Recommended reading about racism against Asian Americans

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and today’s political climate, there has been a surge of racism against Asian Americans. Books enable us to educate ourselves and expand our worldview. Below, we’ve compiled a few resources to help ourselves and our audiences grow in awareness and responsiveness to the discrimination faced by Asian Americans across the country and enact positive change in our communities.

Email us at bookfest@texasbookfestival.org if there are any additional resources we’ve missed that you think we should share.

No Good Very Bad Asian by Leland Cheuk

Join the world of the protagonist Sirius Lee, a fictive famous Chinese American comedian. This novel follows Sirius from his poor upbringing in the immigrant enclaves of Los Angeles to the loftiest heights of stardom as he struggles with substance abuse and persistent racism despite his fame. Ultimately, he must come to terms with who he is, where he came from, and the legacy he’ll leave behind.

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Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

Cathy Hong Park writes a breathtaking collection of personal essays based on her theory of “minor feelings” when American optimism contradicts your own reality – when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity.

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Yellow Peril! An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats

Two scholars examine one of the oldest racist concepts in Western culture.

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The Myth of the Model Minority by Rosalind S Chou and John R Feagin

Sociologists Rosalind Chou and Joe Feagin analyze Asian American racial stereotyping and discrimination.

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America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

Published in 1946, this semi-autobiographical novel shares the experiences of a Filipino American writer, immigrant, and member of the working class. This novel is about the United States in the 1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream.

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The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee

Award-winning historian Erika Lee presents the history of Asian American life in the United States.

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Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee

In Chang-Rae Lee’s debut novel, meet the protagonist Henry Park who tries to assimilate into American society. This novel is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

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All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

An incredible memoir of Chung’s adoption and her search for identity and family. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life. Yet as she grew older, she wondered if the myth was actually the truth.

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