bookly_reads's review against another edition
So many books in the world and I don't have time for anything less than excellent. Not sure why this is called "The Souls of Yellow Folk." Not sure why Yang included an essay from 2013 about Aaron Swartz, with no added material/reflections, that ends with him victim blaming a man who committed suicide. (I am extremely sensitive on this topic and I think seeing Aaron Swartz's name in the table of contents just really, really threw me off. Also, it's extremely irrelevant to the title of the book.)
slytherinwa's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this more. As many reviews have stated, the title is misleading. Therefore, I was let down. I think there are many stories that need to be told from an Asian American perspective. I wish this book had done this. Many of the essays were disjointed and felt far from what the title suggests.
moustaki's review against another edition
3.0
The collection of essays seemed disjointed. Some are about the perspectives of Asian Americans. Some are about grievance studies and critical race theory. The profiles on Eddie Huang, the VCU shooter, and Aaron Schwartz were powerful and compelling, but there were multiple essays about hook-up culture that really didn't seem to fit. It was alright but didn't seem to accomplish what it intended.
hannyreads's review against another edition
5.0
A collection of essays ranging from race, masculinity and some pop culture. Very interesting and relevant, we need more diverse voices like him.
asukagoto's review against another edition
3.0
Like many other reviewers, I was misled by the title of this book. Few of the essays in this collection are about "yellow folk". In fact, there doesn't seem to be any connective thread weaving these pieces together; the book is simply a collection of essays that Yang wrote for various publications at various times. That said, I did find the book, from start to finish, engaging.
lucasmiller's review against another edition
4.0
Generally impressed with the writing throughout this. The title is obvious a joke, but it was still a little jarring that only the first section was focused on Yang's writing on Asian American identity.
I really enjoyed the central section of the book that showed off some really great feature writing. The essays on Aaron Swartz and on Francis Fukuyama were both really intriguing and thoughtful.
The final three essays, which amount to a very thoughtful challenge to modern trends in identity politics are intellectually rigorous, unpretentious, and very intriguing. Yang takes unpopular positions, and while I don't agree with him always, I want to understand him and think about his writing. Recommended.
I really enjoyed the central section of the book that showed off some really great feature writing. The essays on Aaron Swartz and on Francis Fukuyama were both really intriguing and thoughtful.
The final three essays, which amount to a very thoughtful challenge to modern trends in identity politics are intellectually rigorous, unpretentious, and very intriguing. Yang takes unpopular positions, and while I don't agree with him always, I want to understand him and think about his writing. Recommended.
ostrowk's review against another edition
4.0
"My interest has always been in the place where sex and race are both obscenely conspicuous and yet consciously suppressed, largely because of the liminal place that the Asian man occupies in the midst of it: an 'honorary white' person who will always be denied the full prerequisites of whiteness; an entitled man who will never quite be regarded or treated as a man; a nominal minority whose claim to be a 'person of color' deserving of the special regard reserved for victims is taken seriously by no one" (xiv).
"It's not an ugly face, not exactly; it's not a badly made face. It's just a face that has nothing to do with the desires of women in this country" (11).
"But those of us who have grown inured to life's quotidian brutalities—the ones we accept for ourselves and the ones we unthinkingly impose on others—should not be surprised that the young have a different sense of the possible than we do, or forget too readily what it was like before we were so inured" (197).
"But the manner in which activists are seeking to win a debate is not through scholarship, persuasion, and debate. It's through the subornation of administrative and disciplinary power to delegitimize, stigmatize, disqualify, surveil, forbid, shame, and punish holders of contrary views" (213).
THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK doesn't seem to get at the souls of yellow folk, a title (and book) that falls short of DuBois' legacy. Still, I was really compelled by Yang's writing and his preoccupations, even if I didn't always agree with him. I skipped a few essays in Part II, but I was otherwise really engaged in his profiles on Asian American men, reflections on contemporary love and dating, and think-pieces largely critical of the progressive left's resistance to so-called white supremacy.
"It's not an ugly face, not exactly; it's not a badly made face. It's just a face that has nothing to do with the desires of women in this country" (11).
"But those of us who have grown inured to life's quotidian brutalities—the ones we accept for ourselves and the ones we unthinkingly impose on others—should not be surprised that the young have a different sense of the possible than we do, or forget too readily what it was like before we were so inured" (197).
"But the manner in which activists are seeking to win a debate is not through scholarship, persuasion, and debate. It's through the subornation of administrative and disciplinary power to delegitimize, stigmatize, disqualify, surveil, forbid, shame, and punish holders of contrary views" (213).
THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK doesn't seem to get at the souls of yellow folk, a title (and book) that falls short of DuBois' legacy. Still, I was really compelled by Yang's writing and his preoccupations, even if I didn't always agree with him. I skipped a few essays in Part II, but I was otherwise really engaged in his profiles on Asian American men, reflections on contemporary love and dating, and think-pieces largely critical of the progressive left's resistance to so-called white supremacy.