Rethinking Orientalism: The Woman Warrior Essay

It is true that while Kingston can use irony against the stereotypes of passivity imposed upon Chinese femininity, at other times she seems to use these stereotypes less self-consciously. Her portrayal of her mother calling white people 'ghosts,' and her decision to name her mother Brave Orchid, seem to reflect cultural construction of Oriental women and Asians in general as superstitious and somewhat primitive in their understanding of the world. But there are always intrusions of the modern world that satirize the tendency to render China as exotic and Oriental. The fact that Kingston calls her mother 'Brave Orchid' and her aunt 'Moon Orchid' are less important than the cultural clash that transpires between their ways of life.

The characters in Kingston's work are always recognizably human in the manner in which they illustrate the immigrant experience. Moon Orchid is shown marveling at as well as being horrified by American ways and manners, but much of the dialogue between the two sisters could take between any women, from any culture. The two sisters have contrasting personalities: one is strong, the other is yielding. Moon Orchid is a fragile woman, unable to fend for herself in the West. But although Moon Orchid's former husband tells both her and her sister she belongs to a far-away culture and place, Brave Orchid is steely enough to work long hours in a Laundromat at age sixty-eight, in hundred and eleven degree heat. There is no singular Chinese immigrant experience. Even Moon Orchid's struggles to make a new life for herself, her fear of other immigrants, and eventual institutionalization are not surreal and folkloric, but show how decisions like her husband's bigamous remarriage can have real and tragic consequences.

It is true that Kingston uses aspects of the stories of her family symbolically, and some of her stories have an unreal quality to them. But by assigning the characters fantastic names and admitting she has heard so many of their stories second and third-hand, even when resorting to fantasy she does not speak with the authority of the 'Orientalist' observing the East. Her own Chinese ancestry, as the child of an immigrant, does not necessarily mean that she has perfect psychological insight into her mother's life. Kingston's narrative is at once intensely subjective and personal yet also objective about the limits of her point-of-view.Even while she reflects upon her connection to a heritage larger than her own story, she also acknowledges that when she speaks for her mother, aunt, and the No-Name woman, she is doing so in her own voice, from her own perspective.

The idea of how to speak and the right to be heard in a truthful manner, not seen as a stereotype is at the heart of the book. Kingston admits to her own struggles with the English language, the fear of becoming a silent and passive Chinese girl, while she honors the women of her family. The diversity of women imagined by Kingston suggests that representatives of 'the East' are not part of a monoculture. Chinese women are far more complex than a narrow Orientalist ideology would suggest, and immigrant children like Kingston are always in critical and active dialogue with their environments. The novel acknowledges the divide between the two cultures, West and East, but demonstrates that methods of assimilation are not homogeneous. The Woman Warrior also underlines the commonalities in family conflicts in all cultures. Brave Orchid embraces some aspects of America, but still wishes her daughter to be obedient to her will. Kingston resists, and refuses to behave or marry as her mother wants, but she still must deal with her ancestral legacy. Despite her desire to be unique, the narrator is still part of an existing tradition, even though perceptions of that tradition shift and change with the generations.

References

Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. New York: Vintage, 1989......