BOOK REVIEW: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The book is a short, clever exposition on stereotypical media portrayals of Asian-Americans. It uses the narrative conceit of appearing to be a screenplay of a television show that features Willis Wu as a “Generic Asian Man” who is trying to be cast as the ultimate character for an Asian male: “Kung Fu Guy.” But generally Willis only gets roles like “Background Oriental Male" and “Delivery Guy.“ Willis lives in a SRO tenement with a number of other Asian-Americans which has a Chinese restaurant on the first floor named Golden Palace Restaurant.

One of the central bits of Interior Chinatown is the depiction of a television show called Black and White. This is a stereotypical cop show featuring a Black man (named Miles Turner) and a white woman (named Sarah Green) who are police partners who solve crimes. Miles is very muscular, handsome, but curiously bigoted towards Asians and is the “bad cop” while Green is also very attractive, statuesque and is the “good cop.” Yu uses the trope of the buddy cop show to highlight other familiar stereotypes (about cop shows, Black people, women cops and many more). Willis eventually gets a role on the show where he has to speak in a broken-English accent and do a bunch of kung fu before he gets shot and killed in the main dining room of the Golden Palace Restaurant. This then makes Willis subject to the rule that he can’t appear on TV for another 45 days.

Without the ability to appear on TV, Willis’ story switches focus to his private life. Here Interior Chinatown begins to lose its way by sticking to the screenplay format even though now we are following the "real" story of the actor Willis Wu who had appeared on the fiction show Black and White. The “show” the book/script is now following becomes a family drama as Willis dates a pretty biracial actress named Karen Lee whom he met on the set of Black and White (in the episode in which his character died). Karen and Willis get married and have a little girl named Phoebe. But they do not live happily ever after because Willis is obsessed with being cast as Kung Fu Guy and even when Karen gets the opportunity to be the lead of her own show instead of being happy for her, Willis is resentful. So then he finds himself playing the role of Part-time Dad to his daughter.

Eventually Willis does become Kung Fu Guy but he realizes it’s a role that he’s not suited for and storms off the set. Bizarrely, Turner and Green show up and arrest him for being responsible for his own disappearance. He’s put on trial and his lawyer is Older Brother, who makes an impassioned argument that Willis has an inferiority complex because of all the examples of anti-Asian policies and practices in American law and culture which have oppressed people who look like him. 

One of the central ideas of the book is that there are multiple levels of “fictionality” occurring in the story simultaneously. The story Interior Chinatown is telling is always in the form of a screenplay, even when the focus switches from the fictional cop show, to the "real" family drama of the actor Willis Wu to the courtroom drama of his disappearance. It is very clever writing and allows the author to communicate multiple messages simultaneously but instead of working on more than one level, for me the book ceases to be an enjoyable one. That being said, like a screenplay, it is a very quick read. There’s a lot of white space and it’s well under 250 pages. Despite being short, Interior Chinatown is definitely not a lightweight book, even though its format would tend to send that message. Although ultimately the book didn’t “work” for me, I am glad that I read it and I do agree that the topic of anti-Asian sentiment and stereotypical portrayal of racial and ethnic minorities in the media is an important topic that the book dramatized in effective fashion. I just think Yu tried to do to much at once, and thus blunted his own overall impact.

Title: Interior Chinatown.
Author: Charles Yu.
Format: Kindle.
Length: 273 pages.
Publisher: Pantheon Books.
Date Published: January 28, 2020.
Date Read: April 23, 2021.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★☆☆  (3.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: B  (3.0/4.0).

PLOT: B-.
IMAGERY: C+.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.

BOOK REVIEW: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a famous book that has received substantial acclaim and recognition, especially for the beauty and emotional resonance of its prose. The book is written primarily in the first person as a letter to the author's mother, from an openly gay man who has been nicknamed Little Dog. The two have a complicated relationship, and the book documents the difficult life the two spent together as well as the how the war-torn country of Vietnam has impacted the author's mother as well as her mother (Little Dog's grandmother). 

