Chinese-American authors Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston were pioneers of Asian-American literature. They condemn each other's work for differences in cultural interpretation and contest their own and each other's prescribed gender roles given by both Chinese and American societies. Chin and Kingston have different opinions on their Chinese culture; in addition to their conflict over culture, they criticize each other's work as a misrepresentation of each other's heritage. They have opposing views on male and female roles in Chinese culture and disagree about what it means to be a Chinese-American in modern society. These differences lead to their literary and verbal attacks. Each author claims that their individual narratives accurately represent the history of Chinese Americans, and it is their obvious differences of opinion that have led to the contention between the two. Being Chinese-American does not make an individual either strictly Chinese or strictly American; their cultural identification began to form in their very different upbringings. Chin experienced a more traditional Chinese childhood that reinforced prescribed male and female roles in the family unit; he was exposed to racial prejudice and widespread poverty. Kingston grew up in Stockton, California. Stockton proved more progressive and welcoming, although not without difficulty; Kinston's all-American childhood produced some prejudice. Kingston's childhood did not lend itself to the ethnocentrism that a strictly Chinatown childhood would have. This upbringing is where their mutual dislike of each other's narrative has its roots. Frank Chin, growing up specifically in San Francisco's Chinatown, experienced a very different set of cultural biases and prejudices... middle of paper... .ewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009.Huntley, ED Maxine Hong Kingston: a critical companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 2001.Kim, Hyung-chan. Distinguished Asian Americans A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.Madsen, Deborah L. “Chinese American Writers of the True and the False: Authenticity and the Twin Traditions of Life Writing.” Canadian Review of American Studies 36, no. 3 (October 2006): 257-271. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2014). Oishi, Eve. “The Canon of Asian-American Falsehood, 1972-2002.” Aztlan 32, no. 1 (Spring 2007 2007): 197-204. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2014). Takaki, Ronald T. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown, 1989. Wei, William. The Asian American movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993