英语读书笔记

"Kuan Kung VS Mulan"---Interpreting the Image of Fa Mulan inThe Woman WarriorAbstract: In The Woman Warrior, Kingston reshapes Fa Mulan from a traditional Chinese daughter to a new American woman warrior. The reshaped Mulan is criticized by Frank Chin, who says the rewritten story distorts Chinese classics, depreciates Chinese males and loses Chinese ethnicity. But the author thinks it is the reshaped story that propagates Kingston's feminism and facilitates the communication between Chinese and American culture. And it is the differences in gender and culture identity that cause the debates between Kingston and Frank Chin. However, there are indeed contradictions in the reshaped tale, which shows Kingston's boundedness as a female writer.Keywords: The Woman Warrior, Chinese culture, American cultureMain Body:The folk-song-styled poem Mulan Ballad in Northern Dynasty tells a story of Mulan who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army to resist enemies and protect her country. In The Woman Warrior, Kingston mixes the traditional ballad of Mulan with her own experiences in America and endows Mulan new individualistic and feminist characteristics---revolting gender discriminations in Chinese and American culture and asking equality and respect for Chinese Americans.However, the reshaping of Mulan legend triggers a drastic controversy. Male Chinese American writer Frank Chin gave the most furious criticisms, that censure that The Woman Warrior distorts Chinese classics, depreciates Chinese males and loses Chinese ethnicity (Zhang 2010, 51). This debate provoked by different supporters of Frank Chin and Kingston is so furious that it is called "a war between Kuan Kung and Mulan" (Liu 2008, 75).Basing on those arguments between Frank and Kingston, many people show their opinions: some say Kingston tries to shape the "other" image of China and to cater Americans' curiosity. But most eulogize Kingston's way of rewriting Chinese legend, believing that The Woman Warrior brings Chinese American women rights to speak for themselves, dispels the duality of gender and race, enriches the legend of Mulan and promotes the harmonious blending of Chinese and American culture. This paper thinks that Frank Chin's criticisms are one-sided; the reshaping enriches Chinese classics, propagates feminism and also cares for the destiny of Chinese Americans. And the controversy is mainly caused by Kingston and Frank's differences in gender and cultural identity. But there are, indeed, contradictions in the reshaped story, which shows the boundedness of Kingston as a female writer."When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk-story, we learned that we failedif we grew up to be but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen" (Kingston 1989, 19). These two sentences starts the story of White Tigers and shows this Mulan is different from that in Mulan Ballad. In this story, the traditional Mulan changes the image of being filial to her father and loyal to the emperor, and becomes an American warrior who topples the reign of patriarchy and builds a new world for her people. In Frank Chin's mind, this rewriting distorts Chinese classics. But the author thinks that the reshaping of legend is good for its spreading. Just like what San-Ling C. Wan said: "Culture is not the luggage that can be carried around by immigrants; it is not static but changeable with the change of environmental" (Lu 2007, 43). If one tale is expected to be spread to another country, it should be changed to adapt to the new culture. Take V oltaire's play The Chinese Orphan for example: it is adapted from Yuanqu Zhaoshi Orphan and became immensely popular when it was put on the stage in France. Some scholars believed that the revised version could stimulate creative thoughts of Chinese artists (Yang 2007, 66). So retelling is a good way to make the traditional tale alive. It is the reshaped Mulan that draws the attentions of critics to Chinese American literature and encourages a new way of writing.This rewritten Mulan Ballad is not an action to take Americans' fancy, but a way to show Kingston's feminist thoughts. Mulan is modeled to fight against oppressions of paternity, and to strive for respect and equality for women. Thus, Mulan must show her female characteristics and her power as a leader. In White Tigers, Mulan does not hide her female image, but shows she is a woman at the every beginning and even marries and gives birth to a son in time of war. "Now when I was naked, I was a strange human being indeed---words carved on my back and the baby large in front" (Kingston 1989, 40). Female features are exposed without any scruple. And "It was during this lonely time, when any high cry made the milk spill from my breasts, that I got careless" (41). shows the