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East Goes West
"A wonderfully resplendent evocation of a newcomer's America" (Chang-rae Lee) by the father of Korean American literature
Having fled Japanese-occupied Korea for the gleaming promise of the United States, the young, idealistic Chungpa Han lands in New York with nothing but four dollars and a suitcase full of Shakespeare to his name. The America into which Han arrives is one teeming with recent arrivals, expatriates, businessmen, students, indigents, and scholars hailing from Korea, China, and Italy as well as Harlem, Boston, and Greenwich Village. Struggling to support his studies, Han becomes by turns traveling salesman, domestic worker, and farmer. In the process, he observes the idealism, greed, and shifting values of the industrializing twentieth century.
Part picaresque adventure, part shrewd social commentary, East Goes West casts a sharply satirical eye on the demands and perils of assimilation as it follows Han's travels through the United States and Canada. With its beautifully nuanced portrayal of Han's spiritual evolutions and revolutions, its richly detailed examination of a cosmopolitan immigrant subculture, and its biting portraits of racism, alienation, and hypocrisy at every level of society, East Goes West is a masterpiece not only of Asian American literature but also of American literature.
Having fled Japanese-occupied Korea for the gleaming promise of the United States, the young, idealistic Chungpa Han lands in New York with nothing but four dollars and a suitcase full of Shakespeare to his name. The America into which Han arrives is one teeming with recent arrivals, expatriates, businessmen, students, indigents, and scholars hailing from Korea, China, and Italy as well as Harlem, Boston, and Greenwich Village. Struggling to support his studies, Han becomes by turns traveling salesman, domestic worker, and farmer. In the process, he observes the idealism, greed, and shifting values of the industrializing twentieth century.
Part picaresque adventure, part shrewd social commentary, East Goes West casts a sharply satirical eye on the demands and perils of assimilation as it follows Han's travels through the United States and Canada. With its beautifully nuanced portrayal of Han's spiritual evolutions and revolutions, its richly detailed examination of a cosmopolitan immigrant subculture, and its biting portraits of racism, alienation, and hypocrisy at every level of society, East Goes West is a masterpiece not only of Asian American literature but also of American literature.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
74 people are currently reading
2489 people want to read
About the author
Younghill Kang
11 books18 followersBorn in 1903 in what is now known as North Korea, Younghill Kang was educated in Korea and Japan. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1921, finishing his education in Boston and Cambridge. A prolific writer, Kang published articles in The New York Times, The Nation, The Saturday Review of Literature, and theEncyclopædia Britannica, among others. While teaching English at New York University, he became friends with fellow professor Thomas Wolfe, who introduced him to Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins. Kang’s first book, The Grass Roof, was published by Scribner’s in 1931. A children’s book based on Kang’s early life entitled The Happy Grove was published in 1933, and East Goes West was released in 1937. Throughout his life, Kang was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including two Guggenheim fellowships, the New School’s Louis S. Memorial Prize, and an honorary doctorate in literature from Koryo University. Au Matin du Pays Calme, the French translation of The Grass Roof, won Le Prix Halperine Kaminsky, France’s annual award for best book in translation. Kang died in 1972 at his home in Satellite Beach, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 16, 2019
I'm gob-smacked after reading this.
I mean more than the fact I ended up enjoying this story of Chungpa Han coming to the US in the 1930s from Korean with only four dollars in his pocket and a suitcase full of Shakespeare. That he portrays an America populated by immigrants; Koreans, Chinese, Italians, Russians helping each other out. That it's a sharp commentary on the "American Dream" and it reads like something that's always been a part of the canon.
And I'm floored that I've never read this before, that Amy Tan would be my first experience with an Asian-American writing about-Asian Americans. That Chang Rae Lee would be my first encounter with a Korean-American author years later. And here was Younghill Kang writing decades earlier.
And that's what absolutely kills me. Younghill Kang taught English at New York University with Thomas Wolfe. Wolfe would introduce him to Maxwell Perkins at Scribner who published his works. Kang dined with Hemingway and Fitzgerald. And while they have become part of the popular consciousness with countless movie adaptations of The Great Gatsby, pilgrimages made to the bars Hemingway wrote in, and even a movie treatment, called "Genius" telling the story of Perkins and Wolfe - Kang doesn't even warrant a footnote.
This is a huge work that deserves wider recognition. As Alexander Chee remarks in the foreword to the new Penguin Classics edition "He is one of those writers whose work has influenced you even if you’ve never read him." Expand your literary canon and take in a new perspective from what should be a recognized voice in American letters. Video review here: https://youtu.be/yiEBa_RDxAo
I mean more than the fact I ended up enjoying this story of Chungpa Han coming to the US in the 1930s from Korean with only four dollars in his pocket and a suitcase full of Shakespeare. That he portrays an America populated by immigrants; Koreans, Chinese, Italians, Russians helping each other out. That it's a sharp commentary on the "American Dream" and it reads like something that's always been a part of the canon.
And I'm floored that I've never read this before, that Amy Tan would be my first experience with an Asian-American writing about-Asian Americans. That Chang Rae Lee would be my first encounter with a Korean-American author years later. And here was Younghill Kang writing decades earlier.
And that's what absolutely kills me. Younghill Kang taught English at New York University with Thomas Wolfe. Wolfe would introduce him to Maxwell Perkins at Scribner who published his works. Kang dined with Hemingway and Fitzgerald. And while they have become part of the popular consciousness with countless movie adaptations of The Great Gatsby, pilgrimages made to the bars Hemingway wrote in, and even a movie treatment, called "Genius" telling the story of Perkins and Wolfe - Kang doesn't even warrant a footnote.
This is a huge work that deserves wider recognition. As Alexander Chee remarks in the foreword to the new Penguin Classics edition "He is one of those writers whose work has influenced you even if you’ve never read him." Expand your literary canon and take in a new perspective from what should be a recognized voice in American letters. Video review here: https://youtu.be/yiEBa_RDxAo
July 12, 2021
The varied adventures of a young Korean exile Chungpa Han combine to produce a wonderfully understated, absorbing critique of American society in the 1920s and 30s. Through Han’s eyes the brash commercialism and rampant materialism that underpin this era of rapid change are persuasively represented from get-rich-quick schemes and exploitative business owners to the turbulent experiences of the country’s segregated, immigrant communities. Younghill Kang’s semi-autobiographical novel has no real plot, instead it follows his central character Chungpa Han, in self-imposed exile from Japanese-occupied Korea, as he lurches from one setting to another trying to find a place for himself in an overwhelming, new world. Han starts out in New York with a few dollars and a lot of books, his ambition’s to study and build on his intense love of literature from classical Chinese poetry to Swinburne and Shakespeare. He grapples with racism and isolation but he also finds pockets of acceptance and unexpected friendship.
Kang meticulously reconstructs the bustling atmosphere of the age – the scenes of Greenwich Village bohemia, Harlem and New York’s Chinatown are particularly striking and vivid. Kang shared an editor with his friend Thomas Wolfe, so probably not surprising to find the occasional Wolfean flourish invading his prose but fortunately the majority of Kang’s narrative’s given over to quietly perceptive character studies and rich description. His hero Han’s outwardly self-effacing, forever placing himself in the background, but he’s not some version of Isherwood’s passively recording camera, his observations are laced with pointed, sometimes lacerating, comparisons between Korean and American culture and values. There are moments when the level of detail can be a bit overwhelming, and this is possibly more significant for what it offers in terms of cultural and social history than for Kang’s conventional writing style, but even so I was completely caught up in it.
