Awards
Winner of the 1981 National Book Award
Synopses & Reviews
Woven from memory, myth, and fact a journey into the hearts and minds of Chinese men in America: the grandfather who slaved in the Sierra Nevadas on the transcontinental railroad
the father who danced down Fifth Avenue, like Fred Astaire, on days off from the laundry
and the son who returned to China to find release from his dead mother's angry spirit. Here is an accomplished storyteller's remarkably beautiful tale of what they endured in a strange new land.
Review
"A history at once savage and beautiful, a combination of bone-grinding reality and luminous fantasy." New Republic
Review
"Superb...humorous...magical. We are in the presence of a splendid raconteur, who shares with us the myths and stories that emerge from the lode of a culture's deepest realities." Chicago Tribune
Review
"China Men is a voyage itself, to China and back. It will come to be regarded as one of the classic American works on the experience of immigration...a work of enormous power, feeling and understanding." Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Synopsis
The author chronicles the lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from memory, myth and fact. Here's a storyteller's tale of what they endured in a strange new land.
About the Author
Maxine Hong Kingston lives in California with her husband, actor Earll Kingston. She is also the author of The Woman Warrior, Tripmaster Monkey, and The Fifth Book of Peace.