The Big Aiiieeeee

An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature When the first volume of this collection of Asian American literature appeared in 1974, it showed readers the roots and the richness of Chinese American and Japanese American writing. The authors called their anthology Aiiieeeee! because that was the shout, the scream, often the only sound coming from the yellow man or woman in American movies, television, or comic books. But as that work demonstrated, the Asian American writer, long ignored and excluded from participating in American culture, has an articulate and creative voice. The Big Aiiieeeee!--an entirely new and truly comprehensive collection--brings together the earliest writings to appear in America, such as the revealing An English-Chinese Phrase Book used by the first generation of Chinese immigrants, and recent stories and essays, such as "Come All Ye Asian American Writers" by Frank Chin, about the importance of Chinese and Japanese heroic tradition. Here we all can now learn of the pain, the dreams, the betrayals, and the indelible sense of "otherness" of Americans of Chinese and Japanese descent, in a seminal collection of poetry, prose, and drama--writings filled with rage and beauty, memory and vision. "Here is a Gold Mountain of voices. In the telling and retelling of our stories, we create a community of memory. This huge collection invites all of us to become listeners and to claim America."--Ronald Takai, author of Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans

"Everything you might want to know about the history and practice of feminist criticism in North America". -Feminist Bookstore News

In this vibrant and original novel, Christopher Columbus Wong, orphan son of a Chinatown bachelor community, is trying to invent a family for himself while all around him American popular culture is reinventing itself with sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Christopher finds himself on a wild journey with his gay older brother, Peter, a pan-Pacific TV chef; the defrocked, deranged, and eroding ex-director of a Chinatown settlement house, Reverend Ted Candlewick; the sharp-eyed, conspiring matriarch Auntie Mary, the bridge between the conflicting values that make up this cultural stew; and Uncle Lincoln, a bachelor, short order cook, and, quite possibly, Christopher and Peter’s father. Further complicating Christopher’s voyage are his ex-wives: Winnie, a Hong Kong immigrant looking for a green card, and Melba, an American orphan of the counterculture. Set against the backdrop of America’s wars in Asia and the assimilation of that experience—the refugees, the stereotypes, the food—Eat Everything Before You Die is an ironic commentary on the identities the children of Chinese American immigrants concoct from their questionable histories, cultural practices, and survival strategies. Chan’s riotous story will appeal to general readers, particularly those interested in the Asian American experience, and will be of strong, enduring interest to students and scholars in Asian American Studies.

The Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature Since 1945

DIVA psychoanalytic study that argues for the centrality of sexuality in the construction of Asian-American identity, and of racial identity in general./div

Read about the movie, Americanese, based on Shawn Wong's book, at: http://www.americanesethemovie.com