The connection between the themes of ghosts and food, and how Kingston uses this to characterize Chinese culture

In The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, and the memoir “No Name Woman,” the theme of ghosts in Chinese culture portray a complicated history of the narrator’s family. Shaman includes the story of her Mother experiencing smoke spindles appear, acting as the ghosts her Mother talks about. She goes on to assign the word “Ghost” as a title to describe people. For example, Kingston writes, “America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts… There were Black Ghosts too, but they were open eyed and full of laughter, more distinct than White Ghosts” (97). This shows how the narrator’s perception of people in America are inherently negative as she compares them to ghosts. She has been told so many stories about ghosts from her ancestors that she does not know what is real or not anymore.

Kingston is shows how difficult it can be for the children of immigrants to balance the lifestyle of America with her Mother’s stricter Chinese traditions. The narrator wants to please her Mother, but struggles to make her happy while falling short of actually feeling like a part of her families’ culture. Tying into the theme of food, Kingston writes, “Oh, the shame of it- a whole family of skinny children” (102). Her Mother uses this as a reason to not leave leftovers on the plate, as a way of bringing her Chinese heritage into light. These traditions are fundamental in Chinese culture. The Chinese believe in pride of providing for the family, as in the necessity to put food on the table. This also contributes to China’s values of harmony and keeping the traditional family mindset.

What was alarming about this passage was not the startling of her Mother with the smoke spindles, but the connection Kingston makes between ghosts and food. Kingston states, “now I see that my Mother won in ghost battle because she can eat anything” (88). It was interesting to me how the narrator believes hunting for food and battling ghosts go hand in hand. She follows this up with stories from the Chinese Academy of Science of old servants and hunters that are heroes because they are eaters. Kingston writes, “All heroes are bold toward food… The most fantastic eater of them all was Wei Pang, a scholar-hunter of the Ta Li era of the T’ang dynasty” (88-89).  I thought of this as another meaning to the word “warrior” which is also a reoccurring theme in the text because the narrator is exposed to the importance of pride, hunting, providing, and tradition.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think the title “Ghost” means in the context of society? Is this label about occupation, race, or specifically Americans? What was strange about this section?
  2. The phrase, “All heroes are bold toward food” (88), stuck out to me because of the power behind the word “heroes.” This section caught my attention because it allowed me to think deeper about the seriousness of Chinese perception. What phrase or section stood out to you and why?

16 thoughts on “The connection between the themes of ghosts and food, and how Kingston uses this to characterize Chinese culture”

  1. Hi Mikayla,
    I really enjoyed reading your blog post and actually never thought about the title “Ghost” having any context to society in the way Kingston writes about them. When I hear about ghosts, I normally just think the soul of a dead person but like you said on page 97, Kingston relate ghosts mostly to America and describes them in job descriptions such as “…police ghosts, taxi ghosts, fire ghosts…etc.”. I agree that she does use this as a way of determining I guess you can say that “type” of ghost that appears and how she perceives them with their occupations as a factor.

  2. Hi Mikayla,
    I really liked your blog post about this chapter in the story. As Morgan M stated in her comment before me, I wouldn’t really think of ghosts as part of society. After reading this chapter, I believe that the label of “ghost” means anyone that is non-Chinese in America. As the narrator states, “But America has been full of machines and ghosts-Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts, Fire Ghosts, Meter Reader Ghosts, Tree Trimming Ghosts, Five-and-Dime Ghosts…There were Black Ghosts too, but they were open eyed and full of laughter, more distinct than White Ghosts” (97). I think that the narrator views Americans as an evil and negative perceptive because of the stories that she heard from her mother growing up. In this section, I found it strange that they pretended to be Newsboy Ghosts even though they were frightened of them. On page 97, the narrator states, “What frightened me the most was the Newsboy Ghost, who came out from between the cars parked in the evening light.” In the next paragraph, the narrators says, “We used to pretend we were Newsboy Ghosts. We collected old Chinese newspapers (the Newsboy Ghost not giving us his ghost newspapers) and trekked about the house and yard” (97). I just find this strange because it seems that if something scares you like a ghost or a person, you would want to avoid any situation related to them.

