#asian american lit

[sivavakkiyar]

Chapter 1 of HT Tsiang’s The Hanging On Union Square, an early Asian American novel

#ht tsiang #Asian American lit #communist lit #I apologize for it but Tsiang actually does some interesting stuff with the body & misogynist stuff later on in the novel #I mean nothing groundbreaking but not expected for a novel from 1935 #obviously this is formally even more interesting than the politics. I love it

[bunnyandbooks]

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

This was the pick for AANHPI heritage month at my work’s book club (still so excited that I can say “work’s book club” lol). It’s already gotten a lot of buzz from the press, and everyone already knows that it’s dealing with Zauner’s mother’s death from cancer, so I don’t think there’s anything to spoil, but putting my thoughts behind a cut anyway.

Like everyone said, it’s a very quick and accessible read. I wouldn’t call it “easy,” because it’s actually very devastating and Zauner doesn’t pull any punches in describing the worst parts of caring for her mother as she’s deteriorating from cancer and her grief, regrets, and desperate yearning for her deceased mother is raw and relatable. The prose is easily accessible, and she’ll spend pages just listing different types of foods like a souped up grocery list, so if you like reading about food, and Korean food especially, there will be a lot to bring you in.

One thing I was very struck by was how similar our experiences have been despite our different backgrounds. I am not mixed race and grew up in the suburbs of a big city in California (whereas she’s half Korean and grew up in the rural areas of Oregon. So with all these variables in the wild, the universe still somehow created enough commonalities that I could see my childhood in hers: I have a lot of the same experiences (especially with the food, which, again, she spends a lot of time touching on) both growing up with immigrant parents and spending extended periods in Korea during my youth. The silver delivery box for Chinese food must’ve been an indelible part of growing up in Korea, at least prior to the 2000s, and thanks to Zauner, I finally understand the rules of hwatu, which I remember watching the elders play as a quiet, confused kid watching by the sidelines, fascinated by the beautiful designs though no one bothered explaining the rules.

Obviously there’s differences in our respective stories. She seems desperate to connect to her “Koreanness” for a lot of the memoir as a way to connect to her mother. Perhaps it’s because she’s half, or perhaps it’s just a result of the natural divide from being born a generation after, of never having experienced her mother as a person who was separate and apart from being put on this earth as her mother. I think her fixation on food reads as this attempt to get her closer to the culture, but if the end was to understand her mother better, it’s directing her efforts in the wrong direction. It almost felt like she should’ve spent more time learning about her mother from her aunts, her grandparents, the few friends her mother had who came through the house while her mother was ailing. Through the cultural lens perspective, it was almost like looking at my culture, which makes up part of my identity for better or for worse, as a kind of commodity that I could absorb by eating enough kimchi.

That being said, this is a memoir, and it’s specifically a memoir about her grieving process, which is a personal journey, and an inherently selfish one. So it’s probably ungenerous to feel that way as I was reading it. It was ultimately a raw, emotional tribute to her mother that should nonetheless be celebrated for its evocative writing.

#memoir #michelle zauner #crying in h mart #penguin random house #asian american lit #identity politics #AANHPI heritage month #autobiography

[benitariums]

to the guanacos at the syracuse zoo, chen chen (from “when i grow up, i want to be a list of further possibilities”)

#chen chen #love poems #classic literature #literature #poets on tumblr #poems and words #dark academia quotes #dark academia #asian literature #asian american literature #from the shelf #bookblr #writeblr #prose #light academia #quotes #lit #light academia quotes #love poem

[everyonehasbeatenmetotheusername]

Happy AAPI month! The queer community historically has been very weird and fetishistic towards Asian people and they should stop that please. You are not immune to Asian fetishization just because you’re not a cishet white guy.

#aapi month #asian american pacific islander heritage month #might elaborate later #if I have energy and words after this fucking exam #which ironically is about Asian American lit

[reverie-quotes]

Women are genuinely trapped at the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy—two systems that, at their extremes, ensure that individual success comes at the expense of collective morality.

— Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror

#trick mirror #jia tolentino #essays #quotes #literary quotes #literature #writing #books #book #spilled ink #prose #thoughts #lit #love #relationship #asian american #asian lit #asian literature #quote of the day #reverie #reverie quotes #quote #book quote #book quotes #important quote #important quotes #inspiring quote #inspiring quotes #beautiful quote #beautiful quotes

[dadfathers]

Finished Babél by RF Kuang last week and reflecting on it. What did ppl think of it? I found the writing very heavy handed and didactic but I can see why it is a hit w the intended (?) audience (highly educated white people who haven’t yet discovered that colonialism is a bad thing or a thing at all 🥴) I can also see that this is a topic RFK herself is really grappling with like right immediately now as she is writing it lol. The world building and character archetypes are kind of simplistic but it serves the above mission of dictating an anti-colonialism 101.

I liked the character relationship between Robin and Rami 👍 will be giving my copy to the neighborhood children via the community lending library, I think they could enjoy it.

#this book is kind of out of my wheel house in practice but totally my thing in theory. lol #kind of expected it to have less allegiance to the YA genre but I also never read Poppy War so idk maybe it’s on me #I do think her follow up with yellow face is …… #like as a fellow Chinese American. lol. lmao. 😭 #ppl somehow find this post sometimes I’d like to say that hating on RFK’s approach to the apparent genre of Asian American lit is now a #beloved and regular pastime for me and friends. sorry. #I just don’t think if u talk a big game about being untranslatable to western audiences in ur essays about translation that ur books should #all be written like u want liberal white ppl to think ur smart and no one else

[pronouncingitwang]

.

#truly no faster way to make me so so ill than the seol and the seolite diaspora DE tag on ao3. not in a bad way not in a good way either #also last week i hung out w a friend i hadn't seen in a while and we joked about diaspora lit bingo a lot #but yeah idk. the way my sister is reconnecting w her asianness through like. kdramas/cdramas and kpop etc #the way i only have about 4 chinese language songs liked on spotify and they're like #one from the CRA soundtrack two bc i looked up an artist whose photos were on tumblr and who i found hot #and one from my white roommate who's learning mandarin #and i wonder if my parents are like. so bummed that we ignored them and made fun of their shows and music and accents as elementary schoole #and now they see her doing this and me. idk. claiming POCness via something i never engaged with in a way i find satisfactory #or idk. the whole immigrant parents being your passports to your language/culture and once they die it's game over #ESP bc you only ever took enough chinese classes to graduate hs or college no more #and kim kitsuragi is suchhhhhhh an interesting look at that bc like. he is an orphan and he does have zero cultural or language ties to seo #like. he would absolutely dannyamericanbornchinese himself if he could #and i want him to reconnect like i imagine him reconnecting w being asian and it causes feelings of comfort and such in me #but like. he shouldn't have to obviously and #one of the notes of a fic in that tag is from a biracial person who says #I flip between wish fulfillment and scrutinizing the degree Kim 'needs' to reclaim his heritage #and like yeah. yeah. that thing #and idk i don't think there's a distinct chinese-american culture the way that chinese-american cuisine is like. A Thing you know #maybe i'd feel better if there was that #and if there was just one other seolite person in disco elysium but i think kim's racial isolation is purposeful #what is there for me but to idk. reread the joy luck club and have another crisis about it #personal

[moonlitinks]

RACIAL MELANCHOLIA | DAVID ENG

#david eng #racial melancholia #lit #literature #asian american literature #east asia #model minority myth #bookblr #litblr #studyblr #study blog #academic #light acamedia #dark academia

[miserye]

Had a “your English is so perfect” “yeah.. I was born and raised here….” moment

#chatterye #im not saying they should know that my Asian ass is actually American but I do think they should keep these comments to themselves #also I didn’t take ap Lang and ap lit for show I know I’m good at English #work drives me up a wall

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Looking for books to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

Check out the display in our Children’s Room!

#Asian Pacific American Heritage Month #weneddiversebooks #Kid Lit #Kingsbridge Library #NYPL

[amarrymeinbostonwriter]

My owned TBR for 2023 (1/12) 

I wanted to share more of my books/reading habits on here. 

I think I promised more original content on here so I have a bunch of book covers for this December. These 12 posts would ideally make up a portion of my reading list next year, give or take a few titles. 