I finally read this book because it was under consideration to be selected as a community read. Very early in the book it becomes clear that the themes of the book are very adult and that it includes scenes and depictions of events that might be triggering to some readers who have experienced various kinds of trauma. For example, the son describes multiple times that he is physically assaulted by his mother, and punished in multiple ways that seem disproportionate for the infraction he may have committed. Little Dog also describes racist incidents that happen to him and his family members in Hartford, Connecticut where they live when he was young. It becomes clear that the traumas that his mother (Rose) and grandmother (Lan) have had a deleterious effect on their mental health.

One key plot thread of the book involves Little Dog's relationship with a local white kid named Trevor. When Little Dog is 15 and Trevor is 17 they meet working on a tobacco farm in rural Connecticut. They are the two youngest employees and thus they start hanging out together. Eventually they both realize that there's an attraction to each other, and though Trevor never articulates being gay, but the two boys have intimate sexual contact multiple times for the next several years. This section of the book was one of the highlights for me, but this is primarily because it depicts a realistic and rarely-viewed slice of gay life. Soon after they meet it becomes clear that Trevor is a fan of using various drugs, from alcohol, pot, cocaine and eventually heroin. Drug use was not a stranger to Little Dog, as several of his neighbors in his rough Hartford neighborhood had died of overdoses. So after Little Dog leaves Hartford and goes to New York for college it's sad but not surprising that we learn that Trevor has died as well.

Overall, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is an engaging, troubling and memorable book. It's true that the writing is incredibly evocative (this is Vuong's first  book of fiction after becoming celebrated as a poet). The intersection(s) between the identities of Little Dog and of Ocean Vuong make it seem like the book is thinly-veiled biography, and this gives the work an extra frisson as well. In the end, though, I can't say I particularly enjoyed the book, although I am glad that I did read it.

Title: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
Author: Ocean Vuong.
Format: Kindle.
Format: 256 pages.
Publisher: Penguin Press.
Date Published: June 4, 2019.
Date Read: April 20, 2021.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★½☆  (3.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

NEWS: United States Places First In International Mathematics Olympiad

The U.S. team won first place at the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), which took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on July 3-14, with 116 countries and 615 students participating. The USA Mathematical Olympiad Team cosisted of: Adam Ardeishar, Andrew Gu, Vincent Huang, James Lin, Michael Ren, and Mihir Singhal.  Individually they also took home five gold medals (Lin scored a perfect 42) and one silver medal. Gu, Huang, and Lin are returning IMO team members from 2017. Teams from Russia and China placed second and third, respectively

Hat/tip to American Mathematics Society and Mathematical Association of America.

#NSF REPORT: U.S. Doctorate Recipients At Near All-Time High (2016 Data)

The National Science Foundation has released its annual Survey of Earned Doctorates and there are some interesting nuggets in the data (up to 2016):

• The largest share of doctorates awarded in 2016 was in the life sciences (nearly 23 percent), followed by engineering (17 percent), and psychology and the social sciences (16.5 percent). All fields of humanities and arts made up 10 percent of doctorates awarded.
• The time between students entering graduate school and receiving doctorates has fallen in all fields of study over the past 20 years, but, on average, it still takes years longer to earn a doctorate in non-S&E fields than in S&E fields.
• The number of S&E doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents grew 2 percent since 2015 and 39 percent since 2006. The number of doctorates in S&E fields awarded to temporary visa holders grew 2 percent since 2015 and 20 percent since 2006.
• The number of doctoral awards to temporary visa holders is highly concentrated -- 10 countries accounted for 71 percent of the doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders from 2006 to 2016. The top three countries -- China, India and South Korea -- accounted for 54 percent of the doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders.
• Women have earned a slight majority of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizen and permanent residents each year since 2002, and women have earned more than 30 percent of all doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders over that period.
• From 1996 to 2016, the number of women earning degrees in S&E fields increased by 84 percent.
• The number of doctorates awarded to blacks or African Americans who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents increased by 32 percent from 2006 to 2016. For the same period, the proportion of doctorates earned by Hispanics or Latinos increased by 67 percent.