  3. Mikayla,
    I appreciated your take on the word “Ghosts,” as it proposed a viewpoint slightly different than my own. To me, the narrator’s usage of ghosts throughout the text isn’t inherently a negative thing, more often taking on a slightly neutral connotation, being used for a variety of instances in which the narrator needs a word to represent the feeling of “other.” For example, take your first quote, in which Kingston states, “America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts… There were Black Ghosts too, but they were open eyed and full of laughter, more distinct than White Ghosts” (97). In your analyzation, you pointed out that since “ghost” typically carries a spooky and sometimes even evil connotation, Kingston is implying that she views the Americans negatively. However, I think Kingston’s diction when describing the “Black Ghosts” plays a key part in showing how her feelings toward the Americans aren’t intrinsically negative. “Open eyed” and “full of laughter” are both very positive descriptions. The narrator portrays them to be bright and full of life, which is a distinct paradox to the usual definition of the word “ghost.” This leads me to believe that, rather than being used as a negative descriptor or even an insult, in this instance “ghost” is really supposed to describe those with other pasts, cultures, heartbreaks, ideals, et cetera than those her and her people carry. This would also explain why the “Black Ghosts” stand out more to her than her and are more clear, as people of African descent faced a similar discrimination and prejudice to that of the Chinese who came to America.

    1. Interesting thoughts on the use of the term “ghosts”, Joanna. To a certain extent I agree with you in that “ghosts” represents other people, but I believe it stems deeper than that as well. The term “ghosts” can also mean an anomaly that can’t be explained. I believe that the narrator simply doesn’t fully understand the American way of life because it contrasts from her so greatly. So when the narrator states “America has been full of machines and ghosts” (97), I believe this is referring to industry in America and the working-class white man. This may be something that the narrator is not used to in her normal traditional, Chinese way of life. She may also refer to African-Americans standing out more as “black ghosts” because black people of the time did not have the same opportunities that white people had therefore usually leaving them in poverty, something the narrator could relate to. The reason that they are still ghosts, however is because they’re going through a similar struggle just in a different way.

  4. Mikayla,
    I really liked that you pointed out the quote, “All heroes are bold toward food” (Kingston, 88). This quote relates a lot to the way food is prioritized in the Chinese culture and speaks volumes towards the “bold” individuals that food favors. I think it is quite interesting that food plays such a big role in social standing, traditions, and reputations throughout the stories in this book. One quote that stood out to me was, “I have wanted to say, ‘Stop it. Stop it,’ but not once did I say, ‘Stop it'” (Kingston, 91). I think this quote demonstrates how difficult it can be to differentiate what is right and what is wrong, especially when it comes to cultural values. The narrators family clearly had knowledge of or maybe even participated in killing monkeys, and this made the narrator uncomfortable. Standing up to your family and those in your culture about certain topics can be extremely difficult.

  5. Mikayla,
    I believe the term ‘ghosts’ used in this section of the book can be considered a symbol for many things. Two main things the term could represent are race and the idea of ‘made up’ things. Brave Orchid, the narrator’s mother, repeatedly tells the narrator to stay clear of white people cause they are all ghosts. Orchid instills into the narrator’s head that the ‘Newsboy Ghost’ and the ‘Garbage Ghost’ are actually real. This has a lot to do with race because of the fact that she is making a comparison of white people and ghosts and their connection. The fact that she is persuading (or at least trying to) her daughter to believe these things is insane. That goes right into my next idea of ‘made up’ things. Orchid is trying to use the narrator’s inevitable fear and nightmares of her dead aunt as an advantage. She tries to get the narrator to believe all these ghost stories with the intention that she will be scared of them and believe her out of fear. The fact that her talk-stories are about ghosts is ironic because it is somewhat obvious that she is most likely lying. ‘Made up’ things has to do with lying and ‘made up’ things also ties into the idea of ghosts. The idea of ghosts has to do with words like non-existent, made-up, and not real; all of which could be attributed to Orchid’s whole entire life and her stories. One quote stuck out to me the most from this section. The quote stated, “To make my waking life American-normal, I turn on the lights before anything untoward makes an appearance. I push the deformed into my dreams, which are in Chinese, the language of impossible stories.” This quote stuck out to me because it really shows the narrator’s feelings towards the talk-stories of Orchid. The narrator does not like the mixing of Chinese and American cultures. For the Chinese culture, it seems, ghosts are apart of their everyday lives, even the cruel stories. However, in American culture, these would be considered impossible stories. The talk-stories that the narrator’s mother shares often are not doing any help for the narrator.

