In response to:

Chinese Ghost Story from the August 14, 1980 issue

To the Editors:

Re: Frederic Wakeman’s review of China Men [NYR, August 14]: I did not write the myths to “aggrandize” my family and other Chinese Americans by connecting us to the high culture of China. Instead, all the myths in my books derive from the low, peasant culture, just as most Chinese Americans do.

Maxine Hong Kingston

Honolulu, Hawaii

This Issue

December 4, 1980