Students are encouraged to read the book, think about it and discuss it with friends and roommates. Later in the academic year, the book's author talks to the students and answers questions. Kingston described a telephone call she recently received from an Associated Press reporter. It made me feel amazed and grateful because nowadays books have the shelf life of milk and eggs. The book combines autobiography and fiction in evoking memories of the female narrator's childhood in California with her siblings and Chinese immigrant parents.
Power comes from a receiving of the old stories and chants.
On one hand, she explained, she wanted to tap the power of these stories, but on the other hand she does not approve of killing. She said that in China, translators have corrected versions of the legends she presented but that they were wrong to do so. They turn into American stories. After Kingston finished her remarks, about 10 students approached microphones, which stood in the auditorium's two center aisles, to ask questions. A young woman said that while she agreed with Kingston's pacifistic philosophy, she had responded most strongly to the idea of the woman as a warrior.