SOURCE: "Engendering Genre: Gender and Nationalism in 'China Men' and 'The Woman Warrior,'" in MELUS, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring, 1995, pp. 67-83.

In the following essay, Nishime traces Kingston's treatment of gender and ethnicity in The Woman Warrior and China Men, and discusses how genre illuminates the author's concept of identity.

China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston's book on the history of Chinese-Americans, followed close on the heels of the publication of her much acclaimed autobiography The Woman Warrior. Kingston has said that she first envisioned the two volumes as one book; yet if we view these books as companion works, then it is curious how differently they represent what might be called the Chinese-American experience [Stephen Talbot, "Talking Story: Maxine Hong Kingston Rewrites the American Dream," San Francisco Examiner, June 24, 1990]. While the first, most obvious divide may be at the level of gender, as evidenced by the two...