《女勇士》书评

如此遥远又如此贴近的中国文化

《女勇士》令我着迷。也许是因为与母文化的天然隔绝，才使得作者笔下的中国人、中国事，显得既遥远又贴近。作者以细腻的笔触、芜杂的叙述以及神经质的呓语，解析了一个在美国出生的华裔女性独特而又丰富的个体经验。作者的叙述是自觉与不自觉掺杂在一起的。在感性地讲完了一个动人的故事之后，作者会突然说“其实不是那样的”、“我只是听来的”、“我编了后半部分”等等，这种自我拆解的手法的小说中多次出现。在第一章《无名女子》中，“姑姑”一会儿是因通奸而被村民围攻、最终投井自杀的悲剧角色，一会儿又是备受宠爱的大家闺秀，这种“自相矛盾”产生了独特的审美效应。在读毕小说之后，我感觉《女勇士》的副标题“Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”是很贴切的。作者笔下的华人社区以及通过父母的讲述了解到的大洋彼岸的故乡，无不笼罩在一种鬼神的氛围之中：老家的女人在猪圈里分娩，为了躲避嫉妒新生命的神；父亲把白种人都称作鬼（垃圾鬼、送信鬼等等）；母亲经常进行的祭祖仪式；投井自杀的姑姑（水鬼）；母亲学医时的捉鬼故事……作者笔下的那些看似荒唐、愚昧的事（在中国大陆被称为“迷信”的那类东西），如果换一个角度来看，反而是中国人精神世界的最佳体现。最后一章《羌笛野曲》写主人公在华人街区的成长故事。在美国学校，许多华人小孩沉默、孤僻，感觉自己是异类，但最终都溶入了美国这只大熔炉。在多种族的美国社会，华人的优势在哪里呢？我们几千年辉煌的文明又在哪里呢？这一章的结尾，也是整部小说的结尾，写得自然流畅，又意味隽永。主人公在母亲面前大胆地宣布了自立自强、溶入美国社会的决心，彻底否定了父辈们“重男轻女”的观念。这似乎是与母文化的分袂——然而作者又写道：“我想在不久的将来到中国去……”，她认为有朝一日，她也会担负起给老家亲人寄钱的任务。而后，作者又讲了外婆看戏的故事：“这里有一段故事，是母亲讲给我听的，不是小时候，而是最近……”（母亲一直用讲故事的方式教育子女，“而是最近”让人感觉到时间的流逝，主人公已长大了），而后又很自然地由“看戏”转入了蔡文姬的故事。（蔡文姬的故事放在整部小说的结尾，别具意味，作者的父辈们，始终认定西方是荒蛮的部族，但在美国生活了几十年，由于母文化的自然缺失，对于西方文化的认同却在悄然进行着，到了作者这一辈人，这种认同就更加深远了，但母文化的缺失与饥渴依然存在。蔡文姬从不了解野蛮的匈奴部族，到以蛮族之音创作《胡茄十八拍》，正好暗合了作者及其父辈对西方文化的认同过程，但多年后，蔡文姬还是回到了中原大地，嫁给了一个汉人。）外婆看戏的故事体现着中国人的“家”文化（只要全家团圆就是福），而蔡文姬的故事则暗含着西方式的个体精神以及一种民族归属感。将这种对比与回归作为小说的煞尾，足可见作者的良苦匠心。2005.1

stereotype

并不否认这本书只得称赞的地方，只是很担忧这样一本在美国畅销的书会带给那些不了解中国的人对于中国怎样的印象。这样一群第二代移民，本身对中国认识不深，思维模式也十分美国化，他们真的能够精准的诠释中国的几千年文化吗？通过范范描写了一些在外国人看来很怪异的风俗（这些风俗也只在一些落后地区才有），还有加上自己的非客观想法，只会给美国人留下一个东方愚昧古国的概念吧？

