**spoiler alert** Memoirs are worth a dime and a dozen these days, but this one seems to stand out. Here, Phuc Tran details his experience growing up **spoiler alert** Memoirs are worth a dime and a dozen these days, but this one seems to stand out. Here, Phuc Tran details his experience growing up and coming of age in a small Pennsylvania blue-collar town as a kid who immigrated from Vietnam in the late 1970s. As an Asian-American, even though Phuc - the protagonist, narrator, and author of this memoir - and I vary drastically in background, I found myself relating to his life experiences in many ways: not knowing where we stand in American society, and figuring out through trial-and-error how to balance our "Asian" and "American" identities. The way Phuc writes about his experiences almost makes it seem like he is speaking to me in a way.
In terms of the rich and successful "model minority" stereotype often associated with Asian-Americans, Phuc's family isn't that rich, living paycheck-to-paycheck (which eventually led to his inability to attend the university of his dreams, much to his disappointment)... and he's not always "successful", either. He recounts many times about committing less-than-perfect actions, such as petty theft, succumbing to peer pressure, being shown lurid magazines, trespassing while skateboarding, and physical violence, and how he has gotten into hot water with the authorities many times. His household is less than perfect as well, and his father has even acted abusively on certain occasions, such as beating him with a rusted rod, abandoning him in a rural field for an hour, and even assaulting him with blades and destroying his records after he failed to make the honor roll one marking period for flunking P.E. because he lent his socks to a friend.
Nevertheless, in spite of all these challenges, Phuc manages to persevere. He might get into trouble often, but the consequences he inevitably faces are meant to teach him life lessons, and he sure learns them well. He lets neither the tight expectations of his father nor anti-Vietnamese sentiment get in the way of his mission to become an all-American. In spite of the cruel racism he has faced throughout all of his life from elementary school to employment, he adopts American culture, and gets around to forging lasting friendships, proving that notwithstanding his ethnicity, he is as American as all his other peers in Carlisle. Eventually, though, he manages to ward off negative influence from peers and focus on improving his academic performance (particularly in the area of literature), and he learns to proudly embrace the anti-racist ideologies of the revolutionary leader Malcolm X (whom, as Phuc bemoans, has not received the recognition and honor he deserves). And in the end, Phuc succeeds at achieving not only academic, but personal and social success: he is chosen to be one of the valedictorians on graduation day of high school, and according to the author's information section, he is now a Latin teacher....more
In the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, the Japanese-American actor George Takei, renowned for his performance in Star Trek, recounts the harrowingIn the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, the Japanese-American actor George Takei, renowned for his performance in Star Trek, recounts the harrowing story of his childhood spent in Japanese concentration camps during World War II—I cannot recommend this book more. Even though Takei’s family members were all fair-and-square American citizens in Los Angeles, they were forcibly extracted from their home and sent on a train halfway across the country to Rohwer Camp, in Arkansas, where they remained for several years. Takei looks back towards his rough childhood experiences, and talks about how they continued to shape his life up to the present day, and how he managed to overcome these challenges and build a successful career. Despite everything, he is still very proud to be an American, as “good people organized, speaking loudly and clearly� is the strength of our system� (Takei, 145).
The book’s plot really resonated with me, a 2nd-generation American-born Chinese. We might not be rounding up American citizens into concentration camps anymore simply because of our ethnic origin anymore, but racism and prejudice still continue to manifest itself in many other, more subtle ways. Unfortunately, different kinds of people may not learn to unconditionally respect one another until the end of time, but we can do the best we can to make that close to happening. I liked the non-chronological sequencing of events in this book—oftentimes Takei’s discussion about the internment era may be abruptly interrupted by an anecdote taking place decades later, which really helps indicate how important it is to apply lessons from the past to the present. Despite this quirk, Takei’s narrative manages to remain coherent from cover to cover, and never falls apart. This is definitely a must-read for people from all walks of life who are interested in history or social justice, especially Asian-Americans....more
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