Dr. Stephanie Han

Author: Stephanie Han

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Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 5: Portable Curiosities stories by Julie Koh

It’s time for Tuesday Books! I will be posting books written by Asian women, primarily those written in English, although I may also feature translated works. If you want to be featured, lmk and contact me through the ABOUT page or email. I am choosing books new or old that I believe to be relevant. Scroll back and you can see, but I will be also updating the website so you can see earlier selections.

Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh is a highly imaginative short fiction collection that takes out of literary realism and places us in the world of speculative fiction. Koh is an Australian of Chinese descent and her witty and exuberant stories remind us that humor is key to social critique. Living overseas drove home the truth for me about how geography is easily misunderstood.

(Yeah, I’m the Korean American who wrote the book Swimming in Hong Kong. My ethnicity did not match the title—could have titled it KOREA IS MY HOMELAND, NOT IOWA or HOW MY SOUL LONGS FOR SEOUL or CONFUCIANISM THE BADASS VERSION…perhaps more traction? But I digress…)

There are ways of being and living outside of the binary of our nation of citizenship and the nation of our cultural origin. To read outside of these two spaces will push us tonew ideas and ways of conceptualizing each other. Koh obliged me compare Asian Australian/Asian American experience and understand the similarities and yet, I think due to Australian English plus culture, there’s a distinctly different tone. ‘The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man’ and The Fantastic Breasts’ are highlights. I laughed.

Live dangerously and have a romp through a book that is written by someone who has nothing to do with your national or cultural origin and see what you take in. I recommend this book.

For more information on learning to write, go to my classes page.

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Categories
Poetry Reading & Writing

Three Poems in Cultural Weekly and On Art…

I was happy that three poems were published in Cultural Weekly. This is a great literary journal out of LA — vibrant and energetic. I like it because there are a range of poems and also, I respect the work of Chiwan Choi, a fellow Korean American writer. He has a good sense of humor and is fiercely dedicated to creative expression. People who spend their lives writing, editing, artmaking, and fostering communities and ideas that allow people to express who we are–these are uncommon individuals.

COVID has demonstrated to us all that we need to live differently. To those who are outside of the creative fields it may behoove you to take a look at how another segment of the population lives and breathes. Why? Because as Oscar Wilde stated, artists are the future. So we can take a cue from those who are enthralled with asking the questions about what makes us human, why we are, how we are, and know that to live your life in a way that challenges and wrestles with these ideas of beauty and pathos is entirely possible. Those who do so have chosen the path that in the end, defines our civilization. That’s it: art DEFINES us. This is the raw and raging truth of art, that it is created in defiance and will. It shows us beauty and to do this, rebels against every system that exists in our life.

This is art at its best.

And know this too–yes, those who do this, the artists and writers, have the answers (or at least know what some good questions are) when it comes to thinking of new ways to live and be in this COVID and later, post-COVID world.

Creativity–art is what defines who we are as a people. We are all capable of creativity and expression–telling and living stories and colors that are imagined. To be and to do this is the great feat of our time and the great task of any life: to live in defiance of convention, to declare our being, to upend what IS to honor beauty and compassion. This is life. Truth. Mimesis. Art.

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Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No.4: In the Company of Strangers by Michelle Skinner

In the Company of Strangers is a fine collection of short fiction. I’m highlighting it because I believe it to be strangely overlooked — and it shouldn’t be. Writing from the Overseas Filipino diaspora is complex and diverse. It speaks to the wildly disparate realities of a people who continue to carve out a place in the global consciousness and imagination. Skinner tells stories about a range of characters and time periods, and she does this with humor and accuracy. Her details speak to a writer who carefully researches and who has mastery of her subject matter. I also enjoy the style mash-up. It’s fun. She’s the real thing and offers no easy answers.

I taught this book to my grade 10 class at Punahou and the students the stories sparked discussions: colonialism, gender, isolation, exploitation, Asian American identity, families, migrant labor, geography, community — there’s a lot to unpack in this slender volume of stories.