Happy Reading everyone! :) 

#I'm going to do them all as separate posts through out December #I needed more bookblr content on this any way #feminist lit #women's lit #lgbt lit #lesbian lit #being someone #ann macleod #that's a lesbian love story about two teachers in San Francisco in the 1970s #thinking about women #mary ellman #that's feminist theory #a politically incorrect feminist #phyllis chesler #that one was on my goodreads tbr before I finally bought a copy #disappearing moon cafe #sky lee #it's an Asian American family history and one of the main characters is a sapphic woman #so yes I am both a feminist and a lesbian thanks for noticing XD #TBR #owned books #TBR 2023 #there ended up being 12 pictures of my books in this set but I might add more later depending #books #bookblr #these are mostly 20th century actual #disappearing moon cafe might be early 2000s but the rest I think are older #these aren't for my grad program either I chose these myself

[ugisfeelings]

not saying i want one but why has there been no overly-pensive semi-autobiographical new yorker op-eds mediating on the heightened visibility of  wider audiences’ resonance with evelyn and joy’s portrayal of adhd/depression and the fracturing of asian american social existence in post-covid usa capitalism......... and ofc the way these v specific on-screen anxieties (and revelations) drawn from postcolonial diasporic lived experiences/histories have been subsumed into genericized philosophy bro-esque platitudes abt universal existentialism/nihilism like the opening is right there omfg

#asian american lit girlies w/ adhd reading lauren berlant (that last bit is not a compliment) where r u i know u are out there...... #knock on wood this doesnt spawn viet thanh nguyen into coming out as an Asian American Academic With Adhd ill kill both of us #everything everywhere all at once

[otherpeoplesheartachept-2]

.

#you ever like think abt how you don't rlly have a culture or like connections to a wider community #and your family has kind of fallen appart #and even tho you have some friends and you're close w your sister you feel so deeply sad #bc of that disconnect from a wider community or family #and you can't rlly pull your family back togther #and you don't know how to build a new community #or find one you'd fit in w bc your social skills are shit #and you read a book abt a hawiian girl and her family and it makes you so deeply jealous #bc you've never had a family that cares for each other like that #and maybe you never will #and your partner's been recconecting w their family and cultural heritage #but you don't even have that #like you're just white #i mean you're supposed to be Irish and Scottish but you have no real connection to those identities #no one in your family knows anything abt ireland or scottland beyond that fact that distant relatives came from those countries to the usa #idk I've just been thinking abt culture and family a lot bc I took an asian american lit class #and those things were intergral to like all the stories we read #and it rlly made me realize that I feel like I've been missing those things #and when I was younger my family felt closer and more solid #but the oast few years things have kind of fallen apart #sorry if you clicked the expand tags and yiu had to scroll through this wall of text #I've just been dwelling on all these thoughts lately and especially today

[reverie-quotes]

The self is not a fixed, organic thing, but a dramatic effect that emerges from a performance. This effect can be believed and disbelieved at will.

— Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror

#trick mirror #jia tolentino #essays #quotes #literary quotes #literature #writing #books #book #spilled ink #prose #thoughts #lit #love #relationship #asian american #asian lit #asian literature #quote of the day #reverie #reverie quotes #quote #book quote #book quotes #important quote #important quotes #inspiring quote #inspiring quotes #beautiful quote #beautiful quotes

[blanketfortlibrary]

"It was as if there were cycles that repeated themselves over and over, but most people never saw the repitition; they were too deeply enmeshed in their own path to see. [...] Did that mean that she had always been destined to come here, to this city in this land so far from her home? She slid her hand into her pocket to feel the mussel shell, which she had picked up out of some kind of vague superstition. If the ocean had tossed it back to them, that must mean they should take it. All these signs, she thought, pointed to this moment, and then this one, over and over again."

- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

#scientists talking about fate and superstitions can just be *chefs kiss* #last night at the telegraph club #queer lit #YA lit #historical fiction #asian american literature #romance #quotes

[goddessofthedawn]

honoring the pretension inherent in me by having a commonplace book but the first entry is lyrics from cobra starship's "prostitution is the world's oldest profession (and i, dear madam, am a professional)"

#just ramblings of aurora #read: i was an english major but there are several books on goodreads that only i and grady hendrix have read #him because he wrote paperbacks from hell #me because my taste is trash #i was ane nglish major but DID write an essay about 3oh3 for my college's lit journal #i was an english major but my favorite “literary” author is bret easton ellis #AND HE'S A FUCKING HORROR AUTHOR AND I WILL FIGHT YOU ON THAT #every agrees about american psycho but have you READ the shards??? #have you READ glamorama???? #do we forget what happened to that poor asian kid??? #in glamorama??? #less than zero's literary but like come ON #come ON remember GLAMORAMA or at least PRETEND YOU GOT THROUGH THE FIRST SIXYT PAGES OF NAMEDROPS