Maxine Hong Kingston’s Essay: “No Name Woman”

Secrecy and Silence – Traditional Chinese Society

Chinese tradition is complex and ingrained in this culture.

The first thing that M.H. Kingston is told by her mother is: “You must not tell anyone”, as the story of her unmentionable aunt who had a child out of wedlock is relayed to her and Kingston is sworn to secrecy and silence. As a result, the aunt’s name and existence is expunged from by the family forever, “We say that your father has all brothers, because it is as if she had never been born”. Secrecy and silence is elementary to this society so as was customary; the men went away to earn a living but they were glad to go as her aunt was alluring to uncles, cousins, nephews and others, “…and they left, fearful that their glances, like a field of nesting birds, might be startled and caught.”

Traditionally a wrong word even in the USA could “incite the kins people…”, to do some kind of unspeakable and mysterious harm to her father. Secrecy and silence are traditional values reemphasized by Kingston’s mother when she implicitly threatens her, “Do not do what she did or the same could happen to you”, implying that she too could be forgotten by the family. Unfortunately, adultery was traditionally considered a mistake in good times however in bad times this became a crime as the villagers were preoccupied feeding themselves thus adultery was an extravagance and punishable.

Kingston struggled caught between two traditions, growing up in America but raised in a Chinese traditional culture. As a result, she comments on her struggle at dating: “if I made myself American-pretty so that the five or six Chinese boys in the class fell in love with me, everyone else – the Caucasian, Negro and Japanese boys – would too”, so it was best to act sisterly”. In addition, Kingston also struggles with inner turmoil as she consented and allowed the punishment of her aunt to continue long after her death: “I have not asked for details nor said my aunt’s name; I do not know it”; she is caught in a perfect storm of emotional contradictions, different traditions, loyalty to family and disloyalty to an aunt she never knew.

In the end, Kingston is haunted by her aunt and not sure whether writing about her necessarily is appreciated by her aunt’s ghost: “I do not think she always means me well. I am telling on her…”, but in her own way Kingston’s pays homage to her aunt.