Provocative and mostly thought-provoking essays.
A Chinese-American professor and writer reflects on the social and cultural ramifications of his ethnic identity.
In this collection of essays, Gee (English/Georgia Coll.) engagingly probes his thoughts about living as a man of Chinese origin in the United States. Feeling different from other Americans was a constant of his life that began in childhood. Representations of Asian people he saw on TV and in the world “failed to correspond with who [he] was.” Forced to deal with Chinese stereotypes—such as math geek and music prodigy—Gee had to defend his right “to belong,” even among other nonwhites. But being considered a “model minority” didn’t always equate to better treatment. He tells the story of how a state trooper assumed criminal intent on his part because of what he looked like. At the same time, his Chinese background was also a source of fascination and even desire. Gee recalls how a young white woman asked him to a dinner and then later invited him to sleep with her. “She wasn’t interested in me as much as the idea of me,” he writes, “…based on the hue of my skin and shape of my eyes.” Cultivating visibility and nonviolent means of retaliation against all forms of anti-Asian racism is crucial. In one essay, Gee celebrates the efforts of a young man who, in 2011, combated a white student’s video rant against Asian students in the UCLA library. Commenting on the fact that he is part of a tiny Asian minority in his small town of Milledgeville, Georgia, where he lives and works, Gee remarks that his presence—like that of Chinese-American NBA star Jeremy Lin, whom he discusses elsewhere—is not just a defiant marker of difference. It is also a reminder that he is “part of the grand experiment in democracy” that is America.
Provocative and mostly thought-provoking essays.Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-939650-30-6
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Santa Fe Writers Project
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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