Mrs Kingston In Ahwahnee Restaurant example essay topic

Prolog I finally succeeded in contacting Mrs. Kingston in order to meet and have lunch with her. I explained to her that I have this assignment from My Culture Diversity class and I think that she is a right person to fulfill the criteria. She checked her schedule for a while then finally she said that she wanted to visit Yosemite Park and have lunch in there! Exiting place! I think it's going to be amazing meeting, so I agreed. She will be there around 12.00 pm and meet me in a restaurant there.

She asked my name and what I look like and I told her, I would be probably the only Asian in there and I used glasses so she will find me easily. She said good, greeted me good bye and hung up the phone. When the time came, I was so nervous with my preparation. Car? Gas?

Tape recorder? Camera? Money? My questions? Note book? I was really excited.

At 12.00 o'clock I was waiting for Mrs. Kingston in Ahwahnee Restaurant. The Restaurant has a great view surrounding the valley that made me feel calm and relaxed. I thought Mrs. Kingston must have been there before and liked the place. I didn't wait to long when Mrs. Kingston entered the room. She was a petite lady, slim and around 60.

She wore a black chiffon dress with a pin on her chest. Her hair was almost all white and straight to her shoulders. She had bright eyes and looked really smart. She looked around and found me. She walked toward and smiled to me. I stood up and smiled back at her; we shook hands and settled down at our table.

I asked her if she was tired from the travel to restaurant. She said she was bringing her driver to accompany her. She coincidentally had to attend the conference in Fresno State yesterday. She said she felt great.

Mrs. Kingston: Are you ready with your questions? You " re look nervous. CL: I am really nervous Mrs. Kingston. Thanks so much for your time this afternoon. It means so much to me. I really appreciate it.

Mrs. Kingston: You are welcome. I think this interview is interesting. That's why I agreed to meet you here. You may not disappoint me (She smiled and gave me a funny face). Don't you think this is a nice place? I have been in this place twice, and I am really enjoying it.

CL: Yes, it is really pretty around here. This is the first time I came here. Thanks for choosing this place for our meeting. Would you like to tell me what is the best on the menu here?

Mrs. Kingston told me she likes grilled salmon in the restaurant, so we ordered two of those and continued our conversation. CL: Mrs. Kingston, I will start with the first question, would you mind to tell me about your childhood which is inspired all your published books? Mrs. Kingston: "All right... I was born on October 27, 1940 in Stockton, CA.

My father, Tom Hong was a teacher who taught in a local village named Sun Won near Canton, and my mother Ying Lan Hong studied medicine and midwifery. Although my parents were well- educated family, my dad left China for America in search of work in 1924, they had had two children before my dad left China. He could not find job as a poet or calligrapher like he planned before (smiled), so he took job in a laundry. He did that job 15 years before my mother finally joined him in 1939 in New York City. They then moved to Stockton where my dad had been offered a job in a gambling house. I was named after a lucky blond gambler who frequented came to the place.

My Chinese name is Ting-Ting. I was the first of six American-born children... My two older sister and brother died in China". CL: "Oh yes. You told about it in your book Woman Warrior on "Shaman" chapter. Mrs. Kingston: Yup... my mother even didn't want to recognize them.

She wanted to forget that sad moment and erased that fact... but she kept calling me Biggest Daughter not Oldest Daughter. CL: I understand that. Mrs. Kingston nodded and continued her story. "As a child, I often listened to my mother tales of ancient China. My parents opened a laundry business shortly after I was born where everyone in the family worked hard to ensure its success. So, while working in there after school, my mom would tell me all these stories, tales, myths, her life and family life.

I spoke almost no English in that time; we spoke in Say Yup language, a dialect of Cantonese. I grew up surrounded by other immigrants from my father's village. It was hard to express my self among others. I often drew out pictures to articulate myself. CL: I remembered when I was in Sydney Australia, many times people didn't understand what I mean, so I had to draw picture to send my message and it made me frustrated to talk in public. Mrs. Kingston: It was my "silent years".

I think... I was "studious" and "quiet" when I was younger. But then I passed that time and I learned English. By age of nine, my progress in English had allowed me to write a poem, I was in fourth grade and all of a sudden this poem started coming out of me. On and on I went, oblivious to everything and when it was over, I had written 30 verses. It is a bad habit that doesn't go away.

CL: That's been amazing, I knew you were an extremely bright student, won 11 scholarships and attended UC Berkeley. Wish I could make such work... And in your biography in internet, you said you attended Engineering major but then switched to English literature. Did you receive any complaints from your parents, did you argue with them, because from my experiences, Chinese people always are practical. My parents wanted me to go to school which could supply me a job as soon as I graduated.