Kang meticulously reconstructs the bustling atmosphere of the age – the scenes of Greenwich Village bohemia, Harlem and New York’s Chinatown are particularly striking and vivid. Kang shared an editor with his friend Thomas Wolfe, so probably not surprising to find the occasional Wolfean flourish invading his prose but fortunately the majority of Kang’s narrative’s given over to quietly perceptive character studies and rich description. His hero Han’s outwardly self-effacing, forever placing himself in the background, but he’s not some version of Isherwood’s passively recording camera, his observations are laced with pointed, sometimes lacerating, comparisons between Korean and American culture and values. There are moments when the level of detail can be a bit overwhelming, and this is possibly more significant for what it offers in terms of cultural and social history than for Kang’s conventional writing style, but even so I was completely caught up in it.
April 8, 2019
We floated insecurely, in the rootless groping fashion of men hung between two worlds. With Korean culture at a dying gasp, being throttled wherever possible by the Japanese, with conditions at home ever tragic and uncertain, life for us was tied by a slenderer thread to the homeland than for the Chinese. Still it was tied. Koreans thought of themselves as exiles, not as immigrants.
Out of print for the past fifty years, East Goes West is being rereleased in May 2019 for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. A semi-autobiographical account of a young man's experiences after coming to America from Japanese-controlled Korea in the late 1920's, this book is considered the first true Korean-American novel, and as such, serves as a colourful snapshot of its time and place. In addition to the restored text, this edition includes a chronology of author Younghill Kang's life, suggestions for further reading, a useful foreword by author Alexander Chee, and an edifying afterword by Sunyoung Lee (Editor and Publisher of Kaya Press). It is Lee who explains that in its day, although well-received, many reviewers dismissed East Goes West as “merely memoir”: Kang the writer is replaced by Chungpa Han the character, and in the process, Kang becomes an early victim of the still-prevalent belief that the only contribution any writer of color could possibly have to make is the story of his or her own life. Lee counters: Kang staked out his literary tradition very clearly: the book was to be both a novel of ideas and the portrait of an era. The issues he proposed to address might not have been strikingly innovative in and of themselves, but they were to be explored from the unique perspective of an Asian living in the U.S. with access to the literary, philosophical, and social conceits of two traditions. Especially through this lens, East Goes West is a masterwork – I found it much more readable than other books from its era – and I am grateful that it has been brought back from the dead. (Note: I read an ARC and passages quoted might not be in their final form.)
New Yorkers seem to have some aim in every movement they make. (Some frantic aim.) They are like guns shooting off. How unlike Asiatics in an Oriental village, who drift up and down aimlessly and leisurely! But these people have no time, not even for gossiping, even for staring. To be thrown among New Yorkers – yes, it means to have a new interpretation of life never conceived before. The business interpretation...Free, factual man is reasoning from cause to effect here all the time – not so much thinking. It is intelligence measuring, rather than intellect's solution. Prophets of hereafter, poets of vision...maybe the American is not so much these. But he is a good salesman, amidst scientific tools. His mind is like Grand Central Station. It is definite, it is timed, it has mathematical precision on clearcut stone foundation. There may be monotonous dull repetition, but all is accurate and conscious. Stupid routine sometimes, but behind it, duty in the very look. Every angle and line has been measured. How solid the steel framework of this Western civilization is!
At eighteen years old, with four American dollars and a suitcase full of Shakespeare, Chungpa Han arrives in New York City with hopes of continuing his studies of Western literature. He meets many helpful emigrants from various Asian countries in the city's bustling Chinatown, but it is to other ex-pat Koreans that Han is primarily drawn; and it is from them that he receives the best advice and aid. Over his ensuing collegiate career, Han will work as a houseboy, a farmhand, a door-to-door salesman – and in every situation he will encounter goodness and racism, always managing to get by and not cause waves. Kang is careful to have other characters make all the dramatic gestures and opinionated speeches – Han rarely gets passionate outside of intimate discussions of art and literature – and while this makes the main character seem passive and submissive, his inner thoughts show a progressive development from naive to cynical. By the end of the novel, despite having completed his education (in and out of school), settled into his working career and a hint at romantic fulfillment, Han muses:
All lives rise from nature, express it a moment, then come to destruction in the undying world – the scientist with his laboratory invention, the explorer with his passion for the undiscovered land, the mother with her devotion of love, the lover with heaped agony, all doomed and destined to be ashes under the volcanic destruction of death, as Pompeii under Vesuvius. It is all a matter of how soon. Life the eternal butterfly flutters into its natural web. Yes, the philosopher, too, dreaming he may be that butterfly, moves on to his death, and only the undying universe remains, the bird of two wings.
I had never considered the early Korean-American experience before (closer to home, Han spends some time in a small Canadian college and pretty accurately dismisses it as a backwater both yearning to be British and at least a generation behind American progress), and East Goes West was an interesting and educational read. There are some irony-laden funny parts (especially Han's time with the millionaire evangelist), some quasi-racist observations that, while they may reflect Kang's thoughts in the '30s, don't weather the intervening years well, and much thoughtful commentary on the East vs the West. Not a book to get through quickly, I'm happy to have received this one for review; hope it finds a new audience.
May 12, 2022
3.5*
East Goes West, written in 1937, is supposed to be the first Korean-American novel. The story follows Chungpa Han, a Korean man who flees from occupied Korea to the United States with a total of four dollars. The story is a gorgeous example of transnational solidarity between migrants as they pursue the American dream with more or less success (mostly less).
The myriad of characters Han encounters teach him about the West and other perspectives, and I would say his own ethnocentrism takes over most of the book as he consistently superimposes her own beliefs and Korean culture on top of everything else. Whereas the conversations about English literature and handwriting versus Korean poetry and calligraphy were not my cup of tea, it was interesting to read about how he experienced and learned about religion, racism, and American work culture.
I wonder how much of this was autobiographical.
East Goes West, written in 1937, is supposed to be the first Korean-American novel. The story follows Chungpa Han, a Korean man who flees from occupied Korea to the United States with a total of four dollars. The story is a gorgeous example of transnational solidarity between migrants as they pursue the American dream with more or less success (mostly less).
The myriad of characters Han encounters teach him about the West and other perspectives, and I would say his own ethnocentrism takes over most of the book as he consistently superimposes her own beliefs and Korean culture on top of everything else. Whereas the conversations about English literature and handwriting versus Korean poetry and calligraphy were not my cup of tea, it was interesting to read about how he experienced and learned about religion, racism, and American work culture.
I wonder how much of this was autobiographical.
April 23, 2020
What a grind. Over the course of a couple greatly distracted weeks of reading I read through this picaresque novel about a Korean in exile in America back when there were basically no Koreans here. What I thought would be some flowing and episodic adventures and a tale of real adversity turned out to be a disappointing slough of aimless modernity. (But can I really judge it too harshly for not conforming to my clueless notions of what this experience could be like?) Though the narrator does progress in his understanding of the West, shedding much naivety and learning a great deal about Western philosophy, religion, culture, and industrial economics, his travels, odd jobs, and social outings never add up to anything more than their own recollections. On the plus side, Kang makes a rather concerted and successful effort at chipping away at the farcical edifice of the American Dream, exposing its elusiveness, vacuity, and manifold privileges at every turn. He frequently juxtaposes East and West, Confucianism and Protestantism, obedience and freedom, arrangement and love, all of which probably leads to some interesting reckonings for most Western readers. However, this autobiographical novel is actually at its best when Kang builds up a sense of immigrant and minority solidarity in a land working against their success and when he holds up a mirror for Western readers to look at themselves in a new light. This seminal author—one of the very first Korean-Americans to be published—seems to have some dated, unhurried, and rather arduous writing, yet it is not without worth by any means.
