NAMES AND FACES

A mixed-race woman reflects on her evolving sense of identity.

Hook was born to linguist parents, her mother’s roots in Beijing and Southern China and her father’s in western Germany. From birth, even her names reflected a complex identity. Her mother chose the name Lidun, selecting specific Chinese characters to connote strength and sincerity. Her father’s choice was the similar-sounding Leise, recalling a childhood friend whose name had a unique pronunciation: LEE-za. This introductory story gives a strong sense of the book’s ruminative tone, a collection of moments circling the titular themes. Hook’s Midwestern childhood was punctuated by a year in Tokyo, where she attended a diverse, substantially mixed Asian school, finding a peer group that reflected her self-understanding. As she grew up, Leise began to see herself as “a bridge” between her Chinese identity and a majority-white society, experiencing the external pressures put upon her to perform that function. In American Girl doll catalogs and stores, she seeks, with limited success, a doll reflecting her appearance and experiences. She lightens her hair out of trend-driven curiosity, and her dark-haired mother reacts with disappointment. A year spent working at a Beijing art gallery leaves her emotionally exhausted from constant code-switching. Expected to play an obliging Asian for foreign visitors, she never feels Chinese enough, in work ethic or language ability, for her local employers. Many of Hook’s experiences feel held at arm’s length for careful observation and sober assessment. Nonetheless, moments like this Beijing sojourn ache with youthful confusion, and specific passages where Hook claims language and appearance rather than waiting for cultural permission feel cathartic and exciting. Drawn in an accessible style, alternating structured panels with looser pages for emotional impact, this book works as both mirror and window. Every face, every name, has a story to tell.

An erudite reflection on the experience of holding two cultures within oneself.