Compelling history

Compelling history

Compelling history

As someone who has taught and written about Asian American literature for decades I am in awe of many works, but few could resonate with me (a Hong Konger of Cantonese descent) as much as Fae Myenne Ng's ORPHAN BACHELORS. I am agog at the scene about the father traveling to HK by sea to obtain snake gall (used in TCM) to cure his wife's sickness—the kind of searing detail FMG could etch into the reader’s consciousness. The context: the mother was traumatized upon witnessing a grandfather who’d hanged himself in a hotel room. The father, a seaman of lowly rank with 95 relations to care for, sneaked out when the ship was docked in HK harbor to obtain the potent cure to restore his wife’s courage. A virtuoso nonverbal expression of affection peculiar to outwardly brash and raucous Cantonese, especially telling in a couple that could never stop bickering.A must-read for anyone interested in learning the personal repercussions of the Asian Exclusion Laws and the relentless persecution of Chinese immigrants during the Red Scare, in writing aching prose that zips and zooms with Cantonese cadence and humor, or in appreciating the heroic Cantonese American tradition. This historically informed yet intimate memoir pulsates with the author’s big heart, and that of her extensive family. (One of the brothers died, incidentally, of a “big heart.”)No less precious is the wisdom that transpires. May we all savor life like that brother’s pet tortoises—taan sai gaai—a Cantonese idiom that defies translation, even into Mandarin; literally, “bask in the cosmos.” King-Kok Cheung

As someone who has taught and written about Asian American literature for decades I am in awe of many works, but few could resonate with me (a Hong Konger of Cantonese descent) as much as Fae Myenne Ng's ORPHAN BACHELORS. I am agog at the scene about the father traveling to HK by sea to obtain snake gall (used in TCM) to cure his wife's sickness—the kind of searing detail FMG could etch into the reader’s consciousness. The context: the mother was traumatized upon witnessing a grandfather who’d hanged himself in a hotel room. The father, a seaman of lowly rank with 95 relations to care for, sneaked out when the ship was docked in HK harbor to obtain the potent cure to restore his wife’s courage. A virtuoso nonverbal expression of affection peculiar to outwardly brash and raucous Cantonese, especially telling in a couple that could never stop bickering.A must-read for anyone interested in learning the personal repercussions of the Asian Exclusion Laws and the relentless persecution of Chinese immigrants during the Red Scare, in writing aching prose that zips and zooms with Cantonese cadence and humor, or in appreciating the heroic Cantonese American tradition. This historically informed yet intimate memoir pulsates with the author’s big heart, and that of her extensive family. (One of the brothers died, incidentally, of a “big heart.”)No less precious is the wisdom that transpires. May we all savor life like that brother’s pet tortoises—taan sai gaai—a Cantonese idiom that defies translation, even into Mandarin; literally, “bask in the cosmos.” King-Kok Cheung