October 10, 2018
The way the story is told is chronological but it's almost as if he tells his own personal narrative passively. The way he interacts with people in his life is awkward and I am not entirely sure if it was autobiographical completely or also fictionalized. Just not my favorite, but the first book for class so let's see if the other ones we read are better.
February 25, 2021
East Goes West by Younghill Kang was an insightful, often funny and interesting story that focuses on a young man's journey experiences throughout America and Canada after having arrived from Korea during the 1920's. The book was actually first published in 1937 and the copy I was lucky enough to receive is the first republished copy in over 50 years!
The story is a semi autobiography of Younghill Kang but he is replaced from the POV of a fictional man called Chungpu Han. Han first sets foot on America after arriving in New York with 4 dollars and the works of Shakespeare in his suitcase. At this point in his life he is 18 and ready to absorb all that he hopes he can gain in America. It's not all plain sailing for Han as he has a torrid time trying to accustom himself to America. For example, Han has a letter of introduction to the Y.M.C.A. given to him by a missionary. The naïve Han is made to believe that is his golden ticket to riches and prosperity. Upon arriving at the main office of the organisation he is told to go to Harlem. There he deals with racism first hand as he is told no Orientals or Africans can be employed at the Y.M.C.A.
Having unwittingly spent all of his money on a haircut and clean shave, Han finds himself having to go to a "flophouse" a place that offers very low cost housing. Although jobless and left without any direction as to where his life will end up going, this doesn't stop Han from continuing to discover the American Dream. He has known poverty before so it only gives him a "it can not get any worse than what I've known".
"So far I had failed in everything undertaken in America. Housework, clerking, wait ing, in nothing was I good. It remained to be seen if I could rem edy this by education."
There are many times Han is struggling to even get something to eat, sometimes even going 24 hours without eating or drinking. Luckily for Han, he befriends many immigrants and outcasts like him New York. Immigrants from Korea, Italy, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Many of these friends like him are or have struggled to assimilate to life in America. However, even with their struggles they are still able to aide him and save him from starvation. It was actually really heart-warming seeing the generosity of people. The world then and now is definitely a dog eat dog world, so receiving even a little bit of help can go a long way.
Much of the help Han gains and essentially helps him learn about what it means to be American come from Korean exiles like himself such as George Jum who to a certain extent was Hans Guru. George a playboy who has absorbed everything that is American culture putting behind what he was accustomed to in Korea.
"The next period of my life must properly be dedicated to George Jum. He attempted to be my teacher in things American, and certainly he had left all Asian culture behind as a thing of nought. If I am not a very shining example of his precepts, the faults must be laid to me and not to him."
Later however, having failed to keep down a job we see Han travel to Canada in the hopes of clearing his path towards success. Thanks to a Canadian missionary called Mr Luther who was the headmaster of a Korean school where Han has completed his post graduate degree, he is told a scholarship is open to him in the Maritime University up in Canada. He meets great tutors such as Ralph and Ian. From his experience in Canada he discovers it as essentially as a bootleg Britain and really needs to catch up with America in terms of its development.
"Marvellous how this noisy coloial town could still convey obliquely an Old-World pattern, reminding of the English home."
He then finds himself in Boston where he becomes a salesman and then returns to education. This becomes somewhat of a pattern for Han throughout the book i.e. working for a bit then returning to college. He makes more friends and acquittances there and begins to settle down. Long story short, he finishes his education gaining a diploma from Boston, finally settles into a regular job , and even a wee romance blossoming. Still however Han never managed to gain a feeling of self fulfilment, even being partially jealous of George Jum.
When considering the writing, it was very descriptive and so detailed reminding me of the great Haruki Murakami. I'm going to be honest however and say reading this was a bit of a grind. Han's POV is very philosophical which meant some parts went on and on. I do feel the novel could've been cut down by 100 pages. However, Kang does describe characters and places in such amazing detail that you can't help but be in awe.
There are also many funny moments throughout the book, i think my favourite was definitely Han's being an atrocious houseboy. Kang also covers issues he faces and observes along his travels throughout Canada and the USA such as racism and stereotyping towards oriental people. I would however go far as saying that the character of Han was a bit of a racist himself due to how he stereotypes those from an African background and the use of racial slurs. It was very uncomfortable for me if i am very honest and i do understand that a book written during the 1930's didn't think about these things back then but still it annoyed me.
One final thing I really enjoyed was the array of different characters Han meets throughout America and Canada. Although some are only part of the story for a short time, they all played a key role in Han's experiences and his reflections of being a Korean immigrant in America during the 1930's. Han is very observational and describes the people he meets with such intricate detail that you can picture them in your mind.
Overall, this book was a grind to get through but I do feel it was worth reading. I learned a lot about the history and journey of Koreans living in the USA. The writing was also very descriptive and detailed, but at times I felt it was too much and went on a bit too long. This is worth reading but a lot of patience is required for sure.
Thank you to Viking Books, Penguin Random House, and Penguin Classics for gifting me a copy. I am very grateful for the opportunity #PRHparter
The story is a semi autobiography of Younghill Kang but he is replaced from the POV of a fictional man called Chungpu Han. Han first sets foot on America after arriving in New York with 4 dollars and the works of Shakespeare in his suitcase. At this point in his life he is 18 and ready to absorb all that he hopes he can gain in America. It's not all plain sailing for Han as he has a torrid time trying to accustom himself to America. For example, Han has a letter of introduction to the Y.M.C.A. given to him by a missionary. The naïve Han is made to believe that is his golden ticket to riches and prosperity. Upon arriving at the main office of the organisation he is told to go to Harlem. There he deals with racism first hand as he is told no Orientals or Africans can be employed at the Y.M.C.A.
Having unwittingly spent all of his money on a haircut and clean shave, Han finds himself having to go to a "flophouse" a place that offers very low cost housing. Although jobless and left without any direction as to where his life will end up going, this doesn't stop Han from continuing to discover the American Dream. He has known poverty before so it only gives him a "it can not get any worse than what I've known".
"So far I had failed in everything undertaken in America. Housework, clerking, wait ing, in nothing was I good. It remained to be seen if I could rem edy this by education."
There are many times Han is struggling to even get something to eat, sometimes even going 24 hours without eating or drinking. Luckily for Han, he befriends many immigrants and outcasts like him New York. Immigrants from Korea, Italy, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Many of these friends like him are or have struggled to assimilate to life in America. However, even with their struggles they are still able to aide him and save him from starvation. It was actually really heart-warming seeing the generosity of people. The world then and now is definitely a dog eat dog world, so receiving even a little bit of help can go a long way.
Much of the help Han gains and essentially helps him learn about what it means to be American come from Korean exiles like himself such as George Jum who to a certain extent was Hans Guru. George a playboy who has absorbed everything that is American culture putting behind what he was accustomed to in Korea.
"The next period of my life must properly be dedicated to George Jum. He attempted to be my teacher in things American, and certainly he had left all Asian culture behind as a thing of nought. If I am not a very shining example of his precepts, the faults must be laid to me and not to him."
Later however, having failed to keep down a job we see Han travel to Canada in the hopes of clearing his path towards success. Thanks to a Canadian missionary called Mr Luther who was the headmaster of a Korean school where Han has completed his post graduate degree, he is told a scholarship is open to him in the Maritime University up in Canada. He meets great tutors such as Ralph and Ian. From his experience in Canada he discovers it as essentially as a bootleg Britain and really needs to catch up with America in terms of its development.
