Changing Hawaii
THE young ladies of La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls weren't even born two decades ago, when Maxine Hong Kingston's first book, "The Woman Warrior," was published and began winning literary acclaim. A woman warrior
shares the joy
of writingStill, the all-female student body that gathered in the gym on Monday could readily relate to the famous author, not because of who she was but for what she said.
They sat before her -- some cross-legged on the floor, others perched in chairs or on bleachers -- like earnest disciples before a guru. Kingston responded by sharing a simple yet powerful message: There is beauty and therapeutic power in the written word.
She acknowledged penning "Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" as a rebellious young woman mad at the world, especially at her mother. "I couldn't express my anger face-to-face but I could in my writing," said the now 59-year-old English professor at UC-Berkeley, who is deemed to be a "Living Treasure of Hawaii."
As a kid, Kingston hid her journal-like jottings in a cigar box and stashed them in a tree, only to have her brothers find them and mock her mercilessly.
The humiliation, however, dimmed neither her need to illuminate nor to understand the turmoil swirling inside her.
"It's necessary for our own mental health to write things down," Kingston said, urging the students to start personal diaries of their own. "It's important to get our feelings out because, as we write, we learn to understand ourselves and others."
Kingston still scribbles away her anger, angst and love in disciplined fashion. When she finished the "Woman Warrior" manuscript, she refined it over 12 rewrites.
Befuddled mainland publishers turned her down three times. They balked at the unusual structure of her prose, the noticeable "Chinese accent" or rhythm of her writing, and her unique Asian/feminist bent:
"When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talking story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family. Perhaps women were once so dangerous that they had to have their feet bound..."
AFTER Kingston's "Woman Warrior" was published in 1976 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., it won a general nonfiction award from the National Book Critics Circle.
Later, she wrote "China Men" (1980) and "Tripmaster Monkey" (1989). Her latest offering, "Hawaii One Summer," is filled with perceptive vig-nettes about her 17 years in the islands, which included teaching jobs at Mid-Pacific Institute and the University of Hawaii. "Fifth Book of Peace" is set for release next year.
By the end of Kingston's talk, the young ladies of La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls had learned the impact of the written word and the hard work needed to get it published. Most important, they realized how every person's voice is significant and deserves to be shared.
The most valued talent for a scribe, Kingston related, is the ability to look at something seemingly ordinary and realize how very special it is.
That may have happened Monday, when the girls of La Pietra suddenly realized the gentle-voiced, gray-haired Asian author standing before them was really a spirited woman warrior in disguise.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.