2。 Literature Review

The Woman Warrior contains five short stories: “No Name Woman”, “White Tigers”, “Shaman”, “At the Western Palace”, and “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, showing a Chinese American’s girlhood life and revealing the suffering of oppression and racism afflicted upon the female characters, in which the author constantly portrays around the central character with Chinese elements。 

The whole world started a broad discussion about Kingston and the book with several aspects in entirely opposite views。 Particularly, the discussion on decoding the meaning of “ghosts” has been heatedly aroused。 “Critics of Post-Colonialism think that “ghost” implants in white American society whereas feminism critics decode it to be societies dominated by men, etc。” (Dan 2006)。 Some also think that the “ghosts” was the outcome of the culture collision and social conflicts。 This paper aims to analyze the deep meaning of the Chinese element “ghost” in The Woman Warrior and seek for the author’s inner thoughts and attitude in this background。

3。 “Ghost” as the First-generation Chinese Americans’ Rejection to America and Its Culture

As for the first generation of Chinese emigrants who went to America only for seeking fortune, it is hard for them to get familiar with and accept both its culture and the customs。 Therefore, American culture in their eyes is regarded as an alien culture, differs greatly from the traditional Chinese culture with distinct values of ideology and morality。 Also, America has its own ethnocentrism which Merton (Merton 1996) pointed out that Sumner defined it as the technical name for the view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it。 And Sumner (Sumner 1906) further characterized it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one’s own group’s superiority, and contempt of outsiders。 Therefore, the Chinese Americans would suffer from the oppression and exploitation in the new country they now live, thus drove them away from America and its culture which led to the formation of estrangement and rejection。 Moreover, they used the image of “ghost” as an effective weapon to externalize the feeling of rejection and express their anguish and the torment they had suffered。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*

3。1 Rejection to the American whites 

“Kingston’s use of the term ‘emigrant’ is apt。 The first generation of Chinese in America emigrated out of China, but has not spiritually immigrated to America。 They wander in a ghost-like existence; hang on to a former reality” (Hsu 437)。 As emigrants, the Chinese Americans are never able to integrate fully into the American society。 Besides, the discrimination and even the neglect of the minorities’ culture and tradition expressed by the white Americans alienated the Chinese Americans from the American society and made them feel insecure and oppressive。 Thus, Chinese emigrants regarded Americans as the ghosts and avoided getting along with them, which indicated that the Chinese rejected both white Americans and the culture for the reason that they neither communicated well enough with white Americans in daily activities nor felt welcomed and got connected emotionally。 Thus, the image of white Americans in their mind is nothing but machines without any humanity。 “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 ghost” (Kinston 96-97)。 The ghost image implied the hard life of Chinese Americans in the white-dominated society。 The heroine’s mother regarded Americans as “ghost” and everything in America as machines due to the alienation she had sensed in American society。 The kind of feeling that they could not fit in is deeply grown in their minds, which gradually develops into being suspicious and mistrustful towards America and its culture。 The heroine’s mother once said that the white Americans were western barbarians full of schemes and intrigues。 “Here everything was new plastic, a ghost trick to lure emigrants into feeling safe and spilling their secrets。 Then the Alien Office could send them right back” (Kinston 115)。