"Marvellous how this noisy coloial town could still convey obliquely an Old-World pattern, reminding of the English home."
He then finds himself in Boston where he becomes a salesman and then returns to education. This becomes somewhat of a pattern for Han throughout the book i.e. working for a bit then returning to college. He makes more friends and acquittances there and begins to settle down. Long story short, he finishes his education gaining a diploma from Boston, finally settles into a regular job , and even a wee romance blossoming. Still however Han never managed to gain a feeling of self fulfilment, even being partially jealous of George Jum.
When considering the writing, it was very descriptive and so detailed reminding me of the great Haruki Murakami. I'm going to be honest however and say reading this was a bit of a grind. Han's POV is very philosophical which meant some parts went on and on. I do feel the novel could've been cut down by 100 pages. However, Kang does describe characters and places in such amazing detail that you can't help but be in awe.
There are also many funny moments throughout the book, i think my favourite was definitely Han's being an atrocious houseboy. Kang also covers issues he faces and observes along his travels throughout Canada and the USA such as racism and stereotyping towards oriental people. I would however go far as saying that the character of Han was a bit of a racist himself due to how he stereotypes those from an African background and the use of racial slurs. It was very uncomfortable for me if i am very honest and i do understand that a book written during the 1930's didn't think about these things back then but still it annoyed me.
One final thing I really enjoyed was the array of different characters Han meets throughout America and Canada. Although some are only part of the story for a short time, they all played a key role in Han's experiences and his reflections of being a Korean immigrant in America during the 1930's. Han is very observational and describes the people he meets with such intricate detail that you can picture them in your mind.
Overall, this book was a grind to get through but I do feel it was worth reading. I learned a lot about the history and journey of Koreans living in the USA. The writing was also very descriptive and detailed, but at times I felt it was too much and went on a bit too long. This is worth reading but a lot of patience is required for sure.
Thank you to Viking Books, Penguin Random House, and Penguin Classics for gifting me a copy. I am very grateful for the opportunity #PRHparter
February 18, 2021
Penguin classics brings a tale of immigration and exile to a new era and to readers who are acutely attuned to the complexities thereof. While East Goes West is most often seen as thinly veiled autobiography, Sun-young Lee warns of reducing it to this view in the essay that serves as afterword to this edition. Indeed, Kang is the poet he claims to be and gives the narrative so much more than an assimilation plot line. The myriad characters and interactions in a variety of urban and rural settings provide opportunities for contemplations not just on the America of the 1930s, but of what it means to claim one’s identity and the roles of economy, race, and class in that process. The place of the academic and the artist in such a vibrant setting is a question that appears throughout the work. Although it has not had a place of prominence in American literary studies for sometime, East Goes West is a brilliant piece that may be overdue for the limelight.
Thank you to the Penguin Group and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to the Penguin Group and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 1, 2021
The new Penguin version has some excellent essays by Alexander Chee and Sunyoung Lee that do a wonderful job framing Younghill Kang to our current context.
It would be a really fascinating pedagogical practice to pair, celebrate and contrast this with Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart, for he and Kang are the pioneering voices of Asian American literature. They are 2 vastly different individuals with 2 remarkable lives and illuminating books that show us the underbelly of early 20th century America. In these texts, both arrive to the idea of a somewhat fluid but ultimately cut throat racial caste system in the US where Asian migrants toil in spaces with other migrants and people of color, yet both arrive to this idealism of what America can be, despite all the horror these stories display. More can be said about the colorism within Asian folks to analyze their different lived experiences, as well as how some stories reflect these contrasts. To use a Cornel West phrase, they were both, "prisoners of hope" and despite the writers' varying levels of assimilation into their societies, all stuck to a dream of America that if it didn't accept them at the time, they believed that one day it could be as just, inclusive and equitable as they envisioned. The jury is still out on this one, but we can work and read for that hope.
It would be a really fascinating pedagogical practice to pair, celebrate and contrast this with Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart, for he and Kang are the pioneering voices of Asian American literature. They are 2 vastly different individuals with 2 remarkable lives and illuminating books that show us the underbelly of early 20th century America. In these texts, both arrive to the idea of a somewhat fluid but ultimately cut throat racial caste system in the US where Asian migrants toil in spaces with other migrants and people of color, yet both arrive to this idealism of what America can be, despite all the horror these stories display. More can be said about the colorism within Asian folks to analyze their different lived experiences, as well as how some stories reflect these contrasts. To use a Cornel West phrase, they were both, "prisoners of hope" and despite the writers' varying levels of assimilation into their societies, all stuck to a dream of America that if it didn't accept them at the time, they believed that one day it could be as just, inclusive and equitable as they envisioned. The jury is still out on this one, but we can work and read for that hope.
May 27, 2025
3.75/4
Being that May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I decided to take a more diverse approach to my classic read this month and chose East Goes West by Younghill Kang.
Fleeing Japanese-occupied Korea, Chungpa Han arrives in America. What follows is nothing less than an extraordinary life. Having arrived with only four dollars, Han takes odd jobs while pursuing his education. Throughout the years, Han encounters an interesting cast of characters, including many immigrants struggling to adapt to this new world, much like himself.
East Goes West is the fictionalized memoir of Younghill Kang. Through Han's experiences and discussions with friends, Kang explores everything from love and poetry to salesmanship and racism. I appreciated the nostalgic quality of this meandering tale. It reminded me a bit of Ray Bradbury's writing.
Being that May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I decided to take a more diverse approach to my classic read this month and chose East Goes West by Younghill Kang.
Fleeing Japanese-occupied Korea, Chungpa Han arrives in America. What follows is nothing less than an extraordinary life. Having arrived with only four dollars, Han takes odd jobs while pursuing his education. Throughout the years, Han encounters an interesting cast of characters, including many immigrants struggling to adapt to this new world, much like himself.
East Goes West is the fictionalized memoir of Younghill Kang. Through Han's experiences and discussions with friends, Kang explores everything from love and poetry to salesmanship and racism. I appreciated the nostalgic quality of this meandering tale. It reminded me a bit of Ray Bradbury's writing.
May 2, 2024
This book requires time. Kang takes his time with Han's/his story, but if you let the story wash over you, it rewards. A book for readers in the 30s has merit in the 20s. It should be studied alongside other "classics" from that era as a contrasting study in class, race, and expectation.
January 13, 2020
East Goes West is surely an interesting book. That isn’t to say that this book is particularly bad, however it is certainly a niche book. This book does a fantastic job in what it intends to do, an exploration of American culture, society, and economics from a classical Korean perspective. The plot structure of the book, a collection of chronological short stories, does well to give the book a more meaningful experience, making the reader feel more connected with Han, the stand in for Kang. This element is one that I much appreciated as it gave the book an interesting “plot” that could be followed along with ease, and one that helped to show the growth in Han’s character.
This book also excels in characterization. Kang describes the characters in his book with the same length and detail as Tolkein. These deep dive descriptions increase the readers involvement in the lives of the characters and by extension the novel as a whole. Perhaps the most prevalent element of Kang’s story, the extensive use of figurative language and references to classical literature, is a true make or break for this book. Personally I appreciated the inclusion of such material for it gave a much more advanced level of understanding towards the stories Kang was telling. This, however, could be quite the opposite for someone else. Kang’s book is full to the brim with high level writing, thus demanding a high level of comprehension, something that not all can appreciate. I would recommend this book to a patient reader, one who values the slow and eloquent story which implies more than it states. Someone who enjoyed Of Mice And Men may find this book to be about right for them. All in all East Goes West is a fantastic novel in the area it inhabits, and I certainly enjoyed my time reading it.
