A review by stephenmeansme
Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology by Charles Tan

2.0

The emphasis was definitely more on "Filipino-Chinese" than "speculative fiction" - even taking a broad definition of spec fic, the genre of most of the stories seemed firmly in fantasy (or horror), where the fantastic elements were even treated as more than symbolism. On the cultural side, it's definitely interesting to see a different perspective, but I would be curious to know what people of Filipino-Chinese descent think of the stories - is so much of "Filipino-Chinese"-ness centered around attending Grandma's funeral, for example? Or Dad being very angry if you marry someone who isn't also Chinese? Or the Catholic-Chinese-traditional syncretism? I think so many of the stories just sort of bounced off me because they didn't seem to be elevating these cultural tropes much beyond their real-world setting (compare to something like Kai Ashante Wilson's use of African-American Vernacular English in THE SORCERER OF THE WILDEEPS, or Afrofuturism more generally; heck, even Yoon Ha Lee's Koreanisms in DRAGON PEARL).

2.5 stars rounded down. This is probably of interest if you're looking for a sampler of Filipino-Chinese fiction, but as a genre collection I don't think it lives up to its potential.