Break through taboos

Regarding “Bay Area Asian American authors share books that inspired them” (Datebook, May 15) I would like to thank and applaud The Chronicle’s Vanessa Hua for reminding writers everywhere, especially writers of color, of the importance represented in the opening words of Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel “Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”: “You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you.”

Here, the mother is admonishing her immigrant daughter never to reveal a horrific familial secret. In her writing classes, Kingston tells students she does not believe in writer’s block, and the meaning behind her mother’s words is really a call to break through the person