This book also excels in characterization. Kang describes the characters in his book with the same length and detail as Tolkein. These deep dive descriptions increase the readers involvement in the lives of the characters and by extension the novel as a whole. Perhaps the most prevalent element of Kang’s story, the extensive use of figurative language and references to classical literature, is a true make or break for this book. Personally I appreciated the inclusion of such material for it gave a much more advanced level of understanding towards the stories Kang was telling. This, however, could be quite the opposite for someone else. Kang’s book is full to the brim with high level writing, thus demanding a high level of comprehension, something that not all can appreciate. I would recommend this book to a patient reader, one who values the slow and eloquent story which implies more than it states. Someone who enjoyed Of Mice And Men may find this book to be about right for them. All in all East Goes West is a fantastic novel in the area it inhabits, and I certainly enjoyed my time reading it.
October 11, 2019
I loved this book. It is dense and full of detail, I had to read it in nibbles at first. Kang seemed to understand the density, it is put together in a way that makes it chewable, with small bursts of books and sub-books. That is the format. The writing is something else.
It is honest, filled with emotion without being emotional. The cold hard facts speak loud enough. The cost of things, the language, the clothes and the environments are described perfectly, showing instead of telling about racism, wealth, religion, philosophy, poets, writers and the exile experienced in unknown cultures. His first day off the boat is incredible!
He is the ultimate observer. Finding this book has felt like an impossible quest, but I had been looking for a book like this for quite sometime, and I found it sitting perky on a library shelf.
It is honest, filled with emotion without being emotional. The cold hard facts speak loud enough. The cost of things, the language, the clothes and the environments are described perfectly, showing instead of telling about racism, wealth, religion, philosophy, poets, writers and the exile experienced in unknown cultures. His first day off the boat is incredible!
He is the ultimate observer. Finding this book has felt like an impossible quest, but I had been looking for a book like this for quite sometime, and I found it sitting perky on a library shelf.
July 1, 2019
"First Korean American novelist." This book was written in 1937. Main character has fled Japanese occupied Korea for the US. He travels through the US and Canada struggling to keep up with his studies. I quote, "...a sharply satirical eye on the demands and perils of assimilation and offers biting portraits of racism, alienation, and hypocrisy at every level of society."
Detailed. Took some time to get into the rhythm of the story, but worth reading.
Detailed. Took some time to get into the rhythm of the story, but worth reading.
Read
September 19, 2023An odyssean (😂) book about a brave young asian tackling america. Everything he faces is still here hundred years later: pyramid schemes, evangelical scammers, art hoes, posers, racist people, rich international students, white women, bad beer, poverty, materialism, struggles to assimilate, disillusionment, and good food in chinatown. I love it here
September 2, 2024
from Part 1
An undying bird … forever lives, forever breathes, forever, with its two wings fluttering, flies. That is the universe. It was there when there was the empty space of our non-existence. It is here moving still. Where it is, silence is never there… And speaking with an Asian’s natural bias, it seems to me it is wrong to say, time passes. Time never passes. We say that it does, as long as we have a clock to calculate it for us. The two hands go, the iron tongue tells hours, we sense the experience of our own duration … we are illusioned. It is not time that passes, but ourselves. Time is always there… as long as there is life to use it. Only if no life existed, there would be no time. Time was because life was… as it is the mortal life to travel over the immortal time. The bird flies with the two wings, on and on. But the same time that occupied the Roman lovers is the same that Hamlet was insane in, and in the same I write and think of time… (4)
[...]
Out of action rises the dream, rises the poetry. (5)
[...]
And New York’s rebellion called to me excitedly, this savagery which piled great concrete block on concrete block, topping at the last moment as in an afterthought, with crowns as delicate as pinnacled ice; this lavishness which, without prayer, pillaged coal mines and waterfalls for light, festooning the great nature severed city with diamonds of frozen electrical phenomena—it fascinated me, the Asian man, and in it I saw not Milton’s Satan, but the one of Blake. (6)
[...]
New York, with the returning autumn, was shot through and through with vague intimations of fabulous, delicate worlds beyond my bounds of thought, of life reaching out and up in a scope unrestricted, north and south to the Poles, east, west, to a meeting place of divided hemispheres… life coiling and spiralling, intellectually rather than physically… broad, cosmopolitan, fresh, a rich spiritual emanation from material wealth. But I left by the Boson Canadian steamship line, the same route over which I had come. As I watched the skyline fade away, those vigorous spires seemed virgin-like as ever; and for all the promise of that magic enchantress, queen and gamine at the same time, harlot and little child, I was taking nothing from her away with me but endless fascination. I could point to no victory. I came away with no gain, except some poor Korean friends who had pulled me out of an outcast’s starvation. And it seemed to me I had not yet known New York, or penetrated beyond the merest outskirts of her impregnable treasure, her fuller expanding life of the Machine Age. (85)
from Part 2
Outside the restaurant a heavy rain like black ink was pouring. Like beetles called up by the rain, the shiny taxis twisted and turned cumbrously (151)
[...]
A famous Chinese philosopher was asked what he would do with a useless tree. He said, ‘Why not plant it in the land of non-existence and yourself lie in a state of bliss beneath it, inactive by its side? No axe nor other harm could touch it, and being useless, it would be safe from danger. (212)
from Part 3
Well, this must be the lesson I must learn, of American life. This is American life, I said stubbornly. All day long the moving multitudes of humanity, with busy legs, constantly darting false smiles to cover their depressed facial expression, the worn-out machine bodies turning round in the aisles of unmoving glass and china sets, slowly figuring with shaking hands—haste and moving too many heavy things made them seo—now over the tally they go, recording 50 cents. Chasing after the dumb aisle man to O.K. a charge account, a C.O.D. sale…two eyes to look at the customer, two hands to count the change…then to make a sale check, to carry the goods to the packing room, then to run with the legs’ tottering strength after a new customer, for fear of losing that sale to another salesman (there is a half per cent commission on that sale), at last the dead-tired body moving from the cloakroom to breathe the air—the street air, the dusty, respectable, stale air of staid Philadelphia. But where were all the enchantment and romance, the glorious vision, which I had seen in my dreams of America as a boy? (288)
[...]
The train was singing to me the American gypsy message, time, time to wander again, time to be starting, to be shaking off the past, beginning to start out to go and find something. (Just what it is nobody quite knows, but something….Oh, yes, something big!) Miles are so easy to cover, mileage is short. But it’s long to find the something all want to find. Spring…and the porters standing by Pullman cars, the porters like Wagstaff…while all the network of rails, the shiny new rails sprawled out on a vast continent, and all the succulent greased cogs and unaccountable wheels seemed built only to accommodate man’s free lurching spirit, as he rides, rides at time in swift flight, into the unknown future over insignificant space, still seeking that something he doesn’t know, but has to find. (298)
An undying bird … forever lives, forever breathes, forever, with its two wings fluttering, flies. That is the universe. It was there when there was the empty space of our non-existence. It is here moving still. Where it is, silence is never there… And speaking with an Asian’s natural bias, it seems to me it is wrong to say, time passes. Time never passes. We say that it does, as long as we have a clock to calculate it for us. The two hands go, the iron tongue tells hours, we sense the experience of our own duration … we are illusioned. It is not time that passes, but ourselves. Time is always there… as long as there is life to use it. Only if no life existed, there would be no time. Time was because life was… as it is the mortal life to travel over the immortal time. The bird flies with the two wings, on and on. But the same time that occupied the Roman lovers is the same that Hamlet was insane in, and in the same I write and think of time… (4)
[...]