I wanted to go to Psychology major but then I had to go to Accounting to satisfy my father. People in here doesn't do that, but you know we are Chinese, always have to obey the authoritarian parents. Mrs. Kingston: I did too, after long hard hours of labor, I had believed that everything had to be difficult and I was thinking leaving engineering major was irresponsible. But I love English. And it was easy for me, majoring in English interfered with my writing. It was all I could do to write those formal papers on literary criticism.

I made sure my parents that I could make living with it. I was graduated and got my bachelor degree in 1962 and in November that year, I married Earl Kingston, whom I met in English course. I was back to school in 1964 and I earned a teaching certificate from the state of California and taught in Hayward High School for a year in 1965. During that time, we were involved in the antiwar movement on campus. In 1967 we decided to leave the country because the movement was getting more and more violent, many of our friends involved in drugs. We planned to move to Japan, but then we stopped in Hawaii and took various teaching post for 17 years.

I taught at the Mid-Pacific Institute, a private boarding school from 1970 to 1977 and started teaching English at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu as visiting professor. My son Joseph was born in Hawaii and he is still stays in there as a musician. Mrs. Kingston stopped and drank her tea, the meal came and for a while we just enjoyed the salmons. She asked me where I come from and she asked me to describe my home country. I told her about Indonesia and my background.

I told her too I can not speak Chinese even though my parents spoke Mandarin to each other at home. I also told her my mother tried to send me to a private tutor but I never attended it because I was lazy. That tutoring interrupted my playing time so my mom was hopeless and then stopped to push me to learn Chinese. I was kind of regretted it because when I went overseas, I realized there are Chinese people everywhere, imagine if I can communicate with them, it would make my journey more easily. After we finished eating, I asked her to explain about her books. And why did she choose Asian-American as theme and issues.

Mrs. Kingston: "My subconscious is Chinese, isn't that weird? At night in my dreams I speak to Earl in Chinese (Kingston, quoted in Brownmiller 214). And those stories from my mom... said that I was gifted to become a story teller like her. It was my goal to read and listen extensively so that I could find examples from the many California tribes.

I always thought how culture is transmitted, how history and art is handed down through thousand of years of generations of people, how stories come to us through ancestors. These ancestors and my cultural heritage haunted me as long as my searching for myself. (Interview with Jack Hicks). And actually, I wrote about my biography, my memories, it shows me what is unforgettable and helps me get to an essence that will not die, and that haunts me until I can out it into a form, which is writing (interviewed with Paula Rabinowitz in 1987).

CL: Michael T. Malloy described your book (The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts) as having an exotic setting but dealing with the same subjects as mainstream American feminist literature, specifically the "Me and Mom" genre. What do you think? Mrs. Kingston: "You know people asked me is Brave Orchid (her mom) truly that large in real life or is that my poetic license. But in truth I calmed her down for the book. She even larger that that. (Kingston, quoted in Brownmiller 211.

She is my inspiration, night after night she would talk these stories until we fell asleep. I couldn't tell where the stories began and off, her voice the voice of heroines in my sleep. As an immigrant who came to US and could not speak English in that time her struggling in this country was not easy. And I realized she often missed her country and her old environment. That's why she told me all these stories; she didn't want me to loose my root.

She even tried to tell me values with all the myths and stories. Maybe she didn't realize I was in different country, different culture and I had my own struggling. This is what I want to tell trough my books. I want to tell them about Asian American cultures including ancient stories as modern issues.

I want to bridge this gap cultures. And my mom is my sources. CL: But many other reviewers were surprised by its fresh subject matter and style and praised the poetic and fierce of the memoir. It voiced many Chinese rhythm, a typical Chinese American speech and rich of imagination. Mrs. Kingston: Yes, I think my first book was not about my mother. It was about history, myths and legends, culture and bridge between realities.

Maxine Hong Kingston published her first book in 1976: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. This book critically acclaimed success. It combined autobiography and fiction to tell stories about a girl born of Chinese immigrant parents and growing up in America during 1950's. It also filled with stories about earliest generations of Chinese women, their tragic lives in the extremely male dominated society of China, and her attempts to break away from their smothering shadows. It was the first book written told about Asian American life in America that time. It became best seller and received the National Book Critic's Circle Award.

It was taught in high school and colleges throughout America and enjoyed by readers from all backgrounds. It has been published in several languages from English to Hebrew. Her second book, China Men was seen as a companion to her first book. She again explores the Chinese American experiences, only this time through the eyes of the men in her family. There was story about Gold Mountain with 4 versions how did her father come to America. This book too, received glowing reviews.

The New York Times deemed the volume" It is full of wonderful stories. The book received many controversial critics and again won American Book Award in non fiction. CL: The China Men told stories about the men in your family. You were proudly acknowledges the ancestral roots of Chinese American. What are your comments about this? Mrs. Kingston: "What I am doing in this book is claiming America.

