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?
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Hey Gabriella, I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I am going to be answering your third question. I believe that Kingston has a different view of her mother after finding out about her mother’s past because Kingston is starting to hear stories about her mother that are not so great. Kingston learns that her mother decided to buy a slave-nurse in China. Kingston questions how much her mother paid for the slave. Orchid says “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.” (Kingston 83). I agree with you that after Kingston finds this out, she is confused and upset with her mother. Orchid is implying to her daughter that she was better off buying a slave than giving birth to her own daughter.
I think that Orchid told Kingston this part about her past to educate her about what her life was like and to scare her. Kingston says “To make my waking life American- normal, I turn on the lights before anything untoward makes an appearance. I push the deformed into my dreams, which are in Chinese, the language of impossible stories.” (Kingston 87). Kingston is showing us how her mother’s stories about China scare her and have an impact on her life.
This was a really good post, it that shed light on a very important factor in Kingston’s Life, and to answer your first question I would say she is hypocritical but in her own eyes I think she doesn’t necessarily think she is. I believe she thinks more along the lines of she just only respects Chinese women who are seen as cut above the rest, or “perfect women who have done no wrong” and whoever doesn’t fit into that criterion she views as inferior, as someone that can be bought like her nurse in training. Almost in a similar way to Walter on how he always wanted what other people above him had. It’s like she only wanted to see the best Chinese woman and model herself after them whether she was successful or not. She may have seen these individuals as perfect and that’s where her perfect standards come from. As like you were saying with the ghosts is that when these standards and mistakes are not met and made, they come back to haunt her. This haunting is so profound probably because she not only failed herself, but she failed as a hero. I think it is best represented when Kingston states, “Women have now been practicing medicine for about fifty years, ” said one of the teachers, a woman, who complimented them for adding to their growing number and also for coming to a school that taught modern medicine. “You will bring science to the villages.” “(Kingston, 63) I feel as though when she heard this it was just like the stories her mom would soon tell her daughter and probably the same stories, she heard herself growing up. And failing to be a hero has haunted her since, affecting the life of her daughter in return.
Hi Gabriella, I liked your post and thought you used a lot of important evidence to help express your views and thought that you made some really great points. I want to take the time to talk about your third question. I believe that Kingston will definitely have a different view of her mother and it may not necessarily be a bad view. I feel like it confused Kingston, but I think it also opened her eyes to some of the truths and how messed up some societies have been. But I believe that her mother sharing this information also allowed Kingston to improve her relationship with her mother. It seems that her mother is telling her more and more secrets and more about her previous life. The story of her previous children brings in a new emotion of empathy for her mother and then the story of the slave girl may sound like her mother is saying that the slave was a better deal, but she bought the slave prior to having Kingston. So if she believed the slave was a better deal, why wouldn’t she have just bought another one rather than having a child? To me it seems that her mother was pointing out that she easily could have gotten a slave for much cheaper, but she chose to have another daughter. The increased strength of the relationship is shown when Kingston’s mother said “’Of course, you must go, Little Dog’” (Kingston 108). Kingston goes on to say “A weight lifted from me. The quilts must be filling with air. The world is somehow lighter. She has not called me that endearment for years-a name to fool the gods”, after telling Kingston all these stories and now with Kingston making the decision to go, her mom is supporting her and calling her names she hasn’t for a long time (Kingston 108-109). That is evidence of an improved relationship, and I believe she told these stories to try to connect to Kingston more.
Hey nice job on your post I found it really interesting. Im going to be answering the second question. When reading about the ghosts in this section for the first time, I found it pretty interesting and confusing. Orchid describes all of these different ghosts one of those being a “garbage ghost”. I know I am wrong but at first glance I took it for being some sort of animal and then a raccoon. Orchid also describes seeing this half man half ape.half man and half ape, that a traveler to the West had captured and brought back to China in a cage. :With his new money, the man had built the fourth wing to his house, and in the courtyard he grew a stand of bamboo.” After reading and how human and personified Orchid makes it out to be, youre able to see that these sees ghosts as people who do not like like her or are different because everything was so new to her.
Hey Gabriella. This was a great post with some really powerful stuff. I’d love to answer your third question because I think that is a very important question. I do believe that Kingston is beginning to see things different and have a different perspective of her mother. For starters, it is revealed to Kingston that when her mother was practicing in China, she had a slave nurse. Kingston, distraught questions why and how much she got the nurse for. She goes on to explain in a very demeaning way to Kingston that it would have been financially easier to never even have Kingston in the first place. “During the war, when you were born, though, many people gave older girls away for free.” (Kingston, 83) I believe Orchid told her daughter this as a warning and to scare her straight a little bit. She shows her her own past as a warning for the future.