Out of action rises the dream, rises the poetry. (5)
[...]
And New York’s rebellion called to me excitedly, this savagery which piled great concrete block on concrete block, topping at the last moment as in an afterthought, with crowns as delicate as pinnacled ice; this lavishness which, without prayer, pillaged coal mines and waterfalls for light, festooning the great nature severed city with diamonds of frozen electrical phenomena—it fascinated me, the Asian man, and in it I saw not Milton’s Satan, but the one of Blake. (6)
[...]
New York, with the returning autumn, was shot through and through with vague intimations of fabulous, delicate worlds beyond my bounds of thought, of life reaching out and up in a scope unrestricted, north and south to the Poles, east, west, to a meeting place of divided hemispheres… life coiling and spiralling, intellectually rather than physically… broad, cosmopolitan, fresh, a rich spiritual emanation from material wealth. But I left by the Boson Canadian steamship line, the same route over which I had come. As I watched the skyline fade away, those vigorous spires seemed virgin-like as ever; and for all the promise of that magic enchantress, queen and gamine at the same time, harlot and little child, I was taking nothing from her away with me but endless fascination. I could point to no victory. I came away with no gain, except some poor Korean friends who had pulled me out of an outcast’s starvation. And it seemed to me I had not yet known New York, or penetrated beyond the merest outskirts of her impregnable treasure, her fuller expanding life of the Machine Age. (85)
from Part 2
Outside the restaurant a heavy rain like black ink was pouring. Like beetles called up by the rain, the shiny taxis twisted and turned cumbrously (151)
[...]
A famous Chinese philosopher was asked what he would do with a useless tree. He said, ‘Why not plant it in the land of non-existence and yourself lie in a state of bliss beneath it, inactive by its side? No axe nor other harm could touch it, and being useless, it would be safe from danger. (212)
from Part 3
Well, this must be the lesson I must learn, of American life. This is American life, I said stubbornly. All day long the moving multitudes of humanity, with busy legs, constantly darting false smiles to cover their depressed facial expression, the worn-out machine bodies turning round in the aisles of unmoving glass and china sets, slowly figuring with shaking hands—haste and moving too many heavy things made them seo—now over the tally they go, recording 50 cents. Chasing after the dumb aisle man to O.K. a charge account, a C.O.D. sale…two eyes to look at the customer, two hands to count the change…then to make a sale check, to carry the goods to the packing room, then to run with the legs’ tottering strength after a new customer, for fear of losing that sale to another salesman (there is a half per cent commission on that sale), at last the dead-tired body moving from the cloakroom to breathe the air—the street air, the dusty, respectable, stale air of staid Philadelphia. But where were all the enchantment and romance, the glorious vision, which I had seen in my dreams of America as a boy? (288)
[...]
The train was singing to me the American gypsy message, time, time to wander again, time to be starting, to be shaking off the past, beginning to start out to go and find something. (Just what it is nobody quite knows, but something….Oh, yes, something big!) Miles are so easy to cover, mileage is short. But it’s long to find the something all want to find. Spring…and the porters standing by Pullman cars, the porters like Wagstaff…while all the network of rails, the shiny new rails sprawled out on a vast continent, and all the succulent greased cogs and unaccountable wheels seemed built only to accommodate man’s free lurching spirit, as he rides, rides at time in swift flight, into the unknown future over insignificant space, still seeking that something he doesn’t know, but has to find. (298)
May 27, 2024
4.5 stars. A novel with one of the most beautiful opening passages I can remember reading in a long time, this rediscovered classic of American immigrant fiction is not a story of assimilation or “Americanization” (despite Maxwell Perkins’ desired subtitle) but of exile. I am reminded of Thomas Wolfe’s self-penned poetic epigraph for
Look Homeward, Angel
– “... a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face …” – which could have been the epigraph for this novel. It is a search for the “mother’s face” of liberty who stands with lamp lifted beside the golden door, as Emma Lazarus’ poem suggests, although that search is full of pain and heartbreak.
I quote two poets in this review because this is a novel steeped in poetry. Eliot. Blake. Dryden. Shelley. Keats. Browning. Shakespeare. The protagonist amusingly asks the local diners and bellhops if they have read these English-language works that he read as a young man in Korea, and is met by blank stares. First lesson learned: In the US, the most celebrated poetry is that of business and the Machine.
Kang offers critiques of American capitalist exploitation, racism, and social strictures. He profiles American cranks of all varieties: religious con artists; snake oil salesmen of products, ideas, and delusions; conspiracy quacks; and spurious social climbers. Everything is a grift, including education.
The women in the novel are symbolically named: Helen and Trip. The former is the mythic and unachievable American woman (i.e., America itself, or the American Dream) leading immigrants to their self-appointed destruction. The latter Trip is free, independent, full of wit and laughter, and always presenting a hope on the horizon that you just might win her over, even as she continually trips you up, so to speak. And she also appears to be in a Boston Marriage! Although that is a bit ambiguous. Unlike Helen, she is not a myth, but grounded and real … but equally difficult to pin down, even if potentially more accessible. The ending is wonderfully ambiguous in this sense – thankfully Kang had the creative acumen to resist Perkins’ call for a simple, easy, false ending.
A must-read recovered classic of twentieth-century American literature.
I quote two poets in this review because this is a novel steeped in poetry. Eliot. Blake. Dryden. Shelley. Keats. Browning. Shakespeare. The protagonist amusingly asks the local diners and bellhops if they have read these English-language works that he read as a young man in Korea, and is met by blank stares. First lesson learned: In the US, the most celebrated poetry is that of business and the Machine.
Kang offers critiques of American capitalist exploitation, racism, and social strictures. He profiles American cranks of all varieties: religious con artists; snake oil salesmen of products, ideas, and delusions; conspiracy quacks; and spurious social climbers. Everything is a grift, including education.
The women in the novel are symbolically named: Helen and Trip. The former is the mythic and unachievable American woman (i.e., America itself, or the American Dream) leading immigrants to their self-appointed destruction. The latter Trip is free, independent, full of wit and laughter, and always presenting a hope on the horizon that you just might win her over, even as she continually trips you up, so to speak. And she also appears to be in a Boston Marriage! Although that is a bit ambiguous. Unlike Helen, she is not a myth, but grounded and real … but equally difficult to pin down, even if potentially more accessible. The ending is wonderfully ambiguous in this sense – thankfully Kang had the creative acumen to resist Perkins’ call for a simple, easy, false ending.
A must-read recovered classic of twentieth-century American literature.
July 31, 2024
I picked up this book after reading an article that described it as one of the first classic Asian-American pieces of literature. Younghill Kang's "East Goes West" tells the story of young Korean immigrant Chungpa Han who comes to 1920s New York with a head full of Western dreams. Kang's narrative flows like water, taking us along for Han's ride through the ever-shifting chaos of industrial New York.
There are many books about the immigrant experience. There are many good books about it. There are many bad books about it. In 2024, the great American immigration story has been whittled down to a hand-me-down college essay topic for upper-middle-class Asian kids looking to score a spot at Harvard that they will never score, a fact that is known to everyone except for the 17-year-old who is currently writing about mango trees and Tupperware of kimchi fried rice in a stucco McMansion. In the last few years, I have tired of hearing the same takes and stories from other diaspora kids. The topic seemed trite. The ideas were rotting off the bush. And then I read "East Goes West."
