"There is a Chinese word for the female I—which is "slave." Break the women with their own tongues!" (Kingston 26). Men and other women learned to silence women with violence. They silenced women by cutting their tongues, burning their feet, twisting their thumbs until they died from bleeding. "The Communists gave axes to the old ladies and said, 'Go and kill yourself. You're useless'" (Kingston 27). Silently but powerfully, they denied the threat with the grace of a traditional Chinese woman and the strength of a woman warrior. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston conveys the three messages central to the theme of Asian American feminism.

            Lying hidden between the lines is a message of shame delicately written so not to hurt the characters' feelings. "I minded that the emigrant villagers shook their heads at my sister and me. 'One girl—and another girl,' they said, and made our parents ashamed to take us out together" (Kingston 25). This quote summarized the historical state of the nation, as each household prayed for their newborns to be boys, and some even killed the girls thinking they were burdens. As a result, shame about their gender or ethnicity crept into one's soul. And sometimes, women were even silenced by death. "Moon Orchid was so ashamed, she held her hands over her face. She wished she could also hide her dappled hands. Her husband looked like one of the ghosts passing the car windows, and she must look like a ghost from China. They had indeed entered the land of ghosts, and they had become ghosts" (Kingston 68).

            Kingston compares Moon Orchid to a ghost, signifying the transparency and oddity of a non-naturalized citizen- the minority feeling inferior because of her age and actions. They silenced her with their Western gazes. But finally, worst of all, the shame cripples her ability to communicate—the humiliation of being different. "A dumbness—a shame—still cracks my voice in two, even when I want to say 'hello' asually, or ask an easy question in front of the check-out counter, or ask directions of a bus driver. I stand frozen, or I hold up the line with the complete, grammatical sentence that comes squeaking out at impossible length" (Kingston 74). The language barrier is the most common reason behind shame and prevails in modern society. When traveling to a new nation with another language and societal rules, one can feel uncomfortable and ashamed. This shame stems from feeling misplaced, not knowing the language and societal norms established through history.

            Furthermore, Kingston presents the message of isolation, foreignness. She describes the intricacies between the Chinese and American culture, where even the letters and characters portrayed their varying values. "The Chinese 'I' has seven strokes, intricacies. How could the American 'I,' assuredly wearing a hat like the Chinese, have only three strokes, the middle so straight? Was it out of politeness that the writer left off strokes the way a Chinese has to write her name small and crooked? No, it was not politeness; 'I' is a capital and 'you' is lower-case" (Kingston 74). In this foreign land, where even the words display arrogance, Kingston illustrates the image of a young Chinese girl who finds herself more at home when she doesn't speak the language that emits values for which she disagrees. "The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl" (Kingston 74). This quote portrays the segregation of diverse cultures within one nation, even when they seem to diffuse on the surface.

            Finally, rebellion proudly displays itself as the first message. In the chapter "White Tiger," Kingston illustrates the final goal in a woman's life of becoming strong, powerful, and defiant as a woman. "When 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" (Kingston 15). Kingston illustrates the teaching of young Chinese American girls to admire female warriors instead of traditional Chinese housewives. As the story occurred when China was still isolated and conservative, the idea of strength and defiance in a woman itself was a form of rebellion. It shows that women are becoming independent, standing up for their rights. Kingston glorifies the idea of a "woman warrior" by using words like "heroine," which possesses a positive connotation, as opposed to "slaves," which degrades and objectifies women.

            Furthermore, Kingston explicitly states, a strong woman must antagonize the men who oppress them. "When slave girls and daughters-in-law ran away, people would say they joined these witch amazons. They killed men and boys" (Kingston 25). The quote summarizes the theme of rebellion in this novel in two short phrases: "They killed men and boys," and "We could be heroines, swordswomen." These phrases powerfully convey growing protests and feelings of prostration toward staying home, binding their tiny feet, and relying on men to be their "Savior." Together, the three themes form the crux of Asian American feminism: Rebellions by Asian American women against historical shame and contemporary oppression often under foreign circumstances.