在《金山勇士》一書中，湯婷婷試圖重建一整個少數民族的歷史，而在美國，唐山佬的存在一向是被主流的種族歧視社會無情地抹滅。有趣的是，這本書跨越了文體的界限，它揉合了寓言、傳說、家族故事、個人敘述、以及官方法律及文件，來重現唐山佬在美國的多重經驗。一方面因為主流文化的刻意打壓，另一方面因為父親刻意保持緘默，湯婷婷只有藉著生花妙筆來重塑被遺忘的過去，而她的筆也是極有力的奪權武器，終將取回這份被遺忘的華裔美人歷史。藉由事實與想像的融合，湯婷婷這位華裔美籍的女兒，可以把她的先祖重新寫入一個他們原本不得其門而入的中心，同時，她也把先祖的經驗迂迴地寫入原先一意抹煞他們的主流敘事裡面。經由她的書寫，在美國的唐人所遭受到的錯置與離散的哀愁終將被世人所理解。

　　　　　In China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston undertakes to reclaim the history of a whole ethnic group, whose existence in America has been nonchalantly erased by the master narrative of the dominant racist society. Interestingly, the book is a hybrid form that transgresses the generic boundaries--"fables, myths, family lore and personal accounts as well as official laws and documents" are concocted to represent the multiplex experience of China Men in America. To reconstruct the past silenced into oblivion by the dominant culture on the one hand and by her father's deliberate reticence on the other, Kingston uses her pen as an empowering weapon that will eventually help recover the forgotten Chinese American history. With the amalgamation of facts and fiction, the Chinese American daughter, Maxine Hong Kingston, rewrites her forefathers back into the center that was formerly denied them, and insinuates their experience into the master narrative that willfully eradicated their existence. Through her writing, the displacement and diasporic agony of China Men in America are brought into light.