While I liked some of these essays, including the last one “What is White Supremacy”, my main problem with this collection is that my expectations were disappointed. That is primarily the fault of the totally misleading title of the book. I wanted some analysis of race from the point of view of Asian Americans. Instead I got a bunch of rambling essays, most of which were not about Asian Americans at all. It’s also a very male-oriented book. For example, instead of just describing a a training course dedicated to teaching Asian American men how to pick up white women, he might have interviewed a few Asian American (or white) women to get their views on the course. However for the most part women are silent in these essays. This book was not what I was looking for and ripping off the title of a great book is kind of insulting. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK by Wesley Yang is a collection of 13 previously published essays, primarily about race. Yang short works have appeared in a variety of publications, including New York Times, Harper's and New York Magazine. One powerful piece is "Paper Tigers" which responds in rather vulgar language to a list of Asian values like filial piety, deference to authority, and hard work supplied by Yang. A few of the recent compositions also refer to race, but several others (e.g., on internet dating or Tony Judt's battles with ALS) in the collection do not. This is a potential weakness which I think limits the appeal and usefulness of this collection for our student researchers even though THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK did receive a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Based on the title I was expecting the book to be completely about Asians and Asian Americans, so I was disappointed when this did not occur. I think it would've made it more memorable and unique had it focused solely on those specific experiences. It was well written and interesting. Some essays were obviously written via the male gaze.

This book primarily consists of journalistic essays that have been published elsewhere. The title is somewhat misleading, as only the first few essays concern race. These early essays were the ones that I found most frustrating. I recognize that Yang cannot but speak from the position of an Asian American man. Yet I repeatedly found myself wishing that he could demonstrate more awareness of his own positionality. Specifically, I wish that Yang could articulate his highly specific experiences of victimization and emasculation with a sense of how it relates to other people of color and Asian American women and queer folk. The essays give the peculiar sense that Asian men, white men, and white women exist in a vacuum. This narrow vision is particularly startling given the title of the collection (uncredited riff on WEB Du Bois).

I actually had better appreciation and tolerance for the non-race essays, perhaps due to less of a personal investment. Nonetheless, it's clear that Yang's sympathies lie with the male nerd.