inner softness of a mother.In White Tigers, men lead by a woman and emperor's rule overturned by a woman warrior are regarded by Frank Chin and others male Chinese American writers as an intention to disparage Chinese males. They believe that the images of Mulan's father and baron defame male Chinese American figures and can make their low social status much lower (Liu 2010, 124).Actually, in male Chinese Americans' works, males are heroes and females are villains. Hence, it is common for Kingston to create lofty female images to propagate her advocations. If Kingston's way of writing can be called "anti-man", Frank Chin's opinions should be regarded as the embodiment of male chauvinism. If the assertions of Frank are widely accepted by the critics, it will be hard for females to make their voice be heard.Feminism is the key subject of The Woman Warrior, but the problem of ethnicity is also involved. At the end of the story, the baton is headed and a new world is built. The beneficiaries are not only women but also men. It is demonstrated that Kingston is concerned with the rights of men. She hopes that all Chinese American females and males can be set free in America.In fact, this controversy cannot be avoided, for Frank Chin and Kingston have different standpoints and share differences in gender and cultural identity.Frank Chin tries to deconstruct the stereotype of Chinese American males and to construct their masculine images (Chen 2010, 168). While, as a female Chinese American writer, Kingston strives to model new, complicate and multiply female images, who can choose the life they like and do the things that are thought only men can do. As a male, Frank intends to preserve the traditions that males are patriarch and females must listen to them. It is said that Frank published both the Chinese and English versions of Mulan Poem to prove Kingston's distortion of Chinese legend (Liu 2008, 76). Actually, the original poem is a reflection of confucianism that demands women to be compliant to patriarchy. The publicity of the old version suggests Frank's advocation of patrialism. As a racist, Frank Chin just wants to eliminate the external contradiction---race discriminations, but ignores the internal contradiction---gender discriminations. Therefore, it is the gender difference that results in Frank Chin and Kingston's arguments on the new image of Mulan. Besides the gender difference, Frank Chin and Kingston also share different opinions on their cultural identities. Frank values the traditional Chinese culture and emphasizes the significance of social responsibility reflected in works. But Kingston puts the composition of literary works at the first place (Liu 2010,124). The motive to learn kung fu is to revenge for Mulan's family and to "be remembered by the Han people for your dutifulness" (Kingston 1989, 23). The woman warrior kills the baron for her own case: "You took away my brother." "You took away my childhood" (43). These individual characters show that Kingston is deep affected by American individualism. She regards herself as an American writer and thinks that "Chinese" is just an attribute and "American" is her true cultural identity (He 2005, 69). In the conversation with Paula Rabinowitz, Kingston said: "Most parts of my works are actually American. I am trying to make everyone know that Chinese Americans are Americans and my works are parts of American literature" (Huang 2006, 199). So, Kingston tries to create an American book and model a American Mulan when she writes The Woman Warrior.But Frank Chin regards Kingston as a Chinese writer. If not, he may see the rewriting as a learning from Chinese culture instead of misreading or misrepresenting of Chinese legend. Looking into the plot of "Mulan learning Kung fu" carefully, readers can see that it is similar to the plots of western fairy tales: a kid, who is rejected by others, takes a risk outside alone. After experiencing various hardships and adventures, he gains a happy ending, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Alice for example. So the author thinks that White Tigers is an American story, that adapts western fairy tale as the basic structure and both American and Chinese plots as details, such as "Robinson Crusoe", "carving words in the back" and "peasant uprising".Though Kingston tries to style Mulan as a new Chinese American female who resists oppositions of patrialism and frights for her own rights, there are still many contradictions in the reshaped story, which shows Kingston's limitations as a female writer.First of all, Mulan is endued with the strength of male. "I looked like a powerful, big man" (Kingston 1989, 39). Maybe Kingston agrees with Virginia Woolf's androgyny, that asserts that the best writer should have both male and female'squalities (Lv 2003, 122). But readers will be confused that it is a man or a woman that liberates Chinese people and builds a new world. Thus, if Mulan overturns the emperor's reign just depends on her female characters, it will make the feminist theme much clearer.Second, Mulan does not construct a new regime after toppling the rule of patrialism. " 'Now my public duties are finished,' I said. 