Woman. Warrior. Writer.
the herstory and May 2024’s WWW Jane Wong!
The Herstory of Woman. Warrior. Writer.
I was fifteen when I first read Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. The book made me rethink ideas of what an Asian American woman could be. It was literature that spoke to my desires, writing that portrayed Asian American characters I could fully embrace. In the throes of those pages, I was no longer an adolescent captive in the suburbs, aching for escape and yearning for acceptance, but a dreamer, a fighter, a writer, and an artist.
Flash forward oh 35 or more years later…and I’m a writer, I got a book coming out, and I’m putting up a website. Woman. Warrior. Writer began the end of 2016 when I put up a website to promote my upcoming work of short fiction Swimming in Hong Kong. I envisioned it as a platform for women writers and creatives who inspired me and the name was a tribute to Maxine Hong Kingston’s groundbreaking work.
A few of the early Woman Warrior Writers who appeared on my website included Susan Blumberg-Kason, Shonda Buchanan, Vanina Marsot, Renee Simms, Kaitlin Solimine, Gail Vida Hamburg, Wawa, Lydia Tanji and Melinda de Jesus and more. The women are writers and/or creatives. I asked questions about writing, money, environment, writing, creativity.
The Myth of the Expert or Why Women Need to Sit at the Table
The following summer I was back in Hong Kong promoting my book. Because of the WWW section on my website, I was asked to be a commentator on a TV news show.
My area of expertise is literature and writing. I found myself commenting about cross border China and Hong Kong relations and China’s car exports. I had solid opinions to share based on the numerous articles I read prior to the show taping. But I am hardly an expert in any of the arenas I was asked to comment on.
Many of the people, mostly men, who make decisions for our society are likely to have limited knowledge of a particular subject area. They simply have the ability to analyze and then quite often (my guess) do some rather limited reading in an area. Expertise is self-declared. This is how the status quo — patriarchy — is maintained. Women feel they need to fit 100% of the qualifications to apply for a job, men apply if they only have 40% of the desired qualifications. Women are able to sit at the table, they simply lack the systemic support to do so. Women: Free your voice!
Gap or Life Happens
I stopped the WWW feature when my divorce kicked off. Then COVID happened. Everyone was locked down — and I went back online to let people know about Asian American women writers and featured them once a week on my socials. This time I asked one question:
How did you come to author your life?
Such women authors included Ishle Yi Park and Nayomi Munaweera. I got hacked. The information disappeared…
Woman. Warrior. Writer. Substack
Again, I restarted and launched the Woman. Warrior. Writer. substack @drstephaniehan.com focusing on BIWOC (but mostly AAPI) women authors such as Kavita A. Jindal, Vanessa Hua Devi S. Laskar.,Wendy Chin-Tanner and more…
Want to be a WWW?
If you are a published BIWOC women author of fiction, memoir, non-fiction, or poetry please contact me writer@drstephaniehan.com
Woman. Warrior. Writer. Jane Wong
How did you come to author your life?
I grew up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore, which means I was surrounded by sensory imagination. I overheard customer conversations, felt the stinging cold of the meat freezer, smelled the fryer heating up. In many ways, I became a writer because of the restaurant’s synesthesia. Also, the public library was across the street and my mom would drop me off there for hours (it was the ‘80s… free babysitting?) and I read voraciously. I started writing because I was a reader. If I wanted a story to end differently, I’d write a new ending and slip it into a library book. I’m the first in my family to go to college, so it was a risk for me to pursue creative writing — but I had to do it. It felt like a calling. I began as a fiction writer in college, then did a poetry MFA, and then (after two books of poems and a critical PhD), I wrote a memoir. Clearly, I love a challenge and to blur genre lines! When I write, I’m always trying to get back to my twelve-year-old self and her risk-taking imagination. I’m always trying to get into the muddy pond with her.
Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023) and two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). She grew up in a Chinese American take-out restaurant and is an Associate Professor at Western Washington University.
IG: @paradeofcats
Website: https://janewongwriter.com/
