Once I pick up a book to read, it is hard for me to put it down. Although I have been busy with activities on campus since attending college, I was still able to read some works on my bucket list during spring break. Below are my three favorite that offered me an escape from those challenging days before midterm season.
1. “Who’s Irish?” by Gish Jen.
“In China, daughter take care of mother. Here it is the way around. Mother help daughter, mother ask, Anything else I can do? Otherwise daughter complain mother is not supportive. I tell daughter, We do not have this word in Chinese, supportive.”
“Who’s Irish?” is the short story written by Gish Jen, which is in Jen’s short story collection of the same name. It is narrated by a grandmother, who is a first-generation Chinese American immigrant. The story explores the relationship between her and her family members, especially with her daughter who is accustomed to American culture, and with her granddaughter who is mixed American-Chinese. The cultural clash between her and her family is most notably illustrated by the way American and Chinese families work through cross-cultural parenting methods. Although brief (just seven pages long), the story imparts to the readers insights into dual identities that leave them pondering the reconciliation between first-generation and second-generation immigrants in a family. What also grasped my attention is the use of incorrect grammar that was incorporated smoothly to narrate the story, which makes it unique and further highlights the grandmother’s difference.
2. “Sweetheart Sorrow” by David Hoon Kim (The New Yorker, June 2007).
“To anyone seeing me walking around in Paris, I probably look about as Scandinavian as the Emperor Hirohito, even if the only thing I am able to say in Japanese is “I don’t speak Japanese.” I am unable to pronounce the name of the city where I was born.”
Narrated by a Danish-Japanese graduate student who lives in Paris to help a French scientist translate his work, “Sweetheart Sorrow” brings readers into a multicultural atmosphere that sometimes intertwines with little Danish and French languages, and a tad bit of Japanese culture. In Paris, the narrator involves in a romantic relationship with Fumiko, who has recently locked herself in a room for weeks. Love is the major theme in this short story; however, the story is quite disturbing towards the ending (not a spoiler here, just a disclaimer). Nevertheless, I was drawn more into how the main character struggles with his Scandinavian persona and how others perceive him, namely that people in Paris labeled him as “not looking Scandinavian enough.”
3. Helios:Femina by Michelle Phan.
Comics are not my cup of tea, but I have been Michelle Phan’s biggest fan since 2012. Therefore, I would not miss the chance to read Helios:Femina, a comic written and illustrated by her, and also by some other artists. Michelle Phan, our pioneering YouTube beauty queen, ventured beyond the beauty realm and debuted her digital comic Helios:Femina on Webtoon in 2016. With Phan’s and other artists’ creative minds, you will be transported to another universe that is breathtakingly surreal with one-of-a-kind living creatures and galaxies. The story is set in the dark future, following the adventure of a young girl named Rhea Oribel, who has no knowledge about her birthright. Courageous and strong-minded when confronting endless challenges that impose danger on her friends, Rhea is an inspiration of feminist empowerment, which is also the central theme in Helios:Femina.
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