"China Men," using the same techniques as "The Woman Warrior"—the blend of myth, legend and history, the fevered voice, relentless as a truth-seeking child's—is impelled by Mrs. Kingston's need to understand the men with whom she is connected: her father, grandfather, brother, mythic figures….
Mrs. Kingston begins her quest for understanding with her own father. But whereas her mother, Brave Orchid, was full of "talk-story," her father does not speak. "You say with the few words and the silences: 'No stories. No past. No China.'" So she must piece together the few facts she has and invent the rest, a myth grown out of unknowing, foreignness….
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