Product Description

The dragon, a symbol of Asian art and mythology, appears in many guises and is always adaptable -- a survivor par excellence. Asian Americans display this same supple strength as they move between their Asian culture and their American one.

In American Dragons, Laurence Yep brings together twenty-five talented writers, each with a different story about the Asian American experience:

- A Chinese American girl struggles to find her place in a suburban high school without denying her true intelligence.

- A young woman is torn when her romantic feelings clash with the expectations of her Vietnamese parents.

- A twenty-first-century teenager and his aging grandfather learn that it is possible to live in the future without losing touch with the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #916809 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08-24
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .38 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"If there is one animal that is synonymous with Asian mythology and art--and the heart--it is the dragon," writes Yep ( The Rainbow People , Drag on wings ), who adds that when Asians came to America, "these dragons left their tracks as they wandered into . . . that vast psychological wilderness created by the American Dream." His enlightening anthology of 25 stories, poems and essays by Asian Americans delves deeply, examining the inner lives of young people with roots in Japan, China, India, Korea and Southeast Asia. Selections are set in the past and future as well as in the present, and nearly all raise questions about identity as protagonists choose to preserve or reject the values of their ancestors. For example, in "Who's Hu?" by Lensey Namioka, a Korean math wiz discovers that being true to herself is more important than gaining popularity by playing the role of an all-American girl. In "Rain Music," Longhang Nguyen traces the emotional pain of a Vietnamese girl who fulfills her parents' dream instead of her own desires. Relationships between adolescents and their parents, grandparents and peers remain a central focus throughout this volume. Arranged thematically in five sections accompanied by brief and eloquent commentaries by the editor, these writings speak to both Asian Americans and the general population; accordingly, they preserve and promote tolerance for minority cultures. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-- A well-known Chinese-American writer for young people presents the work of 24 Asian-Americans in this collection of short stories, poems, and one dramatic monologue. The contributors represent various ancestral countries: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and Tibet. Some were students in Yep's creative writing classes in Asian-American studies, taught at the University of California. Others were known for a body of published work. Unfortunately, some of the stories are neither well conceived nor well crafted. Despite its unevenness, the collection is valuable both for its new voices and for the old ones drawn from hard-to-find sources. A kaleidoscopic, occasionally brilliant, illumination of the Asian-American experience. --Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A much-needed (if uneven) collection of stories and poems plus an excerpt from a one-man show, developed while Yep taught in Asian-American studies at the University of California. Most of the authors will be unknown to young people; notable are Maxine Hong Kingston and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The pieces are grouped by theme: the dilemma of identity; parents; WW II and Japanese-American experiences; attitudes toward love; relationships with grandparents. While the focus is generally on young Asian-Americans living in two cultures, the point of view is most often adult and retrospective. Most memorable may be Lensey Namioka's Emma Wu, a high-school math whiz whose chief competitor offers to take her to a prom if she'll drop out of a prestigious statewide competition. Steve Chan-No Yoon's ``Stop Light'' describes a fantasy date in delightful detail, while William F. Wu's ``Black Powder'' addresses family traditions in a futuristic space station. An afterword and brief bibliography suggest readings in Asian-American history and literature plus materials with guidelines for evaluating stories about Asian- American children. (Anthology. YA+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.