| Title | : | Passing for Perfect: College Impostors and Other Model Minorities (Asian American History & Cultu) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1439920524 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781439920527 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 276 |
| Publication | : | Published July 30, 2021 |
In her engaging study, Passing for Perfect, erin Khuê Ninh considers the factors that drove college imposters such as Azia Kim—who pretended to be a Stanford freshman—and Jennifer Pan—who hired a hitman to kill her parents before they found out she had never received her high school diploma—to extreme lengths to appear successful. Why would someone make such an illogical choice? And how do they stage these lies so convincingly, and for so long? These outlier examples prompt Ninh to address the larger issue of the pressures and difficulties of striving to be model minority, where failure is too ruinous to admit. Passing for Perfect insists that being a “model minority” is not a “myth,” but coded into one’s programming as an identity —a set of convictions and aspirations, regardless of present socioeconomic status or future attainability—and that the true cost of turning children into high-achieving professionals may be higher than anyone can bear. Ninh’s book codifies for readers the difference between imposters who are con artists or shysters and those who don’t know how to stop passing for perfect.
Passing for Perfect: College Impostors and Other Model Minorities (Asian American History & Cultu) Reviews
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Read this book for an Asian American studies class & it was an interesting reframing of the model minority stererotype! Dr. Ninh spoke to our class & she is cool 😎
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4.5 stars. Fascinating read and analysis of the success frame and how it becomes the only path that feels feasible to someone so invested in living up to being the "model minority".
Wish it was longer and delved even deeper, but the author did say she was trying to write an accessible book as opposed to her first very academic book, so might check out that one.