Analysis of the image of the ghost in The Woman Warrior

教授给我们布置的group essay, 希望对留学生有点用.Analysis of the image of the ghost in The Woman Warrior Stories about ghosts are one of the most important features of this novel. Maxine searches through her family’s past, and other stories which are also ridden with ghosts, in hopes of finding a role model. The importance of ghosts in the story, and in Maxine’s life is represented by the book’s subtitle "Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts."There are thousands of ghost stories in Chinese culture. The novel Journey to the West, which is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, is full of ghosts, most of which are evil, and eat people. The novel Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, which is a collection of nearly five-hundred mostly-supernatural tales written by Pu Songlin, is also full of ghosts, though most of them are warm and kind-hearted. Not all ghosts were evil in Chinese culture, and literature.The image of the ghost in Chinese culture changes with the given circumstances. Ghosts could be, ethereal beings who still dwell in our world, memories, or even real people. When the western powers invaded in 1860, they ended up holding power in China for almost a hundred years. At that time, the Chinese used “ghost” as a derogatory term for the invaders; they called European invaders "west foreign ghosts,” and Japanese invaders as "east foreign ghosts.” That’s how real people became referred to as ghosts. Maxine uses this terminology to refer to some Americans who would come up to the door of her house. She called them ghosts, even though they were real, palpable beings, not a faded memory or ethereal entity. The thought of the ghost of her nameless aunt haunts Maxine in the beginning of the story. The first sentence of the chapter "No Name Woman" is "you must not tell anyone.” Her mother told her this, even though she herself is breaking her husbands rule, which is to not speak of the aunt. Her aunt is the victim of traditional chinese culture, where men really held the power. Her aunt committed suiced with her new born baby after the villagers raided her house. From then on, the family of the Maxine tries to “forget” about the aunt. Though, the family is not entirely successful in wiping her from their minds. "My aunt haunts me-- her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes. I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her, and she was a spite suicide, drowning herself in the drinking water. The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one, whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute" (Kingston 16). However, in the eyes of the Maxine, her aunt is somewhat of a role model, because though she wasn’t successful in the end, she still fought against fate, and traditional culture. Her aunt protested with committed suicide in the village well, so she in turn became the role model of protesting traditional culture. Maxine uses her writing to avenge her aunt. In Chinese tradition, the ghost who has avenged could finish the reincarnation."We could be heroines, swordsmen"( page 18). In chapter 2, the story of Fa Mu Lan is totally different from the traditional Chinese story. The purpose of changing the story is drawing a new image of the woman warrior so that is the same as Maxine imagines it. When Fa Mu Lan studies the fighting skills in mountains for 15 years ; she finishes studying, constructs an army, kill the greedy officials, and avenges the villagers. The interesting part in this chapter is that Fa Mu Lan becomes the ghost. "It was a wedding. My mother was talking to the hosts: 'Thank you for taking our daughter. Wherever she is, she must be happy now. She will certainly come back if she is alive, and if she is a spirit, you have given her a descent line” (Kingston 31). In the Chinese culture, a "ghost wedding" is a way to comfort the relatives with an early death, then organize for them in the form of a ghost marriage. In chapter 3, more and more ghosts are described in the novel. The environment in which Maxine lived is full of white people. "We were regularly visited by the Mail Ghost, Meter Reader Ghost, Garbage Ghost. Staying off the streets did no good. They came nosing at windows- Social Worker Ghosts; Public Health Nurse Ghosts; Factory Ghosts recruiting workers during the war( they promised free child care, which our mother turned down); two Jesus Ghost who had formerly worked in China." All the information provided by Maxine’s parents about the white people is bad. Because the first generation chinese tries to keep their culture in the small range, isolated with the outer world. However, paradoxically, when Maxine's mother keep telling the stories about the ghost, she tried to instill the idea of traditional Chinese. However, what Maxine's mother did is totally different. Studying in medicine school, catching the ghost in dormitory, reuniting with her husband in U.S, telling the story about the no name aunt to Maxine and encouraging Moon Orchid come to U.S, even mother's name, Brave Orchid, has the same pronunciation with Fa Mu Lan in Chinese. All these things tells Maxine that her mother is a real woman warrior. When Maxine was hearing the stories about the ghost, she tried to resist the influence of these traditional Chinese culture. Finally, she uses her pen to express her new ideology, which is the common ideology in American Born Chinese.Ghost is just a carrier, it represented the traditional chinese culture. Maxine finally beat it down. She uses her writing to set a new model in American Born Chinese.