On Tuesday, esteemed author Maxine Hong Kingston visited the school community. Through various Cor Unum talks and sessions, she shared her stories and her values with students, faculty, and parents.
“I thought Maxine Hong Kingston was so interesting,” freshman Ainsley Smith said. “She engaged with the audience and shared a story about bullying that was a shocker,”
Maxine Hong Kingston is known for her novels “The Woman Warrior”, “China Man”, and “Tripmaster Monkey”. Her writing blends fiction, fantasy, and memoir to depict the typical Chinese American immigrant experience. She draws upon a lot of her own life and the old Chinese folklore she had been told as a child, according to Berkeley English.
“I like the way she told her stories because they gave me a different perspective,” said junior Annika Carpenter. “Her voice made me feel calm and the way she explained her thought process was really interesting,”
Maxine Hong Kingston advocated for civil rights, nonviolence in wars, and peace. Her activism inspired her novel “The Fifth Book of Peace”, in which she writes about the Vietnam War and how to find peace.
“When introducing her, I wanted to appropriately introduce her as a legendary, foundational author who addresses the Chinese American experiences in history,” librarian Alyson Barrett said. “I also didn’t want to miss that she was an American author who has shaped the cohesive whole of American literature in such a profound way,”
Some of Maxine Hong Kingston’s most notable awards include the National Medal of Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Humanities Medal, and the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, according to the Poetry Foundation. Maxine Hong Kingston taught at the University of California, Berkeley for many years before she retired to Oakland.
“She was different than the other authors who had visited Convent before,” said Smith. “It was great that she was funny and personable and she engaged the audience.”
