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The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker
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The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker Paperback - 1999

by Eric Liu

One of the youngest speech writers to have written for President Clinton reflects on his life as a second-generation Chinese American, in this unique memoir "suffused with smarts, elegance, and warmth" ("Time").


From the publisher

Beyond black and white, native and alien, lies a vast and fertile field of human experience. It is here that Eric Liu, former speechwriter for President Clinton and noted political commentator, invites us to explore. In these compellingly candid essays, Liu reflects on his life as a second-generation Chinese American and reveals the shifting frames of ethnic identity. Finding himself unable to read a Chinese memorial book about his father's life, he looks critically at the cost of his own assimilation. But he casts an equally questioning eye on the effort to sustain vast racial categories like "Asian American." And as he surveys the rising anxiety about China's influence, Liu illuminates the space that Asians have always occupied in the American imagination. Reminiscent of the work of James Baldwin and its unwavering honesty, The Accidental Asian introduces a powerful and elegant voice into the discussion of what it means to be an American.

First line

Be my bed, gathering a little dust now, I'm afraid, is a small paperback book.

Details

  • Title The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker
  • Author Eric Liu
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition New title
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Vintage, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
  • Date September 7, 1999
  • ISBN 9780375704864 / 0375704868
  • Weight 0.52 lbs (0.24 kg)
  • Dimensions 8 x 5.24 x 0.58 in (20.32 x 13.31 x 1.47 cm)
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - General
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - Chinese
  • Library of Congress subjects United States - Race relations, Chinese Americans
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

“Eric Liu has written a powerful memoir, a memoir that renders the Asian American experience with a depth and a passion reminiscent of Richard Wright's Black Boy. It is a major contribution to the literature that defines what it means to be an American.”
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“A unique-and uniquely American-memoir, suffused with smarts, elegance, and warmth.”
Time

“More than a reminiscence of growing up Asian in America, it is an homage to Liu's Chineseness, and to America.”
Los Angeles Times

“Wonderfully spirited. . . . Remarkable in its adamant refusal to buy into the party line of identity politics . . . Liu is fair to all sides of any issues he discusses.”
The New York Times Book Review

Citations

  • Ingram Advance, 08/01/1999, Page 84
  • New York Times, 08/08/1999, Page 24

About the author

Eric Liu is a fellow at the New America Foundation and a contributor to Slate and MSNBC. A former speechwriter for President Clinton, he founded The Next Progressive, an acclaimed journal of opinion, and edited the anthology Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation.
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