Asian American Histories of the United States

Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy

What is the history of people from Asia in the United States? You won't find much of that hear. However, if you are interested in the role that Asians have played in labor movements and community organizing. Business and culture are barely mentioned. The "Donut King" of Southern California gets much more coverage than Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Chinese and Japanese culture is barely mentioned until it is under stress. In an attempt to be show the importance of Asians in the US, the book portrays them as dependent on the non-Asian culture. The focus is on Asian Americans adopting American-style organizing to get more privileges from the government. We could have a much better Asian history.

The Melancholy of Untold History: A Novel

The Melancholy of Untold History: A Novel by Minsoo Kang

There was a lot of potential in this book, but the execution was not quite there. The book has a few parallel interwoven storylines. In the modern times, there is the story of a male history professor and his female protegé. They have a professional relationship and each have great relationships with their significant others. After the professor's wife dies in a helicopter crash, his protegé comforts him and they begin an affair. This seems to get broken off when her boyfriend calls with great remorse to report a minor indiscretion. We learn of the tragic backstories of these four characters as well as the work of the professor. 

He has determined that the "golden era" of history was not as it seemed. In fact, the kingdom was faltering at the time and the leader appeared to perpetrate a grand fraud to make things look good. There is another thread of historical times. We see the grand fraud. There was a great "new city" created. Workers and artisans were recruited from all over the country to work on it. However, instead of the expected visit from the emperor, troops appeared and rounded up and executed everyone involved. Later the emperor is deceived by his consort as to the fidelity of his general. This ends up leading to a the general rebelling and aligning with a queen of another kingdom. The queen's armies end up sneaking away during the heat of conflict and are able to take the empire. Afterwards, the emperor, general, consort and queen meet together and realize that they are another incarnation of the endless cycle of conflict that must be ended through reconciliation if they ever desire peace.

The third thread covers the mythological conflict. Two male and two female deities are having a get together. A naked sky baby appears and asks for some food. They refuse and the baby goes off in a huff. He ends up finding peaches and sharing with a dragon. A peach pit lands and grows a tree. One of the original four finds it and wants it. Another decides he wants it also. A third comes and argues with them. They get mad and continue to argue. Meanwhile the fourth comes, takes the peach and flies of. Finally the other three agree to share it, but it is gone now. They all blame each other and start the big conflict. They later appear in different forms as humans and animals to continue the conflict through history.

The book had interesting exploration of myth and history. The stories felt compelling, but did not quite make it together. The mythology was too vulgar and the modern times felt seemed to be lacking a bit of connection to the past. There was plenty of potential. Perhaps future in-universe books will help realize this potential.

Alvin Ho Collection: Books 1 and 2: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things and Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters

Alvin Ho Collection: Books 1 and 2: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things and Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look

Alvin Ho doesn't talk in school. He has no problem talking at home, but is afraid to speak at school. His dad is an intellectual nerdy version of Homer Simpson. He is distraught when Alvin damages his superhero toy when bringing it to show and tail. Alvin is upset that a girl is his tablemate and then tries to be a friend. He doesn't like to go to piano lessons. Piano lessons are also scary. His parents send him to a psychotherapist - which is also scary. Alvin finally responds by quoting Shakespeare - using Shakespearean curses like his dad does.

In the Camping book, Alvin's dad tries to bond with him by camping. His sister wants to go, so she prepares her stuff. Dad forgets some of the food, gets caught in a trap, and wipes his butt with poison ivy. It all seems very Homer Simpsony. 

Alvin's family comes across as a very Americanized Asian family. They still mention Chinese New Year and fried rice, but are more often talking about Shakespeare and the previous inhabitants from Concord Massachusetts.

Last Days of the Mighty Mekong

Last Days of the Mighty Mekong by Brian Eyler

This is somewhat similar to A River at the Center of the World. In both, the author explores the distance of a major Asian river. This book starts from the Tibetan headwaters and works its way down to the Vietnamese delta. The writing is not as good as that of the other book on the Yangtze. This book also suffers from having an "agenda". It is looking at "last days" of the river, so it focuses more on the sentimental past and things that have changed, rather than giving a general view of the river.

Things have changed a lot. Even the "isolated village" at he start that was only accessible by hiking is now accessed primarily via jeeps. Downriver, people have sought to harness the river via many dams. This has provided huge amounts of electrical capacity - much of which exceeds demand. It has also reduced sediment flow and fisheries in the river. The Chinese and the French are the primary "bad guys" here. They have both attempted the technological march forward (either now or a century ago.) The result has impacted the way of life and made things more difficult. Today, Laos has a fancy railroad through unforgiving land to China. Vietnamese are working in factories rather than fishing and farming in the delta. Attempts to improve productivity through technology have not gone well. The progress of technology has provided some benefits, but also a lot of harm.

