What do you think?
Rate this book
Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers
In the eyes of mid-twentieth-century white America, “Aiiieeeee!” was the one-dimensional cry from Asian Americans, their singular expression of all emotions—it signified and perpetuated the idea of Asian Americans as inscrutable, foreign, self-hating, undesirable, and obedient. In this anthology first published in 1974, Frank Chin, Jeffery Chan, Lawson Inada, and Shawn Wong reclaimed that shout, outlining the history of Asian American literature and boldly drawing the boundaries for what was truly Asian American and what was white puppetry. Showcasing fourteen uncompromising works from authors such as Carlos Bulosan and John Okada, the editors introduced readers to a variety of daring voices.Forty-five years later the radical collection continues to spark controversy. While in the seventies it helped establish Asian American literature as a serious and distinct literary tradition, today the editors’ forceful voices reverberate in contemporary discussions about American literary traditions. Now back in print with a new foreword by literary scholar Tara Fickle, this third edition reminds us how Asian Americans fought for—and seized—their place in the American literary canon.
341 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1974
13 people are currently reading
489 people want to read
About the author
Frank Chin
20 books12 followersFrank Chin was born in Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired Vaudeville couple in Placerville, California. At six his mother brought him back to the San Francisco Bay Area to live in Oakland Chinatown. He attended college at the University of California, Berkeley. He received an American Book Award in 1989 for a collection of short stories, and another in 2000 for Lifetime Achievement. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers in Asian American theatre. He founded the Asian American Theatre Workshop, which became the Asian American Theater Company in 1973. He first gained notoriety as a playwright in the 1970s. His play The Chickencoop Chinaman was the first by an Asian American to be produced on a major New York stage. Stereotypes of Asian Americans, and traditional Chinese folklore are common themes in much of his work. Frank Chin has accused other Asian American writers, particularly Maxine Hong Kingston, of furthering such stereotypes and misrepresenting the traditional stories. Chin, during his professional career, has been highly critical of American writer, Amy Tan, for her telling of Chinese-American stories, indicating that her body of work has furthered and reinforced stereotypical views of this group.
In addition to his work as an author and playwright, Frank Chin has also worked extensively with Japanese American resisters of the draft in WWII. His novel, Born in the U.S.A., is dedicated to this subject.
Chin is also a musician. In the mid-1960s, he taught Robbie Krieger, a member of The Doors how to play the Flamenco guitar.
Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers in Asian American theatre. He founded the Asian American Theatre Workshop, which became the Asian American Theater Company in 1973. He first gained notoriety as a playwright in the 1970s. His play The Chickencoop Chinaman was the first by an Asian American to be produced on a major New York stage. Stereotypes of Asian Americans, and traditional Chinese folklore are common themes in much of his work. Frank Chin has accused other Asian American writers, particularly Maxine Hong Kingston, of furthering such stereotypes and misrepresenting the traditional stories. Chin, during his professional career, has been highly critical of American writer, Amy Tan, for her telling of Chinese-American stories, indicating that her body of work has furthered and reinforced stereotypical views of this group.
In addition to his work as an author and playwright, Frank Chin has also worked extensively with Japanese American resisters of the draft in WWII. His novel, Born in the U.S.A., is dedicated to this subject.
Chin is also a musician. In the mid-1960s, he taught Robbie Krieger, a member of The Doors how to play the Flamenco guitar.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 19, 2021
** 3.5 stars **
This was a groundbreaking anthology when it was first published in 1974, as it helped to establish Asian American literature as its own distinct field worthy of study in the same way that African American or Jewish American literature are. Now in its third edition (published 2019), of most interest to me as a reader were all of the prefatory and introductory essays, which 1) explain the history and controversy surrounding this anthology, 2) present the editors' prefaces to the 1974 and 1991 editions (which are pretty polemical and essentialist in their views of what constitutes "authentic" Asian American writing), 3) provide an overview of Chinese and Japanese American literature, and 4) provide an overview of Filipino American literature.
The actual anthology includes selections from 14 Asian American writers (10 men and 4 women), all of whom are of Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino descent (hardly representative of the breadth of Asian American literature nowadays, which includes Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Sri Lankan, and other Asian voices). I didn't care for many of the selections, perhaps in part because when Frank Chin and the other (all male) editors were choosing entries for the original 1974 edition, they seemed somewhat concerned with including postmodern works like Chin's play The Chickencoop Chinaman, Wallace Lin's "Rough Notes for Mantos," and Sam Tagatac's "The New Anak," which are more interesting from a structural standpoint than they are for content/story or characters. My favorites were Act I of Momoko Iko's play Gold Watch, Toshio Mori's short story "The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts," Hisaye Yamamoto's story "Yoneko's Earthquake," and Wakako Yamauchi's "And the Soul Shall Dance," all of which had the kind of realism and character development that I really respond to in literature.
