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Reviews
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Philip Wang, Jeff Yang, Phil Yu
natncho's review
5.0
Loved this. The audiobook was fun. I want to buy it to see the illustrations. And I want a Canadian version!
ninakeller's review
5.0
What a brilliant, comprehensive compilation and important record of the past 30 years of Asian American contributions to history, culture, the political landscape, arts, commerce, lifestyle, everything. I learned a lot and was moved by the call to action to actively reject white supremacy on the spirit of liberation and solidarity. I finished this book just on time, as I have the privilege of seeing coauthor Phil Wang speak at an event tomorrow evening.
mugglemom's review
3.0
Overall, this is a great book with lots to discuss, and be proud of but at the same time, there are many incidents not given any air time, so I'm not sure what to make of this because I reasonably know that not everything can be addressed but...
Reread the physical book because of the graphics.
Ugh, I don't recommend the ebook because a lot of what I want to highlight is in the graphics
The index is jacked - it lists BTS once but BTS references are on a few pages-- just one example.
Highly recommend the audiobook AND, so important, and the book together- because the listeners are unaware that the narrator(s) may be verbalizing a graphic panel you have the ebook or physical
Reread the physical book because of the graphics.
Ugh, I don't recommend the ebook because a lot of what I want to highlight is in the graphics
The index is jacked - it lists BTS once but BTS references are on a few pages-- just one example.
Highly recommend the audiobook AND, so important, and the book together- because the listeners are unaware that the narrator(s) may be verbalizing a graphic panel you have the ebook or physical
tracithomas's review
4.0
So smart and fun and a great look into Asian America. I loved the tone and sections. The illustrations, syllabi, and recurring segments held the book together. I really appreciated the interviews they got. It was lacking a bit in intersectionality and I wished there had been more diversity in the nationalities featured. It was a bit long and repetitive toward the end.
sophiachenggg's review
5.0
“It says, ‘You’re never going to be the hero. We cannot relate to you. You’re always going to just be the sidekick in our stories or a trigger for our feelings.’”
dkai's review
5.0
There are plenty of nitpicks one could have (most of which probably stem from having three east Asian men as the curators), but overall the book does a great job at what it sets out to do: providing an overview of mainstream Asian American cultural history by decade in an engaging way. The way it is broken up into bite size pieces (e.g. interviews, comics, charts, essays) made it a perfect breakfast/snack read for me (and kept it engaging - looking at you, art history textbooks). Handy reference material to keep around that can also inspire deeper looks into its many subjects.
livrad's review
4.0
4.5
Following the lifting of Asian immigration bans and/or strict quotas with the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, the concept of being "Asian-American"--as opposed from ethnically hailing from a specific nation--was born out of Vietnam War and Third World Liberation protests with the AAPA (Asian-American Political Alliance) in 1968. This self-naming with a common identity was a move to banish the slur terms forced upon them (Mongoloids, Orientals, Asiatics, etc.). RISE looks at the coming of age of the children who were born after that first AAPA generation, or as the authors joked, what happened between The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians.
The book explores the creation of a cultural infrastructure when, for a time, being just a tiny minority, but one who was uniquely abused by American history. (Chinese were the only group ever prohibited from the U.S. based on race with the Chinese Exclusion Act; the mass incarceration of the Japanese and Japanese Americans during WWII; Indian Americans ineligible for citizenship due to being "Caucasian" but "not white"; Filipino Americans the only group of veterans denied federal benefits.) It looks at when "inclusion can turn to erasure" with the current lumping term of "Asian American and Pacific Islander" (AAPI) and how the immigrant story always overpowers the indigenous story and ignores the historic role of colonialism. The book also does a cultural deep dive into the movies, tv shows, sports and political figures, and literary works that have informed the collective understanding of Asian America. At almost 500 pages, it tries to touch on as much of Asian American culture as it can.
This history moves past the debut of Crazy Rich Asians into the fallout of COVID and the label "China virus," to the emergence of several Asian Marvel superheroes and what it means to see powerful representation. Expressed in charts, interviews, infographics, essays, flowcharts, comics, profiles, letters, timelines, lists, and illustrations, RISE is both incredibly informative and entertaining.
Following the lifting of Asian immigration bans and/or strict quotas with the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, the concept of being "Asian-American"--as opposed from ethnically hailing from a specific nation--was born out of Vietnam War and Third World Liberation protests with the AAPA (Asian-American Political Alliance) in 1968. This self-naming with a common identity was a move to banish the slur terms forced upon them (Mongoloids, Orientals, Asiatics, etc.). RISE looks at the coming of age of the children who were born after that first AAPA generation, or as the authors joked, what happened between The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians.
The book explores the creation of a cultural infrastructure when, for a time, being just a tiny minority, but one who was uniquely abused by American history. (Chinese were the only group ever prohibited from the U.S. based on race with the Chinese Exclusion Act; the mass incarceration of the Japanese and Japanese Americans during WWII; Indian Americans ineligible for citizenship due to being "Caucasian" but "not white"; Filipino Americans the only group of veterans denied federal benefits.) It looks at when "inclusion can turn to erasure" with the current lumping term of "Asian American and Pacific Islander" (AAPI) and how the immigrant story always overpowers the indigenous story and ignores the historic role of colonialism. The book also does a cultural deep dive into the movies, tv shows, sports and political figures, and literary works that have informed the collective understanding of Asian America. At almost 500 pages, it tries to touch on as much of Asian American culture as it can.
This history moves past the debut of Crazy Rich Asians into the fallout of COVID and the label "China virus," to the emergence of several Asian Marvel superheroes and what it means to see powerful representation. Expressed in charts, interviews, infographics, essays, flowcharts, comics, profiles, letters, timelines, lists, and illustrations, RISE is both incredibly informative and entertaining.