One key take-away for me is that 1) Latino doctoral recipients now outnumber African-American and that the gap between male and female STEM doctorates is actually slightly widening, even as both numbers increase (see the graphics at the top of this page).

Hat/tip STEMPROF newsletter edited by Mark Connolly.

GRAPHIC: The racial/ethnic demographics of U.S. Top 10 metro areas

Information on race in America, especially in metropolitan areas in the United States. This is from a recent deep dive into race, politics and demographics by the Boston Globe's award-winning Spotlight team as the paper tried to examine why Boston is perceived as "more racist" than other big cities.

Science Publishes Article Calling For Elimination Of Racial Categories In Genetics Research

In an important article titled "Taking race out of human genetics" published in Science magazine today, a team of researchers argues that "the use of biological concepts of race in human genetic research—so disputed and so mired in confusion—is problematic at best and harmful at worst. It is time for biologists to find a better way."

I have often taught classes which include the idea(s) that the identity characteristics of sex, gender, race, sexual orientation are socially constructed. This does not mean that these categories are not real, but that these characteristics are not innate, fixed, "natural" properties of human beings; instead the idea is that how we perceive and interact with people according to these categories is contested, time-dependent and malleable.

It's exciting to see a paragraph like this in the world's most prestigious scientific journal:

One reason is that phylogenetic and population genetic methods do not support a priori classifications of race, as expected for an interbreeding species like Homo sapiens (11, 18). As a result, racial assumptions are not the biological guide-posts some believe them to be, as commonly defined racial groups are genetically heterogeneous and lack clear-cut genetic boundaries (10, 11). For example, hemoglobinopathies can be misdiagnosed because of the identification of sickle-cell as a “Black” disease and thalassemia as a “Mediterranean” disease (10). Cystic fibrosis is underdiagnosed in populations of African ancestry, because it is thought of as a “White” disease (19). Popular misinterpretations of the use of race in genetics also continue to fuel racist beliefs, so much so that, in 2014, a group of leading human population geneticists publicly refuted claims about the genetic basis of social differences between races (20). Finally, the use of the race concept in genetics, an issue that has vexed natural and social scientists for more than a century, will not be obviated by new technologies. Although the low cost of next-generation sequencing has facilitated efforts to sequence hundreds of thousands of individuals, adding whole-genome sequences does not negate the fact that racial classifications do not make sense in terms of genetics.

Coincidentally enough, I actually m et one of the authors of this article (Professor Dorothy Roberts of the University of Pennsylvania) when she visited my place of employment this week. On Tuesday February 2, she gave an impressive talk which summarized some of the key ideas in her latest book, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century. The audience was enthralled and Prof. Roberts answered questions matter-of-factly and informatively.

 Overall, it is exciting to see the idea that race is NOT a human biological feature getting more attention.

114th Congress Begins: 80% White, 80% Male, 92% Christian (Representative of America? NO!)

Via Talking Points Memo comes this excellent infographic visualizing the (lack of) diversity in the 535 Members of the United States Congress who are supposed to represent the 320 million people who live in this country. Most of the diversity that does exist in Congress comes from the Democrats, not the Republicans.

Specifically:

There are a total of 81 minorities that are Democrats in both houses combined and 16 that are Republicans, according to data from CQ. The 114th Congress also has 79 Democratic women and 29 Republican women, also according to CQ. 

Of the 188 Democrats in the newly sworn-in House of Representatives, 78 are minorities, according to CQ. Despite the rise of new stars like Rep. Mia Love (UT, pictured above) just 12 of the 246 Republicans in the House majority are minorities. In the Senate, percentages are slightly better for Republicans. There are four Republican senators who are racial minorities and 3 Democrats who are racial minorities. 

