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asukagoto's review
3.0
Like many other reviewers, I was misled by the title of this book. Few of the essays in this collection are about "yellow folk". In fact, there doesn't seem to be any connective thread weaving these pieces together; the book is simply a collection of essays that Yang wrote for various publications at various times. That said, I did find the book, from start to finish, engaging.
lucasmiller's review
4.0
Generally impressed with the writing throughout this. The title is obvious a joke, but it was still a little jarring that only the first section was focused on Yang's writing on Asian American identity.
I really enjoyed the central section of the book that showed off some really great feature writing. The essays on Aaron Swartz and on Francis Fukuyama were both really intriguing and thoughtful.
The final three essays, which amount to a very thoughtful challenge to modern trends in identity politics are intellectually rigorous, unpretentious, and very intriguing. Yang takes unpopular positions, and while I don't agree with him always, I want to understand him and think about his writing. Recommended.
I really enjoyed the central section of the book that showed off some really great feature writing. The essays on Aaron Swartz and on Francis Fukuyama were both really intriguing and thoughtful.
The final three essays, which amount to a very thoughtful challenge to modern trends in identity politics are intellectually rigorous, unpretentious, and very intriguing. Yang takes unpopular positions, and while I don't agree with him always, I want to understand him and think about his writing. Recommended.
ostrowk's review
4.0
"My interest has always been in the place where sex and race are both obscenely conspicuous and yet consciously suppressed, largely because of the liminal place that the Asian man occupies in the midst of it: an 'honorary white' person who will always be denied the full prerequisites of whiteness; an entitled man who will never quite be regarded or treated as a man; a nominal minority whose claim to be a 'person of color' deserving of the special regard reserved for victims is taken seriously by no one" (xiv).
"It's not an ugly face, not exactly; it's not a badly made face. It's just a face that has nothing to do with the desires of women in this country" (11).
"But those of us who have grown inured to life's quotidian brutalities—the ones we accept for ourselves and the ones we unthinkingly impose on others—should not be surprised that the young have a different sense of the possible than we do, or forget too readily what it was like before we were so inured" (197).
"But the manner in which activists are seeking to win a debate is not through scholarship, persuasion, and debate. It's through the subornation of administrative and disciplinary power to delegitimize, stigmatize, disqualify, surveil, forbid, shame, and punish holders of contrary views" (213).
THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK doesn't seem to get at the souls of yellow folk, a title (and book) that falls short of DuBois' legacy. Still, I was really compelled by Yang's writing and his preoccupations, even if I didn't always agree with him. I skipped a few essays in Part II, but I was otherwise really engaged in his profiles on Asian American men, reflections on contemporary love and dating, and think-pieces largely critical of the progressive left's resistance to so-called white supremacy.
"It's not an ugly face, not exactly; it's not a badly made face. It's just a face that has nothing to do with the desires of women in this country" (11).
"But those of us who have grown inured to life's quotidian brutalities—the ones we accept for ourselves and the ones we unthinkingly impose on others—should not be surprised that the young have a different sense of the possible than we do, or forget too readily what it was like before we were so inured" (197).
"But the manner in which activists are seeking to win a debate is not through scholarship, persuasion, and debate. It's through the subornation of administrative and disciplinary power to delegitimize, stigmatize, disqualify, surveil, forbid, shame, and punish holders of contrary views" (213).
THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK doesn't seem to get at the souls of yellow folk, a title (and book) that falls short of DuBois' legacy. Still, I was really compelled by Yang's writing and his preoccupations, even if I didn't always agree with him. I skipped a few essays in Part II, but I was otherwise really engaged in his profiles on Asian American men, reflections on contemporary love and dating, and think-pieces largely critical of the progressive left's resistance to so-called white supremacy.
koby's review against another edition
2.0
I was underwhelmed by this. Based on the title, I expected something closer to The Souls of Black Folks, but this wasn't it. Some of the essays are interesting, some I find repellent. I was also turned off by the focus on men in the essays.
breadsips's review
1.0
I’m sorry (not sorry). This is NOT the Asian answer to The Souls Of Black Folk: these are a set of polished essays from 2009 onwards that center on mostly antiquated and some thoroughly wrong-headed racial and social politics. At least two pieces are openly sympathetic to PUAs for eg. so: ZZZ.
veefuller's review
4.0
Gorgeous prose. Some important topics. I'm not sure I entirely agree with or even like some of the stuff Yang writes about. But, it's thought-provoking.