White Tigers: Word Definitions

Here are some words taken from the chapter White Tigers of The Woman Warrior, their definitions, and the direct quotes.

 Ideograph [n]- a written symbol that represents an idea or object directly rather than a particular word or speech sound, as a Chinese character.

“I walked putting heel down first, toes pointing outward thirty to forty degrees, making the ideograph ‘eight,’ making the ideograph “human.” (pg.23)

 Self-immolation [n]- voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person.

 Transmigration [n]- the passage of a soul after death into another body; metempsychosis.

“I had met a rabbit who taught me about self-immolation and how to speed up transmigration: one who does not have to become worms first but can change directly into a human being…” (pg. 28)

 Paradox [n]- A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.” (pg. 29)

 Strata [n]- a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another.

“In quarries I could see its strata, the dragon’s veins and muscles; the minerals, its teeth and bones.” (p.29)

 Peiping [n]- the former name of Beijing

“The emperor, who sat facing south, must have been very frightened- peasants everywhere walking day and night toward the capital, toward Peiping.” (p.37)

 Fiefdom [n]- the estate or domain of a feudal lord.

“When I won over a goodly number of fighters, I built up my army enough to attack fiefdoms…” (p.37)

 Palanquins [n]- A covered litter carried on poles on the shoulders of four or more bearers, formerly used in eastern Asia.

“They had climbed out of their palanquins to watch their husband fight me…” (p.38)

 Palpable [adj]- readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived, etc.; obvious; evident.

“The leader stared at the palpable sword swishing unclutched at his men, then laughed aloud.” (p.41)