China Men and the Deception of Free Labor

Excerpt from China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston: "The women…bent his toes so far backward that his arched foot cracked…They gathered his toes, toes over and under one another like a knot of ginger root. Tang Ao wept with pain. As they wound the bandages tighter and tighter around his feet, the women sang foot-binding songs to distract him….Every night they unbound his feet, but his veins had shrunk, and the blood pumping through them hurt so much, he begged to have his feet re-wrapped tight" (4).

Critical Questions: Whom do the women represent? What is the significance of a mythical fable?

Analysis: In my paper, I want to explore Kingston's use of myth and how it serves to represent the fantasy of life as a free laborer. A parallel seems to exist between the fables Kingston tells and the deception of the capitalist promise of the "American Dream," particularly for Chinese laborers. In this specific passage, I was intrigued by the metaphor of the "Land of Women" and what is says about the labor experience. Here, the women are representative of American capitalists. The pain that Tang Ao experiences symbolizes the physical hardship of Chinese laborers, and the gradual disintegration of physical and mental well-being during the labor process. It's interesting that the "women" give off the impression that they are helping Tang Ao prepare for his future, when in reality they are manipulating and changing his physical form. The last sentence in which he begs to have his feet re-wrapped encompasses the cyclical process of labor, and how it traps the individual into that process. In whole, I aim to explore the notion of the "free laborer" as deceiving, which is mirrored in Kingston's writing style.