CULTURAL CURIOSITY: Thirteen Stories about the Search for Chinese Roots

Seeking stories written by ethnic Chinese born or raised outside of China about journeys to their country of origin, Khu, a visiting scholar at the Centre of Asian Studies at Hong Kong University, required that the writers "include explanations of why they'd made the trip... and whether it had led them to assess or reassess their ethnic identity." She gathered these stellar essays from contributors in a dazzling range of locales, including the United States, China, England, Indonesia and Japan. Many of the writers begin by describing the confusing experience of coming of age as a minority. In a particularly strong selection, Milan L. Lin-Rodrigo writes of the difficulties of growing up ethnically Chinese in rural Sri-Lanka: "I was always called 'cheeni,' the 'Chinese girl'... [yet] I was Chinese only in appearance; neither my sister nor I spoke a word of Chinese." The journey to China soothed this sense of displacement for some of the authors, like Meilin Ching, who writes about finding "a place where I could fit in, where I could easily belong." For others, the trip to China was devastatingly frustrating: raised in the U.S. since the age of six, Nancy Work expected to blend in there, but reports that living in China only "showed me how American I was in most of my ideas and principles." Each of these fine pieces is fluidly written and highly personal. Offering insight into experiences not often studied, they will appeal to academics as well as any reader interested in Asian and ethnic studies. (July)