Abstract

The Woman Warrior, a book which has gained many rewards, is a masterpiece of the famous Chinese American writer Maxine Kingston Hong. This paper begins with a brief introduction to the author and the book, then puts the emphasis on the analysis of the heroic acts of Mulan in The Woman Warrior, and finally demonstrates the author’s purpose of rewriting the story, and thereby further demonstrates the theme of this paper -- Maxine Kingston Hong just writes her own American story, which is different from the old Chinese tale of Mulan and reflects typical American values.

Key words: Fa Mulan, Chinese American, heroine, value,

摘 要

《女勇士》，是华裔作家汤亭马亭的一部杰作,曾获得很多奖项。本文从简要介绍该小说及其作者入手，进一步分析了书中木兰的英雄壮举，最后分析作者改写这个故事的目的，从而展示了本文的主题——作者只是在写她自己的美国故事。这个故事与中国古代花木兰不同，所表现的是美国独特的价值观。

关键词： 花木兰；华裔；英雄；价值

1.    Introduction
1.1    A brief introduction to the author
Maxine Kingston Hong, a Chinese American, was born in Stockton, California in 1940. She began writing at the age of nine, as she recalled later that she was in the fourth grade and all of a sudden this poem started coming out of her. She won her first writing award in a journalism contest at UC Berkeley when she was sixteen. Then she majored in engineering at Berkeley before switching to English which makes her closer to her writing career.
At the same time, she is also actively involved in social activities.  For the past years, Kingston has been working with veterans — more than 500 soldiers from World War II, from Vietnam, and from Iraq — as well as other survivors of wars to convert the horrors they experienced into the words and stories that Kingston believes will help them cope and survive. Because of her great contributions to the society, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton in 1997. In 2003, Kingston was arrested on International Women's Day for her participating in an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., coordinated by women-initiated organization Code Pink. Kingston's anti-war stance has significantly trickled into her work.