(born 1940) Novelist. Kingston’s vision of the struggles of Chinese American women of her family, seen through the prism of stories drawing on Chinese mythology in The Woman Warrior (1976), became a breakthrough in wider American acceptance of Asian American literature. Indeed, it became a widely used textbook in high schools and colleges. The sequel, China Men (1980), raised more political issues about historical discrimination against Chinese. In the 1980s, Kingston became involved in a bitter debate with Frank Chin over issues of authenticity and assimilation in Asian American literature. Her essay on fiction and identity Tripmaster Monkey (1989), was less successful than her earlier works.