Where Are You From?: An Anthology of Asian American Writing

by Byron Wong, Valerie Katagiri, Larry Yu

What does it mean to be an Asian American in the twenty-first century? In mainstream America, cliched stereotypes about Asian people as model minorities, asexual techno-geeks, hypersexual dragon ladies, perpetual foreigners, or Yellow Peril "threats" continue to persist -- though they are frequently concealed behind politically correct slogans like colorblindness and diversity. Where Are You From?: An Anthology of Asian American Writing challenges these viewpoints. The writings and art in this anthology envision Asian American identity, culture, and politics on our own terms, through our own experiences and unique perspectives. Incorporating a diverse range of personal essays, stories, critical articles, poems, art, and other work, this anthology seeks to express the truth of our lived realities and to give voice to an Asian America that is frequently marginalized by society. The very title of our book -- Where Are You From? -- questions the common prejudice often expressed by the majority culture that Asian Americans are alien or foreign to the USA. In the words of Lawson Inada, we want to tell people where we come from -- where we're really from. Other contributors include Professor Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Andrew Lam, Lee Tonouchi, Matthew Salesses, Curtis Choy, Polo Catalani, Tony Robles, Dmae Roberts, Valerie Katagiri, Sapna Cheryan, Roberta May Wong, Beth Kaufka, Marivi Soliven Blanco, Robert Francis Flor, Michael Lai, Min K Kang, Byron Wong, Zach Katagiri, Larry Yu, Sonia Sarkar, Simon Tam, Ben Efsanem, Koh Mo Il, Victoria Yee, Diem Tran, Luan Nguyen, Souttalith Vongsamphanhn, Bikash Khada, Mary Niang, Ngoc Minh Tran.

Genres: Anthologies

260 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2012

Reviews

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was underwhelmed. This was a mixed bag, a mish mash with no theme or thread of connectedness. Some pieces were good. I liked Lawson Inada's, Roberta May Wong's, and Marivi Soliven Blanco's contributions, and a few others.

The chapter by Byron Wong was very problematic due to its flawed argument and its over-reliance on internet discussion items; it should have been labeled an op-ed. Perhaps it was performative.

I was disappointed by the lack of diversity here and also by a bias for Oregon-based authors.

[Walk-Minh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Where are you from?" is commonly taken as a provocative question among Asian Americans, especially when it is asked in an unfriendly and almost accusatory way. The reason is because the usual intent of the questioner is either xenophobic or ethnocentric. The question has the effect of categorizing and stigmatizing a person and making it more convenient for the interrogator to keep on feeding his prejudices. Before a word of explanation can be uttered, the question has already served to exclude the individual from participating in any national dialogue and from being represented in the national narrative. Thus, the title of this book, Where Are You From?, uses a good ironic twist to confront the history and continued harm of this type of question.

What pleased me about the book was how the narratives and poems in this collection seemed to be all over the place, in terms of voice and point of view, but that the main goal was the re-characterization and re-imagining of Asian America. Just as each author is an individual unto him/herself, so is every person of Asian descent in this country a unique human being, albeit sharing a common history of geography, immigration patterns, awkward attempts at assimilation, and enduring both egregious and subtle acts of discrimination.

Some pieces in this collection did not surprise me while others really made me mentally engage with the construct of “Asian American” and how it pertains to my identity and my life. A few of the authors I was familiar with, but many of them I was reading for the first time. Some of the standouts, for me, include Marivi Soliven Blanco, Valerie Katagiri, Diem Tran and Ben Efsanem.

If you choose to only read the book piecemeal, then I’d definitely suggest reading the “Point & Counterpoint” part featuring Simon Tam and Ben Efsanem. Efsanem’s counterpoint to Simon Tam’s essay regarding appropriation of the word “slant” was a valuable lesson for me in that it reminded me to be more critical of my own tendency to co-opt and re-use words like “bastard” and “orphan” with respect to my status as adoptee.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I have to admit I may be biased, because I know two of the authors of essays in this book,and the artist who designed the cover--but I thought it was a really interesting collection of research, essays and poetry by Asian Americans, with the theme of how one's self-view is affected by the attitude of others--and particularly by non-Asians who may view Asians as "not really American," i.e. "from somewhere else." At least partly because Asians were easy to identify by their appearance, over 177,000 Asian-Americans were interned in camps in the U.S. during World War II (notably, there were no camps for German- or Italian-Americans). Discrimination in more subtle ways continues, as explored by these writers, young and old.
But in reading through this book a second time, what I really liked were the voices of the writers, varied and distinctive, showing that the real question, for all of us, is not "Where are you from?", but "Who are you?", a question we all ask ourselves, and that most of these writers answer quite eloquently.
A good read.