese culture?  Point to elements of her narrative (e.g., 186, 187?) that suggest this.

Why do you think Kingston had a difficult time speaking in the ghost school?  (184-5) Does she suggest any reason in her narrative for this?  How does she say she handled this matter in the Chinese school (186) she attended after her day at the ghost school?

Why did she cover her paintings with black? (185)  What did her teacher think when she did this?  What does this incident point out to you?

What does Kingston’s discussion of the English way of marking oneself, i.e., with an “I,” (185-6) point out?  Is there something crucial about out cultural heritage for what we take to be our basic identities?

What does the incident of the local druggist’s delivery boy’s mistake reveal about Chinese culture and the clash between cultures?  Notice in particular the way in which “fact” of an eclipse was understood (187).  Why did the mother want Kingston to ask the druggist for candy?  What did the druggist think about the request?  What do these varying attitudes illustrate about the ways in which different cultures “see” the same (?) basic reality? 

What is Kingston saying in her concluding reflections on the differences in “sounds” in the Chinese and American languages and forms of music?  What doe she mean when she claims that she needed to invent an “American-feminine speaking personality”? (189)

How does this selection from Kingston offer any insights into the nature of being human?  Can you discern any relationships to Bonaventure’s basic position?  What does it contribute to your understanding of the “intellectual journey”?