That seems to be a common strain that runs trough all the characters. In story after story Chinese American people are claiming America, which goes all the way from one character saying that a Chinese explorer found this place long before Leif Erickson did (11th century, Norwegian explorer) by buying a house here. (interviewed with New York Times). CL: It reminds me to China Town in San Fransisco... Mrs. Kingston: (Smile) "People came from all over the world to California. That was the beginning of California as we know it today. Now, even though the price of gold is not very high, the mythic feeling of a place where you can go and you could make your life the way you want it and where all your dreams could come true, that is still playing itself out in the psyche and the art of the California people".

(Interview with James Hicks, Houston and Al Young) Kingston's third book is Trip master Monkey: His Fake Book (1989) describes the experience about Whitman Ah Sing (Walt Whitman), an Asian American hippie in 1960. This book was categorized as fiction where the character is an antagonist, unique, playful highly verbal young man. The book was a startling departure for Kingston as contemporary mid modern writer and confused many readers. The reviewers called it" less charming ", but it still received many praised. Her last published book is in this year. The book called: The Fifth Book of Peace" (Knopf, $26.00).

It was recreated from her manuscript The Fourth Book of Peace which was lost in the fire 12 years ago. CL: Your last book The Fifth Book of Peace just was published; would you tell me what that book about? Mrs. Kingston: "That is the title because I was working on a book which burned in the Berkeley / Oakland Hills fire. It was in October 1999; it consumed whole neighborhood, houses, schools, and gardens and took 25 lives.

My whole manuscript and computer were reduced to ash. I had no other copies. And when that happened, I was just back from my father's funeral. It was really devastation. I even thought maybe my father was trying to take me with him or it was retribution because we bombed Iraq. I tried to recreate the book after recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I tried to recreate community with a group of veteran wars and made a sort of blueprint for world peace. I am thinking about the legend in China where there where 3 books of Peace that were lost- I think they were burned in library fires- and I think about my book as the Fourth Book, so now this book became the Fifth Book. This book is structured in 4 parts, 3 memoirs and one fiction. CL: I haven't read your Fifth book of Peace, but I sure it's a brilliant work like others.

Now, this is my question from my teacher, Mrs. C rumal, what do you think about this assignment, the diversity class. The topics we cover are including inclusion, empowerment, prejudice, exclusion and teaching children to honor diversity? Mrs. Kingston: I think this class is important in education of American. People come from all over the world to America. And we believe that America is based on democracy to allow people to express themselves in order to become a great country. We need to explore and proud of our heritages.

Diversity is part of American people lives. It is not easy become an immigrant, be in a place where values and beliefs are different especially language barriers. Students who attend the class not just need to understand this diversity but need to have better understanding with other people who is different from themselves in real life. Imagine if all people can live peacefully with each other, different beliefs, different religions, race, life style, all together in a harmony. This is what I tried to say in my writing. If I could change something in my books, I wanted to change the war element I wrote in my early career.

I don't believe it anymore. War doesn't solve anything. You know when you were young; you thought that sometimes you need violence as the answer, to prove your existence to the world. But actually, Power comes from the heart and the mind. I do think your project really interesting and enrich your experiences. Say my hello to your teacher; she must have great times to teach diversity class.

CL: I will, Mrs. Kingston. She must be interested to meet you too. We continued chatting about one or two other things, time has gone, we had to go. CL: Well, I think is time to go now. I had a wonderful time in here with you. I wish you have a safe and nice time to travel back to Oakland Mrs. Kingston.

Thank you one more time, I will never forget this moment. Mrs. Kingston: Never, never forget a wonderful moment. Sometimes it just comes once in your life. But keep it in your heart and memory, some day it will come like a ghost who haunts you wherever you go. CL: I am starting to think that you are a ghost now, live in my mind and touch my spirit.

Please come when I am in time missing my family and my country, please come when I have trouble because of my identity, please come when I am tired to understand other people's perspective, when I am in prejudice situation, please come Mrs. Kingston! Mrs. Kingston: I will child... I am trying to live forever through my books... She gave me a big hug and whispered a good luck.

Then she waved and gone left me in that restaurant, still in her presence magic. Final Words Peaceful writer and Contributions Kingston's no longer believe that war is an appropriate metaphor in her message. As a person she promotes peace, striving to win the opposing forces she writes about by using words instead of swords. She has financially supported liberal groups and has also marched in protest against incident in Tiananmen Square in Beijing China.

She is involved in veteran community especially Vietnam War veterans. Over the past quarter century her writing has helped change how readers reckoned Asian American literature. Her books have helped many to understand the social and cultural difficulties a foreigner can face when placed outside his or her normal environment. "Above all, it has given readers a better understanding of the contributions of the Chinese to the early development of the United States". As Kingston herself said", I am creating part of American literature... ".

Contemporary American literature has been enriched by the addition of the powerful words of Maxine Hong Kingston. http: // . voices. cla. umn. edu / authors /Kingstonmaxinehong. html web web web web web web web web http: // . voices. cla. umn. edu / authors /Kingstonmaxinehong. html web web web web web web web web.