Year of the Tiger
An Activist's Life
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF USA TODAY'S MUST-READ BOOKS • This groundbreaking memoir offers a glimpse into an activist's journey to finding and cultivating community and the continued fight for disability justice, from the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project
“Alice Wong provides deep truths in this fun and deceptively easy read about her survival in this hectic and ableist society.” —Selma Blair, bestselling author of Mean Baby
In Chinese culture, the tiger is deeply revered for its confidence, passion, ambition, and ferocity. That same fighting spirit resides in Alice Wong.
Drawing on a collection of original essays, previously published work, conversations, graphics, photos, commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists, and more, Alice uses her unique talent to share an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker, and dreamer. From her love of food and pop culture to her unwavering commitment to dismantling systemic ableism, Alice shares her thoughts on creativity, access, power, care, the pandemic, mortality, and the future. As a self-described disabled oracle, Alice traces her origins, tells her story, and creates a space for disabled people to be in conversation with one another and the world. Filled with incisive wit, joy, and rage, Wong’s Year of the Tiger will galvanize readers with big cat energy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wong outlines her life as an advocate and educator in this stunning collection of essays, interviews, and artwork. Born to parents who emigrated from Hong Kong to Indiana in the 1970s, Wong describes how Chinese American culture and her progressive muscular dystrophy shaped her childhood. After moving to San Francisco for grad school, Wong advocated for access and disability rights, and in 2014 founded the Disability Visibility Project, "an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture." In "My Day as a Robot," she describes using a telepresence robot to meet then-president Barack Obama in 2015 , while "The Last Disabled Oracle" is a series of imagined dispatches from the year 2029 that asks "How can we harness our imagination to create the world we want to live in right now and in the future?" Throughout, Wong references a "Tiger" spirit: "It takes a lot of big cat energy to leap into unknown situations, roar against injustice... and swipe at all who annoy me across the multiverse," she writes. Wong's voice is straightforward, but she sprinkles in dry humor and is adept at balancing compassion with flashes of rage. The combination of memoir, manifesto, scrapbook, confession, and rousing call to action make for a winning mix. This one's tough to forget.
