The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker - Hardcover

Liu, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679448624 ISBN 13: 9780679448624

Publisher: Random House Inc, 1998

Synopsis

A young former speechwriter for President Clinton and the child of Chinese immigrants explores the place of Asian Americans in contemporary American politics and society, the nature of race, and the price of assimilation. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Liu, twenty-nine, has been a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and a commentator for MSNBC. A regular contributor to Slate, <br>he has also written for The Washington <br>Post Magazine and USA Weekend. After founding The Next Progressive, an acclaimed journal of opinion, he edited the anthology Next: <br>Young American Writers on the New Generation. He is a graduate of Yale College and is now enrolled at Harvard Law School.

From the Inside Flap

for? That bracing question animates every page of The Accidental Asian, a powerful work from one<br> of the nation's leading young voices. In these personal and poignant reflections on assimilation,<br> Eric Liu articulates a vision of American identity that will provoke and inspire. For Liu, the price of<br> assimilation became clear when he tried to read a memorial book about his father's life, composed in Chinese, <br>and found himself staring at a blur of indecipherable characters. There in his hands was the measure of his <br>inheritance. Liu, meanwhile, has watched with both wonder and concern as a pan-ethnic Asian American <br>identity has taken shape. Here now is a race that offers a new source of roots--but also tightens the hold that <br>color has upon our minds.<br>Like so many in the second generation, Liu doesn't know whether to embrace, resist, or redefine assimilation--<br>and ends up doing all three at once. He

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679448624
• ISBN 13: 9780679448624
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 206