  6. I also liked the phrase “All heroes are bold toward food” (88) for similar reasons to you. A section that I enjoyed reading was the exchange between her and her mother on page 106. Kingston starts by saying “Time is the same from place to place… There is only the eternal present, and biology. The reason you feel time is that you had six children after you were forty-five and you worried about raising us. You shouldn’t worry anymore, though, Mama… All of us have grown up. And you can stop working.” (106) In response, her mother claims that she cannot stop working, to which Kingston replies how she is the same. I enjoy this conversation because it shows a moment of respect between mother and daughter. Kingston is thanking her mother for all that she has done over the years due to the Chinese culture of hard work. Life in America is different, but her mother has not quite adapted to it, so Kingston is basically telling her mom to relax a little bit. It’s a nice exchange that I’m glad was included.

  7. Kingston uses the term “ghost” all throughout the entire text. I think she chose to do this to portray that her entire life has been haunted by ghosts. Non-Chinese people get referred to as ghosts but the story also has literal ghosts. Kingston uses them to symbolize fear and other challenges that need the narrators must overcome. By using ghost stories in her memoir Kingston gives you a glimpse at how dark her life has been.

  8. Mikayla,
    When I first read the title of the book I thought something different. The word ghost to me seemed as though the girls were missing. That into today’s society nobody knows them or the hardships in which they’ve gone through. To everyone else, they’re ghosts. However, upon a close reading I realized my first impression of the title wasn’t exactly true. It seems as though the narrater is using the term ghost to categorize and symbolize people, especially when it comes to America,“America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts… There were Black Ghosts too, but they were open eyed and full of laughter, more distinct than White Ghosts” (97). It seems that this is her way of acknowledging the different races in which she is now encountering in a new country.
    Along with race, ghost might symbolize her lack of knowing. When she was in China, there wasn’t bustling cities in which industrialization was a key item. Going to the previous quote,“America has been full of machines and ghosts..” (97) it demonstrates the city atmosphere for which she is living in. The term ghost can not only be described as a supernatural entity, but also as an anomaly. Ghost could be used in the form of an anomaly to show her lack of understanding–for her way of coping with culture shock.

  9. What do you think the title “Ghost” means in the context of society? Is this label about occupation, race, or specifically Americans? What was strange about this section?

    I believe she uses the title “Ghost” in a number of different ways but primarily she is comparing the citizens of America with the ghosts of China. It seems as though she is saying that Americans walk around like ghosts. Not participating in life and family and culture, they all seem to focus on themselves. At one point the narrator mentions that her mother used to be tiny but now she is strong and tough because she doesn’t have the help of her village now, instead she has to do everything herself. American citizens are ghosts to her, they are there but they don’t help in any way and in fact they tend to hinder.

  10. Kingston’s way of using the term “ghost” signifies that everybody other than the Chinese race, were different from her. As in the text,she characterizes these ghosts by their occupation and race, Also fearing them every time they are near. She quoted, “Once upon a time the world was so thick with ghosts,I could hardly breathe; I could hardly walk, limping my way around the White Ghosts and their cars”. It is as almost if she has some sort of anxiety around these “ghosts”. She’d rather stay away from them all the time because of how weak they make her feel.

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