No.1 Maxine Hong Kingston

Introduction

Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Kingston was born in California to first generation Chinese immigrants. She graduated from Berkeley with a BA in English in 1962. She married Earll Kingston in 1962 and she began writing extensively since 1967.

Selected Works

• Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, 2006
• The Fifth Book of Peace, 2003
• To Be the Poet, 2002
• Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, 1989
• Hawai'i One Summer, 1987
• China Men, Knopf, 1980
• The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts, 1976

Recognition&Awards

Kingston received many awards for her contribution to the Asian American literature, including General Nonfiction Award: National Book Critics Circle for The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts in 1976, American Book Award for General Nonfiction for China Men, Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: National Book Foundation in 2008. She was awarded the 1997 National Humanity Medal by President of the United States President Bill Clinton.

Influences

Kingston’s novel, The Woman Warrior, overthrow the stereotypes of Americans to Chinese women as either evil Dragon Lady or fragile China Dolls. She has contributed to the feminist movement with such works as her novel The Woman Warrior, which discusses gender and ethnicity and how these concepts affect the lives women. Her works are highly acclaimed by the American mainstream literary scholars. In 1980s, she brings forward the concept of “Global Novel”, which makes big impact on the conventional “great American novels”. She protests the cultural misunderstanding of Asian American literature, which becomes a mainstream of Asian American literature. She is also an anti-war activist, who was arrested by participating in an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. Kingston’s work also received criticism, especially from some members of the Chinese American community, but it does not affect Kingston becomes the number one A/PIA writers of all time. (Wikipedia)