The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In - Hardcover

Rekdal, Paisley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375409378 ISBN 13: 9780375409370

Publisher: Pantheon, 2000

Synopsis

"Witty, original, and authentic. A fresh,
young Chinese-American voice."
--Adeline Yen Mah,
author of Falling Leaves

As the daughter of a Chinese-American mother and a Norwegian father, Paisley Rekdal grew up wondering where she fit in. The essays in this, her shimmering nonfiction debut, tackle thorny issues--race and identity politics, interracial desire, what it means to be a "hyphenated American"--with a fresh, feisty, and very funny new perspective.

Rekdal's family history is, as she describes it, "complicated and vaguely dangerous," and at the center of this strange world is her mother--a smart, stubborn, complex woman who adores her daughter. Rekdal exposes the foibles of family, friends, and lovers, but never spares herself, capturing both global and personal struggles with a critical, compassionate and humorous lens. The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee flows effortlessly from stunning cultural observation to a recollection of an embarrassing travel anecdote. Her destinations vary widely--a classroom in South Korea, a Japanese family's living room, Main Street in Natchez, Mississippi, a Taipei shopping mall, a beach in the Philippines, and even her own bedroom. In each, she explores the vast differences between cultures, the feeling of being an outsider, the constant battle to understand and be understood.

The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee proves that shifting the frames of identity can be tricky, exhilarating--and revelatory.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee is an honest, intelligent book. It makes us feel and see the complicated and violent nature of the issue of race and identity. Paisley Rekdal writes with eloquence, liveliness, and poignancy--a truly impressive achievement."
-- Ha Jin

"Paisley Rekdal is the sort of observer we should all wish for: disarming, frank, and intelligent. This self-portrait--refreshingly non-PC--shows that she is a talented writer too. In setting out to explore three realms--China, Japan, and Korea--she ends up learning much about another one: herself."
-- Arthur Golden

"Paisley Rekdal has taken that universal question--Who am I?--and added to it another dimension: What am I? She has looked in the mirror, as well as the world around her, to examine issues of identity, ethnicity, culture and race. No polemics here, just observations and experiences of the most personal kind. And she's funny too!"
-- Lisa See, author of On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year        Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

From the Inside Flap:

When you come from a mixed race background as Paisley Rekdal does -- her mother is Chinese American and her father is Norwegian- thorny issues of identity politics, and interracial desire are never far from the surface. Here in this hypnotic blend of personal essay and travelogue, Rekdal journeys throughout Asia to explore her place in a world where one's "appearance is the deciding factor of one's ethnicity."
In her soul-searching voyage, she teaches English in South Korea where her native colleagues call her a "hermaphrodite," and is dismissed by her host family in Japan as an American despite her assertion of being half-Chinese. A visit to Taipei with her mother, who doesn't know the dialect, leads to the bitter realization that they are only tourists, which makes her further question her identity. Written with remarkable insight and clarity, Rekdal a poet whose fierce lyricism is apparent on every page, demonstrates that the shifting frames of identity can be as tricky as they are exhilarating.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375409378
• ISBN 13: 9780375409370
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224