In “Shaman” we the readers discover new information about Kingston’s mother Orchid. We take a deeper dive into Kingston and Orchids’ mother-daughter relationship. In the beginning of this chapter of the novel Kingston seems to admire her mother for a minute. She sees her mother as a ghost destroyer. In China Orchid was a doctor and was successful. Kingston looks on her mother as someone who escaped their traditional roles and made something of themself.
In the novel Kingston states, “Once in a long while, four times so far for me, my mother brings out the metal tube that holds her medical diploma. On the tube are gold circles crossed with seven red lines each— “joy” ideographs in abstract” Kingston then continues to discover more about her mother’s degree. Kingston states, “Inside the can are three scrolls, one inside another. The largest says that in the twenty third year of the National Republic, to the Keung School of Midwifery, where she has had two years of instruction and Hospital Practice, awards its Diploma to my mother, who has shown through oral and written examination her Prociency in Midwifery, Pediatrics, Gynecology, “Medicine,” Surgery,” Therapeutics, Ophthalmology, Bacteriology, Dermatology, Nursing, and Bandage.” When finding out all this information about her mother we see Kingston almost become inspired by her mother but then goes onto explain how her mother used to have two children before her. Kingston states, “Their two children had been dead for ten years. If he did not return soon, there would be no more children. (“They were three and two years old, a boy and a girl. They could talk already.”) My father did send money regularly, though, and she had nobody to spend it on but herself. She bought good clothes and shoes. Then she decided to use the money to become a doctor. She did not leave for Canton immediately after the children died. In China there was time to complete feelings. As my father had done, my mother left the village by ship.” In this part of the story, we learned that Kingston was not the first born even though as we read more into the story her mother swears that she is. Kingston had an older brother and sister. We learn where Orchid got the money to become a doctor, but we do not know how her children died. This brings up the conversation of how Orchids ghost stories started. Orchid tells Kingston, “That was a Photo Ghost,” said my mother when the students talked-story. “She needn’t have been afraid. Most ghosts are only nightmares. Somebody should have held her and wiggled her ears to wake her up.” Orchid tells Kingston that ghosts are only nightmares. However, Orchid would stay in that room every night and study in that room. A room full of “ghosts.” She even took the privilege of proving to her roommates that the room is not scary and to make a point slept in the room one night. That night she encountered a “sitting ghost.” Orchid confronts the ghost and states, “I do not give in,” she said. “There is no pain you can inflict that I cannot endure. You’re wrong if you think I’m afraid of you. You’re no mystery to me. I’ve heard of you Sitting Ghosts before. Yes, people have lived to tell about you. You kill babies, you cowards.You have no power over a strong woman. You are no more dangerous than a nesting cat.” Orchid says that the sitting ghosts kills babies. Before her encounter with the sitting ghosts, she tells Kingston that ghosts are just nightmares, nightmares can be a part of our past and losing her two children was a big part of her past and still is ten years later.
As we go deeper and deeper into this part of the novel, we see that Orchid bought a slave-nurse in China. Orchid buys her slave and tells her, “I am a doctor,” she told her new slave, when they were out of the dealer’s hearing, “and I shall train you to be my nurse.” As we go a little further Kingston asks her mother about how much the slave cost. Kingston asks her mother “How much money did you pay to buy her? ” One hundred and eighty dollars. ” How much money did you pay the doctor and the hospital when I was born?” “Two hundred dollars.” “Oh.” “That’s two hundred dollars American money.” “Was the one hundred- and eighty-dollars American money?” “No.” “How much was it American money?” “Fifty dollars. That’s because she was sixteen years old. Eight-year-olds were about twenty dollars. Five-year-olds were ten dollars and up. Two-year-olds were about five dollars. Babies were free. During the war, though, when you were born, many people gave older girls away for free. And here I was in the United States paying two hundred dollars for you.” After finding out all the new information about her mother, Kingston is taken back, as if buying the slave was a better deal than giving birth to her own daughter. Orchid tells these stories to Kingston, leaving her confused on whether they are true. Does Orchids decisions in her past haunt her? Are Orchids past decisions the ghosts that she constantly talks about? Between the death of her children, the selling of young girls and her medical practice career are these the ghosts that haunt her? At the end of this section Kingston explains how her mother has given her pictures to dream nightmares of babies. Kingston explains how she would have taken a different route when it came to caring for the baby ‘s suffering. Kingston for a moment admired her mother but then realized she is as well being fed the same nightmares that her mother talks about. The same ghosts.
Discussion questions:
- Do you think Orchid is hypocritical with the way she talks about Chinese women after reading this chapter?
- Do you believe that Orchids past are the ghosts she is talking about?
- Do you think Kingston has a different view of her mother after finding out about her mother’s past? Why do you think she told Kingston this part about her past?
Skip to content