The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker
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- Synopsis
- What is race for? That bracing question animates every page of The Accidental Asian, a powerful work from one of the nation's leading young voices. In these personal and poignant reflections on assimilation, Eric Liu articulates a vision of American identity that will provoke and inspire. For Liu, the price of assimilation became clear when he tried to read a memorial book about his father's life, composed in Chinese, and found himself staring at a blur of indecipherable characters. There in his hands was the measure of his inheritance. Liu, meanwhile, has watched with both wonder and concern as a pan-ethnic Asian American identity has taken shape. Here now is a race that offers a new source of roots--but also tightens the hold that color has upon our minds. Like so many in the second generation, Liu doesn't know whether to embrace, resist, or redefine assimilation-- and ends up doing all three at once. He speaks candidly about his journey from a fierce pursuit of racelessness to a slow rapprochement with race. He is not afraid to reveal his ambivalence. At bottom, Liu is an "accidental Asian"--someone who has stumbled upon a sense of race, who is not always sure what to do with it. Weaving narrative and analysis into a series of elegant essays, Liu addresses a broad range of questions: ¸ Is whiteness America's fundamental race problem? ¸ Are Asian Americans really the New Jews? ¸ Should we fear the rising might of China? ¸ What does a journey through Chinatown reveal about our own lives? ¸ What might intermarriage mean for Asian Americans--and for the future of race itself? The clear voice in these pages will resonate with Americans of every hue. Beyond black and white, conservative and liberal, native and alien, lies a vast and fertile field of human experience. It is this field that Liu, with insight and compassion, invites us to explore.
- Copyright:
- 1998
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- ISBN-13:
- 9780307428103
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780375704864
- Publisher:
- Vintage Books
- Date of Addition:
- 05/11/21
- Copyrighted By:
- Eric Liu
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.