susannekaluza's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
jcp1009's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. This little book of essays has blown me away. A. discussion of identity and multiculturalism and how that impacts us and how we relate to other people. While the focus is on his experience in Asia, I feel like it's also very similar to the American experience. How do I relate to my grandparents, children of immigrants, when my life has been so completely different? When the author explains that he can be mistaken for multiple nationalities throughout Asia, it reminds me of how we too have shed our origin story in some way.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
5.0
This essay - part of a larger multi-author series all entitled The Face from Restless Books - explores both the physical and historical face of the writers. This essay, by Tash Aw impressed me so much that I want to read more of his work, as well as the others in this series of essays.
In six succinct chapters/mini-essays, Tash Aw recounts cultural and ethnic history, both his own, and post-colonial southeast Asia, as well as his ancestry in Taiwan and China. He speaks of the classifications and identifications - putting people in boxes - that he experiences every day. People always asking where he is from, or assuming that they know based on his skin, his face, his accent. In Thailand, he is mistaken for Thai, in his childhood home of Malaysia, he is surrounded by Cantonese diaspora, but also of the rising Asia, growing nationalism and identity with new nations, and the newly-minted "middle class".
Kuala Lumpur's Twin Towers referenced in the book as the author looks out from his home, conversing with his father.
It was a fascinating and illuminating read. Right after I finished this book, I sought out his other books.
--
Read for Book Riot's 2016 Read Harder Challenge - an author from Southeast Asia
In six succinct chapters/mini-essays, Tash Aw recounts cultural and ethnic history, both his own, and post-colonial southeast Asia, as well as his ancestry in Taiwan and China. He speaks of the classifications and identifications - putting people in boxes - that he experiences every day. People always asking where he is from, or assuming that they know based on his skin, his face, his accent. In Thailand, he is mistaken for Thai, in his childhood home of Malaysia, he is surrounded by Cantonese diaspora, but also of the rising Asia, growing nationalism and identity with new nations, and the newly-minted "middle class".
Kuala Lumpur's Twin Towers referenced in the book as the author looks out from his home, conversing with his father.
It was a fascinating and illuminating read. Right after I finished this book, I sought out his other books.
--
Read for Book Riot's 2016 Read Harder Challenge - an author from Southeast Asia
wargwe's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Tash Aw reminded me of old feelings that I experienced in youth, but no longer remember. Not until Tash Aw recounts his own childhood as an aspiring middle-class Chinese boy in KL who eventually went on to receive an overseas education that would forever alter how he relates to the world. The desire but inability to be a part of our grandfathers’ past, feeling like a prissy urban dweller imposter when we visited family in (other parts of) Malaysia, backhanded shame over privileges of education and opportunities (having to dispel an elitist label from high school as a 30yo adult).
chimarsh79's review against another edition
4.0
“When history is that far back in time, it is safe and unthreatening. What happened thirty, forty, fifty years ago is another matter; that kind of history is more unsettling.”
— The Face: Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw
https://a.co/2TBVdB6
Tash Aw explores the culture, history, and the country that make up not just who he is personally, but importantly that make up who Malaysians are and, intersectionally, who Chinese both on the mainland and throughout Asia are, and how they see themselves today. A short and very quick read, I want to know so much more about Aw’s thoughts on these subjects.
It is not just an ethnic-cultural reflection though. It is also a reflection on class - and how those that seek to provide a better life for their future generations often find the future offspring unrelatable - a reflection that transcends one particular group or one snapshot in time. And one that is extremely important in understanding some of the clear generational divides and outlooks here in the US (among many other societies) today.
A great introductory read for those interested in the constructs that makeup societies in Southeast Asia. I came to know about Aw through his friendship with Wduoard Louis, whose own writings discuss this gap in understanding among families divided by class. I look forward to reading more of Aw’s works in the future.
— The Face: Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw
https://a.co/2TBVdB6
Tash Aw explores the culture, history, and the country that make up not just who he is personally, but importantly that make up who Malaysians are and, intersectionally, who Chinese both on the mainland and throughout Asia are, and how they see themselves today. A short and very quick read, I want to know so much more about Aw’s thoughts on these subjects.
It is not just an ethnic-cultural reflection though. It is also a reflection on class - and how those that seek to provide a better life for their future generations often find the future offspring unrelatable - a reflection that transcends one particular group or one snapshot in time. And one that is extremely important in understanding some of the clear generational divides and outlooks here in the US (among many other societies) today.
A great introductory read for those interested in the constructs that makeup societies in Southeast Asia. I came to know about Aw through his friendship with Wduoard Louis, whose own writings discuss this gap in understanding among families divided by class. I look forward to reading more of Aw’s works in the future.