Rise
A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
"Hip, entertaining...imaginative."—Kirkus, starred review *"Essential." —Min Jin Lee * "A Herculean effort."—Lisa Ling * "A must-read."—Ijeoma Oluo * "Get two copies."—Shea Serrano * "A book we've needed for ages." —Celeste Ng * "Accessible, informative, and fun." —Cathy Park Hong * "This book has serious substance...Also, I'm in it."—Ronny Chieng
RISE is a love letter to and for Asian Americans--a vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which our culture was forged and transformed, and a way to preserve both the headlines and the intimate conversations that have shaped our community into who we are today.
When the Hart-Celler Act passed in 1965, opening up US immigration to non-Europeans, it ushered in a whole new era. But even to the first generation of Asian Americans born in the US after that milestone, it would have been impossible to imagine that sushi and boba would one day be beloved by all, that a Korean boy band named BTS would be the biggest musical act in the world, that one of the most acclaimed and popular movies of 2018 would be Crazy Rich Asians, or that we would have an Asian American Vice President. And that’s not even mentioning the creators, performers, entrepreneurs, execs and influencers who've been making all this happen, behind the scenes and on the screen; or the activists and representatives continuing to fight for equity, building coalitions and defiantly holding space for our voices and concerns. And still: Asian America is just getting started.
The timing could not be better for this intimate, eye-opening, and frequently hilarious guided tour through the pop-cultural touchstones and sociopolitical shifts of the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and beyond. Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang chronicle how we’ve arrived at today’s unprecedented diversity of Asian American cultural representation through engaging, interactive infographics (including a step-by-step guide to a night out in K-Town, an atlas that unearths historic Asian American landmarks, a handy “Appreciation or Appropriation?” flowchart, and visual celebrations of both our "founding fathers and mothers" and the nostalgia-inducing personalities of each decade), plus illustrations and graphic essays from major AAPI artists, exclusive roundtables with Asian American cultural icons, and more, anchored by extended insider narratives of each decade by the three co-authors. Rise is an informative, lively, and inclusive celebration of both shared experiences and singular moments, and all the different ways in which we have chosen to come together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cultural critic Yang, Angry Asian Man blogger Yu, and filmmaker Wang take readers on a riveting tour through pop cultural milestones of the 1990s to the 2010s, when the children of the wave of Asian immigrants who came to America after the passage of 1965's Hart-Celler Act were confronted with "the job of trying to fill in the blank of what it meant to be Asian American." In graphic essays and conversations with artists, the authors reflect on how, for decades, finding success as an Asian American "meant making sure you could appeal to white audiences... compromising who you were." From the racially motivated murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1982 to more recent reflections on the racial implications and random violence toward Asians perpetrated by those who falsely believe that Covid-19 is a "Chinese disease," they illustrate the obstacles Asian Americans have come up against and brilliantly juxtapose them with stories of how those barriers have been thwarted (Grey's Anatomy and Killing Eve fans will appreciate behind-the-scenes details of how Sandra Oh landed her roles on those shows). Interspersed throughout are amusing memes featuring K-pop sensation BTS and quirky depictions of Asian grocery stores and boba shops. This celebration of Asian American culture is as revelatory as it is entertaining.
