The Warrior Woman: Understanding Kingston's "White Tigers"

The chapter "White Tigers" in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Warrior Woman is the most telling chapter in the book. The previous chapter, and the ones that follow, provide the reader with mostly background information that explains why the narrator behaves and feels the way she does. "White Tigers," however, dramatically depicts the inner hopes and turmoil of Kingston (particularly her need to be important) through her life journey of shame, rebellion and finding an identity as a Chinese-American girl.

"White Tigers" begins with the statement, "When we Chinese girls listened to adults talk-story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves" (19). This idea flows through the entire book but it is dramatically represented, and strategically placed, in the previous chapter "No Name Woman," where Kingston depicts the importance of silence and obedience in Chinese culture. From reading The Woman Warrior it is clear that the pain and fear of being silent and useless is the driving force of Kingston's life successes and setbacks. It is also the motivation of the chapter "White Tigers" as she imagines herself in a position to be important, successful, and most significantly, loved.

Not being the typical Chinese-American girl, the narrator has an advantage over other Chinese girls. While her culture, including her mother, tells her that she is to be nothing but a slave; her mother, Brave Orchid, does not follow such rules. Instead, she goes to school and becomes a doctor. She is loud, controlling, and manipulative-not like Chinese women are "supposed" to be. Her mother's eccentricities are a source of inner strength for the narrator, as she explains, "She said that I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman" (20). But this is no easy task. From her mother's inconsistent behavior to her uncle's blatant disregard and disrespect of her, this cultural demand that she be half a person is confusing and painful for her as she discovers her own identity.

The old couple from Kingston's Fa Mu Lan Fantasy are idealistic parental figures: loving, providing, encouraging-unlike her real parents who are difficult, confusing, and very discouraging. The old couple is a representation of Kingston's desperate childhood need to be loved. She writes, "I learned to shoot accurately because my teachers held the targets" (28). Guidance like this is non-existent with her real parents. The old couple not only trains her to be a warrior, but also appears to her continuously, for encouragement, throughout the rest of her life.
In her fantasy, Kingston does not disregard her real family, but she does not portray them realistically either. Through her drinking gourd she can see that they miss her terribly and are very proud of her. This suggests that even in her fantasy, the tremendous love of the old couple wouldn't satisfy Kingston's need for her real parents' affection. This need may be the source of the existence of Kingston's Fa Mu Lan fantasy. It is a common dream for an artist or writer to seek fame; to be important or "live forever," but The Woman Warrior reveals the depth and origination of such needs for Kingston. In her fantasy, she writes, "We would always win, Kuan Kung, the god of war and literature riding before me. I would be told of in fairy tales myself" (38). In real life, as a woman writer, Kingston utilizes that need as motivation to reach the fame that she imagined in her fantasy.

The incredible training and skill the narrator develops in her fantasy also reveals her real-life need to be important, but she does not dream of unexplained super powers like some children do. Instead, she dreams of years of training and suffering. In her dream she earns her super abilities and takes great pride in them. This is a reflection of Kingston's character and of her life. As a girl who works all her life, she understands the value of hard work and that it is not fame, which generates happiness; it is the knowledge that one has earned all that he or she has. Kingston writes, "And I understand how working and hoeing are dancing; how peasant clothes are golden, as king's clothes are golden" (27). This statement shows the narrator's appreciation and understanding of a hard worker and a person of low social status.

The narrator rebels from cultural expectations in her fantasy of becoming a warrior woman, but her values follow her as she dreams of hard work and heroic behavior, until she eventually ceases rebellion to conform to Chinese tradition-giving up her warrior ways to be a wife and mother. What is most telling about this chapter is that the narrator's conformity isn't written as defeat but as a mature understanding and acceptance. Her job done, having shown the world that women can be more than slaves and wives, and her identity found, she lays down her sword to rest.

Work Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. New York: Random House, Inc., 1989.