Asian American Novels & Writers | Asian American Poll

ASIAN AMERICAN NOVELS
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:11:26 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Which of the following is the best Asian American novel?
China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston | 7%
No-No Boy by John Okada | 1%
The Foreign Student by Susan Choi | 8%
China Boy by Gus Lee | 4% American Knees by Shawn Wong | 3%
Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston | 7%
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | 8%
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee | 15%
Other | 47%

Who's your favorite Asian American writer?
Gus Lee | 13%
Amy Tan | 8%
Susan Choi | 8%
Maxine Hong Kingston | 11%
Chang-Rae Lee | 14%
Other | 46%

What best explains the remarkable disparity between the numbers of published AA female and male authors?
More AA females write than do AA males | 17%
American publishers have a fetish for Asian female authors | 32%
American publishers have an aversion toward strong AA male voices | 14%
Americans have a fetish for Asian female-white male themed books | 37%

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WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

My favourite Asian author writing in English is Sujata Massey. She is really British but as she now lives in Baltimore, maybe she can qualify as a quasi AA author. I like her because she is half Indian half German writing about a heroine who is half Japanese half American. Also her novels are not about growing pains and anguish about being Asian in a western world, but thrilling stories about a young adventurous woman who gets into hot water with murder. The other novel I like is Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui which is translated. Again I like it because it portrays China from a modern perspective rather than all that anguish and pain that a lot of AA authors seem to favor. Can anyone recommend a book by an AA author that is not full of anguish and pain? I love all Asian authors that has been translated - Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Mo Yan, Yasunari Kawabata, just to name a few. Now if only an Asian American could write like that in English.
DLH Monday, December 17, 2001 at 22:31:13 (PST)

"Yellow" by Don Lee, a fresh, bittersweet look at the Asian-American experience.
Book lover Monday, November 19, 2001 at 10:58:23 (PST)

"Remains of the Day" was a beautiful book, as I remember. But I also remember reading about a white woman in a reading club who felt that the book was "too Japanese"! This is ridiculous since there are no Asians in his book and it's all about a British butler. But maybe the sense of longing and unrequited desire, about face and protocol and acting like a "model minority" points to the experience of the Asian American as passive, weak and indecisive -- but this time in the "white face" of a subservient butler. Some criticize him for writing about Eurocentric characters, even though I think his first novels are about Japan.

Oh well, I thought "Remains" was one of the most beautiful books I ever read at the time. The stuff he's doing now is basically surreal, dream-like; you have to slog through it and end up nowhere. Only time will tell if he's really a genius or this is a bad experimental trip he's taken with his last two novels.
cj Wednesday, October 17, 2001 at 05:11:43 (PDT)

I realize that he's not American, but how about Kazuo Ishiguro? "Remains of the Day" is a wonderful book!
Elizabeth Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 13:25:34 (PDT)

To: God of Asia

You're wrong: giving Amy Tan a 2nd-rate rating is akin to insulting other books that belong in the 2nd-rate rating. And yes, there are people here who do read texts in our respective Asian languages. Do you?

You're right: to read about the true cultures of Asia, it is imperative to understand the works done there, not here. After all, the history of the United States is only a couple of hundred of years. That's way after Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi. Of course, Sun Tzu is Chinese and Musashi is Japanese; Amy Tan is Chinese-American. Oops... I just commited a cardinal sin. I contaminated the Sun Tzu and Musashi names by putting Amy Tan in the same sentence.

Proud of Amy Tan...............NOT Monday, September 10, 2001 at 00:51:13 (PDT)

I agree. Amy Tan isn't exactly the best writer Asian America has to offer. Her books all have the same tired themes that someone has already mentioned. Her writings on Chinese culture are overwhelmingly negative. Is this woman even capable of writing something that isn't gloomy?
Stop the BS Saturday, September 08, 2001 at 13:43:36 (PDT)

Reading this list really got me crackin' up.

All this talk of "Asian pride" and "cultural integrity", ethnic consciousness", etc. and these books being brought up are 2nd-rate pulp packed with trite samurai-sushi, china-doll stereotypes.

Anybody here read REAL asian books with REAL asian ideas, from REAL asian culture?

Or is it too much of a pain in the butt for all these "AZN pride" AAs to learn all those pesky characters and kanji?
Perhaps it's easier to comfort oneself with all that phony American-filtered "asian culture".

Dont even dream about lecturing about "asian culture" and professing "azn pride" if you dont even have the balls to undergo the rigors of learning the native language.

God of Asia studmeister@aol.com Thursday, September 06, 2001 at 18:43:38 (PDT)

Jen, re: Amy Tan:

��to think how successful she's become should be a proud reminder of who we are.�

Proud of what? At what cost? On who�s dime?

I believe Marginal Man was expressing the incorrect stereotyping Amy Tan propagates on Asians. I�d like to also add the stereotyping Tan does: the ineffectual Chinese father/husband, the oppressed Chinese wife, the imprisoned Chinese daughter, and the weak Chinese son.

Now I don�t know if you grew up in a family with an ineffectual father, an oppressed mother, a loser brother, or you feel imprisoned. I believe most of us here grew up with a father who is a strong, intelligent, educated, and chivalrous gentleman and a mother who is an intelligent, beautiful, educated, and classy lady. Hmm� this does not sound like what Amy Tan writes about�

So, what is there with Amy Tan to be proud of besides seeing one Asian person getting fame and money at the cost of the entire Asian American population?

Proud of Amy Tan...............NOT Wednesday, September 05, 2001 at 03:59:07 (PDT)

He's not Asian American (although he has lived in the U.S. for a few years when he was at Princeton), but Haruki Murakami is my favorite writer. I guess he's supposed to be the most famous modern Japanese writer. I think he deserves to get the Nobel Prize in Literature soon... Even translated into English, his works are incredible. Some books by him:

Norwegian Wood
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Sputnik Sweetheart
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
A Wild Sheep Chase
Dance, Dance, Dance

---

Another one of my favorite authors happens to also be Japanese: Banana Yoshimoto. I enjoyed her novels Kitchen and Amrita a lot.

AM Fan of Haruki Murakami Thursday, August 30, 2001 at 19:39:52 (PDT)

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