Published in 1937 about the 1920s East Asian American immigrant experience, Kang's depiction of the American dream, Eastern values, the turmoil of identity, racism, and alienation makes "East Goes West" a masterpiece. It renewed something in me, some deep appreciation for the history (lack of history?) I was starting to resent. This book is about being an American in the way that I am an American. In the way that my mother is an American, my sister is an American. This book is about my story, about my America, in all its nuance and yes, glory. Sick and twisted glory, hard-earned and won glory. At least, that's what I think it's about. I could be wrong.
All in all, this book is just beautiful. In it's story, and especially in it's prose. I could go on and on about Kang's diction but here's just one passage I'll include, that I can't stop thinking about:
"I was eighteen, green with youth... I craved swiftness, unimpeded action, fluidity, the amorphous New. Out of action rises the dream, rises the poetry. Dream without motion is the only wasteland that can sustain nothing. So I came adoring the crescent, not the harvest moon, with the winter over the horizon and its waning to a husk... In unearthly white and mauve, shadow of white, the city rose, like a dream dreamed overnight, new, remorselessly new, impossibly new... and yet there in all the arrogant pride of rejoiced materialism."
There are many books about the immigrant experience. There are many good books about it. There are many bad books about it. In 2024, the great American immigration story has been whittled down to a hand-me-down college essay topic for upper-middle-class Asian kids looking to score a spot at Harvard that they will never score, a fact that is known to everyone except for the 17-year-old who is currently writing about mango trees and Tupperware of kimchi fried rice in a stucco McMansion. In the last few years, I have tired of hearing the same takes and stories from other diaspora kids. The topic seemed trite. The ideas were rotting off the bush. And then I read "East Goes West."
Published in 1937 about the 1920s East Asian American immigrant experience, Kang's depiction of the American dream, Eastern values, the turmoil of identity, racism, and alienation makes "East Goes West" a masterpiece. It renewed something in me, some deep appreciation for the history (lack of history?) I was starting to resent. This book is about being an American in the way that I am an American. In the way that my mother is an American, my sister is an American. This book is about my story, about my America, in all its nuance and yes, glory. Sick and twisted glory, hard-earned and won glory. At least, that's what I think it's about. I could be wrong.
All in all, this book is just beautiful. In it's story, and especially in it's prose. I could go on and on about Kang's diction but here's just one passage I'll include, that I can't stop thinking about:
"I was eighteen, green with youth... I craved swiftness, unimpeded action, fluidity, the amorphous New. Out of action rises the dream, rises the poetry. Dream without motion is the only wasteland that can sustain nothing. So I came adoring the crescent, not the harvest moon, with the winter over the horizon and its waning to a husk... In unearthly white and mauve, shadow of white, the city rose, like a dream dreamed overnight, new, remorselessly new, impossibly new... and yet there in all the arrogant pride of rejoiced materialism."
July 16, 2021
I usually avoid reading anything published before the 1950s due to stylistic preferences as a lazy modern day reader. However, after reading Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker, I was surprised to discover the first Korean American novel published in 1937. I picked up the Penguin Classics edition, and was fascinated with the bonus intro, afterword, and timeline of Younghill Kang's life. That being said, Kang's second novel East Goes West is semi-autobiographical, following the story of Chungpa Han who escapes Japanese-occupied Korea for New York with only four dollars in his pocket and a suitcase full of Shakespeare. Like many immigrants, Chungpa is drawn to the American Dream, and longs to study and be a scholar of classic literature. Initially naive and idealistic, Chungpa must support his studies through various jobs as his travels take him throughout the US and even Canada. While he works as a dishwasher, housekeeper, farmer, travelling salesman, retail worker, and editor, he meets people from all walks of life and of all colors, all while observing and discovering the reality of America.
As a whole, East Goes West is a dense read with thought-provoking examinations about racial identity and a deconstruction of the American Dream. Chungpa as a character is more of a fly-on-the-wall, which works given his outsider status. Initially, everything is new to him, he even finds living in a flophouse or being treated in a demeaning way as a housekeeper as amusing. Despite the satire, the book highlights the struggles of immigrants, and how survival supersedes all other idealistic desires. Yet Chungpa is adamant to overcome these barriers, namely with race as he tries to break into the academic scene. On the way, he meets two fellow Koreans who offer different points of view about America: George Jum with his modernist idealism and To Wan Kim and his cynical and equally critical view of both East and West. As Chungpa discovers with his interactions with blacks, America is still very much a caste system. And as an Asian, he occupies a unique position, invisible, yet out of place, but at the same time, in the same position as other minorities. The book ends ambiguously, yet highlights the disillusionment Kang likely arrived at in his own life as a first generation Asian American. Overall, while East Goes West wasn't consistently engaging, it's a classic, yet relevant book for today's Asian Americans.
As a whole, East Goes West is a dense read with thought-provoking examinations about racial identity and a deconstruction of the American Dream. Chungpa as a character is more of a fly-on-the-wall, which works given his outsider status. Initially, everything is new to him, he even finds living in a flophouse or being treated in a demeaning way as a housekeeper as amusing. Despite the satire, the book highlights the struggles of immigrants, and how survival supersedes all other idealistic desires. Yet Chungpa is adamant to overcome these barriers, namely with race as he tries to break into the academic scene. On the way, he meets two fellow Koreans who offer different points of view about America: George Jum with his modernist idealism and To Wan Kim and his cynical and equally critical view of both East and West. As Chungpa discovers with his interactions with blacks, America is still very much a caste system. And as an Asian, he occupies a unique position, invisible, yet out of place, but at the same time, in the same position as other minorities. The book ends ambiguously, yet highlights the disillusionment Kang likely arrived at in his own life as a first generation Asian American. Overall, while East Goes West wasn't consistently engaging, it's a classic, yet relevant book for today's Asian Americans.
April 1, 2023
It's an interesting read, the very first Korean-American novel, written way back in 1937, though more interesting than engaging. I have to say, Kang's command of the English language is astounding. It's quite literary and learned, with beautiful language, frequently breaking out into actual poetry. But he came to the U.S. at the age of 18. Joseph Conrad (rightly) gets praise for being able to write so well in English as his second language, but for Kang, English was his *4th* language. That is frankly mind-blowing.
Unfortunately, I think it works against the book's impact. Because the narrator is so eloquent, not just in description but in his conversation, you lose a vital aspect of the immigrant experience, which is not just being an outsider but in being unable to truly communicate. The narrator is always able to express himself fully, is well-understood by everyone around him, and converses well to everyone he meets. That's so divorced from the immigrant experience, it's hard for me to even understand how the story could be. He frequently talks about feeling racism, but because that conversational connection is always there, the impact doesn't quite get across. The strongest impression of racism the book gives is in not being able to marry white women.
The best sections of the book are the narrator's discussions of the differences between the Eastern and Western mindsets. Including how that's changed. For example, marrying for love is seen as a wholly Western idea that's a stranger to the East. That's also mind-blowing, just seeing how pervasive love marriage is in Korean dramas, it's odd to think how that was once unknown. Unfortunately, these discussions are relatively few in the novel.
In the end, extremely interesting as a snapshot of time with its descriptions of a Korean in North America in the early 20th century. But less engaging as an actual novel. I'm glad I read it, though.
Unfortunately, I think it works against the book's impact. Because the narrator is so eloquent, not just in description but in his conversation, you lose a vital aspect of the immigrant experience, which is not just being an outsider but in being unable to truly communicate. The narrator is always able to express himself fully, is well-understood by everyone around him, and converses well to everyone he meets. That's so divorced from the immigrant experience, it's hard for me to even understand how the story could be. He frequently talks about feeling racism, but because that conversational connection is always there, the impact doesn't quite get across. The strongest impression of racism the book gives is in not being able to marry white women.
The best sections of the book are the narrator's discussions of the differences between the Eastern and Western mindsets. Including how that's changed. For example, marrying for love is seen as a wholly Western idea that's a stranger to the East. That's also mind-blowing, just seeing how pervasive love marriage is in Korean dramas, it's odd to think how that was once unknown. Unfortunately, these discussions are relatively few in the novel.
In the end, extremely interesting as a snapshot of time with its descriptions of a Korean in North America in the early 20th century. But less engaging as an actual novel. I'm glad I read it, though.
June 5, 2024
I learned about this book from The Atlantic’s Great American Novels list and am very glad I read it. It definitely earns that distinction — and not just as a historical artifact (its author being considered the first Korean-American novelist), but really as a great piece of American literature.
The book tells the story of Chungpa Han, a young man starting life in NYC after fleeing Japanese-occupied Korea. The book has a picaresque flair as it follows Han through various American scenes and encounters with many odd and endearing characters. Over the course of the story, Han tries — often against obstacles placed by a racist society determined to alienate him — to navigate the core institutions of American life, including higher education, big business, and organized religion.
While the quickly shifting circumstances of Han’s life can give you whiplash, the book is anchored by author Younghill Kang’s wry, sardonic, and incisive analyses of U.S. society. In many moments, the book veers into outright satire, albeit with an undercurrent of alienation and even tragedy. While the cast of characters is always changing, Han also maintains two closer friendships that help to establish the book’s core concerns and dilemmas: with the sensuous, romantic, “Americanized” George Jum and with the alienated, melancholy calligraphic artist To Wan Kim. At times, the book feels a bit overwritten, and I found that it loses some of its sharp bite in the passages where we are stuck with the endlessly soliloquizing Kim.
The book tells the story of Chungpa Han, a young man starting life in NYC after fleeing Japanese-occupied Korea. The book has a picaresque flair as it follows Han through various American scenes and encounters with many odd and endearing characters. Over the course of the story, Han tries — often against obstacles placed by a racist society determined to alienate him — to navigate the core institutions of American life, including higher education, big business, and organized religion.
While the quickly shifting circumstances of Han’s life can give you whiplash, the book is anchored by author Younghill Kang’s wry, sardonic, and incisive analyses of U.S. society. In many moments, the book veers into outright satire, albeit with an undercurrent of alienation and even tragedy. While the cast of characters is always changing, Han also maintains two closer friendships that help to establish the book’s core concerns and dilemmas: with the sensuous, romantic, “Americanized” George Jum and with the alienated, melancholy calligraphic artist To Wan Kim. At times, the book feels a bit overwritten, and I found that it loses some of its sharp bite in the passages where we are stuck with the endlessly soliloquizing Kim.
June 24, 2021
The first sucessful Asian-American novelist, Kang delivers a charming, thoughtful and beautifully written bildungsroman with a twist, namely he is a Korean trying very hard to find his way in North America in the 20s. His narrator arrives in New York City with almost no money, via Canadian missionaries just as Korea is colonized by Japan, and just before the USA clamps down on Asian immigration. Along the way the protagonist encounters and befriends a dizzying array of character types, most all roundly satirized, especially those associated with capitalism. The guy is a proto-socialist. Included are academics, entrepreneurial sales maniacs, religious flim-flam men, as well as a variety of Asian pals with various responses to the West, from assimilation to resistance. Our hero is torn between cultures, equally in love with the deep culture-embued scholarship of traditional Confucian poets and the riches of the Euro-centric cultural canon, especially Shakespeare and Browning. As much as an autobiographically-tinged novel, this work is a humanized exploration of ideas.
April 20, 2024
An interesting telling of Chungpa Han, a Korean migrant (refugee?) who has to navigate building a life in America - and contend with capitalism, racism, and all the other isms.
Chungpa is at times naive and taken advantage of - especially when he's trying to earn a living, at times stubbornly focused on Korean cultural norms - especially as it relates to poetry and calligraphy and education, and at times so earnest in his pursuit of the American dream - and his definition of success with that dream. It was interesting to reflect on how that immigrant experience has changed (or stayed the same) in the decades since.
This is a book club book - I think I'll enjoy talking about it as much or more than directly reading it. (Or listening - the audiobook adds a level of oopmf since this is a first person narrative. I wonder how much of the story was influenced by the author's life.)
Chungpa is at times naive and taken advantage of - especially when he's trying to earn a living, at times stubbornly focused on Korean cultural norms - especially as it relates to poetry and calligraphy and education, and at times so earnest in his pursuit of the American dream - and his definition of success with that dream. It was interesting to reflect on how that immigrant experience has changed (or stayed the same) in the decades since.
This is a book club book - I think I'll enjoy talking about it as much or more than directly reading it. (Or listening - the audiobook adds a level of oopmf since this is a first person narrative. I wonder how much of the story was influenced by the author's life.)
May 3, 2022
Kang's picaresque novel is an entertaining critique of American success, equally referencing the wallet, the spirit, and the heart. Its narrator, a Korean expatriate with big New York City dreams, chronicles the lives of his friends (artists, students, drifters) and his employers (scholars, farmers, hustlers) -- as well as his own modest adventures -- with a levelheaded poetry that doesn't prevent him from falling head over heels for a lighthearted lesbian whom he's romanticized into the American ideal.
Recommended by Sok Ho Song.
Recommended by Sok Ho Song.
May 27, 2022
New edition of Younghill Kang’s 1937 fictional text. The new foreword & afterword really contextualized this book & helped me more appropriately frame my own takeaways. Both remind us that racist literary reviews often claimed this is autobiographical, indicating their narrow pov ignorant of the fact that Black & Brown folks have valuable contributions aside from their own lives. Themes: active colonizing, race constructs & prejudices, access, greed vs labor, value of the arts, acceptability, erasure
April 12, 2020
I would recommend this only selectively but I found this story of a Korean immigrant arriving the United States in the 1920s to be comforting during this unpredictable time in our country. The narrator has a critical eye - justifiably - but it never entirely overrides his wonder for his adopted country.
April 7, 2023
This was a slog to get through because of the prose, I'm ngl.. BUT I appreciate Kang's subtle examinations of the American experience through the eyes of an immigrant and his criticisms of the American mythos that still exists today. This book feels historic in its reception and publishing during its time, and was an interesting, insightful read.
December 27, 2024
Any book written in the 1930s that deals with racial prejudice is bound to include some cringey passages, but this novel is well worth overlooking those. The main character, a young, educated Korean immigrant, offers a rare insight into 1920s New York City and the hollow promise of the American dream to people of color, whether native-born or immigrant.
Note: I do not recommend the audiobook.
Note: I do not recommend the audiobook.
June 28, 2021
In the middle, I toyed with the possibility of four stars, but in the last fifty pages, I recognized that there was no reason for a deduction.
For the full Alexander Chee introduction and some of my favorite quotations from the book:
https://kudera.blogspot.com/search?q=...
For the full Alexander Chee introduction and some of my favorite quotations from the book:
https://kudera.blogspot.com/search?q=...
May 19, 2025
The book is witty, does not induce pity for the main character from the readers but instead a sense of thrill and excitement. The type of emotional investment the book illicits is special and the historical background is woven in very well.
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