By gender, there are 65 House Democrats who are women and 23 women are on the other side of the aisle, according to CQ. That leaves 123 Democratic men and 223 Republican men. In the Senate, there are 14 Democratic women and a record six Republican women leaving 30 Democratic men plus another two Independents who caucus with Democrats and 48 Republican men.

However, the Washington Post points out that it is in the area of religious representation that the Congress does the worst. There is only 0.2% representation (i.e. 1 member) who declares themselves to have no religious affiliation while 20% of Americans declare that they are affiliated with no specific religion.

EYE CANDY: Kyle Goffney

Kyle Goffney is a 25-year-old model living in Los Angeles who is 6-feet tall and weighs 175 pounds, according to his ModelMayhem profile page. There he also discusses his racial background, claiming to be "3/4 African-American and 1/4 Thai." He has Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Kyle has been a Man Crush Model of the Day. I think you all can see why!

2014 US OPEN: Nishikori Stuns Djokovic To Reach First Major Final

Kei Nishikori defied predictions and historical precedent and followed up his two five-set, four-hour matches with a 4-set, 3-hour win over World #1 Novak Djokovic. By winning 6-4 1-6 7-6(4) 6-3, Nishikori became the first Asian male player to reach a grand slam final. Djokovic had reached the last five major finals (and four consecutive finals in New York) so his loss in the semifinal was quite a shock.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Pérez Ends Recount Effort, Concedes Defeat To Yee In State Controller Race

One of the closest electoral battles in California history ended Friday when John Pérez ended his bid for a recount and conceded that he had placed 3rd in the June 2014 primary, a mere 481 votes (out of more than 4 million balllots cast)  behind 2nd place finisher Democrat Betty Yee. Pérez continued insistence on a recount was roiling Democratic circles especially since he had failed to pick up many votes and since the Secretary of State had estimated that a full hand recount of all the votes could have taken until early 2015 (2 months after the general election is scheduled to occur!) The Chairman of the California Democratic Party started suggesting the 44-year-old, openly gay former Assembly Speaker was starting to damage his future political prospects.

Pérez sent an email to supporters, saying:

“Today I have made the decision to bring the recount process to an end, and pledge my full support to Betty Yee to be California’s next Controller.   

While I strongly believe that completing this process would result in me advancing to the General Election, it is clear that there are significant deficiencies in the process itself which make continuing the recount problematic. Even in the effort so far, we have found uncounted ballots, but there is simply not enough time to see this process through to the end, given the fact that counties must begin printing ballots in the next few weeks in order to ensure that overseas and military voters can receive their ballots in a timely manner.  

I began this process because every vote deserves to be counted fairly and accurately, and as the recount has made clear, California needs to rethink our approach and incorporate best practices from across the nation. This effort was not about the outcome of a particular election, but the integrity of every election, and the issues brought to the light over the last two weeks need to be addressed in a comprehensive and thoughtful manner. 

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve in the Assembly these last six years, and to have led the Assembly at a time when we’ve turned multi-billion dollar deficits into multi-billion dollar reserves, expanded healthcare for more than three million Californians and made college affordable again by enacting the Middle Class Scholarship Act. I am grateful for the support my campaign has received from everyday Californians who have seen the work my colleagues and I have done in the Legislature, and embraced our vision of fiscally responsible and progressive government which expands opportunity for all Californians. We built a tremendous record of accomplishment together, and I look forward to making contributions to build on that record of progress in the future. 

In the immediate term, I will be continuing my service in the Assembly, and working hard to help elect Democrats up and down California.”

Now, Yee will face Republican Ashley Swearingen in November with Democratic pride to keep all of California's constitutional office in blue hands on the line.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Kei Leapfrogs Rival To Reach World #9

SPECIAL K

Kei Nishikori makes history this week by becoming the first male player from Japan to reach the Top 10. of the ATP World Rankings. Fresh off his impressive performance in the finals of his first Masters 1000 event in Madrid, Nishijori jumps over Milos Raonic, John Isner  and Richard Gasquet (respectively) to land at World #9.

