Influenced by the mainstream of American culture, the Asian American writers, take Maxine Hong Kingston for example, have a different interpretation of Chinese folktales in their woks. Maxine’s representative, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, is translated into more than twenty languages. Published in 1976, it is awarded the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, and represents the peak of Chinese American literature. With its unique narrative angle, rich cultural images and fantastic Chinese folktales, this novel has aroused enormous interest among the western readers as well as a heated dispute among critics. Many American critics put a high value on this novel, while some Chinese American writers represented by Zhao Jianxiu harbor that Maxine’s Chinese folktales have deviated from the originals, so as to adopt her works into the white’s favors.

Early scholars, at home or abroad, have been studying her works since the 1990s, and most of the researchers have conducted their research at all levels from different perspectives such as seeking cultural and ethnic identity, cultural conflict, feminism, post modernism and breaking layers of silence, etc. Some scholars claim that Kingston transforms these Chinese sources into American forms by creating her own “American myths”, so as to search for her identity as a Chinese American; feminists apply trauma theory to analyze the causes of the Chinese females’ frustration, sadness, miserable life and the way they overcome trauma; postmodernists research this novel on its postmodernist features from the perspective of intertextuality. However, limited articles and research papers analyze this work from the angle of archetypal theory. Traditional archetypal theory, mainly originated in 1934, is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in literary work. Scholars, who use this theory, list great details of archetypes, including the figures, symbolic meaning, motif myth and structural significance. However, Jung’s archetypal theory claims that the task of archetypal theory is in considering the similarities and differences between this archetypal image and previous archetypal images, and in considering the symbolic implications of these affinities and variances.

With the help of Jung’s theory, the author of this paper tries to quote and analyze some typical examples by reading and comparing it with the origins to explore the causes and significance of cultural misreading in The Woman Warrior. More importantly, the author will probe into several excerpts of this novel and analyze the symbolic implications which not only showed in Kingston’s works but also reflected in other Asian American writers’ works. Finally, the author will also make a contrast with the works of other Chinese American writers, such as Amy Tan and Zhao Jianxiu, to study the misreading of Chinese Folktales in Asian American Literature. Therefore, the author will choose several examples to illustrate respectively and make further explanation to find out the means of developing Chinese cultural soft power compatible with China’s international standing, and the way of increasing the influence of Chinese culture in the world.

This paper will mainly discuss the misreading of Chinese folktales in The Women warrior based on Jung’s archetypal theory. Firstly, the author of the paper will introduce the history of Chinese immigrants and their poor life condition in America as colored people. Secondly, with the aid of Jung’s theory, the author will analyze some typical examples to study the similarities and differences between this archetypal image and previous archetypal images, probing on the symbolic implications of these affinities and variances by taking the stories of an ancient Poetess Ts.ai Yen and a woman hero Fa Mulan, etc. The author will elaborate how Kingston creates her own American myths and how she keeps on seeking for her identity as a Chinese American woman. Thirdly, the author will also research Kingston’s other works, like China Men and Tripmaster Monkey, to study her unique way of understanding and rewriting the Chinese folktales under the influence of the elder generation’s memory. Meanwhile, by making a contrast with the works of other Asian American writers, such as Amy Tan and Zhao Jianxiu, the author will study the misreading of Chinese Folktales in Asian American Literature and the crisis for Chinese folklore to survive in the American culture in a broader perspective. Finally, the author will illustrate the possibility for Chinese folklore’s survival in foreign culture, and find out the ultimate way for Chinese Americans to inherit and develop Chinese folklore in the new era.

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