Born in Stockton, California, in 1940, as a first-generation Chinese American, Maxine Hong Kingston grew up under the sometimes competing influences of Chinese and American cultures. As both a female among Chinese and as a Chinese American among other ethnic groups, she found herself devalued and limited in her opportunities. Her memoir The Woman Warrior includes contrasting images of female power and female oppression. Published in a decade that saw the growth of an active women's movement in the United States, Hong Kingston's memoir was immediately embraced by the feminist community.
Gold Mountain. When the Woman Warrior opens, it refers to the 1924 emigration of Hong Kingston's father from China to Gold Mountain in California. The destination, by then, had been attracting Chinese men for around seventy-five years. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California, in 1848, men from China raced to the area to make their fortune through mining. As far away as Hong Kong, tales of the "gum shan" or "mountain of gold" in California enticed would be prospectors onto ships heading for the West Coast.
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