The Sense of Wonder

At first, I thought I was listening to a sports non-fiction work. It really sounded like Jeremy Lin. However, the name and other details (such as his ethnicity) were not quite right. The author has used the general framework of "Linsanity" to tell the story of the Korean-American experience. The basketball story is intertwined with the story of another character who is working on bringing Korean dramas to a wider audience. There are relationships involved and struggles with identities (especially when it goes through an adoption and "rediscovery" of the ancestral tongue. At times the story is told within the context of a Korean drama with its appropriate rules.

The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction

The silk road is a place and a legend. It brings to mind long treks over barren landscapes to connect Europe and Asia. The area was ancient "flyover country". Central Asia was a place you went through, not a destination. However, the area was more than just pass-through country. Great armies rose out of central Asia and conquered much of the known world. The Genghis Khan and the Mongols conquered a huge swath of the world. Horses were one of the key exports from the silk road region. The landscape has high on area and low on population. The towns that did exist would often have their own markets with a plethora of good traded.

The book focuses as much on the modern central Asia as it does on the ancient silk road. The area from Western China to Eastern Europe remains vast and underpopulated, yet rich with natural resources. The population is still fairly dispersed, with even the urbanized areas remain sparse by world standards.

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Minor Feelings is part memoir, part racial studies and part biography of a past figure. One thing that sticks out to me is that most works attempting to portray the life of an underappreciated minority are typically written from the viewpoint of somebody in a fairly "non-standard" position. The author grew up in a west-coast Korean family, studied art and writing in the midwest and became a published writer and poet. Her parents had a rag-to-riches story of hard-working immigrants. 

In the US, she gets lumped in with the Asian "model minority". This implies many characteristics. She sees white males get special "breaks" and be able to pass off crap as "inspirational" artwork. I find this to be more an indictment of the art establishment than of racism. Successful art is in the eye of the beholder. If something is deemed desirable, it may fetch millions and make the artist extremely wealthy. If not, they may remain starving. The "success" can be due to various whims. You may be able to say "this white cis-male artist" made it big, while these other brown females didn't until they were dead". However, you could also find plenty of white males that didn't make it. (Some of the biggest names in art today died poor.)

The lumping of Asians together is a big issue. There are billions of people from many different countries in a vast geographical area. The American immigration policy has encouraged the most educated and wealthy to come over, thus helping to contribute to the model minority myth. However, there remains a diverse population. (By the same token "white" is also a myth, representing another diverse group of people.) Asians can be stuck in an odd situation where they are not treated as a majority and not as a minority. 

One essay in the book covers the life of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, a Korean-American writer who was raped and murdered.

The author also talks about being offended at the "white tears" shed by a friend that was present when the author suffered from a racially-incited attack. This all gives me a mixed feeling. There were some injustices triggered by "looks" that were beyond her control. The response that people have (on all sides) can make the matters worse. Wokeness has led to another form of "negative relations" where people have hierarchies of offensibility and pandering. Is it possible for a mixed society to truly accept the unique abilities of different people? 

Family Trust

Family Trust seemed so familiar, yet so different. Taiwanese families in Silicon Valley have their unique culture. This is very well portrayed and familiar in the book. The book does take things to a soap opera extreme. I guess that is needed to make a good story. 

A family is in a messy situation. Grandpa is nearing the end of his life. He has been divorced and married to a younger "gold digger" wife. The family thinks he has a few millions and want to make sure they get their share. Meanwhile, other marriages are breaking apart with affairs. Work is unfulfilling. Many of the family members have well paid jobs, but feel like they have not managed to come close to the fortune that they were expecting. 

The characters are well developed. Just when you are ready to toss out one as pure evil, you get their side of the story. Suddenly, you discover that they have good motives and are in fact protecting people from others. The portrayal of the South Bay is spot on. There is a lot of money sloshing around. It often ends up with those that are lucky (or corrupt) rather than those that most deserve it.

Religions of the East

Religions of the East covers some of the more popular Eastern "religions". The definition of religion is important here, for some would argue that they are just philosophies and not religions. (While others that appear to be philosophies would argue that they are religions.) In these lectures they are somewhat glommed together. Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Sikhism are all covered.

The relationship between a religion and a community are also important. While a religion may be very mainstream in one area, it may be symbol of counter-cultural rebellion in another. Many of the eastern religions are much less dogmatic than western or middle-eastern religions. They often more closely resemble schools of philosophy than belief sets. (They sometimes use these characteristics to help gain inroads in the west, leading to "popular" western versions that differed significantly from the eastern versions.)

These lectures lacked some substance. There was not enough history and analysis of the belief sets and the roll that the religions have played in the society as a whole. This may be a function of trying to cram too much in to a short time period. However, there also seemed to be a little too much "fluff" in the lectures that could have been cleaned out to provide more "meat".