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| HONG-KINGSTON: "We actually have our president recognizing the distinction between Asians and Asian Americans." |
BY BERT ELJERA
When a fire swept the affluent community of Oakland Hills in Northern California back in 1991, resident Maxine Hong-Kingston didn't know which treasure to mourn most: her house or the manuscript of her fifth book.
Six years later, she's still rebuilding her house and putting together Fifth Book of Peace, an 1,800-page opus about ancient China that she hopes will find relevance in the new millennium.
"It's horrifying how long it takes," she said, referring to completing her house and book. Of course, decorating a house is nowhere near the intellectual struggle of writing a book.
"Every time I write, I set more difficult challenges, make new discoveries--never worked on a formula," she said. "[But] I feel I was born to do this."
Apparently President Clinton does as well. Last month, Hong-Kingston was one of seven Americans to receive the National Humanities Medal for their contributions to American culture.
An English professor at UC Berkeley, Hong-Kingston was honored as a teacher and writer for her work dealing with the Chinese and Chinese American experience. The certificate that came with the medal read:
"For her vivid and distinctive writing. Blending family folklore, fact, fiction, and history with the spectral world, she has created a powerful new genre highlighting the experiences of both Chinese and Chinese Americans and illuminating their conflicts and struggles."
President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton handed out the awards at a White House ceremony. "It was very good," Hong-Kingston said. "We actually have our president recognizing the distinction between Asians and Asian Americans."
She noted that it is a fundamental distinction lost on mainstream American society, as highlighted by the unfair portrayal of Asian Americans as "agents" of foreign governments in the ongoing investigation into alleged campaign-finance abuses in the 1996 presidential election.
And that's why educating American society--and Asian Americans themselves--about the culture and heritage of her people is her life's calling, said Hong-Kingston, a second-generation Chinese American.
Hong-Kingston, 56, drew public notice for the first time when her seminal book, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, appeared in 1976 and won the National Book Critic's Circle Award.
It was followed in 1980 by China Men, which garnered the same award, and in 1989 by her first novel, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book.
Woman Warrior drew inspiration from her life experiences growing up in a culture that considers girls as less deserving than boys. In the book, she suggests that contrary to Chinese legend, which considers girls successful only if they grow up to become wives or slaves, they "could be heroines and swordswomen."
Hong-Kingston said she wrote the book, in part, to illustrate Chinese American history. "I can write entertaining stories and, at the same time, educate people. My books have a lot of history," she said.
Born and raised in Stockton, Calif., Hong-Kingston is the oldest of six children born to Tom Hong and Chew Ying Lan, both originally from China.
Her father maintained a gambling joint in Stockton; Hong-Kingston was named after a blonde who frequented the establishment. The family later operated a laundry business.
Hong-Kingston started scribbling notes and poems as a child. "My mother, a doctor in China, was a storyteller." she recalled. "Her father was a storyteller. My father was a storyteller. I knew I was going to be a writer."
She got her English degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962 and, in the same year, married Earl Kingston, an anti-war activist like herself. She got her secondary teaching certificate in 1965 and began her teaching career at Sunset High School in Hayward, Calif., the same year.
In 1967, the couple moved to Hawaii, where Hong-Kingston took various teaching positions, including one at the University of Hawaii.
Her experiences in Hawaii inspired Hawaii One Summer, which was published by Meadow Press of San Francisco in 1979. She has been teaching at UC Berkeley since 1989.
Hong-Kingston said that writing books based on Asian myths, legends, and history is so natural for her, "like eating and breathing." She added, "You write about what you know, the people around you, and based on the stories you hear."
But she said her stories can be enjoyed by non-Asians because they are a celebration of life. "I hope my books are uplifting," she said. "I am writing about how to live a full, good, free life, and how we can enjoy as human beings."
Although Hong-Kingston recognizes that there is lamentation and some tragedy in her books mirroring the human condition, she said, "I feel it's my ethical responsibility to be happy."
In the spring, she is expected to receive the Fred Cody Life Achievement Award from the Bay Area Booksellers' Association for her string of successful books.
"I feel that every human being needs art as a form of artistic expression," she said. "I will be doing this thing [writing] forever."
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