NO SWISS PATERNITY LEAVE?
Roger Federer is back on the Tour less than a week after his twin sons Lenny and Leo were born on Tuesday May 6th. He arrived in Rome on Monday (with wife Mirka's blessings) and will play his first round match against Jeremy Chardy. Last year he lost in the final of Rome to Rafael Nadal.

NOLE OF YOUR BUSINESS
Novak Djokovic refuses to disclose the precise due date of his first child's birth will be, probably since he is not married to the mother (yet)! Nole said "It will happen at the end of the year," presumably after he marries his fiancee Jelena Ristic.

WILL SHE OR WON'T SHE?
Serena Williams withdrew from her defense of her Madrid title rather than face Petra Kvitova in the semifinals with a bum leg, ceding the title to Maria Sharapova, who obliged. Serena still has the bum leg but she is also in Rome hoping to defend her title there as well. Or will she pull out to give her body some more rest instead of a tough first match against Andrea Petkovic before her Roland Garros title defense begins in less than two weeks?

VENUS BACK IN ACTION
Venus Williams won her first two matches in Rome against Annika Beck 6-3 6-1 and Mona Barthel 6-2 6-2 but should face a tougher test in Carla Suarez Navarro in the 3rd round. If she gets past that she has the winner of the Madison Keys-Simona Halep match.

WA GOV Appoints Asian Latina Lesbian To State Supreme Court

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has decided to appoint Mary Yu to the state Supreme Court, who would make history as the first openly LGBT, Latina and Asian member of that state's highest court.

From the Governor's office:

Yu, age 57, grew up in Chicago as the daughter of two immigrants who met at a factory, her mother from Mexico and her father from China.

The judge will be the first Asian-American and Latina on the state Supreme Court. She will also be the first openly gay member of the state’s highest court.

“I believe it is clear to everyone that Judge Yu has both the qualifications and experience to sit on our Supreme Court. And her personal story adds a unique perspective that is important as our state’s demographics continue to shift,” Inslee said.

The appointment was immediately praised by judicial observers.

Ain't diversity grand?

POLL: Is Obama "Black" Or "Mixed-Race"? Majority Of Americans Pick The Latter...

A new poll from the Pew Research Center called "The Next America" dives deep into the future demographics of America and reveals how American's views on race an racial identity have changed and are continuing to change.

For example, a majority of respondents (52%) to a poll when asked about the racial identity of President Barack Obama in 2009 said that they think of him as "Mostly Mixed Race" while only 27% said they thought of him as "Mostly Black."

Notably, these results differed by the racial identification of the respondents. Black people said that Obama was Black by the rate of 55% to 34% who said he was mixed. The group that was the least likely to call Obama "Black" was Hispanics!

The report also shows what America will look like in coming decades, with the majority of Americans expected to be from non-White racial groups around 2040.

What do you think, is the President Black or Mixed-Race? Is there some reason he can't be both? (That would be my answer.)

Hat/tip to Huffington Post Politics

CA State Senate Abandons Attempt To Restore Race-Conscious College Admissions

Bad news today out of the Democratic state senate, where a state constitutional amendment that would place a partial repeal of Proposition 209 on the November 2014 ballot has been tabled. Proposition 209 passed in 1996 and banned the use of race, ethnicity or gender in public education, public contracts or public employment. The state senate had passed SCA 5 by a vote of 27 to 9 on January 30, 2014.

Speaker John Perez (and State Controller candidate) announced today that the Assembly would not consider the measure. According to the San Jose Mercury-News Asian-American state senators switched from support to opposition due to pressure from the community.

Last week, saying they had received thousands of calls and emails from constituents, senators Leland Yee, D-San Francisco; Ted Lieu, D-Torrance; and Carol Liu, D-La Cañada/Flintridge asked Assembly Speaker John Perez to stop the bill. 

"As lifelong advocates for the Asian-American and other communities, we would never support a policy that we believed would negatively impact our children," they wrote in a letter to Perez. 

