The Big Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Chinese-American and Japanese-American Literature

by Frank Chin and Jeffery Paul Chan

Book Overview

An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature When the first volume of this collection of Asian American literature appeared in 1974, it showed readers the roots and the richness of Chinese American and Japanese American writing. The authors called their anthology Aiiieeeee because that was the shout, the scream, often the only sound coming from the yellow man or woman in American movies, television, or comic books. But as that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452010764
• ISBN13: 9780452010765
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Plume
• Length: 636 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.3" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Ground Breaking!

You guys should make an effort to buy this book (if it's still around). In it, the editors expose "Asian American" authors who thought it best to represent Asian Americans by making them love "white America" in spite of their own Asian culture! For instance, Pardee Lowe has an aversion toward the tong his father is in; and in order to keep him from these "heathen chinese" he helps convert his father into Christianity (this nation's prevalent religion). You will also learn how subtle racist figures like Charlie Chan represent what whites perceive as Asianness. Bear in mind, the editors are not segregating the term Asian to mean just Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Rather, they are merely using Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino literature to convey (this is a part of their argument) that these different subgroups (and then some) within Asia America were not (and are not) assimilated (they did not hate their own culture to show their patriotism toward America). They open their book with "Asian Americans are not one people but several - Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans." They are not saying "Asian Americans are not one people but only three..." And, yes, I've met Asian Americans who are just as biased as white people, but this isn't the case that the editors are making (nor are they this way). Really, all they are doing is challenging the subtle racist stereotypical view whites have of Asians (which is a prevalent view). Some of you may not know what a stereotype of an Asian person is! Why not find out how REAL Asians are by reading this masterpiece.

The editors say

"Our anthology is exclusively Asian American. That means Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese Americans, American born and raised, who got their China and Japan from the radio, off the silver screen, from television, out of comic books, from the pushers of white American culture that pictured the yellow man as something that when wounded, sad, or angry, or swearing, or wondering whined, shouted, or screamed "aiiieeeee!" Asian America, so long ignored and forcibly excluded from creative participation in American culture, is wounded, sad, angry, swearing, and wondering, and this is his AIIIEEEEE!!! It is more than a whine, shout, or scream. It is fifty years of our whole voice."Finally, an anthology of Asian Americans who've stayed unassimilated in a white supremacist society. Thus angering white men (like Earl Derr Biggers and Sax Rohmer) to denigrate Asians into gross depictions like Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, Suzie Wong, etc. Much debate and controversy came from this book, which should cause you to buy it. Some Asians who have sold out to the stereotypes (Asians like Leong Gor Yun, C.Y. Lee, Yung Wing, Lin Yutang, Calvin Lee, Betty Lee Sung) are doing everything they can to keep this book from being purchased (see my review of the June 1974 Aiiieeeee! edition). Funny, it seems that has done nothing more but up the sales of this important book. In failing to do so, these same Asians have tried to ruin the reputation of these editors. Either way, this book stands strong and unrefuted.

Women, hear this

People have tried to censor Frank Chin (and editors) because he doesn't believe in revising an important Chinese fairy tale: Fa Mulan. Who has? Maxine Hong Kingston. What did she do? She made Fa Mulan a victim of Chinese males! This outrage has made Asian males look like misogynists, and Kingston (along with all the feminists who support her) is guilty of this. People say that Fa Mulan has gone through so many interpretations that it wouldn't be fair to just pinpoint one way of seeing her. Granted, but no where in the tale would you see Fa Mulan a victim of Chinese males. Fa Mulan is one of the best examples of what it means to be Chinese and Kingston (and others) ruined it! If it's okay to revise fairy tales because they have so many interpretations, is it okay to make the wolf from the Three Little Pigs a vegetarian?

Are you a fan of...

...Amy Tan, David Henry Hwang, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gish Jen, or Jade Snow Wong (and then some!)? YOU BETTER READ THIS BOOK! These people have reinvented Asian literature that have sold out to the Christian (and for that matter Darwinian) white-racist-stereotypical form of Asian writing. You'll read it all in this book, and it is disturbing to say the least. The editors of THE BIG AIIIEEEEE! shows how these authors hate what is Chinese and invent a fake history that appease the white racist way.

This book cannot be ignored!

I think the first essay "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake" (by Frank Chin), alone, is worth the price of this important book. Here Chin states: "(Maxine Hong) Kingston, (David Henry) Hwang, and (Amy) Tan are the first writers of any race, and certainly the first writers of Asian ancestry, to so boldly fake the best-known works from the most universally known body of Asian literature and lore in history. And, to legitimize their faking, they have to fake all of Asian American history and literature, and argue that the immigrants who settled and established Chinese America lost touch with Chinese culture, and that a faulty memory combined with new experience produced new versions of these traditional stories. This version of history is their contribution to the stereotype (p.3)."What are these stereotypes?"The first yellows came to America with no intention of settling(p.9)." "Chinese and Japanese culture are so misogynistic they don't deserve to survive (p.9)." "Asian culture is anti-individualistic, mystic, passive, collective, and morally and ethically oppostie to Western culture (p.9)."Whether you agree with Chin (or the editors/authors) or not, this book has serious claims that cannot be ignored. Bear in mind though, this is not a highly academic or scholarly piece of work. It's simplicity is there because the book was intended to INTRODUCE people to issues in Chinese and Japanese culture and to their literature (it's not a "say-all, end-all" dictum). Why are there more male authors than female authors? Well, why not? I hope this isn't a sneaky way of accusing the editors of being misogynistic! I mean, it's insulting to claim that they are the very thing they are avoiding. Besides, if they were misogynistic, why do they have female authors in this book? Asian Americans will find themselves angy, passionate, and shameless. Non-asians will gain a vicissitude and true information of our history and culture. For instance, Chin states:"The yellows were not sojourners. The proof: tongs. Chinese and Japanese culture are not more misogynistic than Western culture. The proof: Chinese and Japanese childhood literature, and history. Asian culture is more, not less, individualistic than Western culture. The proof: Asian childhood literature and history (p.9)"Where do these stereotypes come from? "...from pure white racist fantasy and wishful thinking born of white racial self-contempt (p.9)."Read this book and see if you're contributing to the Asian American stereotype or not! After reading it, you'd probably find yourself screaming "NO WAY!", instead of "AIIIEEEEE!"