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A review by mandirigma
The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays by Wesley Yang
2.0
This is a collection of Wesley Yang's previously published work, which wouldn't have been a bad thing, but the content really underdelivered on the promise of the title and introduction. I had expected essays on race and specifically on the Asian American experience, or even something vaguely reminiscent of DuBois and I got none of that.
Part I did profile some Asian American figures, including Seung-Hui Cho, Amy Chua, and Eddie Huang. Parts II and III were a bunch of profiles on white men, Francis Fukuyama, and the dating scene, a few of which I had to skim through (and I could not bring myself to read the essay on pickup artists, sorry). Part IV was the only section about race, but it was specifically about whiteness and written for a white audience.
I think most readers would say strongest essay in the volume is the one on Cho, though it was written/published a whole decade ago, and some of the implications made in the essay don't sit well with me in 2019 (the book, in general, seems to uphold the status quo on men/masculinity/male gaze). I actually really enjoyed his piece on Chua and Asian American overachievement, but I was surprised that, throughout the rest of the book, Yang really doesn't reference any other contemporary Asian American writers, or even Asian American studies as a discipline. It should also be noted that with the exception of Chua, women are largely absent from this book.
I would've given the book three stars if not for Part IV. I don't know if this is fair but it's my GR account, and the essays on whiteness felt like a total bait-and-switch on the title. In the earlier essays of the book, he seems to want to stand out from other Asian Americans, but he doesn't really interrogate Asian Americanness or what it is he wants to stand out from beyond busting out of the model minority myth and just not rocking the boat in the workplace. Which are all things that have already been written about and deconstructed at length by other Asian American scholars.
And yet, his essays on whiteness are highly critical of the language of social justice and tactics to combat racism outside of academia without just saying outright that he thinks Black Lives Matter maybe needs to cool it. What he seems to be saying in his final essays is that young people are too easily outraged, that critical race theory is better suited for academia than Twitter, and that if everything is white supremacy then nothing is white supremacy. Which is totally not what I would have expected of a book titled, "The Souls of Yellow Folk."
Part I did profile some Asian American figures, including Seung-Hui Cho, Amy Chua, and Eddie Huang. Parts II and III were a bunch of profiles on white men, Francis Fukuyama, and the dating scene, a few of which I had to skim through (and I could not bring myself to read the essay on pickup artists, sorry). Part IV was the only section about race, but it was specifically about whiteness and written for a white audience.
I think most readers would say strongest essay in the volume is the one on Cho, though it was written/published a whole decade ago, and some of the implications made in the essay don't sit well with me in 2019 (the book, in general, seems to uphold the status quo on men/masculinity/male gaze). I actually really enjoyed his piece on Chua and Asian American overachievement, but I was surprised that, throughout the rest of the book, Yang really doesn't reference any other contemporary Asian American writers, or even Asian American studies as a discipline. It should also be noted that with the exception of Chua, women are largely absent from this book.
I would've given the book three stars if not for Part IV. I don't know if this is fair but it's my GR account, and the essays on whiteness felt like a total bait-and-switch on the title. In the earlier essays of the book, he seems to want to stand out from other Asian Americans, but he doesn't really interrogate Asian Americanness or what it is he wants to stand out from beyond busting out of the model minority myth and just not rocking the boat in the workplace. Which are all things that have already been written about and deconstructed at length by other Asian American scholars.
And yet, his essays on whiteness are highly critical of the language of social justice and tactics to combat racism outside of academia without just saying outright that he thinks Black Lives Matter maybe needs to cool it. What he seems to be saying in his final essays is that young people are too easily outraged, that critical race theory is better suited for academia than Twitter, and that if everything is white supremacy then nothing is white supremacy. Which is totally not what I would have expected of a book titled, "The Souls of Yellow Folk."