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Introduction

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. It is semi-autobiographical, incorporating many elements of fiction. The story explores ethnicity and gender roles, especially in the context of Kingston's experiences as a Chinese-American woman. The stories filling in the blanks of her mother's talk-story.^[1]

The Woman Warrior has been reported by the Modern Language Association as the most commonly taught text in modern university education, used in disciplines that include American literature, anthropology, Asian studies, composition, education, psychology, sociology, and women's studies. Though widely praised by critics, the book has been criticized by fellow Chinese American author Frank Chin as perpetuating racist stereotypes. ^[2]

The Woman Warrior is an example of how Kingston likes to experiment with various genres, as she weaves together myth, fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, and history in what is sometimes both true and imagined.^[3] Thirty years later, The Woman Warrior still remains one of the most widely taught books on college campuses.^[4] In addition, it has also won the National Book Critics Circle Awardand has been named one of Time Magazine's top nonfiction books of the 1970s.^[5] The Woman Warrior is currently considered "the most widely taught book by a living writer in US colleges and universities." ^[6]