Quote

My aunt could not have been the lone romantic who gave up everything for sex. Women in the old China did not choose. Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil.

Maxine Hong Kingston

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Maxine Hong Kingston
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: October 27
Author
Novelist
Professor
Writer
Chinatown
Stockton
Maxine Ting Ting Hong
Secret
Commanded
Lying
Lone
Evil
Aunt
Women
Romantic
Everything
China
Men
Sex
Gave
Choose
Promiscuity

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It seems that writing chose me. I feel that because I know history, and I know the history of so many cultures I have lived a large life.
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People who can comfort the dead can also chase after them to hurt them further-a reverse ancestor worship.
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The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of peace have to be invented, and invented again
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Humans are basically good. That's why it takes so much training to march march march kill kill kill kill.
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To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world--that I am able to change it in positive ways.
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I may be ugly and clumsy, but one thing I'm not, I'm not retarded.
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When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk-story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family. Perhaps women were once so dangerous that they had to have their feet bound.
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