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM DR. HAN: Short stories are excellent to teach to young readers because many students have a serious problem getting through a 300 page novel. Dear Teachers: we must reckon with this. Now, now…pick yourself up! No, you do not have to sob uncontrollably in front of your personal library of beloved dogeared books that were highlighted when you were a young cub… it will be fine… Reframe. Pick material that can serve as a Gateway Read. Reading as experimentation and rebellion. Skinner’s book is not a YA book AT ALL, but it’s a great Gateway Read to books that are longer.

The We-Came-To-America-And-The-Story-Ends-Great-Our-Son-Went-To-Harvard-We-Made-It trajectory isn’t a part of this book and guess what: THAT IS A BIG PLUS. I acknowledge that this Beloved and Holy Immigrant Narrative is important, but it’s not the only story. This book shows us the other stories and highlights the nuance of life. Have a read.

For more information on classes and workshops go to my classes page.

Categories
Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 3: Hooping

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming’s Hula Hooping was 15 years from inception to publication. The writing has a liveliness and precision that is exuberant and without pretense. Word-play is that—play and fun! She invites the reader in with lyricism and wit. This is the kind of poetry I like to read because if I can’t move into the poem fairly quickly, I won’t hang out til the end. I want to hang out and read this book and I will say this—I would recommend it to students and readers who may feel intimidated by poetry. Because they won’t be scared by this book. So yeah, it’s my kind of poetry book. Very very people oriented. Dear Readers and Teachers: this is an ideal text.
This writing moves straight to the heart. While I know the basics of Ho’s background, it’s not required to enjoy the work. (If too much explanation about the poet is required to understand the poem, I’m turned off. Go ahead, throw stones at my plebeian brain. You think I care? Sorry, I don’t!)
Ho is a writer, translator, professor, scholar, founding and current editor of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal online, and head of PEN Hong Kong and writes literature in English. Mind boggling truly.
If you want to understand the pulse of the HK people, their dreams and hopes, how they make their identity across languages and cultures, you might pick up a copy of Hula Hooping. This is the book that can hook a new reader of poetry, and if you do that, you’re definitely in the game in a serious way. Honesty. Dreams. Play. Read it!
Categories
Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 2: A Cab Called Reliable

This book A Cab Called Reliable by Patti Kim is an Asian American/Korean American literary classic and should be on every reading list for Asian American literature. This book was written decades before its time and Kim writes with authority, lyricism and fluidity. There is a complicated protagonist and the book reveals the raw truths of childhood and immigration. This story is about the dark side of Confucianism, how we are imprisoned by family and long for affection. We read what we know to be true: that children know far too early, the truths of disappointment and joy, that the myths of America immigration are narratives that must be rewritten by those who know–❤️
This book will be read decades from now. I don’t say that about many books, because frankly, most are forgotten, we write always for now, for who we are, and some write for the future, but there is a bit of a grandiose delusion about this too. To live and write in the present, whether that be of the past, is the true challenge of an artist.
I believe that this book has been somewhat sidelined because how it was initially perceived as a YA book. This is appropriate for secondary levels, but it is NOT of the YA genre in its plotting or tone. (Those are fun, but this is not YA). This is literature.
A powerful beautifully written book. Buy it. Check it out. Read it.
Categories
Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 1: Why Karen Carpenter Matters

This is a great book. I bought it several months ago and started reading it. The author reveals to us the relevance of Karen Carpenter to American pop,  but also references her own life. This is an academic memoir free of jargon, written in fluid prose. Too often researchers are captive to the often unbearable unreadable lexicon of theory. Academics must use this and deftly to legitimize ideas that are new—and fields that are stigmatized or under fire must adhere to such language to warrant their existence. So it’s understandable why and how this happens. Yet books like this show another path and heart. We write to make sense of our dreams and pasts. Tongson does this well.

As a young girl I too longed to be Karen Carpenter. But mom told me if I played drums she would make me practice in the garage. And then entirely shut down that avenue. I played a host of instruments very badly throughout my childhood. We sang Top of the World in 4th grade North Liberty, Iowa music class. When I lived in Asia I became aware of the reach of the Carpenters. There are only a few groups that captured attention globally in this way. (I can see another book on ABBA? Who hasn’t danced to Dancing Queen at 3am on a bar top in an Asian metropolis nightclub? It’s a rite of passage LOL.) and yes, the sounds of her voice evoke a kind of longing, memory and control.

Thanks for writing this book! I highly recommend it.🙂

S