AIIIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers by Frank Chin


AIIIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers
Title : AIIIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Language : English
Format Type : Mass Market Paperback
Number of Pages : 294
Publication : First published October 1, 1974

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.

AIIIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers Reviews

  • Courtney Ferriter

    ** 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.

  • Jonathan

    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.

  • Richard Oyama

    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.

  • swag moment

    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.

  • arterialturns

    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.

  • Naomi

    Meh. Majority of the stories put me to sleep.