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Title: China Men by MAXINE HONG KINGSTON ISBN: 0-679-72328-5 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.22 (18 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Bridging the Chinese and American heritage
Comment: China Men, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, is a novel that addresses the meaning of being Chinese American. Each chapter and section of the book is a separate story concerning Chinese history written from many different perspectives. The stories include old Chinese folktales, families in China that send their men to America and Hawaii, Chinese from the mainland living in Hong Kong, first generation Chinese families in America, the children of those families, and so on. The connection between each chapter is hard to grasp, although it is important to realize that it is based on many generations and relatives of one family. The complexity of Kingston's writing style not only is impressive, but also makes China Men a good book to read more then once.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Chinese perspective of the American History
Comment: The book China Men, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, is a book that is written to describing serious of historical events in Kingston's perspective. This book is consists of many short stories about Kingston's relatives that have had the experiences of struggling as new immigrants on the "Gold Mountain". One interesting point about this book is that the incidents described in this book are purely collective information and stories heard and gathered by Kingston. She does not have the experiences of immigrating into America as her father, grandfather and great grandfather did. The stories that she had heard from her relatives are told from the perspectives of Chinese immigrants. Imagine how an event can be depicted through the eyes of a group of ethically raised Chinese, and then the event is then interpreted through the ears of a Chinese-American, and now written as a book for people with any backgrounds to interpret. Kingston has written a novel explaining the situations of Chinese immigrants that are not much different from a history text, and the only difference between them is that Chine Men views the history from a different perspective. The reason why I like this book is because I found this book very humane. In each of the stories with the father going to the Gold Mountain for the gold rush, the grandfather going to Sierra Nevada Mountain to construct the railroad, the great grandfather going to the Sandalwood Mountain to work in the fields and even the brother going to Vietnam during the Vietnam war, personal feelings and insights along with the descriptions of the situation that they had experienced. Each character in this book had to go through many different physical hardships as well as internal obstacles. This book showed how the Chinese immigrants had contributed to the development of the American industries. As grandfather had stated, "No China Men, no railroad"(140). Not only were the significance of the contributions were acknowledge, but the process of how America has shaped the Chinese immigrants as well. Another thing that made become fond of this book is because the terminology and Chinese ethics used do not easily confuse. Between each chapter, Kingston has wisely included additional information or side stories that would supplement to the moralities and ethics discussed in the stories. All in all, China Men is a historical novel that reflects the views and ethics of the Chinese immigrants.
Rating: 4
Summary: A fascinating jumble of memoir, fable, and reporting
Comment: In China Men, Kingston took me on a ride all over the literary landscape. In general, I thought her book was an interesting tossed salad of memoir, fable, reporting, and poetry. As a reader, it reminded me of a scrapbook of family stories, newspaper articles, heritage legends -- all assembled in one place.
Interestingly, Kingston begins the book with two distinctive chapters. Unlike the rest of the book, these two chapters are relatively homogenous, sticking with one form, voice, structure and tone throughout. The first chapter is the fable of the Land of Women. I didn?t understand this chapter until the last sentences, when it seemed as though Kingston was saying that coming to North America emasculated the Chinese men who made the journey to the Gold Mountain.
If Kingston?s main theme is that the journey to North America emasculated the Chinese Men, then from a reader?s perspective I?m not sure if the book delivers on this promise. To put a fable with a very obvious moral at the beginning of the book seems to me to set up a contract with the reader about the subject or theme of the book. Although, Kingston explores many different aspects of the Chinese experience in North America, and even starts to explore the ways that China Men were oppressed, I?m not sure she completely proves her case in my mind. I could be wrong, however.
Interestingly, the second chapter of the book is another short one, this time a nearly pure piece of memoir. Alone, this chapter seems to set up the author?s own relationship with Chinese men. By mistaking another man for her father, she seems to be saying from the beginning of the book that from her perspective Chinese men are nearly interchangeable. But interestingly, she isn?t the only one who makes the mistake. All the children in that scene mistake the strange man for their father. I like this chapter placed here because it contrasts nicely with the fable/story in the first chapter. The first chapter is told at a distance by a storyteller/narrator. The second chapter is told first person from our main narrator?s voice.
Kingston returns to this theme several more times in the book. On page 217, she remarks that one of her Uncles looks just like her father. Interestingly, Uncle Bun is also completely forgotten, erased from her sister?s memory only a few years after he leaves. Kingston often hints at how distant and interchangeable the China Men were to her and to the women of her family. At other times she explores her narrator?s perceptions that China Men have no heart, no emotions.
One of Kingston?s greatest strengths, in my opinion, is her ability to weave in all sorts of other stories into the narrative of her story -- presenting a mosaic of memoirs, possibilities, facts, essays, fables, legends, ghost stories, scenes and reporting -- that all add up to a complete picture of the lives of the China Men who came to the United States. On page 49, she starts one version of a trip to the US with, ?I think this is the journey you don?t tell me:? She then recounts the tale of the father?s arrival in the US as a stowaway. But like The French Lieutenant?s Woman, she (Kingston) also gives us another, more ordinary version of the father?s emigration. I don?t know which one is ?real? and which one is imagined and, frankly, I don?t care. The fact that some Chinese used each of these methods is credible enough to keep my disbelief suspended and keep me in the story.
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