As a whole, I think there is probably something for just about every reader in this collection, as there are excerpts from novels, short stories, and parts of plays, not to mention all of the interesting introductory material I mentioned above. I would recommend it if you are interested in exploring Asian American literature, especially its development in the first half of the 20th century. You will likely discover at least a couple of writers whose work you may want to explore further.
This was a groundbreaking anthology when it was first published in 1974, as it helped to establish Asian American literature as its own distinct field worthy of study in the same way that African American or Jewish American literature are. Now in its third edition (published 2019), of most interest to me as a reader were all of the prefatory and introductory essays, which 1) explain the history and controversy surrounding this anthology, 2) present the editors' prefaces to the 1974 and 1991 editions (which are pretty polemical and essentialist in their views of what constitutes "authentic" Asian American writing), 3) provide an overview of Chinese and Japanese American literature, and 4) provide an overview of Filipino American literature.
The actual anthology includes selections from 14 Asian American writers (10 men and 4 women), all of whom are of Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino descent (hardly representative of the breadth of Asian American literature nowadays, which includes Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Sri Lankan, and other Asian voices). I didn't care for many of the selections, perhaps in part because when Frank Chin and the other (all male) editors were choosing entries for the original 1974 edition, they seemed somewhat concerned with including postmodern works like Chin's play The Chickencoop Chinaman, Wallace Lin's "Rough Notes for Mantos," and Sam Tagatac's "The New Anak," which are more interesting from a structural standpoint than they are for content/story or characters. My favorites were Act I of Momoko Iko's play Gold Watch, Toshio Mori's short story "The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts," Hisaye Yamamoto's story "Yoneko's Earthquake," and Wakako Yamauchi's "And the Soul Shall Dance," all of which had the kind of realism and character development that I really respond to in literature.
As a whole, I think there is probably something for just about every reader in this collection, as there are excerpts from novels, short stories, and parts of plays, not to mention all of the interesting introductory material I mentioned above. I would recommend it if you are interested in exploring Asian American literature, especially its development in the first half of the 20th century. You will likely discover at least a couple of writers whose work you may want to explore further.
![Profile Image for jacq[ueline].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1699998514i%2F171572284._UX200_CR0%2C1%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
Read
December 15, 2023it feels quite strange to give this a review just given that this is an anthology and i primarily used the forewords in the 3rd edition as research for my (still uncompleted) thesis. however, for as many, many, many, (many) issues that the initial publications of aiiieee had, it feels irresponsible not to acknowledge its rightful place in the asian american literary canon.
this is a long way of saying that i am grateful for the versions of the asian american writings that we have from the past, however flawed, and mourn those that we will never get to see.
this is a long way of saying that i am grateful for the versions of the asian american writings that we have from the past, however flawed, and mourn those that we will never get to see.
November 18, 2023
亚美文学研究开山经典。冲着chinese american stories 来的，却惊喜收获发现日裔创作在70-80年代也是高峰。jeffrery paul chan的chinese in haifa读来有卡佛的影响；frank chin 创意写作和评论一样张狂； 当然少不了我认为的最佳 no no boy (Okada)； wakako yamaguchi的短篇精炼 节选不过瘾 打算去找来全文读上一番
July 2, 2021
Why did Frank Chin choose Helen Keller of all people to pick on to critique respectability politics and bootstrapping? "Yoneko's Earthquake" was solid, though.
May 5, 2024
Somewhat of a mixed bag (especially the play manuscripts that are hard to follow) but most of the stories stand the test of time and have given me at least four authors to look into!
February 24, 2008
yes, frank chin is an ass and an essentialist and is homophobic and sexist, but he put together a groundbreaking anthology of writers
October 31, 2024
from Preface to the First Edition
'Our anthology is exclusively Asian American. That means Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese Americans, American born and raised, who got their China and Japan from the radio, off the silver screen, from television, out of comic books, from the pushers of white American culture that pictured the yellow man as something that when wounded, sad, or angry, or swearing, or wondering whined, shouted, or screamed “aiiieeeee!” Asian America, so long ignored and forcibly excluded from creative participation in American culture, is wounded, sad, angry, swearing, and wondering, and this is his AIIIEEEEE!!! It is more than a whine, shout, or scream. It is fifty years of our whole voice.' (xxvi)
from AIIIEEEEE! Revisited: Preface to the 1991 Edition
'Asian American literature, as yet, has no critics. No gardeners digging for the roots. No sailor traciing the main currents of Asian America. Asian America has suffered every charlatan, every failure in every school of American hobnob, from beat to revolutionary, stooping into Asian American literature to messiah the writers and begin our history. We are not critics. Our critical anatomy of Chinese American and Japanese American writing is woefully uninhabited by critics, critical theories of Asian American writing, schools, postures, and movements. Instead, we are infested with sociologists and holy Joes, picking at the bones of our poetry and tearing the lids off our prose, looking for a mastodon frozen stiff in a block of ice.' (xxxix)
[...]
‘The real mystery to us was why Asian American writers, thinkers, sociologists, and ideologues refused to venture into libraries and archives to look for Asian American works and papers from old Asian American times. Yellow history is still the great yellow mystery. The unknown facing Asian America is its past. What, we wonder, has excited this hysterical shutdown of the instinct for history in yellows and blacked out the sense of history in Asian America?’ (xl)
'Our anthology is exclusively Asian American. That means Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese Americans, American born and raised, who got their China and Japan from the radio, off the silver screen, from television, out of comic books, from the pushers of white American culture that pictured the yellow man as something that when wounded, sad, or angry, or swearing, or wondering whined, shouted, or screamed “aiiieeeee!” Asian America, so long ignored and forcibly excluded from creative participation in American culture, is wounded, sad, angry, swearing, and wondering, and this is his AIIIEEEEE!!! It is more than a whine, shout, or scream. It is fifty years of our whole voice.' (xxvi)
from AIIIEEEEE! Revisited: Preface to the 1991 Edition
'Asian American literature, as yet, has no critics. No gardeners digging for the roots. No sailor traciing the main currents of Asian America. Asian America has suffered every charlatan, every failure in every school of American hobnob, from beat to revolutionary, stooping into Asian American literature to messiah the writers and begin our history. We are not critics. Our critical anatomy of Chinese American and Japanese American writing is woefully uninhabited by critics, critical theories of Asian American writing, schools, postures, and movements. Instead, we are infested with sociologists and holy Joes, picking at the bones of our poetry and tearing the lids off our prose, looking for a mastodon frozen stiff in a block of ice.' (xxxix)
[...]
‘The real mystery to us was why Asian American writers, thinkers, sociologists, and ideologues refused to venture into libraries and archives to look for Asian American works and papers from old Asian American times. Yellow history is still the great yellow mystery. The unknown facing Asian America is its past. What, we wonder, has excited this hysterical shutdown of the instinct for history in yellows and blacked out the sense of history in Asian America?’ (xl)
July 7, 2023
This anthology was seminal to me and my fellow aspiring Asian American authors at Basement Workshop, a community arts organization in New York's Chinatown, in the 1970s. It was our first exposure to pioneering authors like Hisaye Yamamoto, Louis Chu, Bienvenido Santos, Toshio Mori and others and made us believe that our voices were not exempt from American letters, that the gatekeepers to the canon might smuggle us through a side door, through the margins. At the same time, the original introduction is an ideological anachronism of its time, seeking to "codify" the aesthetics of writing by Asians much as a Black aesthetic was posited to police the language. These stories and plays, novel and memoir excerpts have their own integrity and context. Contemporary writing by Asian Americans like Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Choi, Marilyn Chin, Ocean Vuong, Ruth Ozeki and others have proven more rich and various than any single aesthetic can bind them to.
November 15, 2024
A quite brilliant anthology merely because it existed when it did/does. A collection of some of your earliest Asian American literature works. A wonderful capsule into discovering the Asian American (Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino) experience and the building of what we know as the Asian American identity today through stories and plays. Fictional stories woven through the very history of war, oppression, and its legacies.
November 17, 2021
Great collection of really personal stories. Current revised edition strove to include more voices from the Asian diaspora than it's original publication. It's not really my place to conclude whether or not they accomplished it, but this was an enjoyable book regardless.
September 28, 2021
Foreword and editor commentary more interesting than the actual writing
December 6, 2023
The first anthology of Asian American writing. It contains excerpts of notable writing of novels,short stories and plays that explore their experience.
August 27, 2025
really intriguing to think about and with it now as a living artifact
October 29, 2025
a huge move forward when it was published
interesting selection
interesting selection
December 23, 2025
Finished this back in high school after reading the intro for Niven's Asian American lit class.
August 3, 2023
Ugh. whatever. i read enough of this to log it, i think. this is not a knock against asian american literature; i just hate reading anthologies in general. every time i read an excerpt of a larger piece, i just think, why am i reading an excerpt instead of the full thing? i don't know; i feel like excerpts are rarely good enough to really feel like you're justifying in your head why you're reading the excerpt instead of the full thing. the only time excerpts are ever really good is when you're taking a standardized test & you get to read a fun delicious little excerpt, & even then its main appeal is that it reminds you that there is a big wide world waiting outside for you once you finish this exam, a world with full works instead of just excerpts & no 4 walls only open land.
November 29, 2020
Meh. Majority of the stories put me to sleep.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews