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Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes, Pranks
In a time when memoirs are often less than they claim to be and essays do not say enough, Justin Chin breaks onto the scene with a collection that is a combination of confession, tirade, journalism, and practical joke.
Mongrel is a cross-section of Chin's imagination and experiences that calls into question what it means to be an Asian-American in San Francisco, the effect your family will always have on you, and the role sexuality plays in your life. Whether it be Internet pornography or family history, Chin manages to dig deep and uncover not only the truths of everyday life, but also the absurdities that surround them.
Mongrel is an exploration and distillation of the experiences and imagination of a gay Asian-American whose sensibilities were formed by the maelstrom of '80s American pop culture. A unique collection from a brash, funny new voice.
Mongrel is a cross-section of Chin's imagination and experiences that calls into question what it means to be an Asian-American in San Francisco, the effect your family will always have on you, and the role sexuality plays in your life. Whether it be Internet pornography or family history, Chin manages to dig deep and uncover not only the truths of everyday life, but also the absurdities that surround them.
Mongrel is an exploration and distillation of the experiences and imagination of a gay Asian-American whose sensibilities were formed by the maelstrom of '80s American pop culture. A unique collection from a brash, funny new voice.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
7 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Justin Chin
11 books45 followersBorn in Malaysia, raised & educated in Singapore, shipped to the U.S. by way of Hawaii, and lived in San Francisco. Author of 3 books of poetry, all published by Manic D Press: Bite Hard (1997); Harmless Medicine (2001), a finalist in the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards; and, Gutted (2006), which received the 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry by the Publishing Triangle. Squeezed in between these were 2 non-fictions: Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks (St. Martins, 1999), and the ur-memoir, Burden of Ashes (Alyson Publications, 2002).
In the nineties, also led a double life as performance artist: created and presented seven full-length solo works here, there and where ever. Packed up those cookies in 2002, (with occasional relapses) and the documents, scripts, and what-heck from that period was published in Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005). Continues to produce text/visual Book-based performance work. Book 2 is an on-going project where discarded or abandoned books found on the streets & other public places are remade, remodeled, & reworked into artists books.
In the nineties, also led a double life as performance artist: created and presented seven full-length solo works here, there and where ever. Packed up those cookies in 2002, (with occasional relapses) and the documents, scripts, and what-heck from that period was published in Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005). Continues to produce text/visual Book-based performance work. Book 2 is an on-going project where discarded or abandoned books found on the streets & other public places are remade, remodeled, & reworked into artists books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 9, 2013
I really enjoyed this book and instead of a long review I'll leave you with a quote from my favorite chapter.
"And just because I'm in a particular community, it doesn't mean that we should do everything together, dress alike, think alike, hate alike, love alike, and accessorize alike. It's community, not some f*cking junior-high pajama party.
Sometimes I think community is just another big sociopolitical pajama party, and is a means of compensating for all those junior-high pajama parties that we wished we were invited to but weren't because we were too weird/unpopular/poor/ugly, etc."
"And just because I'm in a particular community, it doesn't mean that we should do everything together, dress alike, think alike, hate alike, love alike, and accessorize alike. It's community, not some f*cking junior-high pajama party.
Sometimes I think community is just another big sociopolitical pajama party, and is a means of compensating for all those junior-high pajama parties that we wished we were invited to but weren't because we were too weird/unpopular/poor/ugly, etc."
April 6, 2014
I'm also not sure exactly where and I when I got the language for who and what I am. I don't remember how I learned the words gay, homo(sexual), fag, queer, etc. I just seemed to have picked them up and undertsood what they meant. 8
Cowlture means very different things to different people. Identity politics is a maddeningly individual thing, and the joy is finding others who subscribe to your particular lottery numbers and want to play with you at the next drawing. 73
Cowlture means very different things to different people. Identity politics is a maddeningly individual thing, and the joy is finding others who subscribe to your particular lottery numbers and want to play with you at the next drawing. 73
January 27, 2021
In his collection essays, Justin Chin ended it by stating, "Perhaps this is a book that will not age gracefully, but at least it will be one that entered into it's time kicking." I actually did think the book is poignant more than 20 years after it's publication, and chin had written the essays between 1994 and 1997.
As an Taiwanese Canadian, I can also relate to many of his comments about growing up in a Chinese family. Though he grew up in Singapore and I grew up in Canada, our grandmothers probably had similar values in money and education.
Many of the topics he wrestled with, including identity politics, fighting asian stereotypes and fighting for presentation are still very relevant today. I especially enjoyed the essay "Mr. Asian?" --a beauty pageant of sorts to demonstrate asian male masculinity.
The way Chin wrote about the HIV/ AIDS pandemic was very representative of his time. He was coming of age in the 80's and 90's when AIDS killed tens of thousands of his contemporaries. Since then, strides have been made and a positive diagnosis is not necessarily considered a death sentence, especially in countries where there are socialized health care (and folks can actually afford the medicine). However, reading his words now and thinking about how the government mishandled the pandemic, I can't help but to think that perhaps the leaders of the free world still has not learned much about addressing pandemics. They're still blaming the virus on someone else instead of taking action to minimize suffering.
I didn't love every essay in this collection. However, I think it was bold for it's time and several essays are thought provoking and definitely worth a read. After reading this collection, I wonder what he would have said about the current situation.
As an Taiwanese Canadian, I can also relate to many of his comments about growing up in a Chinese family. Though he grew up in Singapore and I grew up in Canada, our grandmothers probably had similar values in money and education.
Many of the topics he wrestled with, including identity politics, fighting asian stereotypes and fighting for presentation are still very relevant today. I especially enjoyed the essay "Mr. Asian?" --a beauty pageant of sorts to demonstrate asian male masculinity.
The way Chin wrote about the HIV/ AIDS pandemic was very representative of his time. He was coming of age in the 80's and 90's when AIDS killed tens of thousands of his contemporaries. Since then, strides have been made and a positive diagnosis is not necessarily considered a death sentence, especially in countries where there are socialized health care (and folks can actually afford the medicine). However, reading his words now and thinking about how the government mishandled the pandemic, I can't help but to think that perhaps the leaders of the free world still has not learned much about addressing pandemics. They're still blaming the virus on someone else instead of taking action to minimize suffering.
I didn't love every essay in this collection. However, I think it was bold for it's time and several essays are thought provoking and definitely worth a read. After reading this collection, I wonder what he would have said about the current situation.
June 20, 2023
Honestly probably a book that has just aged past its time. Could very well have been groundbreaking when it 1st came out but now just feels a bit tired / overrehearsed.
August 4, 2019
A phenomenally thought-provoking collection of essays, musings, and one or two more formalized reporting pieces on queerness and diasporic Asian identity. Really wrings out the personal-as-political to its fullest. Not a single sentence is wasted, just trim and true ideas through and through. It’s perfectly grim, funny, wry, raw, brutal, tragic, irreverent, bawdy. Queer as heck. I found myself taking down so many quotes on things I’ve thought or wondered, expressed in better clearer words by this stranger from the decade I was born, the things about myself and my experience of the world I am still coming to know.
I took some sparse notes summarizing the first few essays and then just went on reading. On the whole I much preferred the shorter more creative and personal pieces over the journalistic pieces originally published elsewhere. Here are my notes on the first few essays/chapters:
Chain letter - delightfully nostalgically y2k intro that simulates a chain letter to tell reader to pass on this book lest terrible things happen!!!
Monster - spare and bare, quick and (just a little bit) dirty personal history of growing up/self discovery of gay in Singapore before moving to US west coast at 18
Saved - documentary style exposé of Exodus International and other chapters/programs of Christian homosexual conversion/“support” groups, minimal personal inserts (later found out this was one of the journalistic pieces he wrote for a news publication)
Q-punk grammar - written around the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, asks questions like Is the history of Stonewall a personal history? Does it matter? What is a queer history? Disagreements to The Narrative, to its significance. (Especially poignant reading this on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in New York where rainbow capitalism has absolutely taken over the town. I’ve had an oddly distantly routine relationship to Stonewall walking past it everyday coming up the subway going to work. Had many conversations with queer friends about queer history and how universal it is/should be for queer individuals, and about rainbow capitalism/LGBTQ+ rights entering the mainstream.)
On Ass Tactics, Aztec Ticks, Aesthetics - I didn’t take notes on this because I full-ass photographed this entire (short) chapter because the entire thing is quotable and relevant and funny as fuck. It’s about cultural aesthetics or “cow-churrail Aztec ticks” and how it’s...not a thing.
To conclude, I can’t believe this isn’t more widely known and read (I had to request from the NYU library where it was being housed off-site???) I recommend to every queer/Asian friend and especially recommend to my queer and Asian friends. Also people interested in issues of art and culture. Honestly just fucking read you some Justin Chin just do it okay. Do it for me. Thank you good bye.
I took some sparse notes summarizing the first few essays and then just went on reading. On the whole I much preferred the shorter more creative and personal pieces over the journalistic pieces originally published elsewhere. Here are my notes on the first few essays/chapters:
Chain letter - delightfully nostalgically y2k intro that simulates a chain letter to tell reader to pass on this book lest terrible things happen!!!
Monster - spare and bare, quick and (just a little bit) dirty personal history of growing up/self discovery of gay in Singapore before moving to US west coast at 18
Saved - documentary style exposé of Exodus International and other chapters/programs of Christian homosexual conversion/“support” groups, minimal personal inserts (later found out this was one of the journalistic pieces he wrote for a news publication)
Q-punk grammar - written around the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, asks questions like Is the history of Stonewall a personal history? Does it matter? What is a queer history? Disagreements to The Narrative, to its significance. (Especially poignant reading this on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in New York where rainbow capitalism has absolutely taken over the town. I’ve had an oddly distantly routine relationship to Stonewall walking past it everyday coming up the subway going to work. Had many conversations with queer friends about queer history and how universal it is/should be for queer individuals, and about rainbow capitalism/LGBTQ+ rights entering the mainstream.)
On Ass Tactics, Aztec Ticks, Aesthetics - I didn’t take notes on this because I full-ass photographed this entire (short) chapter because the entire thing is quotable and relevant and funny as fuck. It’s about cultural aesthetics or “cow-churrail Aztec ticks” and how it’s...not a thing.
To conclude, I can’t believe this isn’t more widely known and read (I had to request from the NYU library where it was being housed off-site???) I recommend to every queer/Asian friend and especially recommend to my queer and Asian friends. Also people interested in issues of art and culture. Honestly just fucking read you some Justin Chin just do it okay. Do it for me. Thank you good bye.
January 31, 2016
Not as cutting edge as I expected but still good. RIP
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews