Asian-American Books

The Gulf War still draws our attention seven years after the American-led coalition achieved an apparently decisive victory over the Iraqi armed forces. This publicly announced triumph signified both a quick restabilization of Middle Eastern power politics as well as a revitalization of the United States' world mission after the end of the Cold War. Here was a victory that rapidly accomplished something. Today, this positive assessment demands reconsideration. We are presented almost on a daily basis with evidence of the continued solidity of Saddam Hussein's reign as Iraqi dictator, the renewed floundering of U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans and elsewhere, and the tragic implications of the so-called "mystery illnesses" experienced by Gulf War veterans. Perhaps the obvious question of what the Gulf War accomplished really leads to a deeper question: what was the conflict all about in the first place? A new coalition of scholarly essays edited by Paul Leslie probes the deeper meanings of the Gulf War in ways which neither the media nor our political leaders have apparently ever contemplated. The Gulf War as Popular Entertainment bursts forth in its very title as a book with a mission or as some might see it, a definite ax to grind. Leslie himself makes this clear in the book's preface, when he states that these writings "transcend sacred political lines of demarcation and offer unapologetic dessenting views"(vii). In short, not only do Leslie and his fellow authors offer scholarly interpretations of the Gulf War's societal dimensions, but they also court controversy in the name of public awareness. As one of the contributors, J. Timmons Roberts put it: "The exclusion of these issues from the realm of mainstream debate underlines the importance of sociology's role as society's watchdog"(53). One may not agree with the grandiose nature of this particular assertion, but it does indicate the boldness, indeed passion with which these scholars contend that the supposedly sacred cause of the Gulf War was actually a gigantic exercise in public manipulation. The first essay, written by Ali Kamali, looks at the truism that the Gulf War was not fought over hallowed principles, or even desert land, but instead the oil beneath the Kuwaiti sands. Kamali utilizes an impressive battery of statistics to demonstrate teh incredible stake the United States - and perhaps even more so its European allies - had in restoring not just the political but also the economic status quo in the Persian Gulf region. Kamali distills the essence of his argument into the culminating statement that the Allied coalition, carrying the banner of the New World Order "served as an instrument of the world's industrial powers"(11). Julia Burkart turns to the role of the media in mobilizing public support for the war as well as obscuring the real issues at work in the conflict, portraying military and political leaders as the real actors in this drama. She rather interestingly describes the press as essentially "a reactive institution, taking its cues from political authority"(20). Without questioning the recurrent chauvanistic impulses of the American people, Burkart continues her essentially "top-down" analysis by concluding that "the public was coached and misled by incomplete and slanted press coverage"(20). But if the American people receive partial victim status in this scenario, the real victims are, of course, the Iraqi people whom Allied weapons slaughtered, while American television audiences were lulled into a high-tech stupor. Burkart contends that in the representation of war as a video game "the serious business of war was trivialized into a game...carnage...had been deleted from this clean and righteous war"(28). Leslie's own article, co-written with Victor Archibong, deals with the oft-criticized military-industrial complex, and by going back to the Sixties has a deep historical resonance. Ex-president Dwight D. Eisenhower foretold in 1961 that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex" warning of a "disastrous rise of misplaced power"(33-34). "Ike's caveat," far from being the outburst of some anti-establishment leftist, was the sober reflection of a statesman and war hero, and a Republican to boot. Refuting the idea that defense industries foster economic presperity, Leslie and Archibong have determined that such a system of perpetual arms spending diverts public money and governmental energies away from problems of societal misery and hopelessness. And war itself appears as a useful siphoning off of social tensions, by giving jobs (as cannon fodder) to the under privileged. The authors are unsparing in their conclusion that "the conditions produced by the military-industrial complex foster a tacit conspiracy which leads us to armed conflict and maintains the system itself"(39). This idea of a "conspiracy" is more or less implicit in the other essays as well, but in most cases these social scientists tend to identify not active, conscious conspiracies of the Oliver Stone variety, but the more or less self-protective reflexes of entrenched systems and institutions. Finally, the earlier mentioned essay by Roberts more or less ties the first three essays together, offering a commentary mainly geared to those witin the sociological profession. Even the casual reader will find this last piece useful in that it tests and qualifies some of the assumptions raised by the earlier authors. And this critical stock taking also gives a sense of the animated discussion these papers no doubt generated when originally presented at a scholarly conference. Anyone who reads The Gulf War as Popular Entertainment will find it at turns engaging, enlightening, and perhaps infuriating. These pages contain no references to high-level Pentagon meetings, no dramatic images of F-16s taking off from carrier decks at dawn, and no glimpses at Scuds being intercepted just in the nick of time. We have already been treated to all that and more on CNN. What this book does offer is the controversial assertion that war itself is becoming part of a pseudo-participatory media spectacle substituting for the informed debate vital to any democracy's survival. Accordingly, this book merits attention.

These are poems that touch me deeply -- there's one in here that makes me cry every time: it's these lines

In this dream of the father that lasted forever,
my dad forgave me, and this time, I learned to forgive myself.

My rage then ceased to need a name.

A dream only becomes one
when you wake up.

This is a work with a lot of depth, filled with poems that bear reading many times with new insights revealed every time. Arguably, the best work Chin has published thus far. Highly recommended!

This here book is pretty good.

This unique book of text passages in a "cutout font" over illustrated collages is dedicated to the author's uncle, John Kang, and based on a New York Times article from June 1994. Mr Kang is having his 70th birthday party in New York City's Chinatown. There with his friends, family, and grandson, he makes three wishes: To read The New York Times every morning, to paint a poem each day, and to have his own caged hua mei bird, which will go with him every Sunday to Sara Delano Roosevelt Park. As the reader continues through the book, its story, poems, and its collages (one of a background of Chinese menus, another of alters, another of NYT newsprint, one of SDR Park), Sam is met. Sam, Mr Kang's grandson, comes to visit his grandparents for the weekend. On Sunday, he, his grandfather, the hua mei bird, and a warm cake from his grandmother make their way after dawn to the park. Soon there are 27 other caged bird there waiting to sing. Sam wonders whether it is right to keep the bird caged, just like grandpa was caged to his work before retirement. Will grandpa let the bird fly free? What do grandma and the retired men think? What does the hua mei bird desire? Read and discover.

Written by Timothy Liu, editor of "Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry", Hard Evidence is a unique and original collection of free-form verse concerning such matters as finding manifestations of holiness in earthly things, gay sexuality, and the cruel legacy of the virus that causes AIDS. Hard evidence is eye-opening, thought-provoking poetry that flows from page to page, almost as if all part of one grand poem. Binoculars left in the backseat/of your car. Tread marks leading/to a flattened toad with flies/crawling over it. Those pagodas/in the distance somehow made/a difference - joss sticks stuck/in giant urns burnishing in the air.

A young boy's Korean grandmother comes to live with them in America.Mike's grandmother is always thinking and dreaming of her life back in Korea. Mike's family owns a food cart that they bring out and park at the corner of the park. They sell Bagels, OJ, Hot Dogs, chips, soda and pizza at their cart. Soon other carts come and sell the same kinds of things that Mike's family's cart sells. With too much competition they sell less food and wonder what they can keep their cart.

One evening while cooking dinner with is grandmother they come up with a terrific idea, Grandma and Mike get up early and make Korean food and when his parents wake up they tell them that today we have a new menu, we're going to sell Korean food today. Mike draws a sign that says Have a good Day Cafe for their food cart.

I like on the very last page they have Learn about the Koren Words in this story. They show the Korean writing and also how to pronounce the words as well as the Korean dishes.

It's some very nice translations of original Chinese texts with good intros to set the stage and give some background of what you're about to read. And each text is properly referenced so one can understand context better. A really quite fascinating look and Chinese history and culture though the ages in, more or less, their own words.

Through essential imagery and intelligent word craft, Dr. David Rosen, Joel Weishaus, and illustrator Arthur Okamura have co-created a profoundly reflective work that is housed within the subtle, delicate lacework of human mystery as it is captured in glimpses by this seasoned collaboration of poets and artists. Because this is a collaborative work, we see not only an individual human path through haiku, but how these separate individual paths inform a higher mystery as they converge, separate, fall into sync, compliment one another, press each other into further discovery. This is a book to be read and reread, straight through or in bits and pieces, to thumb through over morning tea, close your eyes and point to a haiku to meditate with during the day.

Most significant to me is the authors' meditation not only on haiku as a poetic form, but as a means of healing. These poets offer individual testimony of moments of archetypal breadth that are captured through the expansive snapshot of haiku, from the pangs of the death of ego to the surrender of the death of loved ones; and how a plate of pancakes can remind us of old wisdom.

This is a very intense an natural writting by a major artist and by the way saddly unknown , a painter, philosopher and writter.Also A peace seeker. Hope and wisdom , liked with a mixed look for the soul of the things , The inner side , not the outside. Extraordinary

Diane Fujino accurately captures the strife of social injustices perpetrated by a nation that was and is still very much controlled by those who harbor deep rooted, yet carefully concealed, racist values. This is a fascinating read that follows the life of Yuri Kochiyama who was changed from an American with unquestioning loyalty to her country, into a TRUE American who stands up for the those persecuted in this nation for nothing more than belonging to a non-white race. Yuri was driven to question authority and speak out aganist the social injustices that had been all around her yet unnoticed until the bombing of Pearl Harbor highilghted the government sanctioned racism and unjustified persecution of her family and friends of Asian descent. This book applies every bit today as it did then.
A great read!