ASIAN- AMERICAN LITERATURE
An Anthology
Shirley Geok-lin Lim University of California, Santa Barbara
NTC Publishing Group a division of NTC/CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING COMPANY Lincolnwood, Illinois USA CONTENTS
Preface xv Introduction to Asian-American Literature xix
THE IMMIGRATION EXPERIENCE
Sailing Unknown Seas Etsu Sugimoto
from America Is in the Heart Carlos Bulosan .13
from East Goes West Younghill Kang 21
from Island Anonymous ... .31
Coming to America Akemi Kikumura .36
from South Wind Changing Jade NJJOC Quanjj Huynh 42
Two Lives Shirley Geok-lin him .52
Assimilation Eugene Gloria 57
VII Vlll CONTENTS
How I Could Interpret the Events of My Youth, Events I Do Not Remember Except in Dreams Christian Langworthy 60
CHAPTER TWO
^ ASIAN AFFILIATIONS I 65
Great Brown River Meena Alexander 67
The Lives of Great Men N. V.M. Gonzalez 70
The Arranged Marriage Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 78 from Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 81
San Chi Hilary Tham 85
The Cleaving Li-Young Lee ....88
From Dogeaters Jessica Hagedorn : 98
The Smell Ginu Kamani 103
The White Horse Nguyen Ba Trac Ill
Lunch Vignettes SvatiShah 118 CONTENTS IX
CHAPTER THREE STRUGGLES AND RECOGNITIONS 123 from Thousand Pieces of Gold Ruthanne Lum McCunn 127
Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian Sui Sin Far .132 from America Is in the Heart Carlos Bulosan .145
Guilty on Both Counts Mitsuye Yamada 151
Wilshire Bus Hisaye Yamamoto .156 from No-No Boy John Okada 162
In This Heat Willyce Kim ...
The Wash Philip Kan Gotanda 172
We Cannot Walk in Our Neighborhood As told to James Freeman. .218 shrapnel shards on blue water LeThiDiem Thuy 224
THE INDIVIDUAL INSIDE/ AGAINST THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY 229 from All I Asking for Is My Body Milton Murayama .232 X CONTENTS
The Chessmen Toshio Mori 238
And the Soul Shall Dance Wakako Yamauchi 246
Before Time Juliet Kono 254
No-Name Woman Maxine Hong Kingston 256
ABCs GennyLim 268
Transformation Lydia Minatoya 271
Parts Lois-Ann Yamanaka 276
The Management of Grief Bharati Mukherjee 279
Nobody Knows Quang Bao 294
GENDER IDENTITIES, GENDER RELATIONSHIPS 303 from Eat a Bowl of Tea Louis Chu 306
On Discovery Maxine Hong Kingston 311
Hector Pueblo Augustus Samuel Mein-Sun (Gus) Lee 314 from Homebase Shawn Wong 324 CONTENTS XI
Forgiveness from Heaven Jade Snow Wong 330 from Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston 336
Sari Petticoats TalatAbbasi 344 from American Knees Shawn Wong 348
Desire as the Gesture Between Us Timothy Liu 352
First Mango Vince Gotera 354
PARENTS AND FAMILIES 357
Best Quality Amy Tan 361
Poem for My Father Eric Chock 373
The Gift Li-Young Lee 375 from Donald Duk Frank Chin 378
Labor of Love JeffTagami 384
The Youngest Daughter Cathy Song 387
So What; Who Cares? Wakako Yamauchi 390 XII CONTENTS
Breaking Tradition Janice Mirikitani 398
Gardens We Have Left David Mura 401
The Eve of the Spirit Festival Lan Samantha Chang 405
The Visitation Jaime Jacinto 415
AMERICAN PLACE AND DISPLACEMENT I 419
We Are Americans Now, We Live in the Tundra Marilyn Chin '. 424 from Clay Walls Kim Ronyoung 427 from The Coffin Tree Wendy Law-Yone 434
Displacement David Wong Louie 445
Scent of Apples Bienvenido Santos 458 from Monkey Bridge Lan Cao 466
Our Fathers M. Evelina Galang 477
A Man of Steel Gishjen 488 CONTENTS XIII
Foreign Ways Diana Chang 495 from My Own Country Abraham Verghese 497
Dreamhouse R. Zamora Linmark ; 504
The Dead LinhDinh 507
Chinese Fireworks Banned in Hawaii Eric Chock 509
LANGUAGE AND VISION 513
Into Such Assembly MyungMiKim 517
Modern Secrets Shirley Geok-lin Lim 521
The Stubborn Twig Monica Sone 523 from Native Speaker Chang-rae Lee 530
Sorcery Jessica Hagedorn 535
On Listening Maxine Hong Kingston 539
My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud Li-Young Lee 542 XIV CONTENTS
Yellow Light Garrett Hongo 545
Finding the Center Lawson Fusao Inada 548
A Theory About Dancing Diana Chang 551
Acknowledgments 555 Author-Title Index 561