In 1996, California became the first state to outlaw affirmative action in public university admissions and state hiring, a policy that took effect in 1998. The amendment would have allowed voters to lift that ban, either this fall or in 2016. 

Hernandez and others have said that misinformation about what affirmative action would mean -- such as racial quotas for new freshmen -- spread quickly, stoking parents' fears about their children's chances of getting into UC, the state's public research university system. 

Using racial quotas in admissions would be unconstitutional; recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have strictly limited consideration of race in public university admissions. UC officials last week said any suggestion of quotas is irresponsible: "We have never done that, and we never would," said Nina Robinson, UC's associate president and chief policy adviser.

 Hopefully the legislature will realize that it is important to be able to use race as a factor in college admissions.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Li Na Reaches World #2!

Li Na made history this week by reaching #2 on the WTA singles rankings, becoming the highest rated player of Asian descent. Interestingly, Peng Shuai also made history this week by becoming the first Chinese player to be ranked #1 in doubles.

"To be No.1 was a goal of mine this year. Su-Wei and I were very close at the end of last year. It is something I have worked very hard for," Peng commented. "With Li Na going to No.2 in singles, and Hsieh Su-Wei taking the No.2 doubles ranking, this is a big breakthrough for Asian tennis. We are looking forward to the rest of the year and hopefully the WTA Championships in Singapore." 

"To go to No.2 in the world is definitely a proud accomplishment for me and my team," Li said. "We have worked very hard and look to improve every week. It is an exciting time for tennis in China.

Congratulations to Li and Peng!

OutFest FUSION 2014 Schedule Announced!

One of my favorite events of the year in Los Angeles is the Outfest Fusion film festival, the LGBT people of color film festival. I reviewed the shorts program in 2013, 2012 and 2011. This year the opening night film is Patrik-Ian Polk's Blackbird which stars Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington. I am going to see this film this weekend at the Pan African Film Festival.

Here is the schedule of the  program, which will start in exactly four weeks.

Seattle Elects Openly Gay (Married) Mayor

Openly gay Washington state senator Ed Murray has been elected Mayor of Seattle. Murray, 58, is the first openly gay person to be elected to run Washington's largest city and the 22nd largest city in the United States.

Washington votes by mail so results are not final but the current tally has Murray ahead of the incumbent mayor, Mike McGinn, 56 to 43 percent.

SEATTLE MAYORMike McGinn 43 percentEd Murray 56 percent

Murray is well-known as one of the architects of marriage equality in the Evergreen state and is himself married to a man, Michael Shiosaki, who appeared in his husband's television ads.

Congratulations, Seattle!

Saturday Politics: Racial Disparities Between Republican and Democrat U.S. House Districts

The above graphic explains why Members of Congress who are Republicans and Democrats have very different feelings about immigration reform and other issues. Republican Members of Congress represent congressional districts generally have more White people and fewer people of color than Democrats.

Eye Candy: Denham Ravi (black/white)

More images of the striking Denham Ravi, a successful 28-year-old Australian fitness model who was born in Sri Lanka. Unlike his two previous appearance as Eye Candy on this blog (March 23, 2009 and November 12, 2012),  these images are in black-and-white or sepia, but one is still able to appreciate his physical beauty.

Denham is on Facebook. I like, don't you?

Celebrity Friday: Li Na On Cover Of Time Magazine

Li Na has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine and chosen to be one of the 7 alternate covers for the special double issue of the news magazine. Chris Evert wrote the blurb about the 2011 French Open champion:

Li Na is a maverick. Who else would stand up to the centralized Chinese sports system as Li did, back in 2008, when she pushed for more control over her career? Li persuaded the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) to start the “fly alone” policy, which gives players more independence. Now they keep more of their money, giving just a fraction of their earnings to the CTA, compared with the bulk before. Rather than let the bureaucrats pick her coach, Li went with Jiang Shan, who is now her husband. Li has soared. She’s ranked fifth in the world and won the 2011 French Open, becoming the first Asian-born player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament.

Congratulations to Li Na!