How to American
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Standup comic, actor and fan favorite from HBO's Silicon Valley and the film Crazy Rich Asians shares his memoir of growing up as a Chinese immigrant in California and making it in Hollywood.
"I turned down a job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. My dad thought I was crazy. But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life. I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved. That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too."
Jimmy O. Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from the popular HBO series Silicon Valley. In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents: Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET RapCity for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career. He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen ten years later. Featuring those and many other hilarious stories, while sharing some hard-earned lessons, How to American mocks stereotypes while offering tongue in cheek advice on pursuing the American dreams of fame, fortune, and strippers.
Customer Reviews
Hilarious!
This book cracked me up, and it was really interesting to learn more about Jimmy. Highly recommend as a light-hearted purchase and listen!
Resonates with us immigrant kids
Bought this audiobook today and it’s been great! Having to decide between two very differing cultures is a story that resonates with all us immigrant kids. Having the strange name no one can pronounce, being the trial blazer and youngest kid having to break cultural expectations is a tough road. So glad to see him shining and blazing his own trail. Also, I took Thai in college as my second language credit for the easy A. My American friends will tell me it’s cheating, but a lot of them know the one language and still fail English class so….Anyway, Congratulations, loved hearing your story in the way it should be heard, by you telling it.
So amazing
Jimmy is so awesome!