Humanities Core Course

 

 

Glossary for

Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men

(pp. 3-162, 237-308)

 

            The following are some brief annotations to help you through the reading. They are not a substitute for a dictionary, further study (if you are so moved), or, most importantly, your own imagination and interpretation. Read through all of them before you start the book.

 

 

 

pp. 3 – 5    Legend of Tang Ao -  Kingston bases this story on an incident from an 18th century Chinese novel in which a man is transformed into an actual woman. Most of the short fables and myths in the book are based, sometimes loosely, on traditional Chinese folktales and stories.

 

p. 12          Tang People’s Street -  Chinese-Americans often used this term to refer to “Chinatown”. It is a literal translation from the Chinese. Tang was the name of a powerful Chinese dynasty of the eighth and ninth centuries and many Chinese, especially around the Canton region call themselves “people of Tang”. (Tang is pronounced with a broad “a”, rhymes somewhat with the word “prong”, and does not sound like the name of a powdered breakfast drink.)

 

p. 12          Cantonese -  Canton is the English name of a major city in southern China, near Hong Kong. Most Chinese who came to the U.S. before the 1970’s came from the Canton region and they and their dialect of the Chinese language are known as “Cantonese”. Chinese is a tonal language – the same word said in a different tone or inflection has a different meaning. Kingston uses this feature of the spoken language as a source of puns and word plays throughout the book. There are pronounced regional differences in China.

 

p. 14          pigtail - From the 17th century to 1911, China was ruled by the Manchus, a people originally from northeast Asia. They required all native Chinese males to wear a long queue, or pigtail, that often extended to the small of the back, as a sign of submission to Manchu rule. Chinese in the U.S. usually retained this hairstyle, for, if they ever returned to China without it, they could be executed for their display of assumed disrespect. The Republic refers to the Republic of China that replaced Manchu rule after its overthrow by the Revolution of 1911.

 

p. 15          “Center” - This is a literal translation of the Chinese word for center or middle. The Chinese word for China can be translated as “Middle Kingdom”. Here Kingston is also using the word “center” in a symbolic way, as she does throughout the book.

 

p. 17          red eggs and ginger – Parents in certain villages in south China often give their babies a “red egg and ginger” party on the infant’s one-month birthday. Red is the color of prosperity and good luck in China. Note other instances where Kingston uses the color red in her book.

 

pp. 19, 4    bound feet – From approximately the 16th to the early 20th century, many Chinese families forced at least one daughter of the family to undergo this painful procedure. The toes of an infant girl’s feet would be bound with strips of cloth so they would grow under the arch toward the heel. Ideally, a grown woman’s foot would fit inside a rice bowl. The deformed foot was considered to be erotic, but left the woman either completely or partially crippled.

 

p. 22          Tu Fu – One of China’s most famous poets. He lived during the 9th century Tang dynasty.

 

p. 28          grass style – A rapid, running form of freehand Chinese writing that was said to resemble flowing grass.

 

p. 42          America, the Gold Mountain, The Beautiful Nation – Chinese often called the United States “Gold Mountain” (although in this book, “Gold Mountain” seems to signify more than just the U.S.). The literal translation of the Chinese words for America is “beautiful nation”. Here, as elsewhere in the book, Kingston is playing with words.

 

p. 55          walls…covered with poems – Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century were often detained for months and sometimes years in a federal detention center on Angel Island, in the San Francisco bay. They carved hundreds of poems into the wood of their cells. Many of these poems can still be seen today. Note the frequent reference to poets among the Chinese in America.

 

pp. 87, 12  relocation camps – The U.S. interned persons of Japanese ancestry in America, including American citizens, in prison camps during World War II.

 

p. 93          Han men – See Tang Men above. Chinese from Northern China called themselves Han men, after the name of the Han dynasty of the 2nd century B.C. to 2nd century A.D. Chinese speak a number of dialects. One dialect may even be incomprehensible to a Chinese from another region of the country. The sound of a strange dialect is a common source of humor.

 

p. 95          Lao Tse – 6th century B.C. philosopher/sage in China credited with founding the belief system known as Taoism. One of its basic beliefs is that an elemental and fundamental force, the Tao, resides in and unites all things. Taoism teaches respect for this force, and contemplation, balance, and simplicity if one is to be with this force and achieve harmony in life. Kingston’s mention of glowing lights throughout the book may be references to Taoist beliefs.

 

pp. 114-5   yin/yang – Terms referring to a Chinese philosophical concept that interprets the world as composed of opposed but complimentary forces. Harmony is achieved by a balancing and proper proportion of these forces of hot and cold, male and female, and so forth.

 

p. 148        Rock Springs, Wyoming Massacre – In 1885, 28 Chinese were killed in one of the worst incidents of anti-Chinese violence in the West. The Los Angeles Massacre occurred in 1871 and claimed 22 Chinese, many lynched from city lampposts.

 

p. 268        Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai Shek – Sun (the Chinese is to put the surname first) was the leader of the 1911 Revolution. He lived in California for several years before he returned to become the first president of China. Chiang Kai Shek was a military man who governed China from the late 1920’s until 1949, when the Communist revolution led by Mao Tse Tung forced his government to flee to Taiwan off the coast of China.

 

pp. 268-9   Fa Mu Lan; Ngok Fei; Fan Kuei; Ts’ao Ts’ao – Historical and mythical heroines and heroes in Chinese folklore.

 

p. 276        Kung Fu Tze – The Chinese name of Confucius, China’s most famous philosopher. Confucius lived about five hundred years before Christ. His teachings are sometimes called a “religion”, but are really more of an ethical system and social philosophy.

 

p. 295        Ho Chi Kuai – “Just like the devil.”

 

p. 302        jook tsing – Pejorative term for Chinese-Americans. Literally, the term means “trapped inside a bamboo segment” – one cannot go up or down (bamboo is hollow but segmented). The meaning is that one can be neither completely Chinese nor completely American.

 

p. 304        a very important, religious party… - This dinner apparently is a festival to commemorate the dead, a traditional annual event in Chinese society, although The Brother, fully Americanized, apparently is unaware of the significance of the occasion.