No Name Woman

In "No Name Woman," culture and tradition are two pervasive subjects. Kingston speaks on the ways her families would trick the gods, the traditionally round objects in her parents' homes, and the familial nature of her parents' village. Much of Kingston's life and writing has been influenced by her Chinese heritage; at the same time, the reader can recognize a struggle within Kingston to reconcile her American and Chinese identities.

As a daughter of Chinese immigrant parents, Kingston has published many non-fiction books which include subjects of Chinese and Hawaiian culture. Kingston is currently professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. "No Name Woman" is a recollection of Kingston's aunt, but it serves as more than a tribute--it is a rebellion.

With an unspoken agreement, Kingston's family agreed to forget the sister largely because of cultural values. Kingston writes, "Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during good times, became a crime when the village needed food" (391). In her parents' village, there was no separation between individual family units and the entire community. Because the sister had hurt the family and the entire village, it seemed justified to neglect her after death. Although Kingston seems cool toward her aunt in this passage, the essay is ultimately a rejection of her family's treatment of her aunt. Kingston disregards the punishing silence against her aunt by daring to print her story on a page. Such a piece is likely intended for individuals who also remain complicit in the erasure of victims and their suffering. To draw the reader into this rebellion, Kingston employs a narrative. Describing her aunt's labor, she writes, "At [the child's] birth the two of them had felt the same raw pain of separation, a wound that only the family pressing tight would close" (392). Such narration helps flesh out the aunt and child as actual people. No longer is her aunt an evil outcast, but a human who suffered immense pain. Readers can now empathize with the aunt and continue the rebellion Kingston has started: they can remember her story and break the silence.

Kingston hypothesizes that her aunt was likely pregnant as a result of a rape. However, there was no justice or sympathy for her aunt, an unfortunate parallel to today's current events. Many survivors of rape are silenced or ignored in favor of the comfortable safety of the status quo. It is the responsibility of every individual to break the silence and create change.
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(Pages 383-394)