'I will stay with you, doing farmwork and housework and giving you more sons' " (Kingston 1989, 45). Maybe it is because Kingston is not a racial feminist. She advocates that woman should not be the ruler after the rule is overturned (Huo 2006, 70). On the one hand, it reflects Kingston's feministic resistants are not thoroughly. What women do is to help men. After years of heavy fighting, Mulan gives what she has achieved to a man: "We......inaugurated the peasant who would begin the new order. In his rags he sat on the throne facing south and we, a great red crowd, bowed to him three times." (Kingston 1989, 42), and chooses to take the traditional irresponsibilities for a woman. Everything is put under the male's rule again. As a female, Kingston cannot get rid of the influence of traditional gender concept. Mulan subverts patrialism but chooses the man who can respect women and give women more rights to rule the world instead of being a ruler herself. On the other, it suggests Kingston's ethnicity. One critic said Mulan's choice of going home is because she finds "the common ground between personal achievement and community value" (Du 2008, 70). The aim of fighting against patrialism is not to be the enemy of her people, but to gain their understandings. If her people can understand what she has done, Mulan would like to live with them and to be an ordinary woman. Mulan's emotion to her people is reflected not only by her returning but also by the decentrality of the revenge targets. As the immediate next story of No Name Woman, White Tigers changes the targets to fight against from male opposers to class enemies. It is demonstrated that Kingston does not want to hurt male's feelings totally.Third, Kingston indeed listened to the advice of the editor---Charles· Eliot, who is familiar with American literary market and the relation between China and America, and changed the original title Golden Mountain Woman into The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Liu 2008, 93) to make the book sell well. It is this action that becomes the proof of betraying Chinese people and catering to American readers. But, it is understandable for a fresh writer to change the title to make her work be published. If more Chinese American people could interpose their influences to the main press at that time, readers may have chance to read the original version of The Woman Warrior. The compromise of Kingston shows the weakness of Chinese American critics and the insignificance of Chinese American literature.The Woman Warrior is rewarded with many awards, such as National Book Critic's Award for Nonfiction; White Tigers is collected in must-read publications for American students (Lu 2007, 39). Whereas, The Woman Warrior, especially the reshaped Mulan Ballad is criticized furiously by Frank Chin and other Chinese American males. They say that the rewritten story distorts Chinese classics, depreciates Chinese males and loses Chinese ethnicity. But the author thinks that this reshaping is good for propagating Kingston's feminism and facilitating thecommunication between Chinese and American culture. Excepting for asking equality and respect for Chinese American females, Kingston also cares for the destiny of Chinese American males. And it is their differences in gender and culture identity that cause the debates between Kingston and Frank Chin. However, there are indeed many contradictions in the reshaped tale: Mulan wins the wars with the help of male's strength and gives up the chance to construct a new world by herself but chooses to be an ordinary woman "doing farmwork and housework and giving more sons" (Kingston 1989, 45), which shows Kingston's boundedness as a female writer. While, as a whole, The Woman Warrior is an extraordinary book, that stimulates a new way of writing and draws Americans' attention to Chinese American literature.ReferencesHongling, Lv. A Rethink on Androgyny: Criticism·Theory·Approach [J]. Nanjing Normal University, 2003 (3):122-127.Huaiyu, Liu. On the Deconstruction of the Gender Antinomy in Chinese American Literature---A Discussion of the Characters in Chinese American Literature from the Perspective of Androgyny [J]. Nanjing Normal University, 2008 (3):74-77.Kingston Maxine Hong. 1989. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts [M]. New York: Random House, Inc.Xiaojuan, Huo. 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