Abstract  For many Asian Americans, the era of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement in the United States was an era of increased awareness of racial and cultural identity built on their needs to clarify and establish their unique American identity. Young writers like Maxine Hong Kingston attempted to “claim America” for Asian Americans by demonstrating Asian roots in American society and culture in her book The Woman Warrior. This thesis interprets the themes of silence and voice among the first-generation immigrants and the second-generation immigrants, including silence (both gendered and racially constituted); necessity for speech; the discovery of voice,etc. This thesis intends to focus on how Kingston reveals Chinese American women’s quests for identity and the painful efforts they make in the background of sexual discrimination and cultural conflicts, and therefore exploring Maxine Hong Kingston’s unique view on feminism as a Chinese American woman and provide Chinese Americans with the channel to know Chinese culture and to learn her history correctly.60057

Key words: The Woman Warrior; Asian American; silence; voice ; immigrant

摘要越南战争和民权运动时期，是一个种族文化认同感提升的时期，亚裔美国人，他们有需要澄清并且建立他们独有的美国身份。像汤婷婷这样的年轻作家，利用文字写作通过描述在美国社会下的亚洲足根和文化想为亚裔美国人“占有美国”。在本文中，我阐述了书中存在于一代移民和二代移民之间的两大主题沉默和话语权，内容包含沉默(由于性别和种族产生的根源)、说话的必要性、对于话语权的发掘。论述了汤婷婷描绘亚裔美国人对于追寻身份、性别歧视及文化冲突做的艰苦斗争，分析亚裔美国人特别是亚裔美籍女性的沉默的根源与话语权的追寻。同时，探究汤婷婷作为亚裔美国女性对于女权主义的独到见解，为后代的压抑美籍华人了解中国文化，正视中国历史。

毕业论文关键词: 女战士; 亚裔美国人; 沉默; 话语权; 移民

Contents

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review2

3. Silence as the Production of Chinese Traditional Culture..........................3

3.1 Main Characters of Silence in the The Woman Warrior.........3

3.2 The Root Causes of Silence among Early Chinese Female Immigrants.....5

4. Voice as the Necessity of American Open Civilization ........7

4.1 Role Models of Searching for Voice in The Woman Warrior8

4.2 Narration as a Way of Articulation.......10

5. Conclusion..11

Works Cited...13

1.Introduction 

The development of Chinese Amercian literature is closely related to the immigration history between China and the United States. In the mid-19th century, Chinese began to immigrated into the United States. At that time, there were several wars in China, for example the First Opium War in 1840. In addition, several severe natural disasters happened in China, like floods, plagues and droughts. All these factors pushed the Chinese people to immigrate to other countries even later. During 1960s and 1970s, a substantial body of ethnic minority literature emerged in the Unites States. She has contributed to the feminist movement with works such as her memoir The Woman Warrior, which discusses gender and ethnicity and how these concepts affect the lives of women in a new society- America.Written as a girl’s childhood experience, The Woman Warrior recounts the life experience of Maxine Hong Kingston, a Chinese American woman who was born in the United States and grew up in the Chinatown in Stockton, California. Like other children of immigrants, Kingston herself had adolescent turmoil and rebellion, vacillating between her inherited Chinese culture and traditions and modern American culture and values. Thus in her book, The Woman Warrior, Kingston recalls in the memories of her childhood the struggle to reconcile her Chinese and American identities as a second generation Chinese-American. Futhermore, through this book, Kingston also explores the lives and struggles of other Chinese women who were born and lived in China, or who immigrated to the United States, as well as the lives of their children. She vividly describes these Chinese-American women who confronted the dual diliemmas of gender and race; in particular, she presents their psychological development processes which are related to her own experience as a Chinese-American woman.