The Big Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature by Frank Chin

The Big Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature Reviews

• 
  Marleen

  This is a group of writings from notable Asian American writers from the late 1800's to the present (1990). It includes fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The stories were chosen based on the authenticity of their voice. The editors are critical of writers who had adopted the white view of Asian American history and culture and are attempting to tell "real" stories rather than "fake." Stereotypes of Asian immigrants are called out.
  Frank Chin is very critical of the efforts by some Japanese Americans to cooperate with the federal government with their forced removal and exclusion of Japanese people from the west coast during WWII. Given the tenor of the times, even if the Japanese loudly protested, the result would have been the same. Japanese Americans had no political power and virtually no allies. Our response is the typical response of a bullied and impotent group of people. We identified with our oppressors. We certainly did not get any support from Chinese Americans.
• 
  Taki Akutsu

  Awesome getting to hear stories about the Japanese internment, both nonfiction and fiction. The politics involving the draft and JACL were interesting to hear. The internment was not completely opposed by all the Japanese. The Japanese were caught between begging for acceptance by white America and protecting their rights as American citizens (though they definitely were not such from 1942-1946). This dynamic plays heavily in the pieces related to the human rights tragedy.
  
  Another author that made an impression on me was Sui Sin Far. As a multiracial Asian American, her fiction about biracial couples was gripping. The fact that she was biracial Asian in North America so early on made her one of the first to come to terms with understanding biracial Asian identity in a predominantly white setting. She fights for the humanity of the Chinese in her writing, despite the thick racism she lived in.
  
  The cover says the book is an anthology of both Chinese and Japanese Americans, but, starting even from the Frank Chin's introduction, the focus seems to be on the Japanese writers, especially writers who lived through the internment. That's not to say that there is a decent amount of representation from Chinese American writers, it's just not as equal representation as the title may suggest.
• 
  Tiffani

  Great excerpts and essays on being Asian American. Really opens your eyes to issues that exist on the surface of our (APA) daily lives that sometimes go unnoticed until someone writes a comical or emotional memoir about it.