Dr. Stephanie Han

Category: Monday Books

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Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 7: The Magical Language of Others By E.J. Koh

Aloha! Time for Tuesday books! E.J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others! Koh’s memoir will resonate for those caught between time and place, who seek an understanding between generations, and who look to words for answers. This book exposes the realities of economic global work, Confucian expectations translated into modern lives, and the brutality of people living out their ambitions. It paints a poignant and raw picture of how we try to manifest a certain life. I believe that had I read this at a different time in my life I would have come to different conclusions, but I think that is what makes this a good book—this is one you will reread.

On a personal note, the book made me think about the life of my Korean cousin from Seoul. He’s back in Korea and spent years in the US as a parachute kid. My uncle was a cultural envoy and was called back. He took his youngest son and left his older one to live on his own at the age of 13 in New York. The belief in education and the excruciating conformity and misery that the Korean education system imposes on its young results in serious family disruption. Yet too, the chase for status, for acceptance, for money, a very real attempt to carve out a place and declare one’s existence in this life, is all too human.

This is a book for all, but what I think is important is that this book can cross various populations and age groups, and I would place it both on a university and secondary level reading list. I don’t say that about many books. We watch two women come of age or to an understanding—the narrator and her mother. There’s a raw pathos here—what is it we want family to be? How do we love and speak to each other? What does it mean to let go? How do we live in memory? Beautiful, sorrowful and meaningful questions we all must answer.

So excited to have EJ Koh visit Women’s Creative Writing Workshop on 10/3! Her growing body of work speaks to the global questions raised by those in the Korean diaspora, and I believe that her serious endeavors to bridge the literary questions raised by those in Korea, as well as those in the United States, mark her as one who will lead Korean American writing forward in the 21st century. Global. Woman. Poet. Writer. Translator. Editor. Read her now.

Write your story. Register at drstephaniehan.com
~teaching women the power of narrative~

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Monday Books Reading & Writing

Tuesday Books No. 6: I-Hotel

It’s Tuesday! Time for a book recommendation. I deem I-Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita as the one novel to read if you want to understand the foundation of Asian America—its culture and art, its politics and aspirations. This book pushes aesthetic boundaries as seen in form, and it innovates in its delivery on every level. I would make this required reading for Asian American Studies and stick this on a university level American Literature syllabus. It’s fun! It’s cool. It’s cinematic. There’s something for everyone. This. Is. Art.
For my fellow Asian Americans who missed Asian American studies class (there was no class, you couldn’t be bothered, your parents wanted you to be more practical, you felt socially rejected by the guy who was the Asian American Studies cool person, this is your go-to one book you should read now…and in doing so, you can gain some cool points). This is the story of how and why Asian America came into being, how Asian people began to construct an American identity. Yamashita chronicles the cultural moment when Asian Americans declared themselves part of the creative American project and galvanized their communities, built alliances across ethnicities and races, and paved the way for our existence today.
What you’ll find and understand—the how and whys of the Black Asian alliance, class struggle and belonging, the manong, communism, food, film, dance, global organization, performance art, jazz, the questions of gender, and romance and all the while asking: how do we belong?
I did a dissertation chapter on this book. I believe it to be one of the most significant novels written by an Asian American for its aesthetics, form, and content, and predict that this will be one of the books that will be read in the decades to come. It is ahead of its time. Read it now.
Learn to write in a class that honors your voice and story: Women’s Creative Writing Workshop, Divorce: Write Your Journey and Beyond, Power Journal: Write to Transform, Reading Poetry for Girls.
~teaching women the power of narrative~
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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.

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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.

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