Maxine Hong Kingston (; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong;Huntley, E. D. (2001). ''Maxine Hong Kingston: A Critical Companion'', p. 1. October 27, 1940) is an American novelist. She is a Professor Emerita at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese Americans. Kingston has contributed to the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

movement with such works as her memoir ''

The Woman Warrior ''The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts'' is a book written by Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1976. The book blends autobiography with old Chinese folktales. ''The Woman Warrior ...

'', which discusses

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

and

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and how these concepts affect the lives of women. She has received several awards for her contributions to

Chinese American literature Chinese American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of Chinese descent. The genre began in the 19th century and flowered in the 20th with such authors as Sui Sin Far, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, an ...

, including the

National Book Award for Nonfiction The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists ...

in 1981 for '' China Men''."National Book Awards – 1981"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-11.This was the award for hardcover "General Nonfiction".
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were several nonfiction subcategories including General Nonfiction, with dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Kingston has received significant criticism for reinforcing

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

stereotypes in her work and for fictionalizing traditional Chinese stories in order to appeal to Western perceptions of Chinese people.Huang, Judy (2001). "Asian-American Literary Authenticity". Dartmouth College. She has also garnered criticism from female Asian scholars for her "over-exaggeration of Asian American female oppression".

Biography

Kingston was born Maxine Ting Ting Hong on October 27, 1940, in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

, to first-generation

Chinese immigrants Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...

, Tom (d. 1991) and Ying Lan Hong. She was the third of eight children and the eldest of the six children born in the United States. In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Tom Hong worked as a professional scholar and teacher in his home village of Sun Woi, near Canton. In 1925, Tom left China for the United States in search of better prospects. However, the U.S. in the early twentieth century was plagued with racist employment legislation and had little desire for a well-educated Chinese immigrant, and Tom was thus relegated to working menial jobs. He saved his earnings and became the manager of an illegal gambling house, which led him to get arrested numerous times. Tom "was canny about his arrests, never giving his real name and—because he apparently sensed that quite a few people thought that all Chinese looked alike—inventing a different name for each arrest. Consequently, he never acquired a police record in his own name." Tom was able to bring his wife over in 1940, and shortly thereafter, Kingston was born; she was named "Maxine" after a blonde patron at the gambling house who was always remarkably lucky. Portrait of Maxine Hong Kingston in c

Kingston was drawn to writing at a young age and won a five-dollar prize from ''Girl Scout Magazine'' for an essay she wrote titled "I Am an American." She majored in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

The University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, before switching to

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. While she was in Berkeley, she met Earll. In 1962 she married Earll Kingston, an actor, and began a high-school teaching career. Their son, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, was born in 1963. From 1965 to 1967, Maxine taught English and mathematics at Sunset High School in

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

. After relocating to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, her boredom in a lonely hotel 80 miles north of Oahu caused Maxine to begin writing extensively, finally completing and publishing her first book, ''The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts'', in 1976. She began teaching English at the

University of Hawai'i at Mānoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

that same year. By 1981 she had moved on to teach at Berkeley. Her writing often reflects on her cultural heritage and blends fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are ''

'' (1976), awarded the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Tripmaster Monkey,'' a story depicting a protagonist based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are '' To Be The Poet'' and '' The Fifth Book of Peace.'' A documentary produced by Gayle K. Yamada, ''Maxine Hong Kingston: Talking Story,'' was released in 1990. Featuring notable Asian-American authors such as

Amy Tan Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books. Tan has written ...

and

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yell ...

, it explored Kingston's life, paying particular attention to her commentary on cultural heritage and both sexual and racial oppression. The production was awarded the CINE Golden Eagle in 1990. Kingston also participated in the production of

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

' PBS historical documentary, ''Becoming American: The Chinese Experience''. Kingston was awarded the 1997

National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the human ...

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. She was a member of the committee to choose the design for the

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

commemorative quarter. In 2003, Kingston was arrested in Washington, D.C. while protesting against the impending Iraq War. The protest, which took place on International Women's Day (March 8), was coordinated by the women-initiated organization

Code Pink Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a left-wing internationally active non-governmental organization that describes itself as a "grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, ...

. Kingston refused to leave the street after being instructed to do so by local police forces. She shared a jail cell with authors

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was aw ...

and

Terry Tempest Williams Terry Tempest Williams (born 8 September 1955), is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of Utah. Her work foc ...

