"China Men" contemplates exile; it seeks to explain exile by recovering history from deceit. It is quite as wonderful as "The Woman Warrior," but angrier…. The anger in "China Men" causes some seams, some scars, in its narrative that were not apparent in "The Woman Warrior." She stops to tell us, year by year, of discriminatory legislation against the Chinese in this country; her indignation is a hook in her throat; she is properly outraged at the blue-eyed "white demons"; the past wasn't pretty; we miss, for a beat, her brilliant music. But the anger is in the service of amplitude. No more lies, she is saying….
"China Men" is framed, on the one hand, by a wedding and a funeral, and, on the other, by the birth of boys. The wedding and the funeral are surprisingly similar, with a burning of paper horses and a throwing away of paper money. Both births are witnessed at a window by the older children; the first is of Mrs. Kingston's father, the second of her brother who will go to Vietnam. In between is sheer magic: poetry, parable, nightmare, the terror and exhileration of physical labor, the songs of survival, the voices of the dead, the feel of wood and blood, the smell of flowers and wounds. History meets sensuality….
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