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nuhafariha's review against another edition
3.0
The book has a powerful mix of biographical, historical and mythical narratives, creating a cohesive statement. I think it's easy to forget the marginalization of Asian Americans people, especially in this era when they're praised for being the model minority, but Hong Kingston beautifully traces this oppression throughout AAPI history. She also does a good job of creating emotionally vulnerable male characters.
storytimed's review against another edition
3.0
Various stories, some more interesting than others. Written in a style I didn't quite identify with. I liked the stories about family history so much more than the modern literary "hey here's someone with a severe mental illness, everything they say is also a metaphor for society, now let's let them ramble for 20 pages!" tales.
nataliem22's review against another edition
3.0
The following review response was an assignment turned in for class in the Fall 2021 semester at the University of Iowa for a World building class taught by Amelia Gramling. The assignment asked students to write a reading response (with any topic of interest) on the novel China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston. This book, and the following paper, had a profound impact on my understanding of world building. It formed new insights that I used to analyze other books I read this year. Because of that, it would be only right to include this paper for China Men and China Men as part of my blog and review page. This paper, and thus the following review response, is an original piece of work.
Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men opens like a fairytale: “Once upon a time, a man named Tang Ao, looking for the Gold Mountain, crossed an ocean, and came upon the Land of Women” (1). It is this tale that sets the tone for the rest of Hong Kingston’s world building. The function of this opening fairytale is to show readers that the worlds we are about to be introduced to are both magical and cruel.
The opening fairytale introduces us to an image that will be repeated throughout the text—the Gold Mountain. In the opening paragraph, we are exposed to the curiosity and wonder surrounding the Gold Mountain, which is an ideal that remains undefined yet is no less important or magical-seeming the deeper we read into the novel. The rest of the fairytale builds up the cruelty of the Land of Women. Once Tang Ao is taken in by the women, they transform him into one, by binding his feet, piercing his ears, and by applying makeup to his face (2). Each of these actions is vividly described, and its relationship to pain is crucial to understanding the cruelty of what it is to be a woman.
The description of America is created by the ways outsiders perceive how Americans behave. Americans are “‘honest,’” “‘very good at organization,’” “‘careless,’” and “‘forgetful’” (47). All of the snippets of conversation the father overhears boil down to “‘Something new happens every day [in America]” (47). Before the father ever sees America, he is exposed to multiple different interpretations of its inhabitants. Some of these traits are positive, whereas others are meant to be negatively connoted, yet they all work to build a complete idea of an American. Showing that Americans are both strange and otherworldly-type creatures that have some negative traits demonstrates that America, too, is just as magical and cruel as the fairytale Land of Women.
And so it is important to note how opening with a myth or fairytale colors our understanding of all the other mystical places to be introduced within a text.
Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men opens like a fairytale: “Once upon a time, a man named Tang Ao, looking for the Gold Mountain, crossed an ocean, and came upon the Land of Women” (1). It is this tale that sets the tone for the rest of Hong Kingston’s world building. The function of this opening fairytale is to show readers that the worlds we are about to be introduced to are both magical and cruel.
The opening fairytale introduces us to an image that will be repeated throughout the text—the Gold Mountain. In the opening paragraph, we are exposed to the curiosity and wonder surrounding the Gold Mountain, which is an ideal that remains undefined yet is no less important or magical-seeming the deeper we read into the novel. The rest of the fairytale builds up the cruelty of the Land of Women. Once Tang Ao is taken in by the women, they transform him into one, by binding his feet, piercing his ears, and by applying makeup to his face (2). Each of these actions is vividly described, and its relationship to pain is crucial to understanding the cruelty of what it is to be a woman.
The description of America is created by the ways outsiders perceive how Americans behave. Americans are “‘honest,’” “‘very good at organization,’” “‘careless,’” and “‘forgetful’” (47). All of the snippets of conversation the father overhears boil down to “‘Something new happens every day [in America]” (47). Before the father ever sees America, he is exposed to multiple different interpretations of its inhabitants. Some of these traits are positive, whereas others are meant to be negatively connoted, yet they all work to build a complete idea of an American. Showing that Americans are both strange and otherworldly-type creatures that have some negative traits demonstrates that America, too, is just as magical and cruel as the fairytale Land of Women.