, who were also participants in the demonstration. Kingston's anti-war stance has significantly trickled into her work; she has stated that writing ''The Fifth Book of Peace'' was initiated and inspired by growing up during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at

Emma Willard School The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...

in September 2005. In April, 2007, Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for ''Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace'' (2006), an anthology which she edited. In July, 2014, Kingston was awarded the 2013

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

Influences

In an interview published in ''American Literary History'', Kingston disclosed her admiration for

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

, who were inspirational influences for her work, shaping her analysis of

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

. Kingston said of Walt Whitman's work,

I like the rhythm of his language and the freedom and the wildness of it. It's so American. And also his vision of a new kind of human being that was going to be formed in this country—although he never specifically said Chinese—ethnic Chinese also—I'd like to think he meant all kinds of people. And also I love that throughout ''Leaves of Grass'' he always says 'men and women,' 'male and female.' He's so different from other writers of his time, and even of this time. Even a hundred years ago he included women and he always used hose phrases 'men and women,' 'male and female.'

Kingston named the main character of '' Tripmaster Monkey'' (1989) Wittman Ah Sing, after Walt Whitman. Of Woolf, Kingston stated:

I found that whenever I come to a low point in my life or in my work, when I read Virginia Woolf's ''Orlando'', that always seems to get my life force moving again. I just love the way she can make one character live for four hundred years, and that Orlando can be a man. Orlando can be a woman. Virginia broke through constraints of time, of gender, of culture.

Similarly, Kingston's praise of William Carlos Williams expresses her appreciation of his seemingly genderless work:

I love ''In the American Grain'' because it does the same thing. Abraham Lincoln is a 'mother' of our country. He talks about this wonderful woman walking through the battlefields with her beard and shawl. I find that so freeing, that we don't have to be constrained to being just one ethnic group or one gender-- both oolf and Williamsmake me feel that I can now write as a man, I can write as a black person, as a white person; I don't have to be restricted by time and physicality.

Criticism

Though Kingston's work is acclaimed by some, it has also received negative criticism, especially from some members of the

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

community. Playwright and novelist

Frank Chin Frank Chin (born February 25, 1940) is an American author and playwright. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre. Life and career Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California on February 25, 1940; until the age of s ...

has severely criticized Kingston's ''

'', stating that Kingston deliberately tarnished the authenticity of Chinese tradition by altering traditional stories and myths to appeal to white sensitivities. Chin has accused Kingston of "liberally adapting raditional storiesto collude with white racist

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

s and to invent a 'fake' Chinese-American culture that is more palatable to the mainstream." Kingston commented on her critics' opinions in a 1990 interview in which she stated that men believe that minority women writers have "achieved success by collaborating with the white racist establishment," by "pander ngto the white taste for feminist writing... It's a one-sided argument because the women don't answer. We let them say those things because we don't want to be divisive." However, several female Asian scholars have also criticized Kingston's work.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim Shirley Geok-lin Lim (born 1944) is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Her first collection of poems, ''Crossing The Peninsula'', published in 1980, won her the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a ...

, a professor of English at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

, stated that Kingston's "representations of patriarchal, abusive Chinese history were playing to a desire to look at Asians as an inferior spectacle". Writer Katheryn M. Fong took exception to Kingston's "distortion of the histories of China and Chinese America" and denounced Kingston for her "over-exaggerated" depiction of Chinese and Chinese American cultural misogyny.Fong, Katheryn (1977). "An Open Letter/Review". ''Bulletin for Concerned Asian Scholars''. "The problem is that non-Chinese are reading ingston'sfiction as true accounts of Chinese and Chinese American history," wrote Fong, who noted that her own father "was very loving" towards her.

Recognition

* General Nonfiction Award: National Book Critics Circle for ''The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts'', 1976 *

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

s for ''The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts'', 1978 *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Writers Award, 1980 * National Book Award for General Nonfiction for ''China Men'', 1981 *

Writers Award, 1982 * PEN West Award in fiction for ''Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book'', 1989 *

, 1997 * Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Literary Awards, 2006 * Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the

, 2008"Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-10. (With acceptance speech by Kingston.) * In 2011 awarded the Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature award which is given annually in Rockville Maryland, the city where Fitzgerald, his wife, and his daughter are buried as part of th
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival
*

, 2013

Selected works

* '' No Name Woman'' (essay), 1975 * '' The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts'', 1976 * '' China Men'', Knopf, 1980 * ''Hawai'i One Summer'', 1987 * ''Through the Black Curtain'', 1987 * '' Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book'', 1989 * ''To Be the Poet'', 2002 * ''The Fifth Book of Peace'', 2003 * ''Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace'', 2006 * ''I Love a Broad Margin to My Life'', 2011

Notes

References

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

October 2007 interview with Maxine Hong Kingston
discussing war and peace

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingston, Maxine Hong 1940 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers American feminist writers American memoirists American novelists of Chinese descent American short story writers of Chinese descent American women memoirists American women novelists American women short story writers American women writers of Chinese descent National Book Award winners National Humanities Medal recipients Postmodern feminists Postmodern writers University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty United States National Medal of Arts recipients Writers from Hawaii Writers from Oakland, California Writers from Stockton, California Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters