Bad Asians
A Novel
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Number One Chinese Restaurant comes an affecting novel about an unforgettable group of friends trying to make their way in the world without losing themselves, or one another.
Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian were always told that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got A's, and attended a good university—only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Now, despite their newly minted degrees, they’re unemployed and stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace—once the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropout—asks to make a documentary about the crew, they agree. It’s not like her little movie will ever see the light of day.
But then the video, Bad Asians, goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, millions of people know them as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control further derails their plans for the lives they’d always imagined, the friends must face harsh truths about themselves and coming of age in the new millennium.
Lillian Li’s novel wryly captures a generation shaped by the rise of the internet and the end of the American dream. An epic tale of friendship and family, Bad Asians asks, Can the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the whip-smart latest from Li (Number One Chinese Restaurant), four Chinese American friends are forced to confront the truth of how they view one another and themselves when a documentary about them goes viral. The story begins in 2009 when recent University of Maryland economics grads Diana Zhang, Justin Yu, Errol Chen, and Vivian Wang return home to their North Potomac, Md., neighborhood to weather the rough job market. While growing up together, they were friends with Grace Li, a wunderkind Harvard grad and aspiring documentary filmmaker. Back home, Grace convinces them to appear in her film, Bad Asians. The film is a hit on YouTube, launching Grace's budding film career but pigeonholing the foursome into stereotypes, from overachiever Diana and basic girl Vivian to egotistical Errol and "hottie with a body" Justin. Li excels in her character work, picking up three years later to show how each of the four finds themselves following the paths they'd hoped to resist, and concluding in 2016 with Grace's epiphany related to the film ("I saw clearly what it looks like when you live your life for someone else"). Throughout, Li offers piercing social commentary on the expectations placed on her characters and how those pressures were exacerbated by the Great Recession. Readers will tear through this.