And so it is important to note how opening with a myth or fairytale colors our understanding of all the other mystical places to be introduced within a text.
tessaays's review against another edition
4.0
This didn’t have the visceral effect on me that The Woman Warrior did - it took me longer to get into and was less engrossing because of how it jumps around between characters and time periods. That said, still an absolutely masterful book, unlike anything else I’ve read. Lyrical and so vivid in parts it was like reading a film.
rencordings's review against another edition
3.0
Hmm. Reading this was an interesting and complicated experience for me, like buying a variety box of herbal teas and trying out the flavors one at a time, finding some that you really love, some that you're ambivalent about, some that you don't particularly dig but manage to drain the cup in one gulp anyway because you know they're good for your health.
On one hand, I can see the richness of this book, with the intricate narratives, excellent characterization of male figures, clever storytelling techniques and so on, I can't say the same for the way everything is presented. I'm not sure how to explain this - it sounds like I'm not fond of Kingston's writing style, but I actually do enjoy her prose to some extent. Perhaps it's because throughout the collection she uses the same writing style? It would've been fine if there was a coherent storyline that focused on certain characters because in that case, a consistent narrative voice would add to the immersion and all that jazz. But here, Kingston recounts a lot of different stories in the same narrative voice (even with the erratic POV changes), spends a little too much time on nitty-gritty details, and personally, I was thoroughly bored. On the other hand, as I've prefaced above, I do get why this book has been receiving the amount of attention that it does. It tackles numerous immigration issues, explores the psychology of "China Men" and paints vivid pictures of Chinese families within various historical settings with (somewhat suffocating) meticulousness, and to be very honest, I love the passive aggressive mockery of Robinson Crusoe and the short anecdotes in between longer chapters. So all in all, it was reading experience full of conflicted feelings for me, but I definitely wouldn't mark this as a poor book and would recommend everyone to give it a try to see if it's your cup of tea.
On one hand, I can see the richness of this book, with the intricate narratives, excellent characterization of male figures, clever storytelling techniques and so on, I can't say the same for the way everything is presented. I'm not sure how to explain this - it sounds like I'm not fond of Kingston's writing style, but I actually do enjoy her prose to some extent. Perhaps it's because throughout the collection she uses the same writing style? It would've been fine if there was a coherent storyline that focused on certain characters because in that case, a consistent narrative voice would add to the immersion and all that jazz. But here, Kingston recounts a lot of different stories in the same narrative voice (even with the erratic POV changes), spends a little too much time on nitty-gritty details, and personally, I was thoroughly bored. On the other hand, as I've prefaced above, I do get why this book has been receiving the amount of attention that it does. It tackles numerous immigration issues, explores the psychology of "China Men" and paints vivid pictures of Chinese families within various historical settings with (somewhat suffocating) meticulousness, and to be very honest, I love the passive aggressive mockery of Robinson Crusoe and the short anecdotes in between longer chapters. So all in all, it was reading experience full of conflicted feelings for me, but I definitely wouldn't mark this as a poor book and would recommend everyone to give it a try to see if it's your cup of tea.
slipni's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
dsbookie's review against another edition
4.0
This book was very interesting to read. As a memoir, it was great to be able to see into the author and her family's life. I had to read this book for one of my college courses and it has been very eye-opening to see what these people had to go through, not through the history books, the laws, or even the movies that have come out about the Chinese Americans. This very honest representation of their lives was well written and full of information. There were many things that I had learned differently or, in some cases, didn't even learn in my classes until now. It was all just swept under the rug by the writers of history
This book is set up with short vignettes that break up six other stories of, mainly, the men in Maxine Hong Kingston's family. It shows the struggle of Chinese-Americans in their immigration and their becoming American citizens when they first got here. The story touches a lot on the racism that they encountered as well. When there were stereotypes, Kingston was able to spin them to give them a sort of double-consciousness. There was the negative stereotyped version, then there was also the positive version.
This was a very interesting, and eye-opening book. If you want to learn more about the Chinese American history, pick this book up.
This book is set up with short vignettes that break up six other stories of, mainly, the men in Maxine Hong Kingston's family. It shows the struggle of Chinese-Americans in their immigration and their becoming American citizens when they first got here. The story touches a lot on the racism that they encountered as well. When there were stereotypes, Kingston was able to spin them to give them a sort of double-consciousness. There was the negative stereotyped version, then there was also the positive version.
This was a very interesting, and eye-opening book. If you want to learn more about the Chinese American history, pick this book up.
emmy13's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0